My princess has been picking up her great interest on languages. She is learning Mandarin, Spanish, Korean, Bahasa Malaysia apart from English.
For the words that she can speak in Spanish:
Colors:
Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, Black, White, Grey, Pink, Brown
Numbers:
0 to 20
Seasons:
Spring, summer, autumn, Winter
Months of the year:
January to December
Shapes:
Oval, circle, square, cube, pentagon
Fruits:
grapes, apple, orange
Thank you, goodbye, let's go...
We are still working on the fruits and vegetable. Well, for those who wants to teach your kids some languages that we (as parents) don't know either, we have to be humble, patient and learn together with them. My memory is not as good as my daughter. Her learning progress is so much faster compare to mine yet I'm trying my best to learn so that I can be her learning companion. We will test each other to kill times in the car or while waiting for our food in the restaurant. I found that it's a very fun revision game for both of us.
For Chinese characters, I'm surprised that she did self learn the numbers from zero to twenty and colours. Thanks for the app on the iPad. Hahaha!
So for the Chinese characters that she can recognize:
上, 下, 左, 右, 前，后，多，少， 零至二十，人，头，口，牙，手，耳，山，石，田，天，风，雨，木，土，花， 草， 树，叶，书，米，肉，豆，布，衣，日，月，水，火，云，门，刀，瓜，果，走，来，去，大，小，吃，笑，哭
Mathematics:
She can count from 0 to 100. Doing addition and subtraction. She can memorize the multiplication table for x2, x3 and x4. Not so confident in x4 yet.
Solar system:
She can memorize all the planets name, such as sun, Mars, Venus, Earth, Moon, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Mercury, asteroids, comet, etc.
Flags, countries' name and the locality of the countries on the map:
Cuba, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, China, South Korea, Japan, United States, United Kingdom, Bahrain, Nepal, India, Argentina, Sri Lanka, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Thailand, Greece, Philippines, Germany, Ghana, South Africa, Brazil, France, Colombia, Russia, Sweden, Egypt, Nigeria, Turkey, Finland, Greenland, Switzerland, Italy, Madagascar, Vietnam, Norway, Iceland, Papua New Guinea, Panama, Mexico, Spain, Chile, Netherlands, Romania, Portugal.
(I am not good in flags and names of countries. So I tried to learn together with her while teaching her at the same time. In the end, she is a faster learner than me. I can feel the stress now. Surrender!)
Below are not very familiar yet:
Jamaica, Kenya, Kuwait, Tunisia, Qatar, Denmark
Writing:
Great improvement in writing skill. She can follow the dotted line well. No problem in writing A to Z and all numbers. She is trained in basic strokes and Chinese characters too. As for number 8, she is still not so confident yet.
Coloring:
I feel so happy that she can color better now. She can avoid to color out from the line and even mix colors. Her favorite sequence of her colors are always rainbow colors. All the colorful things that she owns must be arranged according to the rainbow color.
Spelling:
My princess has very good memory. It helps her in reading, learning and spelling too. She can spell out the words by phonetics or by her pictorial memory. Previously I did teach her how to grab the spelling skills from 3 letters, 4 letters and 5 letters words. Seems like she has grabbed the technique and feel fun to spell out the words by herself.
Songs that she can sing:
- Rainbow song
- What a wonderful world
- You are my sunshine
- Butterfly
- Minion song
- You raise me up
- Gummy bear songs
etc (she knows how to type and search the songs or video clips she likes from youtube. She has self-learned many songs online.)
Below are the books that she read (and I can remember):-
- And, or, but
( a book on conjunctions )
- Ouch!
( a book of exclamations )
- Quack, Quack and Tick-Tock
( a book on animal and object sounds )
- Jumps or jumped?
( a book on present and past tenses )
- Press or Do not press?
( a book on positive and negative sentences )
- See or Saw?
( a book on present and past tenses )
- Play + ing
( a book on gerunds)
- Is Reading, Have Read
( a book on continuous and perfect tenses)
- John is = John's
( a book on contractions )
- A, An, The
( a book on articles )
- Slowly, Softly
( a book on adverbs )
- Airport or Zoo?
