Przygotowania do egzaminu

Daria has mastered the theory for state exam and the third song. There was a choice of 6 prepared by  Royal Irish Academy of Music for year 2012  at the Preliminary level.
She made a choice by  herself "Sad March", "Love Song" and "The Palace Window" by Leslie Fly from album Snow White.


Daria już opanowała teorię na egzamin oraz trzeci z zaplanowanych utworów egzaminacyjnych, wybranych z sześciu możliwych proponowanych przez Royal Irish Academy of Music na rok 2012 dla poziomu Preliminary. Wybrane przez Darię utwory nie należą do najłatwiejszych, pozostałe dwa są dużo prostsze moim zdaniem ale i nie tak interesujące. Daria wybierała sama. Było trudniej za to efekt końcowy napewno bardziej miły dla ucha.

Dwa pierwsze już prezentowaliśmy na blogu. "Sad March" i drugi "Love Song". Trzeci to "The Palace Window" napisaną przez Leslie Fly z albumu Snow White.

Ukraina 2 - Pianino Pani Tamary

Jak obiecałem wcześniej, zamieszam zdjęcia z lekcji gry na pianinie u Pani Tamary, emerytowanej już nauczycielki muzyki. Nakręciłem też krótki filmik. Daria miała kilka lekcji na prawdziwym zabytkowym już instrumencie. Jeszcze trochę i trzeba będzie pomyśleć o zakupie poważniejszego instrumentu niż nasza prymitywnie brzmiąca Yamaha. Po powrocie do domu dziwnie było zasiąść do naszego klawiszowca.

Air pressure - Ciśnienie powietrza

Ciśnienie powietrza.

Atmosfera jest grubą warstwą powietrza, która otacza ziemię (około 1000 km). Nie zdajemy sobie w większości sprawy z tego, że wywiera ona ciśnienie na nasze ciała i przedmioty które nas otaczają. Około 15 ton powietrza naciska na ciało dorosłej osoby. Chociaż możemy jednak tego poczuć, możemy zmierzyć ciśnienie, zwiększyć je, zmniejszyć, a także używać ciśnienia do działania maszyn.

Jak sprawdzić prosto czy powietrze wywiera nacisk?

Aby się przekonać zrobiliśmy doświadczenie które nazwaliśmy. NIEWIDZIALNA SIŁA.

Czego potrzebujemy:

• stół
• linijkę
• kartkę papieru A4

Gorące i zimne powietrze.

Podgrzewanie i ochładzanie powietrza.

Co się dzieje z powietrzem podczas ochładzania i podgrzewania?

Czego potrzebujemy?

• balon
• butelka 
• miski z zimna i ciepłą wodą 

(można też schładzać w zlewie pod kranem. My pierwszy raz robiliśmy to właśnie pod kranem, a na potrzeby bloga użyliśmy bardziej cywilizowanych elementów)

Happy Birthday Mama

Dzisiaj świętujemy urodziny naszej mamy. Przygotowania trwały od rana. Najpierw w ruch poszła ulubiona sałatka warzywna Салат "Оливье".

Experiments about Air

Postanowiłem dać ujście mojej inżynierskiej naturze. Ostatnio wpadła mi w ręce książka z eksperymentami. "The Big Book of Experiments". Korzystając z niej postaram się zaprezentować kilka ciekawych pomysłów na zabawę z nauką. Od  puszczania nadmuchanych balonów i baniek mydlanych po elektryczność i magnetyzm. Przygotowuje to dla siedmioletniej Darii ale myślę, że dzieci w różnym wieku będą również zainteresowane. Igor był zachwycony latającym na sznurku balonem.

W tym tygodniu zaplanowałem zrobienie kilku eksperymentów z dziedziny fizyki dotyczących powietrza. Skąd ten pomysł. Otóż z stąd, że w piątek lecimy na dwutygodniowy urlop na Ukrainę w odwiedziny do babci i dziadka. Nie będziemy lecieć po raz pierwszy ale tym razem chcemy podejść do tego w sposób naukowy. Mam nadzieję, że uda się opisać na logu jak najwięcej. W między czasie świętowanie urodzin naszej mamy i pakowanie walizek. Busy week.

