My boy is good with Maths!

My 5 years old boy started learning how to add 2 digits number using tens and ones a few days ago and is really getting the hang of it. He will always tell me “I am a smart boy!”. 

How did my boy become so confident in his Maths? His Maths journey when he was about 3.5 years old when we were in Mumbai. My girl was enrolled in seriously addictive maths in Mumbai and my boy kept pestering me to let him join his sister’s maths lesson. After a trial, we felt that the room was too small with the number of students and Pierre was pretty active and disturbed her sister in class. Yes, tuition centers in Mumbai are really small. Most centres have only 1 classroom and is small unlike Singapore. So I told him to wait till he is 4 years old. (A summary of tips will be at bottom of this page).

That time I was wondering whether I was taking away his interest to learn so I played counting with him using Legos and toys. When he was about 4 years old, I chanced upon Kumon Mumbai and I enrolled him mainly because the room is bigger :P. To my surprise, he was really focused and learnt fast. Kumon Maths encourages repetitive practice everyday and Pierre did it diligently from counting and writing numbers and learnt till addition of single numbers till 7 (e.g 3+7). He can easily answer you with simple additions. :)

After when we are back in March due to potential convid lockdown in India (yes, we caught the first flight before the news of the first lockdown was confirmed), we totally stopped Kumon lessons. Luckily, I had some Kumon Maths books which I bought long time ago (gathered in dust) for my girl. Great that I could use those books for my boy. Within these few months, he completed two Kumon addition Maths and now almost finished with basic subtraction book.

As we were all stuck at home, I helped him to enrol zearn.org and dreambox for Maths online learning. These are free during Summer due to convid-19. These organisations support virtual learning during school closures. My kids really love these two sites and improved their Maths’ skills during Singapore’s circuit breaker.

Currently, he is learning Maths concepts instead of just memorising basic addition. But trust me. Those basic maths additions which he became so good at did help him to learn the concepts faster. 

I’m happy and amazed how my boy is able to do primary 1 Maths when he is just K1. He might maybe completed Primary 1 maths at the end of the year? 

Most importantly, my boy became confident because of his Maths learning journey and you will often hear him say “I am good in Maths!”.

To sum up the tips:

• Start your toddler’s interest in Maths by using toys or even things at home to get him counting.
• Use Kumon worksheets or books from Amazon:
• Start with this basic addition book with counting, writing numbers and simple additions

Grade 1 Addition

 

• Practice more additions with this book.

My Book of Addition

 

• Start with basic subtraction with counting backwards, writing numbers and simple subtraction

My Book Of Simple Subtraction

 

• Practice more subtractions with this book.

Grade 1 Subtraction

 

• When your children or toddlers are more comfortable in additions and simple subtractions, you can introduce him Maths concepts of Tens and Ones.

Have Fun and Be Amazed with your Kiddos!

Cheers,

Deariebear Mommie

DIY Sushi using Atomy Organic Olive Oil Grilled Laver

Lavers are known as seaweed. They are sea vegetables and are forms of algae that grow in the sea. We particularly love this organic seaweed from Atomy. It comes with a package of 6 Packets. Each packet has big pieces in it.

7 Surprising Health Benefits of Eating Seaweed

• Contains Iodine and Tyrosine, Which Support Thyroid Function. ...
• Good Source of Vitamins and Minerals. ...
• Contains a Variety of Protective Antioxidants. ...
• Provides Fiber and Polysaccharides That Can Support Your Gut Health. ...
• May Help You Lose Weight by Delaying Hunger and Reducing Weight. ...
• May Reduce Heart Disease Risk.

We have been eating this seaweed for years and hadn’t stop since. 

Please let me know if you wish to know how to buy this seaweed. 

Have fun making DIY sushi at home :)

Cheers,

Deariebear Mommie

We are in Mumbai, India!

Hi everyone,

Its been 5 years since I blogged. In these five years, I was pretty swamped with multiple events in my life.

My precious second child was born in 2015 and this time it is a boy :) I was busy in understanding and adjusting myself to be a mother of two. Everything seems to be more difficult. From getting my baby to sleep (I had sleep trained him at 4 months old instead of 6 months which I did for my girl. I will share more about this in another post), to getting him to crawl and roll and to get him to eat. Oh yes, he started only rolling and crawling at the very late 6-7 months old. You can imagine how anxious I am. We ended up signing him up on a program to get him moving.

He is pretty a fussy eater and so I have to think of different tactics and even stories to get him eating things like vegetables. You will love him if you see him. He is a bundle of joy. My kids love hugs. You will get one if you see them. :)

Our bundles of joy.

In 2017, my younger brother passed away. He suffered from an illnesses called Huntington disease and was bedridden for years. This picture was taken in 2012 where he was still able to walk on his own. He is a warrior and he is one of my closest, even closer than my mum. I didn't choose to share much about this condition in my posts because it hurts to even share in my posts. Huntington disease is a rare genetic condition which on the surface looks like Parkinson disease. I might share more about this in other upcoming posts.

My family. My beloved brother.

When I was back from my one year maternity leave, I worked hard and devoted myself to work. I was busy managing my family and my brother and thus I did not have the energy or maybe the "mood" to do any blogging. During that three years, I revamped one of the marketing module into full Flipped classroom and team-based learning concept and received praises from students and colleagues. In the process, I won different awards including a teaching award from Singapore Polytechnic. Oh mine, I was really super proud of myself. :)

My teaching awards. Different categories.

My next adventure begins in Mumbai, India. My family relocated here since late November 2018 due to husband's posting. Sadly, I left my work place which I had been working there for 8 years. However, I'm glad I made that decision. Nothing beats together staying as a family. After trying to settle down for almost a year, I decided to start blogging again. Stayed tune for more updates :)

Starting a new chapter in Mumbai.