( a book on names of places )
- Slither or Fly
( a book on animal movements )
- I, You, We
( a book on pronouns )
- My Pet, Your Garden
( a book on possessive adjectives )
- Lisa's and Bob's
( a book on possessive nouns )
- Yes or No?
( a book on yes-no replies )
- What is your name?
( a book on question-words and answers )
- I am an Australian
( a book on people )
A First Reading Program ( Early stage - 3 years +)
- A new home for mouse
- The train ride
- The other day I met a bear
- Old MacDonald had a farm
- The tiger and the jackal
- Zed's bread
Usborne Phonics Readers
- Big pig on a dig
- Fat cat on a mat
- Fox on a box
- Frog on a log
- Goose on the loose
- Hen's pen
- Mouse moves house
- Sam Sheep can't sleep
- Shark in the park
- Ted in the bed
- Ted's shed
- Toad makes a road
Let's Read
Level 1
- Mira and the goose
- The donkey and the cat
- The flying tortoise
- The three fairies
- Two good friends
- Little red riding hood
- The ant and the grasshopper
- The goat and the fox
- The lion and the mouse
Let's Read More
Level 1
- The ugly duckling
- Sun, Moon and wind
- The Billy goats gruff
- The elves and the shoemaker
- The selfish giant
- Town mouse and the field mouse
- Mouse-deer and the tiger
- The rooster and the dragon
- Goldilocks and the three bears
- The gingerbread man
Charlie and Lola:
- Our especially special sandcastle
- But I am nearly ready!
- One for me...One for you...
- The very best thing about the park
Clifford, The Big Red Dog series:
-Clifford goes to hollywood
- Clifford's ABC
- Clifford the Big Red Dog
- Clifford's birthday party
- Clifford the firehouse dog
- Clifford and the big storm
- Clifford's good deed
- Clifford first autumn
- Clifford the small red puppy
The Smurf:-
- Fun and games
- Rise and shine
- Whatever the weather
- Making Music
- Happy Smurfdays
Usborne Very First Reading titles:
- Pirate Pat
- The dressing-up box
- A bus for Miss Moss
- Dog diary
- Grizzly bear rock
- The queen makes a scene
- Stop that cow!
- Moon zoom
- Run, rabbit, run!
- Late night at the zoo
- Wild school
- The circus under the sea
- The monster diner
- Knight fight
- Mr. Mystery
- The Monster Dinner
Usborne First Reading titles (Level 3):
- Danny The Dragon
- The Castle That Jack Built
- The Dinosaur Who Lost His Roar
- The Fish That Talked
- The Golden Goose
- The Leopard And The Sky God
- The Magic Porridge Pot
- The Scaredy Cat
* She has finished all Usborne books from Level 1 to Level 4. However, I'm unable to type all the titles out here as I have cleared her books from the bookshelves for the new coming and sealed up the boxes of the books she has read. For more Usborne book information can visit their online catalog here.
Sesame Street:
- Elmo goes to the doctor
- Elmo's Tappin' Tunes
- Sesame Street I can make words
- Elmo's Play Day
- Opposite Day
Piccadilly Picture Book Library series:
- Conker and Nudge
- Little Croc and Bird
- One clever creature
- Zoe and the mermaids
- It's not fair!
- Kira the Koala
- The summer ball
- Fergus's secret
- Clown, bear and rabbit
- Best friends or not?
Ready-to-read (Level 2)
SpongeBob Squarepants:
- Man Sponge saves the day
- Vote for SpongeBob
- Who Bob what pants?
- Behold, No cavities!
- Trouble at the Krusty Krab!
Thomas and friends series:
- Thomas gets his own branch line
- Thomas and Toby
- Thomas and the castle
- Thomas and the magic railroad
Carrie and Carrot series:
- Carrot loves carrots
- Carrot goes to school
- Carrot gets lost
- 'Hicks!' Carrot has a hiccup!
- 'Click!' Carrot poses for the camera
First questions and answers (Science)
- Why does light bend?
- Why are mammals furry?
