Mama’s Getting Help From The Learning Library

October 31, 2011 by

I’ve been reading to my daughter since she was growing inside my womb and until now, not a day passes by without us reading a book together. At her very young age, she has already shown great love for literature and a knack for weaving stories of her own. When dear Mama is cannot read a book for her, she often narrates her own version of a storybook based on the pictures.

I have tried to teach her how to read on her own but have only managed to help her recognize letters and their sounds. We’ve been stuck at AT and AN words for weeks now and I’m pretty much the one who’s getting frustrated. You see, my Mom taught my sisters and I to read before we even reached three years of age. Jade is three years and four months now and I feel that I may not have enough skill to teach her the basics of reading.

Since she herself has been clamoring to go to school and has shown signs of being ready for more challenges, we agreed to check if she could be enrolled in a Reading Program. The nearest establishment that offered such a program was The Learning Library but when I inquired, they said that they only accepted children who are already in school. After reasoning out that my little girl was already used to answering worksheets and knew how to follow instructions, they did schedule us though for an assessment.

Our first visit to the center proved how ready Jade is for school. She easily warmed up to the teacher and had no qualms going off with the teacher by herself. It felt kind of sad that she left poor Mama within five minutes of arriving at the center; but, I am proud of how independent and driven she is.

How did the assessment go? It went fairly well with Teacher Erica informing me that Jade was very quick with her answers.  Although she missed several questions, her Reading level was still above-average for her age. Most importantly, she showed readiness to learn and behaved well during the assessment.

We’re starting Level 1 of their Reading Advantage Program this November. I really thought we’d be on Level 2 already as she already knew all of the letters and sounds, could identify beginning letters, and read a few cvc words. However, it turns out that she had to be able to identify middle and ending letters also before she could proceed to Level 2. And she is also still unable to segment words phonemically.

She is very excited to go back to The Learning Library and learn how to read. We’ll see how it goes the first month and if she wishes to continue the program then we’ll do so.

Filed Under: BookWorms, Mom's Corner, PLAYhouse preSCHOOL Tagged With: , , ,

A Morning Of Books And Pancakes With My Little Girl

October 26, 2011 by

My little girl was scheduled to be assessed at The Learning Library this morning.  I informed her yesterday that she would be meeting another teacher who would be asking her questions to check if she is ready to start a reading program.  She must have been really excited to “go to school” that she woke up earlier than usual. A lot earlier than usual actually.  She was already wide awake and talking incessantly at five in the morning!

While getting dressed she told her little brother, “I’m going to school to meet a new teacher ’cause I don’t know how to read.”  Jakei wanted to tag along but his Papa was taking him to the pediatrician for a check-up.

Jade needed no time to get comfortable in The Learning Library.  She was neither anxious nor wary of the new surroundings.   When Teacher Erica asked her if she wanted to go to the other room, she immediately went with her.  After the assessment, she played in the reading area while Teacher Erica and I discussed how her assessment went.  She was quite sad when it was time to go but she didn’t throw a tantrum. Instead, she asked me when she could come back to borrow books from the library.

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It was almost twelve noon that time so we walked about a block to the nearest restaurant.  We were supposed to eat at KFC but when she saw Pancake House right next door, she literally dragged me there and insisted that we eat there.

This was the first time we were handed their kids’ menu and my little girl loved it immediately.  Their kids’ menu resembles a board book and is very colorful. What we love about it is that it has pop-ups!

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Jade wanted to have hotdog on sticks but they didn’t have them then so she settled for mac n’ cheese with waffle instead.  I know she would have eaten anything as long as she was allowed to drink her favorite strawberry milkshake.  One serving of the milkshake was a bit too much for her little tummy so we just shared a glass.

I wanted to take a quick visit to the bookstore after lunch but Jade seemed sleepy so I decided to head for home right after eating.  This morning was quite an adventure for Jade and she couldn’t stop talking about it on the way home.

How about you? How did your day go?




Filed Under: Family Fun, PLAYhouse preSCHOOL Tagged With: , ,

PLAYhouse preSCHOOL: Nature Tripping Week 2

August 27, 2011 by

Little Jade was down with the flu last week so we had to put off our lessons. This week, we continued our previous theme and the toddlers learned more about the different parts of a plant and the things they need to grow.  They learned to differentiate fruits, vegetables and flowers. They were also able to make a little garden of their own using scrap materials.

Music & Me Monday
Jade and I made up a song about what plants need to grow.  She loves singing the song during bath time.  She curls down and pretends to be a seed, gets up slowly and “grows” into a flower as I sprinkle water on her.  The lyrics and music changes each time as it is just one of our impromptu songs:

I’m a little seed, a pretty little seed. (Jade squats with head curled down)
Put me in some soil and pat, pat, pat. (Mama pretends to put Jade in a pot)
Place me where there’s sunlight and plenty of air.
Water me until I grow. (Mama pretends to water Jade – sprinkles water on her during bathtime)
Growing, growing, growing tall. (Jade uncurls and slowly stands up)
Now I’m a pretty little flower. (Jade sways from side to side, smiles, and exclaims, “I’m a flower!”

