Saving the Earth

I have to thank the video of Pocoyo about Earth Hour. Joshua happened to browse that on YouTube channel and he just could not get his mind off what he saw.

The video showed the earth turning red because of global warming. Everything on earth dying, the water rising, and a change in climate. The video stuck to Joshua’s mind so it became a teaching moment!

I explained that the more we cut trees, and the more we pollute or scatter garbage, the hotter the earth becomes. Later, it becomes so hot everything burns and we will all die. The one way we can help is by planting trees!

So Joshua kept repeating this story to his Lola (grandmother). Lola was amused by his interest that she kept this in her mind.

So the next thing she did was take Joshua to see the trees she planted in the farm. She told him that the tree grew so big and tall after taking care of it.

Then Lola gave Josh a coconut seedling that he could plant. They walked around the garden and searched a place where he could plant his first tree!

Josh kept talking about the red earth and he was quite serious about planting his first tree. They bore a hole in the garden where he would place the seedling. And he placed the soil around it. We talked to his tree which he just wants to name “Coconut”. We told him to grow, to be strong and to be a good tree.

He watered his tree and felt very accomplished in planting it.His Lola was supervising and watching Joshua as he was experiencing his first tree planting.

I know this lesson will stay with Josh because he is not only interested, but he also had the opportunity to apply what he learned from that Earth Hour video. If every family teaches their children to do their part in saving planet earth, then maybe we can have a different future.

Teach My Preschooler

I was very happy to purchase on Amazon this kit called “Teach my Preschooler”. It has 4 categories and only needs 20 minutes of concentrated time.

The Kit includes numbers, math, writing, and intro to reading. Joshua is pretty excited about it and he can’t stop going through the bag.

I told him, “Mommy is going to be your teacher.” And he then answered in curiosity, “You are my teacher? Like teacher Alvin (his swim teacher)?” Of course I answered, “Yes! Mom is going to teach you and we are going to have lots of fun!”

So we started with numbers. It has a booklet that helps your child get familiar to numbers from 1-100. When we went through it, I was really having so much fun because Joshua was able to count 1-100 on the first round! Not bad for a 3 year and 1 month old.

2 days later, Joshua begged to try out the math. He is getting more and more familiar with the concept of addition. The concept of zero is actually more difficult to comprehend than adding actual number values. But the more we practice, the more he will master it.

So yes, home school has started in our home. At this age, a lot of it is play. It helps being creative when bringing up the concepts learned when we play.

For instance the concept of addition. As we play “guess how many in your body?”, we ask questions like, “how many eyes do you have?” and then we check by counting the body part. I will keep asking till we reach fingers and toes because It is more challenging to count.

It’s been a blessing more than a challenge to teach my son. Looking forward to witness how he is growing in knowledge and wisdom.

Let them make Pizza

Joshua is a big boy now. He always wants to be the one to do things. You will hear him say, “Joshua will do it” or “I want to do it”. He even cried several occasions when I did not listen to him and did the chore myself.

It’s a good age. He wants to wash his own hands, he chooses what he wants to wear, he does chores like clean the floor with a broom. All I have to do is ask if he is open to doing it… And most of the time I get a “yes”.

One afternoon, I had to think of a good snack for Josh. Making a home made pizza is one fun activity. Of course it would be under mom and dad’s supervision.

Ingredients:

Pizza dough
Tomato sauce (you can make your own using whole peeled tomatoes, pepper, white onions, oregano, basil leaves, and a little sugar boiled in a pan until it becomes thick).
Cheese – mozzarella if you can find mixed with some cheddar
Ham/ mushrooms/ onions/

The dough we got were the small ones so it would be easy for my toddler to assemble a pizza. He placed the sauce, then the toppings, and then the cheese.

A toaster oven can fit this pizza. After 12-15 minutes we have a a great afternoon snack all made by little chef, Joshua. He made 3 pizzas! One for dad, one for mommy, and one for himself. Kids this age would love hands on stuff because they know they are more capable and willing to try.