I Wonder Why series:
- Caterpillars eat so much
Dora the explorer Phonics Reading Program (Pack 1)
- Isa's little fish
- Dora's Lost List
- Stuck in the mud!
- Friends out west!
- Hope you can come!
- Dora's show time!
- I missed you!
- Dora saves the game
- Dora Takes a hike
- At the beach
- Snowy day
Dora the explorer Phonics Reading Program (Pack 2)
- A great day for soccer
- Dance with Dora
- Super spies
- Zoom to the moon
- Through the woods
- Baby bird rescue
- Stuck Truck
- I love a parade!
- A walk to play park
- The circus comes to town
- The windy day
- Sail away
Touch and feel - Where's Dave?
Dora the explorer
- Potty time with Big sister Dora
- Good manners for me and you
Little Fruits Series:
(Green apple books)
- The amazing slide
- Where is my egg?
- Neat and tidy
- In a row
- The rolling woolly ball
- The apples are asleep
- Let's go home!
- The bunny slippers
- Mummy's little helpers
(Blueberry books)
- Where is my home?
- Spring is here!
- Tubby bear's funny friends
- We are good friends
- Just like daddy
- Buster cat's new clothes
- The perfect home
- A school in the woods
- Thank you, mum!
Some other story books:
- Last Day, Hooray!
- What dads can't do
- Germs are not for sharing
- Barney Alphabet fun!
- Apples A to Z
- My Day from A to Z
- Little Einsteins - Christmas Wish
- Do like a duck does!
- Froggy's Day with dad
- A very Marley Christmas- God's big promises for kids
- Big and Busy Body
- K is for Kissing a cool kangaroo
- Down by the cool of the pool
- Jolly Olly Octopus
- Sesame Street - The three little Grouches
- Sesame Street - Rhyming Rapunzel
- Sesame Street - Read & Sing with Elmo
- Blue's Clues - A present for Magenta
- Chuck & Friends - Unidentified rolling object
- Rabbit Ears
.... etc. I think I have to stop listing the books that she had read. I have to agree what my hubby said, vocabulary that she had learn are more important than the number of books she had read. I just keep buying books and don't have the time to list down anymore.
Let me try to recall what are the new words that she has learn:
1) syringe
2) reflex hammer
3) thermometer
4) atmosphere
5) measurement
6) complain
7) introduction
8) accidentally
9) etc
But the problem is, I can't keep track on her vocabulary too. She is good in phonetic so basically she can pronounce all the new words. For all the words that she picks up from the books are uncountable. My girl will read the signboards, notice, advertisement, menu, newspapers, magazines etc whatever words that can be seen by her when we go out. Basically we can't lie to her as she can read many instructions and know what is going on. For example, she will read out the signboard and tell us that's the toy's shop and she wants to go there.
Lately I have bought her many workbooks (Maths, English, Coloring, Chinese, IQ quiz etc) and guide her from time to time. She can read instructions and do the exercises by herself. I told my hubby "Teach your kid how to read, throw a workbook to her and we can have some peace!" :P
Well, it's true. Sometimes I was too lazy to read all the instructions as she can finish one whole workbook in one session. She will correct me if I have taught her wrongly, such as I told her to circle the correct answer but the instruction says to cross out the wrong answer. *sweat. I promised to be more careful next time.
Would like to recommend the books below:
1) Reading Success Moral Story Book Series
- There are 2 stories in a book which comes with some after story exercises. The kid will be able to answer all questions if they understand the story. Total of 10 books in a set. Bilingual (English and Mandarin)
2) BrainQuest Workbooks Series
- Full color workbook which comes with stickers. My daughter just can't stop doing the exercises so that she can earn the stickers behind the book.
- Each book covers many topics. For Pre-K (P) has topics like ABCs, 123s, Phonics, Vocabulary, Shapes and Colors, Sorting and Matching, My World, Science, Fun and Games.
3) SE workbooks and Pelangi workbooks
- There are many types of workbooks for toddler and also kindergarten from these 2 local publishers. The prices are cheap and affordable compare to imported workbooks.
p/s: My princess has stopped using diaper in Sept 2013, that's her 45-month-old greatest progress. I feel so proud of her. ^^