Postanowiłem wyjaśnić Darii za pomocą kilku prostych eksperymentów co sprawia, że samolot lata. Odpowiemy sobie na pytania:

1. Czym jest powietrze?
2. Czy powietrze coś warzy?
3. Czy powietrze potrafi wywierać nacisk.
4. Z jaką siła wieje wiatr?
5. Jaki kształt jest najlepszy do latania?
6. Jak podróżuje dźwięk?

   

Eksperyment nr 1. GDZIE MOŻNA ZNALEŹĆ POWIETRZE?

Co potrzebujemy?

• słoik
• piłeczkę
• trochę papieru
• miskę z woda

Constructing triangles

We are in the process of making the Constructing Triangles.

Multiplication Board

Today I introduced to Daria the Multiplication Board. It is actually the original division board, but it can be used to multiply as well. I just wanted to save money and have bought only one board.

Baking - practical life

Babeczki z budyniem czekoladowym.

Składniki

• 150 g mąki
• 50 g cukru pudru
• 50 g masła
• szczypta soli
• 1 jajko

plus:

• budyń z paczki (plus mleko wg instrukcji na opakowaniu – ciut mniej)
• cukier puder do posypania.

Walentynki (Valentine's Day)

Daria made them on St. Valentine's Day.

Life cycle

Today Daria learned what is the Life Cycle. As an example we used a pumpkin and an apple. 3 part cards for memorizing the nomenclature and then to put them in the proper order constructing the life cycle.

I found them on: montessoriforeveryone.com
Direct links to the files: pumpkin, apple

Wyszywanki

Wyszywanki Darii: Pizza, kanapka i dzisiaj wykonana szklanka lemoniady.

Handwriting

Recently I have been looking for the theoretic information regarding handwriting. It was caused by that I had to chose the font for Igor's sand paper letters. At the end a cursive used in Polish schools won. I didn't choose the English type of cursive as: first I don't know it well as I had never been thought how write it, and second Irish school system does not use cursive until third grade anyway, so when kids are 10 years old. Children are thought to write ball and stick style. Which by the way I consider a disaster. It caused us the big problem while Daria was learning to write. She was the best example that this type of writing is not the best we have. She was in a habit of mixing up b-d, p-q. The others where mirrored. It lasted for two first years in school (Junior infants and Senior infants). This year on vacation I started to teach her Polish style of writing which is used in all school since I remember. She was doing very well. Her writing was getting better and better every day.

When school started in September kids were given notebooks for practising a spelling. The task is given every week: 10 words to write twice and then to make 10 sentences using those words. I need to find that workbook and give here the example of how big difference it is between ball and stick writing in single line sheets and cursive in our home workbooks.

And there we are.

 I decided something has to be done. I asked Daria's teacher whether it would be possible to change her type of writing to cursive and change the notebook to 3 line one. She agreed. Since that day Daria's homework started to look much better.

This is a week later.

We keep this way until today.

I would like to share with you some information I found two days ago.

Samuel L, Blumenfeld in the work "How Should We Teach Our Children to Write?
Cursive First, Print Later!" writes:

[...] The question then becomes: How shall we teach children to write? And my answer is quite dear: Do not teach your child to print by ball-and-stick, or italic, or D’enelian. Teach your child to write a standard cursive script. And the reason why I can say this with confidence is because that’s the way I was taught to write in the first grade in a New York City public school back in 1931 when teachers knew what they were doing.

In those days children were not taught to print. We were all taught cursive right off the bat, and the result is that people of my generation generally have better handwriting than those of recent generations. Apparently, cursive first went out of style in the 1940s when the schools adopted ball-and-stick manuscript to go with the new Dick and lane look-say reading programs. Ball-and-stick was part of the new progressive reforms of primary education.