Thinking Tuesday
We answered some worksheets on counting from 1 to 20, completing patterns, and sorting. Jade has already mastered counting objects from 1 to 10 and has no difficulty recognizing numbers 1 to 10. She still needs more practice recognizing numbers from 11 to 20 though. When counting more than 10 objects, she would sometimes count an object twice so I taught her how to mark each item as she counts it. She’s able to complete ABAB and AABB patterns without difficulty but needs assistance with more complex patterns.  She was able to sort out the vegetables from the flowers without any help from me.

Jakei can already count by rote from 1 to 10 but can’t identify the numbers yet.  When asked to count a set of objects, he will always count up to 10 regardless of the actual number of objects.

Wonderful World of Wednesday
The little boy needed to be brought to his pedia on Wednesday morning so our art activity was rescheduled on Friday.  We made leaf imprints again, colored a picture using punched-out circles, and made our own little garden using scrap paper, used stirrers, stale ground coffee, and used plastic bowls.

Click here for the art activities we had this week.

Thursday Talkies
We answered worksheets from Homeschool Creations and 1+1+1=1 Tots School. I introduced rhyme to the toddlers using the rhyming words picture set from the Garden Preschool Pack. We finished off with a new set of plant-related words to enrich their vocabulary.

Again, these daily sessions last two hours at the most.  It takes the toddlers only about half an hour to finish the worksheets.  The rest of the morning is spent playing with their toys and reading books.

Our theme next week will be “What Can We See At the Zoo?”. If you have any ideas on how we can have fun learning about zoo animals, kindly share it with me.

Filed Under: Arts & Crafts, PLAYhouse preSCHOOL Tagged With: , ,

Affordable Workbooks for Toddlers and Preschoolers

August 26, 2011 by

 The toddlers are so used to seeing other children studying in our home that the word “worksheets” is very common to them. At their very young ages, they themselves are often the ones to ask dear Mama for some worksheets. To them, studying and answering worksheets is part of everyday life. Aside from the fun they have “working” with their Kuyas, I do believe that this gives the toddlers a sense of being “big kids”.

I admit to not being a super mom so there are really days when I am unable to prepare worksheets for them. So during trips to the mall, I do try to squeeze in a quick visit to the bookstore to purchase some workbooks. I’m more often drawn to workbooks with colorful pictures and glossy pages but these are the ones which are usually beyond my budget. Instead of these, I purchase affordable workbooks that still serve the same purpose.

Among my most recent purchases are two ETL School and Home Workbooks. I bought these two weeks ago yet Jade is already half way done with both workbooks. These workbooks are given to Jade when she asks for them after playtime in the afternoon.

These ETL books are only Php50 each.

Jade can pretty much work on these on her own.

There are days when the workbooks won’t cross her mind, but these are very few. Always eager to imitate what his Ate Jade is doing, our little boy now also tells us that “I want to work po.” And so, Papa bought them more workbooks to “work” on. These ones were bought for Php250/set of four. The pages are in full color and of good quality. I won’t be giving them to the toddlers until they finish the current workbooks they are using.

Filed Under: BookWorms, Miscellaneous, PLAYhouse preSCHOOL Tagged With: ,

Toddler Crafts for Our Nature Tripping Week

August 26, 2011 by

We has an unscheduled trip to the pediatrician last Wednesday so our Wonderrful World of Wednesday session was postponed.  We had our art activities this morning and as always, we made quite a mess.

Our arts and crafts activities followed this week’s theme which was all about plants.  We started with leaf imprints, puncher-art, and a make-a-garden craft using recycled materials.

We have previously done leaf imprinting so the toddlers already knew what to do. Jakei’s leaf imprints this morning were much more better than those he did before.

Our second art activity which I call puncher-art was too tedious a task for the toddlers so we ended up making more of a mess than art.  For this activity, I used a puncher to make tiny circles from colored papers. I then asked the toddlers to stick the circles onto a printed template.  Jade did try to finish a couple of leaves but soon got bored and started playing with the circles and sprinkling them all over the table. Which was exactly what Jakei was doing right at the beginning.  This kind of activity I would have to postpone until the toddlers are A LOT older.

Our last activity involved materials I scavenged around the house.  The toddlers colored some paper flowers which we attached to plastic stirrers and placed in an inverted bowl.  I’ll make a post with more detailed instructions on how we made our own garden this weekend.




Filed Under: Arts & Crafts, Miscellaneous, PLAYhouse preSCHOOL Tagged With: , ,
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