Preschool Corner: Reviewing For Reading And Spelling

We've recently just finish with first quarter exams and let me just share with you another review tool that proved to be useful to us.

A few years back, I bought a box of tongue depressors for Maia. About 99% of that wasn't put to use at all and I don't have the confidence to use it anymore as Maia already played with the box several times before.

I've used them in several crafts projects in the past but I still have a lot of it left. I've recently been exploring other creative ways of reviewing the kid with her sight words and spelling. Last year, listing them on a piece of paper and posting that paper on the wall worked but this year, it just doesn't seem to do the trick anymore.

Then I thought these Popsicle sticks could be useful too. I wrote the words on the popsicle tips and wrapped a decorative tape on it to categorize the lesson it falls on - short a, e, i, o, u and to tell which week the spelling word was taught.

We created a guessing game out of it and the kid liked it! We were able to review smoothly.

I have yet to see the results of her mastery tests on Reading and Spelling but she already assured us it was super easy for her. Oh well, whatever the result is, I'm already proud to know that she's gain so much confidence already especially when it comes to reading and spelling.

Maia's Favorite: Kindergarten Review Materials Online

As much as I would like to be hands on with my preschooler's needs, being a working mom doesn't give me a lot of extra time to make our own review materials  for lessons, quizzes and quarterly exams. I maybe idealistic but I am also a practical working parent so I try to make use of every help I can get especially when it comes to helping my preschooler review.

If you are like me who is frequently online, then no need to worry. There are a bunch of readily available resources online to help you and your preschooler get through exam season.

I am just going to list our favorite spots online. But I'm sure if you Google "Kindergarten reviewers" there's plenty for you to choose from. My list is short as I really do not like being overwhelmed. I stuck to these 4 sites for long because they are more than enough for our preschool needs. Without further ado, here they are:

1. STARFALL - Starfall was the first free-online resource that we explored when the little miss was just a toddler. She is now very familiar with the site and can navigate it well on her own. From ABCs she has now moved on to reading short, simple stories on this site.

2.  SCHOOL SPARKS - I love this site. It is a treasure trove on its own. I usually download most of my math and reading review materials from this site.

school sparks also has tips for parents at the bottom of each worksheet.
nice touch, don't you think?

The next 2 websites also offer free resources but I've paid for membership subscription for these this year because I wanted to have access to answer sheets, to more worksheets and online exercises (which are usually perks offered to valid subscribers).

3. SCHOOLKID.PH - I like that this site was founded by a mom. The worksheets here are the ones she used to review her kids too and some were shared by other parents as well. I used most of the worksheets here last year when Maia was just starting out. I have yet to revisit the site again. But there's plenty of worksheets you can use here. I can say that I got fair value for the membership fee that I paid for.

4. IXL - During schooldays we impose a no TV/no electronic gadget policy. Since the little miss started with regular school, she has been very diligent at abiding by this rule. I can't say yet if 'breaking' our rule to make way for review sessions using IXL online exercises is a good thing but so far, the kid is really enjoying reviewing her math lessons using the exercises here. I paid a minimal fee to subscribe to this site so I'd say it's also fair value. Kid has no trouble answering the worksheets and the time limit on every exercise somehow adds a fun factor to the activities. I try to limit our sessions to 2-3 exercises every other day though so the kid won't get overly stimulated and to keep the fun going. I wouldn't want her to eventually think logging in to this site is 'schoolwork' that she has to complete.

So far, those are the online resource sites that have proved to be very useful to us. I'm still on the look out for an online resource for Science. Would you know of any? Care to share?

Weekend # 46 - Dates, Reviewers and Handmade Things

If the silence in this blog isn't testament enough of how crazily busy this month has been (and will be as it seems), then I don't know how else to tell you. I couldn't even pause and pull my hair and scream even if I wanted to (pardon the rather violent tone). To flush the bad vibes out and just set the mood for the week, let me just recall the weekend that was. It was a mix of crazy (Saturday) and calm (Sunday) but if all my weekdays were like that, I'd be one happy mom!

