Brushstrokes of Learning

This is from Crafting a Homemade Education.

I think this shows how much learning can happen doing the most simple tasks.

We don't always have to do big,
extravagant things.

It’s a good time to remember we don’t need to entertain our kids.

We are a society afraid of boredom.
We are addicted to entertainment and the stimulation of certain neuro centers in the brain. We are losing the ability to just be.

Studies have shown that boredom stimulates problem solving areas of our brains that cannot be accessed in any other way. Boredom begets creativity and new thought pathways.

When we deny our children their God-given right to boredom, we are restricting their development.

Do you remember the hours you spent in boredom as a child? We would daydream in the waiting room, stare at the dust motes dancing in the sunlight, invent new games, draw, read, create, research. We were building important neuro pathways.

Did we whine to our parents that we were bored? Of course! But we quickly learned that this would only lead to chores or being forced outside regardless of temperature or weather.

When we had a question, there was no Google. We had to ask another person, look it up in a book, or, gasp, ruminate on it until we found the answer within our own brains. We developed common sense and logic, because we were experiencing the world firsthand and engaging our problem solving.

So, don’t be afraid of boredom!
Every generation before this one has had to learn to live with it. And they have benefited because of it.

Give your children the gift of boredom.

@ homeschooling the classics

Some guys did a research study in the 1960s to find out if creativity can be unlearned. They used NASA’s creativity test that is given to potential astronauts to test their creative thinking. Only 2% of adults can pass it. They gave the test to five year old and 98% passed. Same group of kids at age 10 - 30%passed. Age 15 - 12% passed. And 2% as adults. Wow.

One of the things that this can be attributed to is the industrialized school system and the loss of play in the lives of young children.

Soooo... who will create these jobs? And how will they create them if creativity declines as a person ages? If we take away play in the lives of our children, creativity tanks and we don’t have creative, problem solving, flexible and divergent thinkers to create these jobs. And it’s the creative thinkers that will move the world forward!

Play in early childhood (and all through life) is the best way to keep your creative muscles working! Free play. Free play. Free play.

“It is often we who obstruct the child, and so become responsible for anomalies that last a lifetime. "

One of my favourite quotes by Dr. M herself.

It takes strength to take one hard look at ourselves, and kindness to acknowledge exactly how much we are being a support or an obstacle to the child's development.

Here are 5 quick tips to remove the obstacle of our own selves.

1. Present developmentally appropriate materials or chores that are neither too challenging nor too easy or boring to the child.

2. Offer freedom to choose any toy of their choice and play with it for as long or as little time as they want allow uninterrupted time to play with them.

3. Observe their play without judgement, but with a learning mindset.

4. Remember every unnecessary and unasked for help is an obstacle to development. Praise, help or even a pointed look may destroy their concentration.

5. Practise restraint and detached love. Patience and trust in our child.

Respect for the child and their work.

©️ Amma Today

via Respectful Mom

“In a world where everything seems to be a competition, a race to win. It’s important to remember to let our children learn at their own pace. Earlier is not better - It's just earlier🤷‍♀️

Trust the process. Trust your child. Stop comparing and start sensitively observing.

‘See’ and enjoy your child as they are, right now.

Once we stop focusing on the ‘next thing’ they ‘should’ be doing or learning - We start to notice and appreciate all the things they ARE learning every.single.day.


✨How they are working hard at the things THEY are ready to work on.

✨Fully engaged in what sincerely interests THEM right now.

✨Exploring exactly what THEY should be exploring.


They know best.
In fact, their natural process is the perfect process💛

“Childhood is not a race to see how quickly a child can read, write and count. It is a small window of time to learn and develop at the pace that is right for each individual child. Earlier is not better."

‘Readiness is when they do it.’

- Magda Gerber”

Each child has set of natural abilities.
Do we listen to their cues or is our system still stuck in the old ways?

Join us in our quest to raise life-long learners!
To know more about us, please do not hesitate to schedule a visit.
📞 013-406-1194 or 016-490-5112
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This is our kitten, Snow.

