Activities With Your 1 Year Old..

Hi All, lama betul rasanya aku tak update blog GBOB ni, bukannya sengaja, banyak aku nak share dengan uols, tapi keadaan sekarang tak begitu mengizinkan..Hhehhe.. Rindu betul rasanya nak menulis dan berkongsi idea dengan semua, Insya Allah, aku akan cuba gagahkan diri untuk menulis selagi terdaya. Lately Qarissa suka buat perangai, terlebih manja dan nak perhatian yang maksimum, nak "bergantung" the whole nite, kadang-kadang begitu menguji kesabaran, tetapi bila melihat dia tidur di sisi dengan wajah yang mulus & suci, aku rasa sayu sangat, dan semua rasa tension dan marah dengan perlakuannya sebelum itu hilang begitu sahaja. Hmmm.. begitu hebat kuasa seorang anak yerk!! Hhehehe..

Oklah, memandangkan hari nih, aku tak dapat nak berkongsi idea sendiri, aku berkongsi dengan uols idea yang aku dapat hasil pembacaan di internet - http://www.associatedcontent.com/. Uols boleh buat dengan anak all this activities ok...:) Memang interesting dan menyeronokkan...Selamat bergembira ..:)

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The Wonderful Ones! Find Some Activities to Try with Your One Year Old Today!

Now that your little baby is a mobile little toddler, he may need more activity during the day. You also may be looking for some things to do to bond with your toddler and watch him learn and explore! (Or maybe you've had a string of snowy or rainy days and the two of you are crawling the walls!) Not to worry, here are some activities to keep your one-year-old busy. Many of them are free or low-cost, too!

• Storytime - Many local libraries offer story times suitable for a toddler's needs. Oftentimes these group times are free, and only a registration is required. Sometimes they are even on a drop-in basis, leaving it open to all. Do a quick search of local libraries to find events in the children's department. Also, many major booksellers offer children's story times, as well. Events are different from store to store so check with your local bookstore for details.

• Finger-paint - Pick up some washable finger paint, squirt it onto a piece of paper and let your little one go to town. It's ok if it all turns out to be one, dark color, or even just one big mess. It will still look great hanging on your fridge! It's washable, too, and will come out of most objects and fabrics! Rolls of large paper work great for this, or even the back of wrapping paper might do the trick. Try taping the paper to the table or work surface. Looking to avoid a major clean-up? Try taping a sheet of paper to the tub wall and letting your child paint in the bathtub. When you are done, transfer the paper elsewhere, fill up the tub and rinse off!

• PaintwithWater - Get some chunky paintbrushes from a craft or home improvement store and let your toddler dip the brush in water and paint. He can paint the sidewalk, the deck, the kitchen table, the high chair tray...you get the idea. He'll love using the brushes and getting wet.

• Playgroundswings, slidesandbouncers - These little guys and girls are still pretty young for a lot of the playground equipment that is out there, but swings, slides, and those little animal "bouncers" (the ones that are on some type of spring, and bounce up and down or front to back) are good playground activities for a baby this age. Don't expect playground time to last all that long, but even a short trip will be fun and stimulating for your little one.

• Have a catch - Using large balls or even cars and trucks, sit across from your child and pass the object back and forth. This also works if you stand at opposite ends of a coffee table and can be loads of fun for little one year olds.

• Blow bubbles - This is another activity that your child may already enjoy, but now that she is mobile, can enjoy even more. Blow bubbles and show her how to catch or pop them. If you are stuck inside, try doing it in the bathtub if you are concerned about a mess. But a few bubbles inside may be worth the mess when you see how excited your little one gets!

• Piece together some puzzles - Babies this age tend to be just about ready to tackle a puzzle. Puzzles with large pieces, pegs on each piece, and matching pictures on the puzzle board are the best kind to start with. Your baby may not know for sure how to finish a puzzle, but she may even enjoy watching you take the pieces out, and putting them back in. Even just watching you work through a puzzle will be a learning experience for them. It's ok if the pieces go mainly in the mouth for chewing. She's just trying to investigate!