But ball-and-stick has produced a handwriting disaster. Why? Because by the time children are introduced to cursive in the third grade, their writing habits are so fixed that they resent having to learn an entirely new way of writing, the teachers do not have the time to supervise the development of a good cursive script, and the students are usually unwilling to take the time and do the practice needed to develop a good cursive handwriting.

 The result is that many youngsters continue to print for the rest of their lives, some develop a hybrid handwriting style consisting of a mixture of print and cursive, and some do develop a good cursive because they’d always wanted to write cursive and had been secretly practising it for years without their teachers’ or parents’ knowledge.

Apparently, all of those schools that introduce cursive in the second or third grade must believe that it has some value, or else why would they teach it at all? The problem is that by requiring the students to learn ball-and-stick first, they create obstacles to the development of a good cursive script.

  The reason for teaching ball-and-stick first, we are told, is because first graders do not have the motor skills or muscular dexterity in their fingers to be able to write cursive at that age. But that argument is totally false. Prior to the 1940s virtually all children in public and private schools were taught cursive in the first grade and virtually all learned to write very nicely. All were trained in penmanship and did the various exercises - the ovals, the rainbows, the ups and downs - that helped us develop good handwriting. We were also taught how to hold the writing instrument (or stylus) correctly, cradled between the thumb and the forefinger (also known as the index finger) with the tip of the writing instrument resting on the long finger next to the forefinger, in a very relaxed position, enabling a writer to write for hours without tiring.

On the other hand, when a child is taught to print first, the writing instrument is held straight up with three or four fingers in a tight grip with much pressure being exerted downward on the paper placed in a straight position. When these children are then taught cursive in the second or third grade, they do not change the way they hold the writing instrument because a motor or muscular habit has been established that is not easy to alter.

That is why so many children develop poor cursive scripts because of the way they hold their pens. Children do not easily unlearn bad habits. Which is why I tell parents that there are two very important no-no’s in primary education: do not teach anything that later has to be unlearned, and do not let a child develop a bad habit. Instruct the child to do it right from the beginning.

Cursive Helps the Left-Handed

Also, it may surprise the reader to learn that left-handed children gain special benefits from learning cursive first. When left handed children are taught ball-and-stick first, their tendency is to use the hook position in writing since the stylus is held straight up and the paper is also positioned straight. This means that, as the child proceeds, printing from left to right, the child’s arm will cover what has already been written. This can be avoided if the left-handed child learns to write from the bottom up, the way right-handed children write. But this is difficult, if not impossible, to do when printing ball-and-stick.

However, if a left-handed child is taught to write cursive first, he or she must then turn the paper clockwise and must write from the bottom up, since it is impossible to use the hook position if the paper is turned clockwise. Right-handers, of course, turn the paper counter-clockwise. But left-handers are quite capable of developing as good a cursive handwriting as any right-hander by writing from the bottom up. (In fact, the secret of good handwriting may be in the position of the paper.)

All of this must lead to one simple conclusion: teach cursive first and print later, There are few things that help enhance a child's academic self-esteem more than the development of good handwriting. It helps reading, it helps spelling, and because writing is made easy, accurate, and esthetically pleasant, it helps thinking. As Francis Bacon once said: “Reading maketh a full man. . . and writing an exact man.”

This article is from The Blumenfeld Education Letter, Vol. 9, No. 9 (Letter #97), September 1994. Editor: Samuel L. Blumenfeld.

I would be grateful for any opinion regarding hand writing.

Math's lesson

Today Daria didn't go to school as she felt not well in the morning. She got fine later on. Before the afternoon we had a short maths lesson. Adding and subtracting with regrouping in the range 0-100.

At this stage she counts on paper calculating in her mind and then she checks it on the bids and/or subtraction board if she feels unsure. We introduced some multiplying last year but had no time to continue.
 

