Homeschooling the Twins - 25 months old - Fruit Theme

I started to home-school the toddlers in March after they turned two.

While I have no specific preschool syllabus to follow, a preschool principal advised me to go thematic. That will give some structure to their learning, and yet flexible to create a variety of activities within a theme.

We started with something that they are familiar with, something that they see on a daily basis to help them understand what they would be doing. So our first theme was fruits and followed by animals.

Why I homeschool the twins

I have no formal training in any early childhood education. But having 2 older kids who have already completed their preschool education gives me the confidence, courage and direction for me take charge of my toddlers’ learning journey, at least for a year or two.

I want control over my toddlers’ learning. While our previous preschool had taken care of my older kids very well, I feel that there are insufficient physical activities and experiences. I am not complaining about them. It is not easy to manage a preschool. The educators need to meet with the parents’ expectations, kids’ safety, financial constraints, etc.

Since I have left my banking career to look after my 4 children, I should just give my best in homeschooling them and at the same time save some school fees. Having twins mean double the school fees.

My Focus on our Curriculum

Our homeschooling starts when the twins turn 2. They will get acquainted with the ABCs and 123s, but these will not be the most important.

Before they turn two, we have already been developing their motor skills and cognitive ability via play. Check out my earlier post here for details. With a foundation built for learning, we move them on to more extensive education.

Making use of a different theme every month, I will through play, focus on the following:-

fine-mute their gross and fine motor skills,
cultivate an interest in learning and arts,
develop their language skills,
develop their cognitive ability and focus.

For many parents, one of the key reasons for sending their children to preschools or playgrounds is to cultivate their social skills. As for our toddlers, having two elder siblings means that they are continually honing their negotiation skills, cultivating empathy, learning to care for others and emotional regulation. Thus this social and emotional aspect will be fully taken care of under my continuous management of the neverending siblings’ rivalry.

Our Theme for the first month – Fruits and Vegetables

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End of March holidays for Koko Jiejie means that these 2 kiddos also get back to their morning lessons. Theme for the month is fruits and veges, unstructured and according to their mood that day. Having a theme helps a lot in having a direction – colours, counting, vocabulary, finger works, reading – all to do with fruits. Fruit puzzle in the second pic – from 童悦坊，finally found them in Malaysia Popular. #25monthsold #homeschool #sgtoddlers#toddlercurriculum

A post shared by Melissa Tan (@melissatanps) on Mar 24, 2019 at 11:42pm PDT

Matching Games

Matching the real fruits and naming them at the same time. Having a sensory input helps them learn better than just staring at flashcards.

Colour-matching activities

We first introduced colours to them via sorting. They sort the fruits according to the colours while the adults state out loud the colour of the fruits. For instance, “the strawberries are red”. We did this every few days and by the end of the month, they were able to name a couple of colours by themselves, correctly or incorrectly.

Since my focus of the learning is not exactly on the contents but the cognitive skills, I am not exactly fussy about whether they remember the names of the colour correctly at this stage.

Painting on the easel

Holding up their hands to paint on the easel develops their arm muscle, as well as hand control. We tried filling in the colours using markers too.

Not expecting any artistic work from them, I am happy to see that they are attempting to paint within the boundaries.

Counting Fruits

They had great fun pulling out fruits and vegetables from the fridge to count – 1, 2, 5, 7…

Crafts

Crafts are vital as part of their learning. The process of making an item based on what they learn for the day helps the new information to sink in. Along with my guidance, they learn to take instructions, work on their cutting skills and lots of eye-hand coordination involved.

In case this picture misleads you, I like to clarify that I was the one who prepared the pieces for the grapes collage. The toddlers have yet to master cutting circles at 25 months of age.

Thematic Books We Love

There were a couple of beautifully illustrated books which we found and the toddlers loved to read them on a daily basis.

If you wish, you can click on the links below to get these books from Book Depository.

Mrs. Peanuckle’s Fruit Alphabet : Mrs. Peanuckle’s Alphabet Series*

Mrs. Peanuckle’s Vegetable Alphabet : Mrs. Peanuckle’s Alphabet Series*

Eating the Alphabet*

Other Supplies

Other materials we used to support our homeschooling can be purchased from Lazada, click on the links below.

Wooden Number Blocks*

Crayola Washable Paints*

Crayola Construction Papers*

Flashcards and fruits puzzle are from 童悦坊, you can find them in the Popular Bookstore.

Follow me on my Instagram account if you wish to know how we are homeschooling on a daily basis.

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