• Get Wet -If the weather is right, head outside and fill up a medium size containerwith water. The tubs that are marketed as "party tubs" are great for this purpose. Float some boats or other object in the container or just let your child splash and play.

• Basketball - Shoot some hoops with your baby. If you don't have a kid's basketball net, don't worry. A box, bucket or laundry basket will work great! Take turns trying to get the ball into the basket. Role model this a few times and then give him a turn to try it out.

• Anatomy lessons, baby style - Start teaching your baby different body parts. You can "identify" many parts, but it may be easier to try "teaching" her one part at a time, maybe by saying where's your tummy, and showing her tummy, even guiding her hand to touch it. After a while she'll love showing off her "tricks" and letting everyone see her nose, her head, her toes...etc.

• Bag It - Pull out a gift bag or shopping bag with handles. Your child may act like it is the best thing he's ever seen. He can find things to fill it up with and then empty it and try something new. He may even just enjoy carrying it around the house! Just be careful if it's a bag with big handles or strings!

• Boxes - So many times children get a new toy and we find they enjoy the toy a lot, but they enjoy the box it came in even more. Save a clean cardboard box for playtime. Even a box from a case of diapers will be great. The possibilities for this box are endless (drum, hiding place, ride, basketball, opening and closing, and so on.)

• Dance! - Have a dance party with your little one. You'll probably enjoy the chance to move around, and you can even use your own music! To make dance time a predictable activity for him, try using the same two or three songs. That way, when the songs start, he'll know it's time to boogie! If you have an idea for the "wonderful one year olds" add it a comment below, and help us all stay active!

*feel free to contact me, Watie @ 019-2371229 for appointment & consultation on early education*

Have Fun,

Dilema Flash Card - Bergambar @ Tidak?

Aku tidak pasti sama ada para ibu bapa diluar sana mengalami dilema sperti mana yang aku alami atau tidak. Dilema ini tidaklah sampai memberi tekanan pada aku as a mother a.k.a teacher during homeschooling session with Qarissa cuma sometimes ia akan bermain-main di minda & i'll try to do the best for my baby.

I believe semua ibu bapa ada membelikan anak mereka Flash Card kan? Flash Card yang bagaimana yang menjadi pilihan anda? Picture Flash Card sahaja? @ Picture + Word? @ Only Word without Picture? Mana satu anda pilih?

Pertama kali semasa aku melihat Program-program Early Education, aku teruja bila aku lihat kaedah yang di amalkan oleh otai in EE, Glenn Doman. Dalam program GD, mereka tekankan flashkan yang semata-mata Words tanpa gambar. Ada juga Flash Card begambar, tapi di asingkan. Tulisan nya juga sangat besar dan memang jelas untuk pandangan mata bayi & kanak-kanak. Cuma satu yang aku kurang gemar, kadnya sangat besar dan susah untuk kita slip one by one dengan cepat coz its too big. Aku tak beli GD punya program, aku pinjam Along aku punya GD program sebab dia beli that program. Sempat aku tunjukkan pada Qarissa few times but due to the big size of the card, aku tak continue lagi & that time, aku dah gunakan Little Reader as my software Tools to teach Qarissa to read. Aku masih sangsi keberkesanan WORD FLASH CARD ONLY to help baby to read walaupun aku tahu otak bayi sangat genius & do not underestimate what baby can do.

Aku dalam dilema kerana pada mulanya, aku rasakan penting untuk bayi melihat gambar beserta word kerana aku percaya ia dapat membuatkan bayi teruja melihat gambar yang bewarna warni itu. Secara tak langsung, bayi dapat mengenali apa yang kita sebut. Seperti contoh, BANANA berserta gambarnya. Jadi bayi tahu apa itu BANANA. Bagaimana rupa bentuk BANANA. Jadi ,masa Qarissa dalam perut, aku belikan banyak set Flash Card sebagai persediaan. Seawal usianya 3 -4 bulan, aku mula memainkan Flash Card bergambar ini. Aku juga perhatikan yang apabila Qarissa melihat Flash Card begambar seperti ini, dia lebih teruja dan leka memerhatikan setiap gambar. Bila aku memainkan Flash card dengan laju, she will keep on looking & bila aku suruh pilih kad yang betul berdasarkan apa yang aku sebut, suprisingly, she pick up the right card!!! For All!! It makes me believe that she understand what she saw in the picture.