Dzisiaj robiliśmy z Darią odświeżenie dodawania i odejmowania w zakresie 0-100. Na tym etapie Daria oblicza pod kreską a następnie sprawdza używając łańcuszków z koralikami i montesoriańskiej tablicy do dodawania i odejmowania. W zeszłym roku wprowadziliśmy też elementy mnożenia ale nie było czasu rozwinąć tematu.

For this acvtivity we used printouts from math.about.com 

Polecam stronkę z gotowymi przykładami http://math.about.com/



There is big mistake, according to me, in Irish primary school curriculum that adding is introduced separately from subtracting. Half year is wasted. Kids learn adding 0-100 in first half year. Then in February they start subtracting 0-100. What I prefer is teaching kids both them together, or subtracting the next day after introducing addition and it has been understood by the child.

For example.

3+4=?
4+3=?
3+?=7 How much we need to add to 3 to make 7?
4+?=7 How much we need to add to 4 to make 7?

7-4=?
7-3=?
7-?=4 How much we need to subtract from 7 to make 3?
7-?=3 How much we need to subtract from 7 to make 4?

I consider when you do it in that way it gives the child the wider understanding of what is happening. Daria is now 7 now and when about two years ago I started to teach Daria to add and subtract numbers we didn't have the Montessori sets yet, so we worked on home made counters.

Województwa

W tym tygodniu troszkę geografii Polski. Dzieci dostały do rączek, montessoriańskie karty z mapkami polski na których zaznaczone zostały pojedynczo województwa, a następnie dużą mapę w którą można wtykać flagi z nazwami województwa i miasta wojewódzkiego. (Dziękuję bardzo Marcie za natchnienie).

Pliki do pobrania: mapki montesoriańskie, mapki do nakłuwania,


wojewodztwa

Wojewodztwa Pin Push

Dopiero się uczymy nazw województw. Omawiamy różnice między poszczególnymi regionami, rodzaje gwar i dialektów. Na przekłuwaną mapkę jeszcze czas nie przyszedł. Wczoraj jakoś spontanicznie przeglądaliśmy flagi państw Europy. Oddzieliliśmy kraje EU od reszty. Wyróżniliśmy sąsiadów Polski, ze szczególną uwagą Ukrainę jako ojczyznę naszej mamy. Jutro może uda się wrócić do kontynentów. Ostatnio w listopadzie chyba poświęciliśmy im trochę czasu.

Human Body Project

In November we started to read the first book from series "100 facts". Daria decided "100 facts on The Human Body". It took us a month to finish. Slowly 3 facts a day in bad time. We discussed a lot as well while reading. Almost all body parts were translated into Polish and Russian to give her wider understanding as that subject has not been covered in schools she had no chance so far to meet the vocabulary. Nevertheless she heard a lot from us but in Polish or Russian. 

In meanwhile I found in local shop other book "The Human Body Project".

It includes:
- 16- page Book

 - A1 Wall Poster

- Stencils

- More than 100 stickers

I found it very interesting as for our purposes. It is written in a language that is understandable for Daria and gives the most knowledge I consider is accurate as for 7- years old girls. 

Daria learned the main human bones. We created the poster using the stencil and pencil. She wrote by herself the names of the bones. 

I photocopied and laminated 3 layer body chart: bones, muscles and skin.

Then I photocopied few pictures of body parts from the first book as they were more clear and created the activities for learning the names.

1. Bones of human skeleton.

2. Areas of brain responsible for 5 senses
3. 5 Senses: Sight, Heating, Smell, Taste and Touch

That day Daria helped me to make those pictures, to cut and laminate them. Unfortunately until today we had no chance to work with them.

Today we wanted to check if Daria remembers any of the work after a month from the day we made the activity. I was really surprised. She did very well. Only few names she dislocated and they were very difficult.

These are the results. (Sorry for the background noise - that's Igor looking for his ball (piłka - in polish))