Babel School in Taiwan

Time in Poland has passed very quickly - we are already back in Taiwan. My plan of catching up with my blog has not worked out at all. How could I think that I would have more time in my Parents' house than at home? Although we didn't leave Warsaw and didn't even visit many places in the city, but ... I still didn't have time. In the mornings I tried to have an hour or two of lessons with Jaś. Later it was time to do some shopping, cleaning, cooking, baking for the coming Christmas. In the evenings we were either visiting friends or had visitors over at our house. Zosia was busy with ... her school. Every time she comes to Poland she visits a school that her friend goes to. She became good friends with all the kids in the class and likes participating in their lessons and activities. This time she not only attended a few days of school, but also took part in the gift exchange on St.Nicholas Day, helped sell cookies to raise the money for a class trip and joined oth...

ŚWIĄTECZNE ORIGAMI I NIE TYLKO Czwarta odsłona z cyklu Dziecko na Warsztat . Mamy grudzień, a więc czas przygotowań do Świąt Bożego Narodzenia. Od wielu lat w ten przedświąteczny czas zabieramy się do tworzenia różnych mniej lub bardziej ciekawych i oryginalnych ozdób choinkowych, kartek świątecznych i pyszności bożonarodzeniowych. W tym roku do pracy i kreatywności dodatkowo zmobilizowało nas Dziecko na Warsztat. Gdyby nie Ono, to pewnie bym sobie (i dzieciom) w tym roku odpuściła i niczego nie robiła. Dlaczego? Po prostu nie ma nas w domu - od miesiąca jesteśmy u Dziadków w Polsce. Niby to nic takiego, a jednak ... brak jakichkolwiek materiałów i miejsca do pracy działał niezbyt zachęcająco. I pomyśleć, że w domu na Tajwanie mam zgromadzonych tyle fajnych drobiazgów, z któ r ych można wyczarować mnóstwo ciekawych ozdób... Tak więc zapraszam na trochę okrojony warsztat bożonarodzeniowy: Z pomocą przyszła nam moja kochana koleżanka-plastyczka, która zorganizowała sobotnie z...

Before we came to Poland I asked parents in a Polish homeschooling group whether there are going to be any outings, get-togethers during the time we will be in Warsaw. Soon after I got a reply from one of the parents saying that she will organise something. Yesterday we took part in the first outing -we went to a BioCEN - Centre for Innovative Bioscience Education ( BioCentrum Edukacji Naukowej ) for a lesson about DNA. Altogether there were 20 children, between 3rd and 6th grade, taking part in the lesson. Some children knew each other, others didn't. Only two moms stayed with the children during the lesson and to my surprise all the children were very well behaved (not like during some group classes in Taiwan where children speak without being asked, walk around the class, eat, drink, play with their phones and don't pay much attention to what the teacher is talking about). Here, before the class started, the children were asked to put their bags away and turn off their p...

CZEKOLADOWO PO JAPOŃSKU I RYŻOWO PO CHIŃSKU Po raz trzeci zapraszam na warsztat z cyklu Dziecko na Warsztat . W tym miesiącu zaszły małe zmiany, otóż zamiast z Tajwanu, piszę z ... Polski! Tak, tak chwilowo jesteśmy w Ojczyźnie. Jak na nazie tylko ja z dwójką młodszych dzieci, ale wkrótce dołączy do nas również najstarsza córka. W tym miesiącu ... siedzimy w kuchni i się objadamy pichcimy. Od razu pomyślałam sobie - o, temat dla naszego kucharza i piekarza, Jaśka! Jedenastoletni Jaś od dawna uwielbia przebywać w kuchni, pomagać, gotować, piec i oczywiście jeść. Zaczęłam się jednak zastanawiać co by tu przygotować specjalnego, gdyż Jaś w kuchni jest na codzień (przed wylotem z Tajwanu przygotował dla siostry i taty 26 kotletów mielonych by mieli co jeść jak nas nie będzie) i właściwie nie muszę go niczego uczyć bo on sam lubi eksperymentować. Tak więc zanim jeszcze wyjechaliśmy z Tajwanu udało mi się przekonać niegotującą szesnastolatkę by weszła na chwilę do kuchni. Spójrzcie...

Last week I've introduced a new Practical Life exercise: polishing silver Materials: a dish with silver polishing paste (or good old plain toothpaste) a small cloth a small tarnished silver object (fork, spoon, ring) All the materials should be placed on a tray: The objective of this exercise is of course to clean the silver :-) Show the child how to dip the cloth in polishing paste (ours was very soft) and how to rub it onto the object that needs cleaning. The child may need to rub really hard to get the stubborn tarnish off. Show him that he needs to work on the whole object not only on one part and that he may need to reapply the paste onto the cloth or even change the cloth if it becomes too dirty. After the object is cleaned, remember to wash it in warm soapy water and dry it with a tea towel.  The big brother LOVES polishing silver so he just HAD TO help . Before and after

More and more often people ask me how do I homeschool a three year old.  What does a three year old do at home? Let's take a look at Ania's week, here are some of the things he was busy with: Making bubbles - it's a favorite of all the kids. I also use play-dough as a material for teaching letter shapes. This is first time Ania rolled the play-dough to write her name. Time for math - it was Ania's idea to combine two different math works. Polishing silver is also one of the favorites. After polishing the silvers it's time to set the table. :-) Working with so called Montessori Metal Insets is important in developing the correct pencil grip as well as good control over the pencil (drawing parallel lines). Very often Ania takes a piece of paper, rolls it into a tube and looks through it. That gave me an idea to make with her binoculars out of toilet roll paper tubes. Now she carries them all over house and looks through th...