Weekly diary and "Zhou Ji"

[buds]

Heyya Busymom, do update your

profile when you're not ermmm...
busy. :lol: ( Cos ur nick is busy-
mom mah... ) Cos it states
your children are born in July 2009!

:!: Can't be right? :lol:

I wanted to reply to your post
appropriately and couldn't recall
your DD's age, so went to check
out your profile and i got a shock
for a moment there.. :lol:

[buds]

Busymom:

She comes out with the topic and the sentences to write each day. We would just be at the side helping her with spelling and correcting her grammar (like past tense instead of present tense), and reminding her on the bad handwriting. See how she would write her \"g\", \"p\" or \"y\" way above the line even after numerous reminders? :stupid:

My 2nd DD going P1 next year liao, but when left without supervision
though the work gets done.... the handwriting can make me :faint:!

Busymom:

She loves you two gals' work too, especially the drawings (and the part about counting money, hee hee)! :love: :love:

Thank you, dear. I'll let my DDs read your comment when they wake up
tomorrow, they'll be thrilled! The money part reali helps build up
the foundation which my DD1 now in P2 can do without my assistance...
And though she doesn't exactly like doing the operations like addition &
subtraction stuff, she likes counting money... :lol: so it still helps me with
the purpose of the recording of her pocket money.

Drawings wise DD1 is usuali the neater of the two, and also the creative
one. DD2 gets influenced by her jie-jie's artistic skills & does get inspired
to do her own most times.

Busymom:

Oh, but she really can't spell for nuts. Think maybe must start getting her to learn some spelling, especially sight words. Her school recently gave out a list of 100 sight words. The purpose is for the children to know all these words by sight, I suppose?. While she knows how to read all of them, I don't think she could spell them all. Do you think that is a good place to start - i.e. to learn how to spell those words by heart? I am only concerned if I could cause more harm than good by getting her to do that. Or is she supposed to know how to spell since she knows phonics and has been reading a lot? Can help to enlighten please? :?

Have you heard of the Dolch's List?
Let me direct you here to my fellow
Grandmaster Jeda's link to her article
on sight words... Think you may
find this helpful and useful.

http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/content/sight-words

By the way, your DD is in K1, right?

In my opinion, she is doing great especially
with you constantly supporting her & encouraging
her. Your effort is extremely fantastic for a full time
working parent....

To answer your question, I suppose she is not simply
supposed to know how to spell/write the words cause
sight words cannot be decoded using Phonics. So you
still gotta introduce her the words. Another thing is also
being able to read the words may not necessarily mean
automatically having the ability to write it... on her own.

I :salute: her creative ideas in her diary entries.. Hope
she can keep it going, aye!

[Busymom]

buds:

Have you heard of the Dolch's List?
Let me direct you here to my fellow
Grandmaster Jeda's link to her article
on sight words... Think you may
find this helpful and useful.

http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/content/sight-words

By the way, your DD is in K1, right? :

Yes, she is indeed K1. The link to Jedamum's article is great! Will start with spelling using that list and see how it goes. :thankyou:

buds:

In my opinion, she is doing great especially
with you constantly supporting her & encouraging
her. Your effort is extremely fantastic for a full time
working parent....

no lah..., there are many others here who are doing so much more. I pale in comparison already. :oops:

buds:

Another thing is also
being able to read the words may not necessarily mean
automatically having the ability to write it... on her own.

Unfortunately, this very true in the case of DD.

buds:

I :salute: her creative ideas in her diary entries.. Hope
she can keep it going, aye!

Thank you for your encouragement! To me, it's just a recording of things that had happened in the day for her. Her ability to create stories is still largely non-existent.

[buds]

buds:

In my opinion, she is doing great especially with you constantly

supporting her & encouraging her. Your effort is extremely fantastic
for a full time working parent....

Busymom:

no lah..., there are many others here who are doing so much more. I pale in comparison already. :oops:

Just like how we shouldn't compare our any of our children with
their own siblings or with others... we also should not compare
our efforts with others, Busymom. You see... different families
have different lifestyles, routines and spare time. What you can
do with your children and what you have shared so far, is oredi
to me a HUGE effort. I know of a handful of parents who are
totally hands-off. But that's because they are dead tired from
work. So, whose to say who does better at what... or who does
more for whom... ya know what i mean.

