We had more learning fun this April with the letters D and E.

Homelearning

We did the usual tracers from our homeschool package and printables from Kids Learning Station. Ben also started a letter book this month. It’s like a scrapbook with pictures from magazines that is categorised alphabetically. I had him recap the things beginning with the letters A, B, C, and also got him to look for pictures of things beginning with the letter D. He managed to find some dinosaurs, deer, dog and dolphins from a few of my old Nat Geo magazines.

For the notice board, I printed the pictures of things beginning with the letter D and E from this wonderful website called Homeschool Creations, which has an immensely rich resource bank of printables and activity sheets. I also introduced the sight words “eat” and “egg” from my Level A Sight Words Pocket Flashcards to them because that’s what they love to eat for breakfast!

What was hilarious was when I was going through things beginning with the letter E, Ben pointed to the picture of the envelope, asked me what that was and corrected me, saying, “Mama, this is not envelope lah, it’s EMAIL!” This is the world our children are growing up in. They don’t see envelopes much these days, but they certainly do see their mums and dads clicking on the envelope icon a lot, checking their emails!

Outdoor learning

We were invited to Breeze Singapore’s Today I Am roadshow earlier this month, and the kids got acquainted with the letter D again. They got a chance to play Dress Up. My favourite is the doctor and chef combo, hurhurhur. Please choose either of these professions when you grow up, guys!

They then went on to make some play-Dough.

And also got Dirty playing with paint pingpong and eating chocolate fondue.

D is for Dental health, at HealthZone

I read about HealthZone from one of my favourite blogreads, The Gingerbread Mum, and carted the kids there one rainy weekday. The kids got to skip kindy that day and learned about the importance of dental hygiene, eating right and maintaining a healthy lifestyle at this exhibition located inside Health Promotion Board at Singapore General Hospital. It costs $3 for an adult and $1.50 for kids aged 3 to 18, and is open Mondays (1 – 5 pm), Tuesdays to Saturdays (9 am – 5 pm).

The section on dental health has this giant mouth with a cushy tongue and a full set of adult teeth, with two black, decaying molars, and two missing front teeth. It was an awesome sight for the kids to behold. They were initially quite frightened, but soon warmed up to the set of teeth, and started touching the gums and sitting on the tongue.

The message was preached loud and clear by the videos they were showing at this section: brush your teeth twice a day with a good toothbrush and toothpaste, floss regularly, see the dentist twice a year.

The kids particularly enjoyed the activity station where they could press giant buttons with food inside them to find out if the food is good for their teeth. The good tooth and bad tooth would then light up correspondingly.

That day, I dramatised how eating sweets and chocolates, and drinking sodas would give them “teeth so black nobody wants to look at you”. I am secretly very pleased at myself for brainwashing them. Hurhurhur.

Dental Printables

To reinforce what we learned, I downloaded some activity sheets found in KidsSoup which has plenty of dental health activities, crafts, and other resources for children to learn how to keep their teeth healthy (thanks again, Gingerbread Mum!).

We helped EarTwiggle get to his toothbrush by identifying the food that’s good (and not good) for our teeth.

We also learned to brush a tooth! Using this printable of a tooth, I coloured two sheets with random spots representing food bits and plaque.

I then gave the kids some white poster colour, told them to brush away all the dirty bits using this “toothpaste” and had them painting away.

With this learning trip to HealthZone and the follow-up activities, whenever Ben and Becks hem and haw when it’s time to brush their teeth, I’d start reminding them of the gross black tooth and the tooth with food bits which they painted. It’s been working so far!

E is for Eating right and doing lots of Exercise, at HealthZone

Another section in HealthZone is called Exciting Eatery, which featured exhibits to educate us about healthy eating – the types of food to choose when we cook, eat out, and the types of food to avoid.

The kids got a chance to learn the different food groups and what they do for our bodies. Bread, rice and noodles give us energy. Pork, beef, chicken and fish make us strong and help us build muscles. And the veggies and fruits – Becks will tell you “You must eat them cos they make your poo poo soft!” Well said, my girl!

The kids also got to exercise at the fitness corner where there was a small indoor play structure, a rock climbing wall, exercise machines, balls and an interactive running game by Milo. I was really glad to have only paid $7.50 (for 2 adults and Ben; Becks and Nat went in free) for a few hours of learning fun and a good workout for the kids.

Anything for them to expend their energy!

The only thing I have yet to do with them to wrap up the letter E is to bring them for an elephant ride at the zoo. I hope to bring them sooner, cos we are moving on to other exciting letters next month!

Here’s a tip to teach kids to differentiate between lowercase letter b and d:

This month, I learned this tip from watching Word World with the kids. You can sing this song (to the tune of Happy Birthday, or any tune that fits) to drill it in, so the kids can sing it to themselves when they have trouble distinguishing! Here goes:

“Line and circle is the letter b

Circle and line is the letter d

Line and circle is the letter b

Circle and line is the letter d”