Makin bertambah usia Qarissa, my experience & knowledge dalam early education juga semakin bertambah, hasil pergaulan dengan rakan-rakan blog yg mempunyai passion yang sama, hasil pembacaan web-web & blog-blog yang hebat & berinspirasi, aku mula bereksperimen dan mula memikirkan banyak perkara & cara bagi menjadikan sessi pembelajaran bersama Qarissa sesuatu yang menyeronokkan. Secara tiba-tiba, aku mula terfikir, betulkah teknik aku menunjukkan Flash Card Gambar berserta Word kepada Qarissa? Aku pernah cuba tunjukkan word sahaja pada dia, tapi she seems not interested. Flash card yang aku belikan untuk dia ada 2 side, di depan gambar + word, di belakang cuma word (untuk memudahkan parent baca & slip the card dengan cepat). Jadi, bila aku tunjukkan bhg belakang Flash Card tuh, Qarissa keep on looking at other places. Maybe tulisan dia kecik, jadi dia tak nampak sangat, so dia tak berminat. At that time, aku rasa oklah, i will show her the card yang dia suka tgk sahaja. The picture + word part only walaupun aku tahu, she's looking at the picture, not the word. After sometime, i start to think again.....am i doing the right thing??

I sit down & started to think like this - Katalah, aku tunjuk BANANA (yang live punya) kat dia, bila dia pandai cakap nanti, dia akan tahu tuh BANANA, dia akan sebut the word & aku akan proud on her achievement, coz i tot dia paham & tahu itu BANANA (coz she can say it what...clearly she know its BANANA!) tapi aku terpikir balik, kalau aku tulis the WORD - BANANA dalam sekeping kertas dan tunjuk pada dia, adakah dia akan sebut BANANA????? Atau dia akan diam dan buat tak tahu, coz she dont know apa yang tertulis atas paper tuh?? Thinking of this, aku dah mula risau....sebab my main intention adalah untuk Qarissa cepat membaca. Macam mana dia nak pandai baca kalau selama ni, apa yg dia tgk hanyalah GAMBAR? Aku tak nafikan kepentingan GAMBAR untuk menunjukkan sesuatu subjek @ objek, aku tahu ia juga penting tetapi bolehkan Qarissa MEMBACA bila aku hanya tunjukkan WORD pada dia?? Goshh... aku dah mula pening dan tau it's time to change my strategy. Wheter Qarissa like it or not, aku mesti berubah dan teach her "to read" by showing her the word so that dia recognize apa yg word tuh tulis. Tapi, the GD Card is too big & kat pasaran, memang TAKDE Words Only punya Flash Card. Kebanyakannya bergambar.

Lucky me, aku jumpa dengan Dr Titzer punya Program - Your Baby Can Read. Aku tau dia ada satu set DVD on how to teach our baby to read. Tapi aku tak perasan yang rupanya dia ada juga Flash Card yang bewarna-warni yang hanya tulis Word sahaja, yang penting ia kecil dan mudah di bawa travel, senang aku nak slip one by one dengan laju. Additional bonus, dia bukan Flash Card biasa, tetapi dia Lift the Flap -Flash Card. Maksudnya, aku boleh flip the card untuk tunjuk gambar di bhg dalam, siap ada words untuk explain berkenaan gambar tu lagi. For me- its Fantastic! More than i expect sebab aku cuma harap untuk dapat flash card - Word Only yang kecil sedikit supaya senang aku nak slip one by one masa tunjuk Qarissa tapi the idea of this Flip Flash Card is very brilliant! Harga nya juga tak mahal, cuma RM 29.90 sahaja. Aku beli di Jusco. Sebelum nih aku ke Jusco, aku tak pernah nampak this kind of YBCR punya produk, cuma nampak DVD dia sahaja. Thats y, bila last month aku ke Jusco dan nampak this Flash Card, aku terus ambil semua set. Untuk Lift The Flap Cards, dia ada 2 set, aku tak sempat ambil gambar set pertama sebab aku simpan kat Living Room, senang aku tak payah terkejar-kejar nak amik salah satu bila buat Reading Time with Q. Set 1 guna masa kat bawah during day time, Set 2 guna masa kat atas, during bed time, atau morning time lepas Qarissa bangun tidur.

