Teaching Time

Found this in one of the FB pages. Great idea from a teacher. So I printed out the numbers on coloured paper and laminated it.

To save my time, I added "suku" and "setengah" . Stick all the numbers of my cheap ikea clock and added battery. All done very quickly and ready to hang up the wall :)

Teaching "Hari dalam seminggu".

My Standard 1 son is learning "Masa dan Waktu" in sekolah kebangssan now.  Nowadays the questions are not straight forward anymore. They ask questions like what day comes before Monday? Or what is the day between Sunday and Tuesday? and so on. If it's in English it would be easy peasy for him but the nightmare is when it was asked in BM since he is still weak in understanding the BM language. To make learning more interesting for him and since he likes crossword puzzle, I made this just for him. It's like a game, but they are actually revising what they learn in school.
If you want a copy, you can download it too ^_^!

Step by Step : Minion Sponge

Teacher gave him a sponge last week for art class. They are supposed to create something using the sponge. So we goggled and it kept telling us the only thing we can create is Spongebob. Luckily I spoke to Merryn, she suggested Minion. That's a great idea! So after sketching the draft and listed the things that he need for the minion, I went to the craft shop and bought some materials and also used some from my craft supplies.

You need:

2 wobbly eyes

2 big grey button (as goggles)

Black ribbon (as goggle strap and gloves)

Blue ribbon - (small) as the overall strap

Blue ribbon - (big) as the overall

2 yellow straws - as the hand 

UHU glue 

4 Small buttons or eye pins for plush dolls

Wire for making artificial flowers or if you can find black pipe cleaners is better

Markers

Scissors

First cut 2 squares as the overall top. Apply glue at the back and paste on the sponge. The glue and secure around the sponge as the overall bottom.

Then glue the black ribbon around the sponge and paste 2 buttons on it.

Then apply glue on the button and paste the wobbly eyes on it.

Then measure and cut the overall strap. Remember to glue it.

Wait for a while for the glue to dry and then glue the push pin or glue the button on it. 

Next draw the minion's mouth with a marker.

Now for the hand. Measure and cut the straw according to your liking.

Make a hole under the overall strap with one side of a scissors. 

Then apply glue on the straw and push the straw in. 

Next, cover the bottom of the straw by gluing black ribbon around it. That's the gloves.

Since we couldn't find black pipe cleaners, we have no choice but to use craft wires and colour it with black markers. 

Measure and cut the wire. Then apply glue on the bottom of the wire...

and poke through the sponge on top of the minion's head.

Repeat the step above and bend the wire to create effect of the hair slanting down.

He can't draw circle with free hand so he used a 50 cents coin. Draw 2 circles. These are the legs and also to balance the sponge so that it won't topple over.

Cut it out.

Apply glue , only half of the circle. And paste it below the minion.

Then colour the legs with your marker pen.

TADAA!

The final artwork. He is so pleased with it.

DIY toy from recyclables

Look what my youngest son with learning difficulty did? A helicopter toy made from his watch container, a propeller from smarties packaging, fridge magnet letter L and cloth peg at the bottom. They may need extra help with studies but the brain can be fantastic and creative, if they are allowed to explore.

How to cope school with learning difficulty: Copying from the board

I shall pen down my journey with guiding JT through him school life with minor learning difficulty/ dyslexia. This is also for my own reference and for some parents who wants to help the kids to cope better in school. I truly believe that giving them a strong foundation at the beginning of school life can help to teach them how to manage themselves better later.

So at the beginning of school, he came back with this note.

I was shocked to find out that he has problem with copying from the board. To many people this is "common sense" and you just copy as what teacher write. However, after some observation not only JT has issues with this, but some other students without learning difficulty also faced the same issue.

So this is what I did.

1. Identifying the problem.

I got the note from some of the parent and wrote on a big whiteboard and asked JT to sit and try and copy.

