Activity Books Completed in February 2014

#1. Chinese Sticker Books

These were not new to Isabelle as she had completed similar books last year.  Surprisingly, they appealed to Ian as well, and he eagerly "helped" her with some of the pages.

#2. Chinese Tracing Book

A book for Belle to practise tracing with a pencil.  Although she could now trace a line quite well, she still could not hold a pencil correctly.

#3. Kumon Let's Cut Paper - Amazing Animals

Isabelle must really loved cutting paper, as this was the 3rd book in the Kumon series on cutting paper that she had completed.  She could do at least 5 sheets per sitting, and she could cut fairly well on the cutting line.

Activity Books Completed in January 2014

#1. Usborne First Sticker Book - Christmas

I could hardly remember when I had purchased this book, but it was dug out of the cupboard recently and was less than half completed.  I had thought that the book was more suitable for Isabelle, however, she had little interest in it.  Hence, Ian benefited and completed the rest of the book.

#2.  Kumon More Let's Cut Paper!
Isabelle finished this book very quickly, even while alternating with a few other cutting books.  She loved to spend her afternoons cutting away, and she could cut the outlines quite neatly.

#3.  Chinese Book for Addition (Age 5)
Ian started to work on this book earlier in 2013, and we only took it out once in a while.  At first, he encountered some difficulty in getting the concepts right.  Now that he was going into K2, his math concept seemed to have improved.  I also wondered if the improvement was partly due to the commencement of his math enrichment class since December last year?  Towards the last few pages of the book, he could mentally calculate the sums quickly.  It was a far cry from just a few months ago (as recent as last November), when he had to put out his fingers and toes as his counting aids.

#4. Usborne Sports Sticker Book

Completed by Ian!  One of the things that could make him sit down quietly and finish his own things without giving us a headache with his antics.

#5. Kumon My Book of Pasting

One of the best-loved book by Ian.  He requested to do this daily, so I used it as a reward/motivation for completing the other tasks that I had prepared.

#6. Kumon Let's Fold

In comparison with Ian when he went through this book, Isabelle displayed more interest/flair in folding paper.  However, her interest was rather short-lived.  Towards the end of the book, she required a lot of help to complete, and we observed that she was more interested in cutting paper.

#7. Chinese Book for Drawing

Purchased this book specially for Ian to practise his drawing.  We stopped for a few months as the book went missing among the mess in our room.  I recently dug it out for him to complete, and I had noticed that his drawing had improved over the few months.

#8. Chinese Sticker Book

Another one of the sticker books for Isabelle.

Activity Books Completed in December 2013

#1. Chinese Enrichment for Nursery

I bought this book from an expo fair a while back, and Ian had been doing it on and off, over the span of a few months.  His chinese at the beginning of the year was rather weak, and he could not really recognize the words when he first started to work on this book.  At almost the end of the year, we could see that he had greatly improved in his language, and could recognize many more words in this book.  The book focused mainly on words recognition, IQ games, and tracing simple words such as one to ten in chinese characters.

#2. Kumon More Let's Sticker and Paste!
Another book that Isabelle loved.  She appeared not to like the sticky feeling of liquid glue on her fingers, and demanded to wash her hands once she had glue on her fngers.  I let her try using glue stick and it seemed better.  She was still unable to control the amount of glue to squeeze out on the paper though.

#3. CQ Sticker Game Book (Age 2-3)
One of the 3-book sticker books series.  Unlike Ian, Isabelle did not display a great interest in sticker books.  At each sitting, she could only keep focused on one or two exercises.

#4. Chinese Book of Cutting for Preschoolers
A book similar to the Kumon's series of cutting exercises, which Isabelle enjoyed tremendously.  Needless to say, she completed the entire book in a matter of days.

Activity Books Completed in November 2013

#1 - IQ Sticker Book

Isabelle completed this book with some help from us.  She did not seem to be as interested in sticker books as Ian, so it took a few days to finish till the last page.

#2 - Usborne Sticker Books - Airport
Both of them took turns to complete this sticker book, but with Ian contributing the most.  He also attempted to teach his little sister how to paste the stickers properly but looking at the scene and the orientation of the stickers.

#3 - Kumon - My Book of Numbers 1-120
I could not even remember when Ian started to work on this book (it seemed ages ago).  But it bored him to tears when he just started.  I kept the book away for a few months, and took it out again when he was more comfortable with numbers, and he breezed through it just so that he could have the certificate at the back of the book.

#4 - Let's Colour
Another book that had been stashed away for a long time.  I initially bought this book from a Popular Expo Sale, for Ian to practise on his colouring skills.  However, he was only interested in it for a while and was not able to finish colouring the whole picture, so the book was put away.  Until recently, he begged me to let him colour the pictures again, when I took out the book to let Isabelle try her hands on colouring.  The siblings finished the book in one morning, with Ian doing most of the work, and Isabelle just scribbling on the few sheets that she was given.  Must admit that Ian's colouring skills had improved so much since last year.

