Daily note: 26 June 2018

Planned activities for the day:

• Nothing planned

Highlights of the day:

Balloon car

We continued playing with the balloon powered Lego car. Both of us already got the hang of doing it. We got a good teamwork to do it -- I hold the balloon in place while Mateo secures it to the car.

I was supposed to take a video of the car in motion but the balloon popped. No more balloons for us.

Singing

Mateo loves to sing. He also loves to dance, by the way.

Gardening

He saw our humble gardening tools. He wants to plant and use those tools.

I said we do not have plants. He said Auntie, our neighbor, got plants. So I said we're going to buy our own plants. But it's raining, so shopping postponed.

He was ready to go out. I was not.

Scribbles and scissors

More scribbles. And more cutting with scissors. (He's in his diaper because we were supposed to go out, but he was not cleaning up his toys or even wear his clothes, so we are staying at home.)

Road tape

I made a "road" using tape, created straight, zigzag, and curved lines.

Puzzle

He likes doing the puzzle, but cannot complete it yet on his own.

Ideas for next lessons:

• Keep the toys in order, have ideas and activities ready, and let the kid lead the play.

Daily Note: 25 June 2018

Planned activities for the day:

• Watercolor pencil activity
• Paper helicopters

Highlights of the day:

The "phone" whining made me very grumpy and cranky

Before 6:00 in the morning, which is like 5:00 A.M. in the Philippines, Mateo was asking for a phone in a very whiny voice while still on the bed. Then he asked for butter cookies.

Then at a more normal time in the morning, he was again looking for "his" phone or was trying to get my phone from me. In a very whiny voice. I hated it.

Then he did not take a nap after telling me that he was going to sleep.

And he peed in his shorts two or three times.

Triggered. I was very grumpy and cranky. I was so mad that I wanted to throw my phone very hard (but not mad enough to do it).

Phone use/gadget use is much of a nuisance for me. I hate how Mateo behaves when he spends time using it.

So, no cellphone from Mommy anymore, even timed phone sessions.

Playground

He enjoyed the playground. He was hesitant to climb up the ropes at first. But I was told that he was gaining confidence as time went on until he finally did it. Because of his playground play, he fell asleep by 8:00 P.M.

Balloon Lego car

We experimented how to make that balloon car work. Of course, I was the one who actually tinkered with the car to make it work. He enjoyed blowing the balloon up both by using the manual air pump and by manually blowing into it with his mouth (and saliva).

Colored markers

When he saw the colored markers we bought from Daiso, he took it and asked for papers. We discussed about straight lines, wavy lines, zigzag, and curved lines. He scribbled, drew circles, and finally was confident enough to draw or write even random lines on the papers. I had the hypothesis that he was a bit of a perfectionist when drawing -- that he did not want to draw just any line, but wanted to draw things or shapes clearly, and because of this he always just watches me write and draw. Finally, he did it.

All by himself. Scribbles only, but I'm happy that he did it.

We also discussed short and long lines. I also asked him to trace a line. And when he asked me to draw Peppa Pig, that's what he got. He said that's not Peppa Pig, so I asked him to name it, and he said it's Mateo.

Watercolor pencils

Not much fun activity. He just wanted to "paint" with the water, and did not want to draw using the pencils.

Paper helicopters

I just leave the paper helicopters on the table. Seems like he enjoys throwing them.

Others in pictures

He asked me to take a photo

Photo by Mateo

Ideas for next lessons:

• More artworks
• Rocket balloon (using straw)
• Straw and pompom balls and other things

Daily Note: 19 July 2018

Planned activities for the day:

• Activities from yesterday

Highlights of the day:

Plays independently

- Bugged me to get out of bed to play with his play dough

- He mostly played by himself

- Perhaps having the toys and activities laid out nicely on the table is good for both of us

- When I was preparing lunch, he looked through the kitchen cabinet and declared that he wanted to cook

- Played "pouring" of liquids between two cups (water in one, and milk in the other -- then of course, he did not want to drink it); made a mess, by the way

Photo by Mateo

Life skills

- Had the chance to wear his slippers twice today -- and he wore them correctly both times: As he was about to wear the left pair to his right foot (or vice versa), he stopped himself and put on the correct one instead

Ideas for next lessons:

• Continue with having activities prepared and presented nicely
• CLEAN UP!
• DIY easel before I buy one
• More "station", or transportation activities (he requested it, but we do it outside)
• Go out tomorrow, as promised

More reflections:

It just dawned on me that Mateo was the one to say "'station" when I asked him what we're going to do next time. This after his daddy asked him what we did today. He realized that our activities were mostly transportation-related! Maybe it's not a big thing, but I'm just amazed that he noticed it.

