Covid-19 HBL with M&M Day 12-17

I spoke too soon... circuit breaker extends for another 4 weeks... M&M look totally fine with this development. The third M is suddenly not feeling so well... need to rethink this situation through. But first, let me cry in the bathroom....

Today I introduce the kiddos to impressionism. Classical starting point for anyone interested in art history... and Nobody is... But let's talk about pointillism. It is a technique of painting in small dots....
Oh Morgi finishes painting a rainbow before I even start demonstrating... Then he draws a lot of inverted Vs which he titles the artwork "a lot of tents" and calls mine "a lot of dots"...

Pointillism Megan? Ok she simply ignores the 1880s to jump into color blocks.... Great art kids. But can we keep to the brief? We still have 40+ days to go, you know?

We finally bake. Been holding this activity out because Mr Morg had one two three ulcers so NO heaty food or else Ah Gong will be very concerned. Presenting Mr Morg's virgin egg cracking experience! Jie Jie is a little disappointed because cracking eggs has always been her job, now taken over by cheaper labour!!!

M&M climbing are improving by leaps. They can have a serious career harvesting coconuts now that coconut price so high...

Megan makes mini golf with my hiking pole, tennis ball and a shoe box. This is a game that needs patience and Mr. Morg has no patience.

We play MATCH... It is fun. Morgi loves it a lot.

No idea what this game is called but it is one of my favourite. Lost a lot of pieces throughout the years but still playable. Beats Megan everytime. Yeah me.

We also play this 3D bingo game. Tries to explain the 4-in-a-line-to-win concept to Morgan but he prefers to play the part of a destroyer every round. I can never win Megan on 3D bingo. Why? Why?

So desperate for games for Morgi that I dig out an old toy - Fish out the worms from their worm holes and let them out. What do worms eat, Morgi? Birds! No! Ok fine, bring them to the leaves for a munchie and take them back to rest in their wormholes. Take care of your worms for the next 30 mins. Don't bother me.

Megan watches a free screening of Cirque Du Soleil show and is in awe.. TKSST is also free this month for endless good videos. Free stuff, so nice.

I start having "what do you see in this picture?" conversations with Morgan to get him to practice talking more.

Worksheets achieved:

Covid-19 HBL mid HBL exam

We are midway through the lock down. YEAH!!!!!!

I told Morgan I am going to give him a mid month exam. It is going to be a very looong worksheet...
Why?
Because this is Singapore.
Why?
Because I can. HoHoHo...

Did I mention it is looong?

Here goes... Ok, let's start with Maths. Exam duration 30 mins. So let's see how he fairs.

Start from the top left hand corner. Morgan has some trouble with patterns in the middle. I indicate questions that he has difficulties with a red H.

Goner on the problem sum. He keeps saying he has 2 sweets. Does not understand "2 more"...
He seems ok with +3 patterns in his beloved maths book but when the numbers get higher, he has problems following. Blink blink on 18 and 24. Needs to work on reading the clock for all the mid hours....

Big mental block on number bonds that has 3 numbers....

Other than that, Morgi finishes his paper within 30 mins and passes. Good job Morgi!!!

The next day, we continue part two of his loong worksheet. Science Exam. All questions base off his recent favourite books.

Boy cannot spell SINGAPORE!!! Ok to be fair, he runs back and forth to check back to his many books on countries for spellings. And while he is doing his continents, he asks me where is Antarctica? Oh I forgot all about that.... Go ahead and add that in, my love.

Switzerland is a hard spelling too. Done with the world map and countries, now we are into the lifecycle of the butterfly. Cannot spell butterfly. Keep telling me that the pupa is a cocoon. At that time, I can't spell cocoon so I tell him to write pupa.

The human body : Liver, intestines and bladder, he has forgotten. Hint: It is where urine comes from... It's toilet bowl he exclaims!

Mood change on colors... He wants to write in ROBOT font... Cannot understand what he is writing. A bit of problem spelling fruit and flower. So for Science, I think ... well Morgi passes as well (with some help)

Megan says Mummy I also want a loooong exam like Morgi's...

Instant regret the moment she sees her butterpaper roll out to be CHINESE and starts with the tower of SPELLING nightmare!!!!

Cheers everyone.... Mid month exam is over.

Covid-19 HBL with M&M Day 9-11

Been a crazy busy last few days with work, not much done. Megan has been brightening up the house with crepe flowers early in the morning... She is the sweetest gal.

Her skills are now better than mine... And since we are both minimalist, these amount of flowers is enough... close shop... Thinking back to the day the vase came out of the kiln, I was uncertain of the purple color (Ok, I can't recall I glazed it purple at all) but now... I like my vase with these flowers so much.

Morning continues to be extremely focused on his computer tasks. He went through most of Pre K and Grade K games on ABCya already...

Never taught Morgi the simple game of tic tac toe before... Mimi's traditional handmade bumble bee and lady bugs tic tac toe's set comes in handy this season. Morgi learns that establishing a straight line means win but still gets confuse when we intercept him. I am so nice I even provide a cheat sheet for him.

Pick Up Stick. Another traditional game we start to play... total beyond his understanding because he just wants to CHIONG ahead... Better play with Megan.

Love the Fix the Turtle kit from school... Morg takes his job very seriously.

