Singapore theme for homeschool pt1

This week marks the beginning of my own thematic curriculum for Zech. With National Day just around the corner and all kinds of events around our island to celebrate the jubilee year, naturally it got to be the Singapore theme.  I've always wanted to infuse National Education in Zech's homeschool. Finally, here it is!

Day 1:

I've made my own slides on the history of Singapore, in chronological order beginning with Temasek ruled by kings for 80 years. Tried to make it simple for a kindergartener. Check out the following websites - http://www.singapore-discovery-guide.com/Stamford-Raffles.html and http://www.yoursingapore.com/about-singapore/singapore-history.html, which I've found to be useful.

For Zech's first lesson, I made a sensory tray, tapping on the idea of Temasek as a fishing village. Zech contributed to this by making one of the houses. The colored one is his.

 

What's in the sensory tray? Used pasta as green grass and sand, blue kinetic sand as the sea. Made some paper boats and paper houses. Lego people as fishermen. Some trees. Zech reminded me to put in some fishes since it's a fishing village. Forgotten about that.  We managed to find some fishes lying around and he arranged them himself in the tray. Realized the tray was great for pretend play.

It was only on day 3 that he messed everything up.

For Math, Zech played the fishing game. I gave him addition and subtraction sums on the whiteboard and he used his rod to catch the fish with the correct number.

Day 2:
The history of Singapore for day 2 focused on the founding of Singapore by Raffles and the town plan he drew up for the different groups of immigrants.

Zech sorted out the pictures on the four races in Singapore then pasted them onto the drawing paper to make a poster.

He played with tangram too. Printed out the boat and fish from this website.

 

Day 3:
We focused on the Japanese occupation in Singapore. This part of history is particularly interesting to Zech who kept asking me questions about the war. Never occur to me to visit Changi Prison till we did this.

After the slide presentation, Zech did a dramatization, pretending to be a prisoner of war (POW) who was sent to the Burma Railway. I wanted him to go through a POW 'experience'. Though it wasn't authentic, it made him think how it felt to be a prisoner with no freedom. This prepared him for the next activity on feelings. He was able to identify the different feelings a POW could have.

 

 

Downloaded free from https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Feelings-Vocabulary-Cards-Social-Emotional-Development-752151.

As a follow up, he completed a 'My Feelings Book'.

 

This was downloaded free from https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/My-Feelings-Book-Activity-752232.

We also spent some time talking about how blessed Singapore is and about how important it is to pray for Singapore. During our time of prayer, Zech gave thanks to God for Singapore while I prayed for God's guidance to be upon our leaders.

Day 4:
On this day, we read about how Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his Ministers formed the PAP, further developing Singapore to what it is today. Zech could not wait to start school and immediately after morning devotion, he asked me if we could start the lesson earlier. :)

We read the following books.

As Zech was painting the Singapore flag, I explained to him the significance of the crescent moon and five stars.

As a closure, we prayed for Singapore progress and for ourselves as Christian Singaporeans who need to love Singapore and stand up for the right ideals.

We also did the usual every day such as calendar, time, Math, sight words and readers.

History is really very crucial for our young ones to understand how we should not be complacent and not take things for granted. What our precious kids see today did not come easy. Through history, they can trace the path our ancestors have taken and see how Singapore gradually develop to what it is today. It is a very important learning curve not just for Zech, but for me too. As I shared with him about the Japanese occupation, I could tell him real stories from my grandmother (his great-grandmother). The most poignant I guess was sharing with him about the Burma Railway. It strikes a chord in my heart as my own great-grandfather was sent to the Death Railway and he never made it back. Stories like that make history come alive.

For the next few days, we are going to learn more about Singapore outside our home. Field trips are really important for kids to see first hand the relevance of history. The National museum is a great resource I feel. A month ago, we visited the exhibit on Singapura 700 years. It's very likely we are going back again for a second visit. Other places worth checking out are Changi Airport SG50 trail (http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/changi-airport-goes-big/1988612.html), Heritage Bay at Clifford Square (exhibition at Clifford Pier) and SG50 exhibition on Singapore's past, present and future at Esplanade Lawn (http://www.sdc.com.sg/special-promotions.php).