Aside from being cute and interesting to watch, having pets to care for helps teach responsibility, compassion, empathy, and an understanding and respect for other living things. Pets teach children to value life other than their own, in addition to teaching them about the natural growth and life cycles of many different species which they can observe on a daily basis! Another benefit is the stress reduction that occurs as a result of observing and petting the animals, from which both the children and the animals can benefit.

Join us in our quest to raise life-long learners!
To know more about us, please do not hesitate to schedule a visit.

www.wasap.my/60134061194/English
www.wasap.my/60164905112/Bahasa
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If you have little ones who insist on helping in the kitchen, you can’t go wrong with grilled/ baked/ steamed vegetables.

You slice the veggies into quarters.
Then, let your little ones cut into bite size.
Again, the slices don’t have to be perfect.

Afterwards,
the little ones can brush with oil while you sprinkle salt. Here, a 3-yr old is brushing it with Honey-Ginger Glaze:
1/4 cup honey,
2Tbsp soya sauce,
1 Tbsp finely grated ginger

Lemon 🍋 Garlic Dip is something you might want to memorize by heart for your grilled veggies (even seafood or chicken). We only used 3 ingredients:
lemon,
2 cloves garlic,
oil then mix all in a blender

I just couldn’t turn down the little girl’s offer to help. It might be her way of telling me she likes to bond with me (in the kitchen 😅). Anyway, while they are still little grab opportunities such as this.

I do baking & basic homecooking occassionally with the children.

Join us in our quest to raise life-long learners!
To know more about us, please do not hesitate to schedule a visit.

www.wasap.my/60134061194/English
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Human Anatomy: The Skeletal System

For older children, I presented the facts about the skull and went on identifying the rest of the bones for 15 minutes.

This skeleton model can be assembled.
I left the 2 other children to collaborate and assemble the bones. The instruction is to only connect back the bones once they identified the name and read something about it.

After that, I read 10 short accident scenarios and the children will tell me what bone (scientific name) is fractured. This is where they use their notebooks to jot down what they have learned.

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To know more about us, please do not hesitate to schedule a visit.

www.wasap.my/60134061194/English
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Human Anatomy: The Skeletal System

Trying to dig deeper in our study of bones.
I gave the kids time to be acquainted with Mr. Bones. Some children might be scared at first so giving them time to adjust would be a nice idea.

A related song or a game before presenting the lesson is better to unlock difficulties. What is fun with this routine is that it's spontaneous. This 3-year old excitedly took the skeleton model, started singing and made the skeleton dance. I went with the flow and everybody joined in.

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Human Anatomy: The Skeletal System

🎶 Go Away Spooky Skeleton, Go Away.
Go Away!
Go Away Spooky Skeleton, Go Away.
Go Away! 🎶

A peek on our past lesson. We started our study by watching videos about bones. There is one video that highlights the common bones; we followed by feeling our own bones. The children had so much fun locating their bones and getting to know the names.

Then, they assembled this life-size floor puzzle and lie down beside it to see if it’s really life-size.

It’s not long before I can hear one of the kids saying, “Don’t kick my femur!” or “He/She stepped on my phalanges!” 🤣 These kids are really funny when they learn something new.

Join us in our quest to raise life-long learners!
To know more about us, please do not hesitate to schedule a visit.

www.wasap.my/60134061194/English
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Living Literature

At Brushstrokes of Learning, we have a conservative collection of picture books that the children love. Personally and carefully chosen. We also expose our advanced readers to chapter books.

A chapter book & an audiobook are given to a child. The audiobook speed is set to 0.50x or 0.25x so that the child can read along, get familiar with new vocabulary beyond his age and how the words are pronounced.

Here, a 5-year old is reading The Wild Robot Escapes. Once the child enjoyed and finished reading a chapter book, we then jump to disucss chapter by chapter with basic grammar integration.

Join us in our quest to raise life-long learners!
To know more about us, please do not hesitate to schedule a visit.

www.wasap.my/60134061194/English
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