YBCR Lift -The Flap Cards- Set 2. Cuma Rm 29.90 sahaja. Brilliant invention!

Antara words yang ada dalam Set 2 ini.

The internal part when we flap the card.

Satu lagi yang buat aku suka this program, kebanyakan Words yang di pilih untuk ditunjukkan kepada bayi adalah Words yang mudah untuk kita uji sama ada anak kita faham atau tidak the words. Kalau korang perasan, kebanyakan Flash Card di luar sana, banyak yang ikut kategori, macam Fruits, Transportation, Occupation dan sebagainya. Bukan tak bagus, even i have all the sets, cuma maksud aku, susah kita nak uji anak kita (walaupun baby hates to be tested, but we as parents nak jugak test our luck kan ..ehheeh) samada dia tau atau tidak apa yang dia baca coz they cannot speak yet. Dalam Set YBCR ni, ia bercampur-campur, tak stick pada satu kategori sahaja. Dan words yang dipilih, memudahkan kita nak tahu sama ada anak kita faham atau tidak, coz they can do the action or show the part of their body. macam contoh, dalam set ni, dia ada perkataan "kick", "kicking","smile", "smiling", "arms up","head","shoulder","clap","clapping" dan banyak lagi. All these words, anak kita boleh tunjuk pada kita yang dia faham apa yg tertulis di kad tuh dengan menunjukkan aksinya.

Let me be frank to uols. Masa mula-mula aku beli this set, aku tunjukkan Qarissa everyday. Few session dengan sangat laju, ia cuma mengambil masa 10 saat sahaja per session. Dalam set nih, ada 30 kad, aku pecahkan pada 3 set, aku cuma tunjuk 10 card sahaja at 1 time, a very fast one, aku slip laju-laju, within 10 second, dah habis dan aku terus simpan!! Well, terus terang cakap, i really have no idea whether it can really work on her or not!! Aku just buat dan tawakal yang this teknik akan beri kesan pada dia. Mula-mula memang dia cam tak berapa interested, sebab cuma ada tulisan sahaja. Walaupun ada warna, tapi no pictures. But i do it everyday. Let her focus, and slip laju-laju. Dia takder masa nak pandang tempat lain coz its only 10 seconds! Lama-lama, aku tgk dia start minat to look at the words. Aku dah mula happy & tahu its gonna work fine. Aku siap bawak the set ke Bandung masa we all cuti. As i said, its a play time for her! Not study time... :)