Daily Note: 18 July 2018

Planned activities for the day:

• Cars and "Mateo" letter road tracing
• Vehicle arts craft (cut and paste)
• Origami (boat and airplane)
• Paper helicopter

Highlights of the day:

Letter road tracing

- Mateo got excited when he saw the cars and road letters, and played with it immediately

Boat origami and paper helicopter

- Also got excited upon seeing the paper helicopters (have played with this before so he knows what to do with it)
- I encouraged him to color the paper helicopters, but he got me to color it instead
- He's still not confident (or just lazy?) to do art on his own
- When he saw the sheets of magazine papers, he knew what he wanted to do right away: he asked me to make a boat
- He then asked to put it in water; and I made numerous boats afterwards
- He knows that a boat is a "water transportation" -- probably learned it in YouTube
- He was not delighted when I made a paper airplane on my own initiative; the airplane made its way to the basin of water

Photo by Mateo

Vehicle paper crafts

- He cut the print outs when he saw it

- Then he asked me to cut it out (probably when he couldn't cut it the way he wants)

- He simply glued the cut outs to another piece of paper randomly -- it was supposed to be a paper craft of vehicle, but I decided to just let him do his thing

Play dough

- It's play dough time again - he can now say it right
- Introduced to him the concept of "long, longer, longer" as well as the "short" ones
- He still hasn't grasped the concept to describe length

The happy faces lined up

Lego, building blocks, and fine motor skills

- He made a small tower from the bigger blocks with a rotating piece at the top, and he was proud to show it to me

- Other fine motor plays: car Lego, mini cupcake silicone liner "bubbles"

- Not much rough play today, thankfully; but he did not take a nap

These are the silicone mini cupcake liners, which he calls "bubbles." We "pop" them inward and outward.

Ideas for next lessons:

- Preparing activities beforehand is a good idea; gave me extra minutes to myself
- Encourage open ended art activities
- Prepare an art corner
- He liked the transportation theme (because he generally likes vehicles); so more to "themed" activities that cater to his interests

Daily Note: 16 June 2018

Planned activities for the day:

• Free day

Highlights of the day:

Shopping

- Went to Daiso to buy activity materials

- Mateo knows what he wants, and pulled me straight to the cashier when he got what he wanted

- In the playground, I had to entice him to leave by saying we're going to the bookstore

- He ended up buying a puzzle in the bookstore

- He took a nap with the puzzle beside him

- He also knew that Miniso carries toys, and pulled me inside the shop to look around

Here, he's choosing between the two sets of washable markers. He wanted both.

Dragging me inside Miniso

Wala raw sound (or battery?). Next time daw meron na.

Puzzle

- He played immediately with his new puzzles right upon waking up (4 sets of puzzles of differing levels of difficulty)

- He can do the 3x3 puzzle by himself the second time he did it

- Still finds it difficult to complete the 4x3 and up puzzles without guidance

- After (almost) two rounds of trying to complete the puzzles, he played with it in his own way

When you can't complete the puzzle, play in another way

Ideas for next lessons:

• Prepare selected activity materials before Mateo sees all of them (because then it will be an even more mess)

Daily Note: 15 June 2018

Planned activities for the day:

• Go out since it's my birthday :)

Highlights of the day:

No plan for the day

- No planned activities, but another day for fine motor skills

- Scissors again

- Scribbled a bit on a couple of pages

- Refused to trace the letters on the worksheet

- He's very fond of printing various worksheets and images

His scribbles. He does not want to trace the letters.

He's cutting again. He now prefers the metal scissors.

More reflections

- Mateo is a stubborn kid who does not want to be taught
- Prefers to do things his way
- He decides what he wants to do and just do it
- He's a very active kid who likes to climb (he said he was rock climbing when the shoe rack fell on him)
- And run and dance and jump and...
- His current strengths, I think, are in physical play and numeracy (good number sense)
- He's a bit weak with phonological awareness (can recite the alphabet/sing the alphabet song, recognize some letters, but does not appropriate the correct sounds yet)
- I'm struggling to make him clean up his mess
- Still not potty trained

Ideas for next lessons:

- More physical play
- Organize the toys so "lessons" or activities can be presented nicely

Daily Note: 14 June 2018

Planned activities for the day:

• Painting

Highlights of the day:

Lego

- Asked to play with Lego and use the instruction manual to build it

- Still needs guidance to follow instructions

He built this.

