Concept development is a process that explains the changes that take place in stages due to the growth and experience which is the building blocks of knowledge. This will allow people to organise and categorise information or solve a matter met during the different stages in life. Different children develop differently, they have their own pace. If they reach a certain stage one or two years later compare to those of their same age, it’s still considered within the normal range of development.

Following are Piagetian stages of concept development of children based on their age range:

• Sensorimotor(birth to 2 years old)
  Babies learn with their 5 senses, sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing. In addition, they also utilise their their motor abilities to learn basic skills and concepts such as:
  Observation, problem solving, one-to-one correspondence, number, shape, and spatial sense
• Preoperational(2-7 years old)
  Children develop concepts that are more like those of adults but still not complete in relation to what they will be like at maturity. Speech is used increasingly to express concept knowledge such as big and small, light and heavy etc.
  Fundamental concepts and skills: Sets and classifying, comparing, counting, parts and wholes, and language.
  Applied concepts and skills: Ordering, dseriation, patterning, informal measurement(weight, length, temperature, volume, time and sequence)
  Higher level concepts and skills: Number symbols, sets and symbols
• Transitional(5-7 years old)
  There would be two types of children, one type is the conserver and another type is non conserver. This is a critical stage where teachers must look out for to ensure that they have real understanding of what mathematical operations mean.
  Applied concepts and skills: Graphing(pie chart, height chart etc.)
  Higher level concepts and skills: Concrete addition and substraction
• Concrete operational(7-11 years old)
  They are able to retain original picture or object and making a mental reversal when appearance if a picture or object is changed.
  Primary concepts and skills: Whole number, operations, fractions, number facts, place value, geometry, measurement with standard units
• Formal operations(11 and above)
  Ability to learn scientific method independently, learn to solve problem in logical and systematic manner, understand abstract concepts, and attack abstract problems.

Piaget’s view of how children acquire knowledge is divided into 3 areas:

• Physical knowledge, learning about objects in environment and their characteristic(weight, height sise, texture or anything that can be determined through observation and are physically within the object).
• Logico-mathematical knowledge involves relationships each individual construct to make sense out of the world and to organise information.
• Social(conventional) knowledge is created by people such as rules of behaviours in various social situations.

Learning cycle of early childhood:

• Awareness: borad recognition of objects, events, people or concepts that develops from experience.
• Exploration: Construction of special meaning through sensory experiences with objects, peoples, events or concept.
• Inquiry: Learners compare their constructions with those of the culture, commonalities are recognized, generalisations are made that like those of adults.
• Utilization: Applying and using their undersanding in new settings and situations.

OK!! Assignment given and the topic is about the topics that we had discussed last week, Noun Clauses and steps of academic writing. Two weeks to pass up. Since I’ve done the summary last week, now I need to do a full essay for them.

Let’s go to what we studied for class 3. We were in the topic on writing paragraph where we covered pragraphing and title creation. Then we were told to write a one paragraph essay which I did quite badly *LOL* It should be very easy but I wrote something that could actually be splitted into 3 paragraphs

A paragraph must have a topic sentence, supporting sentences, a concluding sentence and make sure they have unity and coherence.

A topic sentence is a complete sentence that made up of an object, verb and a complement. It should not be too general and should not be too detailed. It can appear in the first sentence or the last sentence. When it’s in the last sentence, it’s known as concluding sentence. Make sure you do not add in any unrelated ideas.

Concluding sentence is customary for multi paragraph essay or a very long paragraph. It should summarise the paragraph. You can use words like Finally or In conclusion or Lastly and etc.

As for creating title for your essay, you must capitalised the first alphabet in every word, must not be underlined, not enclosed with a quotation mark, not ended with fullstop, and the preposition(e.g a, is, for) should not be capitalised.

After all these, we called it day.

First of all, before I go futher, we had the chance to play with tangram. It’s was quite fun. This can be used to stimulate creative thinking of children and also learn the basic concept of geometry.

What is tangram?
Got this from wiki:

Tangram (Chinese: 七巧板; pinyin: qī qiǎo bǎn; literally “seven boards of skill”) is a dissection puzzle. It consists of seven pieces, called tans, which fit together to form a shape of some sort. The objective is to form a specific shape with seven pieces. The shape has to contain all the pieces, which may not overlap.

This is not easy. Even adults will not be able to solve some of the puzzles. We managed to solve some, these are some that we managed to solve hahaha…

If you would like to play, you can just go to Google and search for “tangram”, there are lots of them there.

By the way, I have lots of reading need to do for class 2. Would be summarising them when I’m done with my reading.

There’s a debate in class saying that this English is too difficult for the children, it’s more for the adults. Well, everyone thinks that we should be studying English that is meant to be used to teach the children not us. However, if you see the subject name carefully, it’s for the professional; it’s not named English for Young Children like other subjects such as Mathematics for Young Children. You get what I mean? There’s nothing wrong with the subject. As a professional, you should know proper English, I’m sure you don’t want the parents reading or hearing remarks with lots of grammatical mistakes here and there from you about their children, it will affect your credibility as a childhood professional.

