July, 2012.
Wonderful, it is so wonderful to see how Ruth keeps moving on in her development.
Ruth is now able to express herself better.
Leaves and flowers of Harachis hypogaea, Peanut
She can make requests and ask what she needs, eg. “Teacher I want to eat peanut”. I then ask her how many she wants. She replies “two”, so we count two peanuts out for her. The following day she increases the quantity she wants, eg “I want 5 peanuts”, I gave her the whole bottle. She will say “Teacher can you help to open”? I allow her to take the peanuts from the bottle herself. Ruth will have to count the peanuts according to the quantity she wants.
As for writing, she continues to improve her skills. First she was tracing the words, now she is able to copy basic words like. bat, fat. My initial plan to allow word tracing is to let Ruth learn the basic strokes and the concept of writing. Reading in both Bahasa Malaysia and English is not an issue for Ruth. I have seen that many children are able to write but cannot read and express themselves. As for Ruth I have designed lessons to improve communication skills and reading prior to writing. As Ruth grows up her fine and gross motor skill also develop. Readiness of fine and gross motor skill prior to writing will help Ruth to integrate the concept of writing and effectively put words down on paper. However in reality many parents and kindergarten schools will rush a young child into writing before the child has developed the fine and gross motor skills and cognitive understanding of the concept of writing.
As for social skills, Ruth can sit and play with other children, she is able to integrate and engage others to play with her. She has learned to take turns to play the game. She can even join group learning together compared to the months past. She still needs one to one coaching, but we do that now in a “one adult for two children at one table” learning environment.
Ruth has added a lot of flavor into the days in the centre with her unique interactive ways of communication.