These were 2 of his works, pinned up on the wall as a form of encouragement to keep up his efforts.

Activity Books Completed in October 2013

We focused a little more on those books that were about to be completed this month...

#1 - My Book of Simple Addition by Kumon

Ian had been working on this book for well over a year perhaps?  The book consisted of drilling exercises for adding 1, and later on, 2.  At the beginning, Ian dreaded doing this book, so I put it away and sent him to learn abacus.  After a break of a few months from this book, I took it out again and he seemed less resistant towards the exercises in it, as he was more confident to tackle the monotonous exercises.  Perhaps after the horror of his abacus homework, this seemed less frightening, and he was able to do a few pages a day to complete it.

#2 - My Book of Writing Words by Kumon
This books focused on consonants and vowels, but it only required the child to trace/copy the words with a few repetitions.  I wondered how much Ian had absorbed from tracing/copying the words, but he did the exercises gladly anyway.

#3 - Let's Sticker & Paste by Kumon
Now, a book for Belle.  It was one that she enjoyed pretty much.

#4 - Chinese Sticker Book
Another book for Belle.  She had to match the shape of the stickers to the shaded shapes in the pictures.  It did not pose much difficulty for her, but I did skip the logic/reasoning exercises at the bottom half of every page as those could not catch her attention at all.

Activity Books Completed in September 2013

Not a very productive month... and here they are...

A chinese sticker book for Isabelle, for her to learn how to match shapes by pasting the stickers into the appropriate "shadows" in the scenes.  It did not pose much difficulty for her now.

These 2 books are meant for Ian.  He had been eyeing on the sticker books that I had bought for Isabelle, and I accidentally found these 2 that are age-appropriate for him.  He enjoyed himself with them, and needed little help to complete them.

Ian completed another Kumon workbook - My Book of Rhyming Words and Long Vowels.  It consisted mostly of tracing words, so he finished the book pretty quickly.

Activity Books Completed in August 2013

This is one of the most productive months for a long, long time... here is a rundown:

#1 - Kumon: Amazing Mazes
I purchased this book over a year or 2 ago, and only recently, took it out and let Ian do on a regular basis since he is now able to complete the abacus homework at a much faster pace (meaning, more time to do home-based worksheets).  The last few exercises got him thinking a bit, as I caught him erasing and tracing back a few times.

#2 - Usborne Travel Sticker Book
Another joint production by Ian and Isabelle.  Thanks to Ian's guidance, Isabelle began to paste the stickers less randomly on the scenes.

#3 - Kumon Let's Color!
This was Isabelle's first Kumon workbook.  Trying to teach her to colour was such a huge challenge!  She had her own mindset, and once she decided to use a colour, she would stick to it no matter what we tried to tell her to use.  Most of the time, she would pick her favourite colour and scribble away.  At times, she would also insist on us using a colour that she had chosen for us.  Grrrr...

#4 - Chinese Sticker Books
Purchased these 2 series of sticker books from a chinese website.  They turned out to be fairly interesting.  Isabelle could match the stickers to the shapes in the book most of the time.

There are other workbooks that are work-in-progress. Hopefully, we will be able to complete them by the end of September.

Activity Books Completed in July 2013

This is such a productive month, that we have managed to complete a number of books for both of them.

Let's begin with Ian...


BrainQuest Workbook for Pre-K - We started on this book a little late for Ian - I believe he is able to do most of the exercises by the time we started on it.  Hence, I skipped most of the exercises and jumped straight to the last part of the book on Science.  Just a little exposure to topics like natural habitats.

Kumon: My Book of Easy Telling Time - We have started on this book for such a long time, but due to commitments in the homework from enrichment classes, we have not been working on this diligently enough.  This month, we sped up on the exercises in this book and finally completed it.

Kumon: My Book of Rhyming Words - Ian breezed through this book, as it is pretty much just tracing out or copying the words.  

Chinese Sticker Book - I spotted this book by chance while surfing for activity books for Ian.  It turns out to be quite interesting (maybe anything with stickers are interesting to children)!  At least when we were doing this book, Ian did not resist it and it helped to reinforce his memory of a few simple chinese words.

Usborne First Sticker Book - Holiday- Jointly completed by Ian and Isabelle.  I purchased this book for Isabelle, but Ian seemed to be more interested in this than the books that were meant for him.  Isabelle was not interested at first, but after watching Ian enjoying himself with the book, it spurred her interest and Ian guided her on pasting the stickers correctly.

Usborne First Sticker Book - Farm- Another book that was bought with Isabelle in mind, but it attracted Ian a lot such that he was a little unhappy when Isabelle completed the book when he was away in the childcare.  Nevertheless, Ian had completed quite a number of pages as well.

Chinese Sticker Books - Wo Lai Tie (Ages 1-3 Years) - Isabelle enjoyed pasting the stickers in this book. We had not done much brain-training exercises with her in comparison to Ian, and surprisingly, she was able to match the shapes of the stickers to the correct spots in the book.  However, she was not interested in the exercises at the bottom of each page, which I thought might be a little too advanced for her.  I *think* there are 6 books in this series, but unfortunately, the last 2 books have been misplaced by Isabelle.

