In 1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus published his famous forgetting curve — we tend to start forgetting what we learn within twenty minutes, and the loss is significant through the first hour 🕐. To retain the information, effective note-taking and regular revision of notes are critical. I believe investing the time and effort to create excellent notes …
For almost 7 years, I’ve been spending a few minutes daily tracking each child’s learning progress using clipboards and a personalised template. This comes up to less than 15 minutes for 3 children and the Daddy often jokes that I look like a doctor taking patient notes. I first learnt to do this from Karen …
Research has found that preschoolers’ ability to spot mathematical patterns can predict mathematical achievement at a later age, more than other math and non-math skills. (Rittle-Johnson et. al, 2016) Recently, El (5y11m) enjoys solving math puzzles. We use the same gorgeous Casco books that the older kids have used before. The kids write their solutions in …
Ever since the haze worsened last week, Jae has been having a slight yet persistent cough, so I’ve been voluntarily keeping the older kids away from school. So it’s homeschool time for 3 kids again. What are some things we’ve been doing? Simple Science experiments & math demonstrations following the school textbook topics on mass, …
Vee, Jae and El are generally occupied with structured and free choice screen-free activities throughout the day and have very little screen time. However these few days, Jae (7y10m) has been on my laptop at 7+ am for 1 hour to set test papers! 😅 Previously, he has been copying or making up questions for his …
Due to a persistent cough from the serious haze, Jae (7y10m) has been staying home the whole week. He received a Science kit for his last birthday and we finally got to fix it today. It’s a simple and interesting kit where he explored questions like: Why does the car slow down when turning? Why …
I was about to leave a Daiso store in Japan when some Science kits caught my eye. Yes, you read it right, Science kits! At 100 yen (~S$1.40) each! One of the sets was on Animation. Today, El (5y10m) and I made a phenakistoscope and a zoetrope, which were invented by mathematicians Joseph Plateau and …
According to Harvard Business Review, these are the benefits of poetry for professionals: 1. Systems thinking: simplify complex topics to better communicate it to others2. Develop empathy3. Develop creativity4. Infuse life with beauty and meaning “The precision of poetry teaches greater sensitivity to language, which frequent readers of poetry carry into their own writing and …
[Memorisation Kit] An example using Chinese poem Read More »
Vee is 10 years old and has much more to learn and remember across various subjects. At this age, he also needs to build a voluminous vocabulary in order to read higher-level texts and write well. Recently, a good friend and I found out about memorisation sets, which likely originated from Japan. How it works …
[Memory] Boost memory with this special technique Read More »
El (5y6m) has been really into Science recently. Today, he chose the atoms and molecules set from the shelf and asked for a lesson on how to build carbon dioxide. I showed him and then we moved to building water, oxygen and other simple molecules. While we were at the water molecule, he built two …