It's a mess (and more scissor time)

- We did not paint. He said he doesn't want to paint.
- Climbed the shoe rack. Then fell.

- Played with his monster truck. He knows how to remove the battery and charge it himself (but I need to plug it in properly to charge).

- He likes me to print "ABC" for him.

- Then he proceeded to cut the alphabet chart that we printed.

- Still needs to be corrected on his posture and hand positions when cutting.

He climbed that white rack and fell. Good thing his head hit a shoe box. I got tired from this, from the adrenaline rush.

He's cutting again. Needs to be corrected sometimes.

Ideas for next lessons:

• Prepare alphabet chart printables
• Introduce the days of the week (since he only knows "Saturday")
• More and lots more of cutting worksheets in different themes
• dinosaurs
• transportation
• alphabet

Daily Note: 13 June 2018

Planned activities for the day:

• Scissor cutting skills practice

Highlights of the day:

Ball pit

- He's been bugging me to inflate his elephant ball pit and I finally gave in

Scissor cutting activity

- Initiated the activity; did not need to see the "provocation"/activity set up on the table, probably just remembered it from last night
- More confident to use the metal scissors now
- Prefers to cut in short strips and with straight lines only
- We'll probably need to buy more papers suitable for easy cutting (at least 120 gsm and around that number only)
- Still prefers to do the activity with me, even if he can do it on his own (which he does at times)
- He prefers worksheets with images
- He did this for a few hours, kept coming back to it

Life skills: getting dressed

- Let him choose clothes to wear
- I wish he could put on his clothes by himself, but while he can somehow do it very slowly, he's lazy to do it (and I'm sometimes impatient to watch him get dressed)

The clothes he has chosen to wear. Ball pit in the background. Here, he's talking in front of the fan (for sound effects).

Painting

- He asked to paint, probably got already tired and bored from cutting

- Painting session lasted only for a few minutes

Ideas for next lessons:

• Consider themed activities/unit planning
• Clean up and organize the toys!
• More physical plays

Daily Note: 12 June 2018

Planned activities for the day:

• Scissor skills
• Rock climbing

Highlights of the day:

Lots of motor skills activities today.

Lego

He loves playing with his Lego, which he can do by himself. When he asked me to play with him today, I decided to make him build the Lego model by following the instruction manual.

He needed my help to fully follow the manual/instruction. Good enough for his first try. I used to be the one to build the model, while he builds from imagination when he is playing on his own.

He took this photo.

Scissor skills

He likes using the scissors. A couple of the worksheets feature transport and construction vehicles, which he really likes.

He likes cutting. He can follow a straight line, okay with a slight curve, but finds wavy lines diffficult as of now.

I think he can safely use small regular scissors now. I let him use it, even urge him to use it over his plastic pair. He still prefers his toddler scissors, though, even if they're a bit cumbersome to use on our papers.

Outdoor play: Playground

Mateo was supposed to go rock climbing but the structure is still too big for him. He ended up just playing at the playground. Still had loads of fun because he played with Tita Princess, an instant effortless favorite playmate.

He is climbing with ease.

Garden Rhapsody

Arts and music time at night.

Lights, music, and photography. Copying me, he took photos during the show. He said he enjoyed it.

Tita Princess

Mateo really loves playing with Tita Princess.

Ideas for next lessons

• Continue with scissor skills practice
• Continue going out for outdoor active play
• Incorporate more transport and vehicle themes
• Prepare low effort activities (because I'm tired)

Daily Note: 11 June 2018

Planned activities for the day:

• Singapore Botanic Gardens Heritage Museum
• Story telling/photos of Lola Nene

Highlights of the day:

Fusion Spoon at Botanic Gardens

- Enjoyed both indoor and outdoor playgrounds

- I was tired, and he enjoyed the playground so much, so we did not proceed to the museum

For Lola Nene's birthday

- He was more interested in the short video of photos I made with Lola Nene's pictures rather than listen to me talk about our grandma

Ideas for next lessons:

- Incorporate more puzzles and logic lessons