The second class was enough to make me confused We’re learning the noun clauses. All those grammatical rules are making me so blur hahaha… Frankly, I was trying quite hard in the class to digest all these things. Now I really regret that I never made an effort to remember all these rules back then in school hahaha…

A noun clause is a dependent clause that functions as a noun. It needs to be connected with an independent clause(aka introductory clause) to form a complex sentence. There are 3 types:

• that clause
  e.g. The bulletine states that science courses required a laboratory period.
• Wh- clause (Where, Who, When, What, whatever, wheneverm which, how etc.)
  e.g. I do not know where is the cafetaria located.
• if/whether clause
  e.g. I’m not sure whether or not this measurement is correct.

Basically this is the summary. I’m so lazy to elaborate Next we proceeded to Academic Writing. We were taught how to write essays! Feeling like you are going back to study for you PMR, SPM or in your English tuition class. I’ll just list out the steps:

1. Prewriting:
   Brainstorming - think about all the things you can think of from the topic
   Listing - list everything you’re thinking out
   Clustering - group those related together
2. Planning - Plan your paragraph with thesis statement, then add on with supporting statement.
   be sure that, one paragraph only discuss one topic.
3. Writing draft - Start making them in sentences.
4. Revising draft - Check the mistakes such as spellings, grammars and so on.
5. Final copy

Done! Compose this post for 2 days That’s because I don’t remember much on what I was taught because of all those grammar rules *blur* I had to revise everything all over again -.-”

OK! Was 1 hour late for class! Most of us weren’t told about it. For the first time, I am not so sure with what I’m doing there. I feel so lost and feel no confidence at all. I don’t know why. On the first class, the first assignment is already given -.-” It’s a group project and I don’t really know anyone, majority of them are seniors, they already have their own team.

I’m not sure whether I’m lucky or otherwise, the senior sitting next to me wanted to be with her usual teammate but her teammate didn’t attend class today and we were required to team up with anyone who’s in class now. She had no choice and let me be her teammate. I’m so sorry, I’m quite lost, this is my first class that relates to children and I have zero experience with children. I don’t know what to expect and how the things should be done.

Sigh… I hope this assingment would go well, she’ll do the lesson plan, and then I will get the teaching materials ready which mean I have to go do some shopping for cardboards, markers, stickers etc. After that we will have to do a presentation. ARG! Presentation, treating your audience as kids -.-” I’ve never done this… I’m so lost… I have no idea what the lecturer wants *BLUR* After this, second assignment will come. -.-”

Reading up on it is easy, anyone can do that and there’s not jargons at all but doing it? That, I have problem.

Anyway, let’s go back to what I learnt today.

How to teach children math?

• Playing games such as water play, sorting items based on clours, size(socks, mittens, shoes etc.), matching items(cards, colours etc.), board games(tic-tac-toe, checker, cards)
• Singing such as Little Indians, One, Two, Buckle My shoes
• Field trip such as visiting to places such as zoo, garden
• Counting objects such as toys
• Flash cards
• Using food such as during breakfast, counting the cereals, group the cereals, string them and count them, sandwich, pies, cakes can be used too
• Dances
• Story telling
• Body parts such as fingers, toes
• Go shopping counting the groceries and recognising the numbers on the price tags, packaging etc.
• Using clocks
• Height chart
• Role play
• Measuring objects using spoon, cups, shoes etc.
• Fill & Find bag or Mystery bag which children are asked to put their hands into the bag, feel the item in there and take it out. Then give another bag and ask them to find another item similar to the one they took out earlier on.
• Any daily acitvities will do…

When children are used to math concept in their daily life, you can help them explore more. If children A found out that children B has more cookies than him, you can try to ask them to count their cookies this will make them understand better. After that you can ask them why this happen, how to solve it, besides the suggestion provided, ask them whether there’s any other way to solve it. Lastly, be sure to follow up and review by asking more questions to clarify. Observe them and ask them questions from time to time to know their levels.

Most importantly, parents must not be intimidated by math, they must show their children that math is fun and it’s a positive thing.

Research shows that babies 7 months and above will be able to learn math by using flash cards with numbers and reading it out loud to them. This will ensure that when they go to school they can pick up mathematics faster.

Preschoolers are from age 0-8 years old. 3-4 years old can learn at least 20 numbers, 1-20 and the first 20 numbers are the most difficult. After that they will pick up the rest quite fast.