Activity Book Completed in June 2013

Our princess has completed her first activity book ever!  It was the same title that Ian had enjoyed about 3 years ago.  And like Ian, Belle took about 2 hours or lesser to finish the book (with our help, of course), which was very suitable for her age.

As of now, Belle enjoys a sticky book more than a colouring book that I have been trying to get her interested in.  Hopefully, watching Ian doing  his homework will inspire her a little more.

Activity Book Completed in April 2013

After such a long time since we started on this book, Ian has finally finished all the pages. I think he pretty enjoyed doing the connect-the-dots worksheets, though there were times when he displayed frustration when he could not find the next number for connecting.  Overall, a good exercise to build on recognition of numbers up to 70.

Activity Books Completed in December 2012

At last, dear Ian had completed 2 more books after working on them for a long, long time...

#1 - Sequencing & Memory (Preschool)
Learning about simple sequencing, sorting, patterns, and critical thinking.  Ian enjoyed it, especially the last few pages of cut-out projects!

#2 - Usborne First Sticker Book - Trucks
A book that I had used to occupy him when I had to run some errands and could not sit down with him.

Activity Book Completed in Oct 2012

Ever since we started Ian on the CMA classes, we had slowed down on the other activity books as the homework from the enrichment classes combined took up quite a lot of time.  We had worked a few months on this book: Kumon - My Book of Rhyming Words.

This book supports the teaching of 3-letter phonics, and we had started it late as the enrichment class had already covered all the words by the end of June.  I took it as a reinforcement of what he had learned, but would be skipping the next series "Rhyming Words & Phases" and jumping to "Learning About Long Vowels" which would be in line with what he was learning in the enrichment.

On the enrichment class - Ian joined the class meant for late 2007 children, and I am pleased to find out that besides phonics, they are doing simple comprehension, crossword puzzles, and also fill-in-the-blanks with words.  It will be a good preparation for him before he enters Kindergarten 1 next year.

Activity Book Completed In August 2012

Recently, our progress in doing worksheets had been slow.  Ian always appeared tired after school and after finishing the homework from phonics class and music class, we were left with lesser time for home-prepared worksheets.

This was a book that we had just completed today, which took about a month or so for Ian to complete.  He loved doing the exercises in it, as it included stickers and interesting cartoons.  It taught the basic concept of addition.  

Even after completing the book, Ian's concept of addition was still weak.  I had to help him visualize by drawing bars on top of the numbers so that he could count them.

Activity Books Completed

We have completed another 2 activity books in the past 2 months!

#1 - Kumon - My Book of Alphabet Games
A book dedicated entirely to recognising and writing the 26 alphabets.  Ian completed this book pretty quickly, as we let him do 2 exercises a day most of the time.  We started this book a little late, as he had already mastered writing the alphabets.  I was pondering whether to skip this book or not, but had thought that it was good for him to practice his handwriting, and gathered that it would only take him about a month to complete it.

#2 - Chinese IQ Sticker Book (4-5 Years)
One of the favourite sticker books of Ian.  I had to help him in some of the exercises, such as counting money and reading the instructions.

Activity Books: Completed in April 2012

After skipping the 9pm drama and bringing the kids into the room for some "learning" activities, Ian has been progressing a little faster on the workbooks.  This month, we have completed another 3.


Kumon: My Book of Numbers 1-30

I had worked with Ian on this book for several months.  Progress was slow in the initial stage as he was just learning how to write his numbers.  I stopped the book for about 2-3 months in the midst of it as he was getting impatient with the repetitive writing of the numbers.  As the other Kumon books do cover the numbers again, I had started him on the other books to reinforce the lower numbers.  The last exercise was skipped, as the other books would repeat on that.


Kumon: My Book of Coloring - At The Zoo

I dug out this book from my stash in January or February, and pondered whether to keep this for Isabelle, or to let Ian practise his colouring skills.  The earlier exercises were very similar to the previous Kumon colouring books, with a small circle, square, or triangle in the middle of the picture for the child to fill in the colour.  Towards the later part of the book, the pictures started to get more complicated with finer details.  We were so happy to see that Ian's colouring skills had vastly improved over the exercises.  He was colouring within the borders most of the time, and getting better at it.  However, it must have been pretty boring for him to do the colouring on his own, as he always requested us to do it together with him.  Sometimes, when his progress was simply too slow (for example, doing only a very small portion of the picture a day), I would sit down and colour together with him and he would do more.  I wondered his fast improvement came from our consistent home-teaching recently, or from his childcare?  Probably, both.


Sticker Activity Book for 4-5 Years Old (EQ)

A very recent purchase from Dangdang.  This series of sticker books has been a favourite of Ian.  He could sit down and do some of the activities on his own, sparing us some time for other things.  He did about 2-3 exercises at one sitting, and hence, the book was completed in about 2 weeks (not doing on a daily basis).