An old video taken right before HBL but I am posting it here since we do this beautiful activity again. Flower drawings by me, coloring by M and M, cutting by me... I love this activity but it takes a lot of prep work on my side so let's play this sparingly.

Morgan finally graduate to the adult table for meals... He is "so grown up". Now he eats his meals by himself (usually with minimal assistance).

Dinner time conversation:
Ken   : Is the ocean deep or shallow?
Morg : It's deep.
Ken   : So, is the river deep or shallow?
Morg : It's shallow.
Ken   : How about the swimming pool?
Morg : It's closed.

New focus reads these few days.

Worksheets achieved:

Covid-19 HBL with M&M Day 6-8

See Morgan sneak pass with my mac under his arm while I am on a com call. Give him the stare while pointing my finger at him and his loot. He pauses to give me an innocent "is this Kenneth's?"... Ha! Boy has gone round opening people's laptop to check...

"Is this Kenneth's?" tends to follow with "where is my computer?" .... Get this straight, "YY" is on the login page... there is NO your computer...

Morg's drawings remind me of the Ghana teacher drawing microsoft word window on a chalkboard. You know, things you do when you are desperate without a computer....

Happy 50th Birthday Miss Dhanya!!! Don't know what you do to deserve this but Morgan is so excited the whole morning that he makes a card for you!

Simple game to occupy the kiddos while I get busy... I think this is an easy game but hmmm... M and M are both momentary lost and really take their time around the house.

Music time... Watch NANTA, the korean musical performance using kitchen knifes to chop chop chop... feel good about the show till suddenly realise... maybe Morgan should not be watching this... hmm... change to some random youtuber creating music using pots and pans...

There is M and M version. Making noise is pure happiness...

Back to the water bodies lessons.. You can see the pond and the lake and up front is the very impressive river!

It starts with Meggie leaving her 3D river following through the hills (on the left) on the table. In no time, Morgi replicates a bigger version. "Jie Jie's river is small, Morgan's river is BIGGER"... I am so proud of the awesome original and the fantastic copycat. wow wow wow...

Snake and ladder is a very boring game. Even Morgan shortens the game by cheating up every ladder. Ok, let's just officially retire this game.

New favourites for the past few days. My Encyclopedia of Very Important Things is high on Morg's list. There is even a one page story on the tortoise and the hare...

We (I) decide to hone some acting skills and act out the whole story!!! So much fun creating this video. Except for the first scene where we have too many versions, all other scenes are take one... My first video!!! Wow I also learn a new skill during this WTF WFH HBL!!!

Check this out! Ok, need to work on the ending... Decide not to ask both what is the moral of the story because Megan soooo does not like stories which has a moral touchpoint... toooo preachy!!!

Re-allocation of watering-plants chore to the most free person in the household. Quickly notice that he waters the same pot 10x while maintaining dry soil for all the rest. In other news, we discover the bean that Megan planted for her science project months ago is doing extremely well at some forgotten corner. Sprouty has flowers and fruits!!! So exciting... Credits to the previous plant waterer.

Megan makes cute and yummy almond jelly with longans and lychees.

Worksheets achieved:

Morg finds these worksheets hard and I find it hard to teach:

Covid-19 HBL with M&M Day 4-5

OK, I am more than slightly pissed with this e-learning thing for Morg. I keep tablets and computers away from him because he gets so addicted and becomes "wanna die" when the devices are taken away. Now with HBL, I have to offer him a laptop...

Anyway, he enjoys ABCya and asks for the computer all day long, to an extremely irritated me.  He can add his number bonds mentally but with this ABCya, he goes back to counting his toys... On the positive side, boy suddenly knows how to read the time as he monitors the clock untill its his "COMPUTER TIME!"...

Read Boats and Morg's fav is the sampan that carries food. Says he will row his drumstick to Bishan AMK park to sell.

Megan teaches didi how to make simple boat origami. Good job both.

Daddy knows how to make a sampan version! 7min video is too long to upload. Request if you want the full version. We set sail the boats in the pond.

Tried unsuccessfully for the 3rd time to read this Peter Pan pop up book I bought for $9.90 years ago. The writing is terrible yes but M and M are totally unappreciative of the excellent pop up artworks.

Read an excellent Book of Trees. Since Morgan isn't interested, I had to draw out all the different shapes of trees and make an activity out of it. A forest theme pop up card anyone?

Morgan just wants his hexagonal shapes and totally ignore all my examples. He selects his colors, draws the shapes and cuts them himself. Totally zero patience when it comes to gluing them to his card, leaves to cry somewhere and comes back to paste one dot on each tree, a car, kangaroo, bird and Koala... Sign off his big name and leaves again.

Love Megan's card. Falling autumn leaves are so cool. And she explores a fence as an additional pop up, hence really learning one pop up technique.

Engage Morg to draw a tree house high up the coconut trees with a long long ladder to reach it... Using brushes is certainly not Mr Morg's forte.

Dig Katamino out from somewhere. As proof that our brains have gone rusty, Meg and me struggle through the levels and have a hard time getting pass level 10.

Exercise time! M and M and M practice climbing today. I attain 30cm above ground - an excellent achievement!!! Hurray... Morgan needs to learn more from his older sister but very good effort.

And the winner is....

Worksheets completed these 2 days: