Ss for sun & Mm for moon

We are well on our way to L for leaf. We have done S for sun and M for moon in 2 weeks. Ever since then, I realised Nathanael is progressing rather well in his alphabets. He surprises me every week.

Mornings are usually reserved for Zech. I'm trying to get Nathanael to do some independent work while I work with Zech but he's still young so other than puzzles, do-a-dot activities, he indulges in free play most of the time.

After Zech goes to school at 12pm, I do some reading together with Nathanael. The book list given in each unit is a treasure trove.

Look at the Moonbear's series! Nathanael adores them!

We start school at 3.30pm after Nathanael's nap and snack time. It's normally an hour. I can't do more as his attention span is short. Anything beyond that, he loses focus and looks dazed. The more I teach, the more blur he looks.

Forming letters is more of a challenge for most kids. Tactile is crucial at this stage.

Writing his letters in a sand tray. We use a salt tray too.

He loves do-a-dot. Using pom poms, playdough and magnets to form the letters enable him to visualize and feel the shape.

Using pattern blocks is fun and relaxing to do. Nathanael loves asking questions so for this activity, he needs to know all the names of the pattern blocks. :)

After that, he moves on to build his church. Not sure why but he likes building a church with the pattern blocks.

Tracing the letters is fine but writing them is a challenge.

The letter m is easier to form.

Good thing about Nathanael is he is quite patient and tries hard to form his letters.

The experiment to make raisins from grapes. A lesson to see how the power of the sun change the grapes in shape, size and texture.

The dried-up raisins.

We made a sun dial and tried it out too. Trying to catch the sun the past few weeks was quite a challenge. Nathanael is now very mesmerized with his shadow. :)


My boy loves cutting and pasting. And he loves doing the sound discrimination worksheet, just like Zech!

A sun snack to remind him that Jesus is the light of the world.

Preparing his own snack - bananas with peanut butter and raisins

Unfortunately, he didn't like them at all. :( He only enjoyed using the knife to cut the bananas. :)

The phases of the moon. We've been searching for the moon these few nights but it's nowhere to be seen.

We did science experiments related to the moon too. For instance, in explaining how the moon is a reflection of the sun's light, we did a simple experiment in the dark storeroom shining a torchlight onto a mirror, which reflected light on Nathanael's face. We explored the concept of gravity by measuring our jump on earth and multiplying 6 times of that to imagine how it would be like on the moon. We had a few discussions about the moon, using beautiful photographs of the full moon I've saved on my ipad. And of course, not forgetting to read up about the first explorers on the moon and watching an old video clip on YouTube on Neil Armstrong's jump on the moon. Because of that, Nathanael now wants to be an astronaut. Previously, he aspired to be a bus captain.

More on the moon... we read the story 'Mooncake' and had a few follow-up activities.

Play pretend! Rocket takeoff to the moon! The astronaut is none other than Nathanael.


Blast off!

Am I in outer space?

It's time to explore the moon!

Rocket snack.

I love this poem. Very apt for moon explorers!

Here's a game to help Nathanael gain number recognition. He's a fan of racing cars so I created this game using a playmat and with the number cards as the parking lot for his car.

We read 'Good Night Moon' on the last day of the unit.

Sensory tray related to the story.

I've shared before homeschooling with Nathanael is different. Not that it's any easier or more challenging. There are certain aspects of my teaching method I need to change. For example, the Elmo puppet was such a disaster with him I kept it away after the first introduction. You won't believe this but he was probably so excited he kept abusing the puppet by hitting or pulling it. So now, instead of using Elmo as the storyteller, I use the children's Bible for Bible stories. For the Bible verses to memorise, I simply go through with him, making up actions as we move along. He's doing fine as it is. At least he can remember the verses.

The weeks just whizzed by. Now we are at the third unit. An interesting unit as L for leaf has room for more outdoor activities in the park and garden.