 I wanted to know why he has problem copying from the board. Is it because of his eye sight problem, or he doesn't know how, or etc. So some of the problems that I noticed is that :

•  he copies alphabet by alphabet and not word by word
•  for maths he tried to write the answer before he finish copying
•  busy underlining or writing answers in colour
•  busy chit chatting with classmate while copying (this is through the conversation we have before sleep each night)
•  friends coming over to borrow stationaries so he doesn't have ruler/eraser for himself and have to wait. (for eraser  problem : I did this )

2. Solving the problem.
I found out that he copies alphabet by alphabet, looking up and down the book and board. So that's why his writing is up and down up and down, and here and there, sometimes he misses a line, sometimes the lines got mixed up, and by the time he want to copy more, teacher has already erased and wrote something else. I did try and speak to the teacher about this, however I think I should work on my side too cos it's not really fair for the teacher to check on 37 students notes and also waiting will slow her down.

problem - he copy alphabet by alphabet and not word by word
solution - So since JT has no problem reading suku kata, I asked him to read few words and then copy without looking up the board instead of alphabet by alphabet. He tried it and he said "hey this is much easier".

For the rest of the problems, I did this.

I wrote on sticky notes and paste on all his buku latihan on the page where he will start copying to remind him. He has excellent memory about everything but not on his studies :P. Well, most dyslexic students have the same issue. So the tips is REMIND, REMIND and REMIND!

3. Practice a few times at home.
And after recopying this was the outcome and I showed him the before and after picture. 

And you know what?
He improved so much with better notes, and most of the time he manage to pass it up to teacher on the same day.  Some of the parents that knew he has Dyslexic, wondered how come he manage to copy and finishes his work while their kids struggles. So I shared with them what I did and now they are also practicing it with their kids. So not necessary only kids with learning difficulty have this issues. In fact I think that many of us take for granted that we assume they know, actually they don't. So it's better to teach them step by step how to do it.

However, I still have to work on his writing with spacing words issue, capitalisation of words, punctuation marks and most important of all his ability to understand Bahasa Malaysia , which I am still working on and will share it later on.

Teaching Dyslexic Kids Punctuation Marks

Another problem that Dyslexic/Kids with learning difficulties will face is with punctuation marks. I didn't know until my son came back with a 0 marks for an english section. And I realise that he writes in a linewithoutanyspaceandpunctuationjustlikethis . I have been trying to teach him for the longest time to apply capital letters at the beginning of a sentence, spacing his words and the full stop. He also have problem remembering that names and places should be capital letter in front too. So happen I was browsing Dyslexic Tutor in Facebook and I saw one of her post about punctuation marks and then I remember that dyslexic kids are more visual learners and best is when you can apply pictures and cartoons for them to remember easily. How cool is that. This is a keeper!

How not to mix b and d up

(Source)

For a dyslexic child, writing b and d will be a struggle. I have blogged before a technique on how to help them on this, however I think this is even more awesome and easier to understand.

I showed it to my son and he smiled and told me "got it".

Post-Office-Style-Eraser

Ever since he started school, he's been diligently loosing erasers and pencils everyday. So one day while I was doing some sewing, I just used some string and tied the eraser to his pencil box. And he stopped loosing the eraser. However for his pencils, I have used big striking colored sticker so he can see From far who is using his pencil so he can take it back. One eraser can use for a long time if they don't loose it. Things are not getting cheaper these days.

Tin smith contact

This is more of reference for me.

Found a tin smith at first floor, PJ old town wet market. He can fix pots and pans and even make based on your design. Good to keep this just in case I need the contact in future. 

And this was their very simple "name card" 

How to block games in Facebook

1. When you see notification or anyone sharing any games, just hover over to the top right hand corner and click the the downward arrow 
2. Select HIDE ALL FROM ______ (whatever games you want to block)
3. You will get a notification that you won't see that game anymore.

Sometimes we get notification and invitation from our friends. It doesn't mean that they sent it to you, the games auto sent it themselves. So if you don't wanna get any notification of games, you can do this without "unfriending" your annoying friend. :D

Organizing tips passed on to next generation

I have been doing this to my exercise books since I was in primary school. I find that it's a "no brainer method" for packing school bag and also it's faster for me to get the books out from my school bag without moving from my chair.

 Yes, they say lazy ppl are very creative. I am one of those. I have passed this organizing technique to my eldest since last year cos he came back with black knees everyday and when I asked him why, he replied "because I have to kneel on the floor to find books in my bag". This year he planned what colour for which subject. Noticed that the reddish pink one is smaller compared to others. That's because... *whisper* that particular teacher is more fierce so we don't wanna make it so obvious that we are lazy. He he he he