Homeschool syllabus - Our Body

School holidays can sometimes be a nightmare to many SAHMs with preschool children. The most common problem is, "How to keep them occupied, without using electronic devices?" Usually I would try to enrol them in various workshops. However, this year, due to financial constraints (times are bad!!) and lack of planning (my bad!), I decided to give homeschooling a try.

Prior to the start of the holidays, I asked Ariel to choose a topic she would like to learn during this holidays, from a book of Questions and Answers. She chose to learn about Our Body.

I then proceed to plan my own syllabus, thinking about activities that I can do to make certain concepts easy for her. I also thought about her interests (art & craft) and her weaknesses (certain skills I would want to work on, eg. to NOT be picky about food).

I would say that, overall, it's rather successful. And below are some of the topics and activities she really enjoyed!

Topic: Overview

Question: How do we stay alive? What food is good for me?
Answer: We need air, water and food to stay alive. Then I went on to explain the different kinds of food that will keep us strong.
Activity: We made our own restaurant menu, which comprises of healthy foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I got Ariel to draw her favourite foods for the 3 meals, and explained how the respective main ingredients can help her to grow. After a nap, we played restaurant whereby we took turns to be waitresses and customers, using the menu we made in the morning. Ainsley joined us too.
*She enjoyed playing restaurant so much that we played this for the next few days.

Topic: Our Head and Face

Question 1: What do our face consists of?
Activity 1: We made masks out of paper plates. As Art & Craft is one of Ariel's favourite activity, she enjoyed making the masks. We also did a puppet show using the masks we made.

Question 2: How do our eyes work?
Answer: Our eyes is like a camera.
Activity 2: We lowered the blinds and started playing with a torchlight. We made shadows and I explained how the object has to be between the light source and screen, in order to cast a shadow on the screen.
*Somehow, all kids love playing with torches. Ainsley enjoyed it too.

Topic: Inside Our Body

Question 1: Why and how does my heart beat?
Activity 1: We cut out heart shapes from 3 different materials: cotton squares, plastic bag and a sponge. Then I got a small tub of water and we threw in the hearts made from the different materials. Cotton squares turned soggy and went out of shape when we tried to squeeze them. Plastic bags floats on water but could not contain water. The only 'heart' we could 'pump' is the one made from sponge.
*Through this activity, we explored how different materials will turn out when in contact with water. Ariel thoroughly enjoyed squeezing water out of the sponge and playing with water. Though it sounds messy, the activity is actually very 'contained' because not a lot of water is needed and the children each have their pail of water.

Question 2: What happens when I swallow? Learning about the stomach and intestine
Activity: I got a small ziplog bag and labeled it stomach. I got some broken pieces of old crackers and put them inside the bag. I told the girls to break the crackers into even smaller pieces. This is like the food they ate. The stomach produces special juices that will digest the food and turn it into mush. Then I proceed to pour a little water into the ziplog bag and sure enough, all the crumbs clump up and became a mash.
*The girls were squealing, because it did look a little disgusting, but it definitely drive the point home. Ariel through this, also understood that she needs enough fluid, so that the waste food will be soft and easy to pass out of the intestive later :P

Topic: Bones, Muscles and Skin

Questiion 1: What are bones & joints?
Activity: For this part, we made a puppet out of cardboard, using paper fasterner.
*Somehow, all kids love puppets.

Question 2: What does my skin do?
Answer: It helps us to feel.
Activity: We took a walk downstairs and did crayon-rubbing on different surfaces. It was in this activity that I realise Ariel is not too sure what is the difference between smooth and soft; versus rough and hard. She thought smooth and soft are about the same. After the activity she knew the difference.
*I also took this opportunity to teach her that people who are visually disabled can read too, by feeling the alphabets. We drew letters on each other's hands and got the other person to guess what letter it is, while having our eyes closed.

Topic: Hair and Nails

Question: What do our nails help us in?
Answer: They protect our fingers and help us to pick up small objects.
Activity 1: We played a game whereby Ariel is suppose to pick up some paper clips from a small container using a pair tweezers. We also proceed to pick up other small objects like small dice.
*This acitivity trains up their fine motor skills in using a pair of tweezers. Through 'pinching' the tweezers, they learn to use the strength of the fingers. Haha, I thought this exercise is quite apt as she is now learning keyboard. I did not expect her to enjoy using the tweezers!

Activity 2: We also round up the syllabus with a novelty activity and that is: I painted her toenails.
*All little girls like to try on things used by adults. Pedicure is definitely an exciting thing for her ;)

The above are just some activites she really enjoyed and I thought they are quite useful in teaching different concepts. I always believe that it possible to teach young children everything as long as we bring it to their level.

Lessons I learnt from this:
a. Discipline is the key. Half way through, she said she is tired of playing school. I switched the topics around and got her to do something which I think she would enjoy, instead of letting her 'skip school' that day.
b. Make it short. Their attention span is still very short. Explanation should take only 4-5 mins max. Using a whiteboard helps. Explain concept through activity is most effective.
c. Use her interests to motivate her.
d. Be flexible, never be afraid to switch topics around.

Being a Christian family, we hope to include biblical values in our syllabus too. Biblical values learnt in this topic will include:
1. God is the One who created us.
2. Our God is an amzing God as our body is wonderfully made by Him.

Bible Verse: [Ps 139: 13-14] "For you created my inmost being, you knit me in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."