Tips to do math with preschoolers

• Develop counting skills - Kids love to count. They like to count everything they see. Count along with them.
• Learn about numbers - It’s all about number recognition. Display numbers, label items with names, numbers anywhere in the classroom. One-to-one correspondence is important. It can be done by playing matching games.
• Understand substraction and addition - Games are used for children below 4 years old. For older children like 5-6 years old, you can show them the concept with objects. Then you can test them when they are playing with blocks or when eating.
• Learn about measurement - Children like to compare height, weight, volume and so on of things they see, touch, feel and hear everyday. E.g. Use a height chart to monitor their height, a weighing scale to weigh them, using their fingers, feet or anything to measure something. Introducing standard measurement tools such as ruler or measuring tape can be done too.
• Explore geometry - Children are fascinated by shapes. Teach them to explore the shapes such as comparing or counting how many sides or corners a cube has be it 2D or 3D.

That’s all for class one. It’s not that complicated, it’s all common sense, just think more like children and have fun!

Tomorrow is supposed to be Observation of Young Children but I just got a SMS telling me that they would change the class tomorrow to Mathematics for Young Children. I bought the textbook for the former and now it’s useless but they told me it will be usable for next semester. I hope they don’t change the version by then and request us to buy new textbook again. I don’t think this will happen at all.

I asked them whether I need to buy new textbook, they said no textbook yet. The lecturer would be printing out notes to us but sooner or later, we will have to buy textbook.

Anyway… It’s Mathematics for Young Children tomorrow and I’m expecting simple Math and how to teach children Maths. This subject shouldn’t be so hard. Who doesn’t know 1+1? Hahaha… We’ll see how it goes to tomorrow.

Attended the first class made me realised that it wasn’t really that early after all. Most of my classmates are in their second semester and I notice that this diploma concentrates on school going children instead of toddlers or babies. That’s why I said it’s not that early after all.

So yea… It’s not really what I had expected. Ah well… Just let it be. I prefer to educate babies instead of school going children aka the monsters!! Joking

Just for your information, I just got back from class.

On the 1st day of class, I got a shock. I had to pay for my textbooks! The cost that they never told me when I signed up. I felt a bit cheated. I estimated that for the overall course, I will need to fork out extra RM500+ just for the photocopied textbooks!! All these while I thought that it’s included in the course fee. Apparently… It’s not…

Anyway, let’s go back to English for Early Childhood Professional. What comes to your mind? Thinking of ABC thing? Simple English for the children? You are way too wrong!

It’s learning very advance English, well… Not that advance Hahaha… It’s just something you learnt back then in high school and primary school. This English is for the adult, not for kids The book used is very advance, it’s for college and university English.

Class started of by introducing us all the the grammatical rules such as I do, she does, we do, I am, you are, he is and etc. You know… All the basic English that you learnt back then in school, the first few chapters. Then we proceeded to types of sentences such as simple, compound, complex, compound-complex, then to parallalism and briefly about fragments.

Just something to share with you as many people make these mistakes including me sometimes *LOL*

Don’t say: Come fetch me.
Do say: Come pick me up.
Why: Fetch refers to object, it’s not to be used for human.

Don’t say: Follow me to the airport.
Do say: Come with me to the airport.
Why: Follow means you drive and your friend will be walking or running after your car.

Don’t say: I’ll send you to school.
Do say: I’ll drive you to school.
Why: Send is referring to object such as send you a present or send you a letter.

Assignment will be given next week and we will be required to write two essays! Oh dear… Going back to high school stuffs except you will be writing more than 600 words per essay which you will need to make sure you use the right tense, right vocabulary, right grammar and more. English class… I’m sure all of us went tru’ it before. Hahaha…

That’s all, nothing much to elaborate. I found out that I’ve forgotten many rules of the language hehehe…

I attended something really useful for this course today. It’s Early Learning Workshop By Dr. Robert Titzer organised by Poppies.

I hope it would help in my course. Thanks to Poppies for inviting me though I’m not a parent. I’m still wondering why I go invited *LOL* maybe due to this course I’m going to start tomorrow?

I took this opportunity to join it anyway despite being “different” from the rest hahaha… Indirectly I started my class yesterday hehehe… I think this workshop is really helpful for my course. Being able to attend and see and hear from the expert will definitely be very useful. I took lots of notes! Might be useful for my future assignments

Dr. Robert Titzer sharing about ways to teach your babies from very very young age. Babies have the ability to learn lots of new things, you have to observe and be creative. Interaction with your baby is very important especially talking. It might look silly but it works very well and help stimulate his/her brain as they have tens of thousands of new synapses forming in their brain every second.

Learning the first 50 new words is the hardest but after that they will pick up new words very quickly. Therefore you must not give up. The starting will take a bit of hard work but eventually the result will be amazing!

I love the part where he mentioned that building a prison is cheaper than teaching your baby in the US. If babies or children are not nurtured and taught early, when they are older, going to school, they will create lots of disciplinary problems, have lower self esteems, fare badly in school and all the negative things you can think of.

One more thing, do not reward your toddlers with food but reward them with books! Actually you can reward them with food but only on some special situations, just don’t make it a habit.

Basically that’s about it. There’s lots of things that I learnt in this workshop, I just share some interesting and important points here. As in the future, there would be more as my class progresses.