Saturday was an exclusive Mom and Maia day as our coosome-twosome trooped to Makati Med to get the kid's immunizations up to date. We had to wait a little longer than usual for our turn but she didn't show any signs of restlessness. She really knows how to entertain herself now. I just make sure I have plenty of paper and pens with me and she will be fine. When our turn came, I could tell she was uncomfortable but was so brave she didn't even wince she took the shots on each of her shoulders. She even managed to throw a big grin at me while the doctor was massaging her arms. Even in our commute back, she never complained. She only asked me to grab lunch at KFC because she's already hungry but she never demanded for anything that would exhaust all my energy. She walked most of the way and she only slept (even if I knew she was already very drowsy from the shots) when we were already settle inside the shuttle service.

Sunday proved to me that doing something with my hands is one of the best and cheapest therapies in this world. I finally took my craft box out yesterday and started sewing my handmade ornaments again. Before I knew it, the kid and Ate Inday was already sitting beside me and grabbing cut-out felt fabrics as well.

The little miss wanted to sew to but she understood that a needle is something that is not safe for a 4-year old to handle yet so she contented herself with just handing over a couple of buttons to either me or her Ate Inday. Before we knew it, 2 hours have past and we managed to sew a total of 8 ornaments. How cool is that? Three heads (or 6 hands in that case) is definitely better than one, don't you think?

Can you guess which one was Ate Inday's and which ones were done by me?

Sunday turned out to be a (good!) slow day, I also was able to squeeze in some time to make reviewers for the little girl. Math and Language has been a struggle as of late so I wanted to focus on that for now. I didn't want to put too much pressure on the kid though so I am trying to find creative (but cheap) ways to encourage her to study and review (even for just a few minutes) during the weekends.

Fill in the missing number yan, di ba Mommy?

Matchy-matchy

How about you, how did your weekend go?

Arts-N-Crafts: Maia's Castle Of Shapes

I feel quite proud of this. It was a split-second idea that eventually came out to be a proud-moment project. 

It's review season once again as the second quarter of the school year comes to a close. Although the school does provide us with information maps and guides for review, I'd always still opt to make my own reviewers the way I deem the kid would learn the easiest. And to me the easiest way for my kid would be the most fun way possible. Math is a struggle. But we get by. Writing the numerals is a different issue but we also get by. I never thought she'd struggle with shapes but then stars and hearts become part of the lessons and that's where we started having problems. Identifying them is no problem at all (although she does get confused with rectangles referring to them as octagons most times, I don't know how that association came to be but I don't want to find out anymore). 

I've had this ink cartridge cardboard with me for almost 2 weeks now. The first time I saw it, I immediately thought it would be something we can use for the kid's art activities. When I brought it home, kid took it instantly and called it her castle. She's been bugging me to help her paint it and today I thought we'd finally get around to doing it. I promised her we'd do it in the afternoon after we've finished reviewing for one subject and she was fine with it. 

While waiting for the kid to wake up for her nap though, an idea struck me. I wanted to finish reviewing her this weekend and I thought why not incorporate the review with our arts and crafts time instead. So I took out some colored paper and prepared the other materials. I decided we'll build a Castle Of Shapes by filling it up with flags of different shapes.

What we used for this project were:

ink cartridge cardboard

paper tubes

colored paper

double sided tape

toothpicks

scissors

pencil

tape

How we did it:

I let the kid trace the shapes unto the colored paper first. Then I let her cut them. For the star and heart shapes, I had to do the cutting on the difficult corners since she started getting frustrated but for most of the shapes she had a whole lotta fun cutting them. 

After the shapes were cut, we put double sided tapes on them and stuck them unto toothpicks, sharp edge down. Then I had the kid stick the flags unto any part of the 'castle'. After the flags were done, I took a paper tube and I cut the other side of it to look like a tower. I stuck that unto the middle of the tower and tadah -- we're done. 

It was a fun, super easy activity to do and the kid proudly showed it to her village playmates. She had a blast quizzing them on the shapes and teaching them what they were actually called. 

I'd like for it to stay with us until the quarterly exams are over. But I'm really not banking a lot on that since I know how 'gentle' kids are with toys. I hope it serves it's purpose well though and help the kid out especially with her rectangle issues.