And, this is the best part. My baby dah start to understand the word when i showed her!! Last 2 days, aku HANYA TUNJUK THE WORDS PADA Q TANPA BERKATA APA-APA! The word is "arms up". And guess what??? She did the action!!!!Just imagine apa yang aku rasa bila tgk Qarissa do such action??? Barulah aku paham how proud a mother will be bila anak dia boleh membaca dalam erti kata sebenar! Aku sengaja tak keluarkan suara masa tunjuk the card sebab tak mahu Qarissa "dengar" the word dari mulut aku. Selama nih, setiap kali dia dengar aku sebut all these words, memang dia akan buat action tuh, walaupun takder flash card depan dia. So, aku nak test sama ada dia paham tak apa yang dia baca tu if aku tak cakap apa-apa. Alhamdulillah, nampaknya dia memang paham. She did the action when i showed her the word "kicking" (siap sebut kick, maybe ter 'accident' kot,ahhahaha..), "clap","wave", "eat" (yang ni pun dia sebut the word sambil buat action). Bila aku tunjuk the word "tongue", dia tak buat apa-apa, action tapi bila aku flip the card & show her the picture without saying anything also, she will start to play with her tounge. Ini juga membuktikan pada aku yang gambar juga penting untuk menerangkan sesuatu maksud pada my baby. Dan agak lawak bila aku tunjuk word "elephant" & she did the "ghroar" sound.. Hahahaha. Memang lately dia suka buat suara kasar dr tekak tuh sampai batuk-batuk, aku cukup marah bila di wat sebab nanti dia sakit tekak, tapi bila aku tunjuk that words dan dia buat that sound, i was so suprised & happy at the same time. Ooo...all this while the sound is for elephant ker sayang ...hahahaha... lawak ah anak Mummy nih.. hehehe..

Now, i believe memang betul baby can read! Tak sesia aku buat the session daily walaupun aku ragu-ragu pada mulanya whether the "1 second per card session" will work or not. Since its proven, kat sini, aku menyeru pada ibu bapa semua, use the precious 10 seconds to teach your baby to read. Walaupun korang kerja, but it really can be done. 10 saat je beb, memang korang ada masa tuh. U can really do it! Believe me! Lepas korang siap-siap mekap pagi-pagi hari tuh, just take 10 second untuk tunjuk the flash card dan terus simpan after dah tunjuk kat your baby! So easy & simple!

Ops, lupa pulak nak bgtau, YBCR ada satu lagi set Flash Card yg dinamakan - Double Sided Word Cards. Ianya ada 2 set, lebih keras, ada 2 bhg, depan dan belakang, warna warni dan terdiri dari campuran satu perkataan dan beberapa patah perkataan. This one aku suggest guna bila ur baby dah faham few words, so we can start to teach her few words that join together. Hari ni baru aku start guna untuk tunjuk Qarissa. Masih dalam sessi penyesuaian lagi, heheheh. Harga dia untuk satu set is RM 39.90, mahal sikit dr Flip Card tu but its worth it. Ada lagi set YBCR tapi aku belum berkesempatan nak beli. Insya Allah, pelan-pelan aku completekan set tu. Sekarang dalam proses nak beli DVD YBCR , asyik takder masa nak ke Jusco.Hari tuh pergi Jusco Bkt Raja, takder jual plak, kena gi Jusco yang besar baru ada aku rasa...:)

Set 1 - Double Sided Word Card yang beharga RM 39.90

Set 2 - Double Sided Word Card. Juga RM 39.90

Sample of the words dalam set ini.

Just imagine how happy I am kalau I show this card & Qarissa did the action? Hheheh.. Tak sabar tunggu saat tu.

Kesimpulannya, aku merasakan kedua-dua teknik Flash card - Words Only + Words & Picture memainkan peranan yang sangat penting dalam membantu Qarissa membaca, tetapi buat masa ini, my priority adalah Words Only. Sebabnya mudah, I want Qarissa to read faster. Kalau gambar, aku boleh cakap & tunjuk terus during our "Shopping While Learning Session" dan bila dia dah pandai bercakap nanti, it will be easier for her. But "reading a book" is very important & crucial step. Sebab tuh aku kena sediakan asas yang kukuh utk my baby. I dont want to wait until tadika baru dia pandai baca. Lambat ah ..buku aku berlambak kat umah, nak tunggu lagi 5 tahun baru dia pandai baca, alamak..letih ah ... hahahaha...

Kay friend, sampai sini dulu my thoughts yang i nak share ngan korang semua. See u in my next entry okay..tetiba rasa takder mood nak sambung bebelan sebab baru dapat call from my best friend, bgtau yg dia misscarriage. So sad... Terus hilang mood aku nak sambung bebel sebagai penutup bicara. Hu hu... c ya ...

*feel free to contact me, Watie @016-2033340 for appointment & consultation on early education*

Me,