Pat yourself on the back for your effort, Busymom.

You CAN choose to put your feet up and catch up on TV once
you get home, ya know...

So, GOOD JOB.. okie!

buds:

Another thing is also being able to read the words may
not necessarily mean automatically having the ability to write it... on
her own.

Busymom:

Unfortunately, this very true in the case of DD.

Dun worry unduly. She will pick up as she grows and as her
developmental progress grows with her. You will see a lot of
difference from what she could do @ N2... to now at K1 &
later on, when she will go up to K2. The maturity in her reading
& writing on top of the many other things that is... will show.

buds:

I :salute: her creative ideas in her diary entries..
Hope she can keep it going, aye!

Busymom:

Thank you for your encouragement! To me, it's just a recording of things that had happened in the day for her. Her ability to create stories is still largely non-existent.

Just to share with you.. Not all children are able to extract a day's events
on their own! Her ability to narrate her day tho' may not seem as a story
creation out of imagination is a great start on its own. I had to dig up more
information on my kiddies' day when i first started.. cos they can get the
sequence all mixed up. Here's an example...

DD : Mummy, what to write?

Me : Tell me what you did today..

DD : But i dunno. I dun remember.

Me : Ok, first... What did you do when you reached school?

DD : Oh okay, i know that! I played games with my friends.

DD : Oh wait a minute... i think that's later part. I think we did
some work first... uhhmm... or was it we sang some songs first..
wait, lemme think...

Me : :roll: Ok, take some time..

A diary IS the recording of daily stuff that happened, feelings
over what occured within the day... or any thoughts that come
to mind. Her creativity here stems from the manner of how she
puts her thoughts across of what she had done in the day... how
she relates her day to you to put in print. Some kiddies oredi nd
help at this initial juncture.

The ability to create stories... we can do in another new thread,
okie dokie?

[Busymom]

Hi buds


You are always full of encouragements. :salute: Your kids are lucky to have a mummy like you. :love:

Oh, but DD does get her sequence quite wrong too... heeheehee. The journal entry about going to the Botanical Garden with her brother, apparently she crossed the bridge first but it had come out last in her journal!

Hmmm... I guess we are going to have another thread on how to nurture creative writing soon?

[buds]

[mama_mia]

Buds


I am impressed after reading what you had shared. I am very motivated to start with my girls now. Thanks!

[buds]

Heyya mama_mia...


Thanks! :celebrate:

How old are your children?
Your profile states 8 May 09...
:idea: So, i thought i should ask
you personally instead.

[buds]

mama_mia:

Buds


I am impressed after reading what you had shared. I am very motivated to start with my girls now. Thanks!

Heyya mama_mia, managed to get it started yet?
Come back here and update yeah.. Post up pictures too.
Motivate more parents to encourage children to write.
Encouraging the writing process is more the objective
when the kiddies start at an early age.

Parents can work the kinks out with grammar, vocabulary,
input-flow (etc)... later on. At least if they write, we can
observe where to come in and guide. Looking
forward to hearing from you soon.

[en107rn.01056yahoo.01056com.01056sg]

Hi


Joining in late and have just started to get my kids to write diaries as well. I am hoping to improve their mother tongue since they are not able to articulate their thoughts fluently. I hope by writing diary daily, will help them feel comfortable with the language.

One question though. What do parents do when they spot spelling or grammartical error or incorrect sentence structure?

How to encourage my children to use new vocabularies that they come across?

I was thinking of writing a feedback at the bottom of their journal. In my comment, I will write down what I feel if I am in the same situation too. By writing back, my children will read my comments and will take note of the correct spelling. I will include a new word in my comments too. For eg, if ds wrote about a naughty boy in school. My comments will be, "the boy is mischievous because…"

How about grammar or sentence structure? I don’t like the idea of correcting on their diaries. I did it yesterday and I saw ds face cringe.