Babel School in Taiwan

This semester Jas has finally let us sign him up for a science class with other homeschoolers. Before Jas was rather reluctant in joining any group classes, because he didn't know any homeschooled boys his age. Somehow, thanks to Facebook, I was able to get in touch with other bilingual homeschooling families in Taipei who have kids Jas' age. It has turned out that some of them go together for a science class. After winter vacation, Jas has joined the class and has been enjoying it ever since.  The class is taught by Adion Chen (for those who read Chinese - here is his blog Adion-蝦蝦科學小教室★快樂的科學教室★Happy Science Classroom! ).  After a multimedia introduction to the subject, the kids get a chance to make a DIY model of whatever they are learning about.  Few weeks ago the subject of the lesson was " Design Science of Elevators and Cranes with Pulley Systems ". As an intro Adion has first shown them a short slide show with different kinds of elevators and expl...

Yet another threading exercise for Little Ones - this time you can let them ... eat their finished work! In many countries you can buy small breakfast cereal called Cheerios (or something similar), which is perfect for threading and making eatable necklaces and bracelets. Materials: a bowl of Cheerios a thick thread a tray to place the bowl and thread(or a bowl similar to the one on the photo) You may want to show the child how to tie a knot around one Cheerio at the end of the thread. This way Cheerios are not going to end up on the floor. Time to eat!

Continuing my previous post about threading wooden beads .  After the child has completed the threading exercise with big wooden beads he can try threading some small colored beads. This exercise is very appealing for little girls as they can make necklaces and bracelets for themselves. Boys can be asked to make "jewelery" for mom, grandma or sister (or for themselves too, if they want to). You may want your child to start with threading beads onto a fishing line (or thin wire) which is much more durable and not as limp as a thread. There is no need to use a needle with fishing line (or wire).    Later the child may start using a thread and a needle, although at first she may need help with threading the needle. She may also want to thread the beads in pattern - color patterns or shape patterns. You may encourage her make bracelets or necklaces as presents for grandmas and aunts.

To już ósma odsłona z cyklu "Dziecko na Warsztat". Tym razem będzie mowa o historii i temat ten potraktuję trochę ... historycznie. Niestety nie mieliśmy zaplanowanego żadnego projektu historycznego na ten miesiąc, przedstawię więc jak uczymy się historii na codzień, z jakich książek korzystamy i jakie osie czasu i drzewa genealogiczne tworzymy. Historia świata, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem historii Polski i Tajwanu, stanowi bardzo ważną część edukacji moich dzieci. Od najmłodszych lat przy okazji różnych świąt (np. 3 Maja, 11 Listopada) rozmawiamy z dziećmi o wydarzeniach historycznych. Staramy się również by dzieci rozmawiały z dziadkami o czasach ich dzieciństwa. Dzięki temu np. Jaś bardzo zainteresował się historią II Wojny Światowej - żaden film czy książka nie pobiją opowieści z pierwszej ręki. Dla naszych dzieci (i pewnie wielu czytelników tego bloga) czasy stanu wojennego w Polsce (i na Tajwanie) to też zamierzchła, ale jakże fascynująca, historia - niczego n...

I must say I am very proud of my son.  He doesn't like doing big projects that last for ever and that he never knows when and if they are even going to be finished (that kind of projects are my daughter's speciality). Jaś likes one day things. Sometimes he works on a lapbook and it takes a bit longer, but then everything has to be prepared in advance - he will write 2-3 small booklets a day, everyday throughout the week, and then on the last day he will put everything together. That is the only way to do a lapbook with him. Jaś' biology textbook For the past few weeks he's been learning about cells. I wanted to do a lapbook with him, but ... with Easter holidays around, I didn't have time to to prepare it for him. And so he ended up making a wonderful poster of an animal cell. It took him just over 2 hours to finish it, which is really impressive as usually he drags his lessons forever. He didn't even need much help and nagging from me! I am really pr...

Threading is another very popular activity in a Montessori classroom. Children can thread all kinds of things: wooden beads small beads Cheerios (or other circular cereal) pasta buttons They can also thread onto all kinds of things: wooden stick string shoelace pipe cleaner straw You can choose the material depending on the age and abilities of your child as well as what you have available at home. You may want to start with bigger wooden beads threaded onto wooden sticks and then move onto pasta threaded onto shoelace and later small beads onto a thin string. In the next posts I will present a few of the threading exercises that Ania has done in the past. Threading wooden beads Materials: wooden colored beads wooden sticks thick string or shoelace Purpose of this exercise is to develop: fine motor skills hand-eye coordination patience concentration       As an extension to this exercise you can ask the child to thread t...

A great exercise to strengthen little fingers and prepare them for later pen holding and writing is using clothespins. There are many ways a child can use them, I will show you three of them. I chose the nice wooden pins which are more appealing to the children than the large plastic ones. Using clothespins Materials: small wooden clothespins a box  You can use any kind of a small box, I used a transparent one. I keep the pins inside the box on the shelf instead of on a tray, this way the work takes up less of my precious space. The objective of this exercise is to pin the clothespins around the edges of the box. When a child gets enough practice with pinning the clothespins around the box, he can try pinning some small clothes to a cloth line. Materials: a string suspended between two rods (I used a thingy for hanging bananas :-) ) small pieces of material (I cut some colorful felt into the shape of T-shirt, pants, shorts and skirt) small cl...

Soccer is not a very popular sport in Taiwan. There are far more kids playing baseball and basketball than soccer. Jaś, having Polish blood in his veins, decided that he wants to play ... soccer. When he was small, kindergarten or first grade, he did kick the ball a few times, but that was just for fun, nothing serious. Now, in fifth grade he decided he wants to go back to the soccer field and try kicking again. It happened that two of his homeschooled friends are also playing soccer so it wasn't hard to decide which team to join. Jaś has just started his adventure with this sport, so far he loves it and says he wants to continue playing for years to come. We'll see ... Twice a year there are big matches organised in Taipei. The last championship took place last Saturday. And Jaś, although he has just joined the team, was asked to play too. He was very excited as this was his first big match. After playing against two other teams, Jaś' team won! 閃電精靈 go go go! ...