Today I presented a lesson I was to have done with Ihsan four years ago- a timeline of his life. Well, at least he had the most pictures and got to do it with all his siblings. It's amazing how one can not notice how much one's children have grown, having spent each day with them. At least that was the case for me when I was rummaging through albums to find a picture for each year of their life.
To introduce, I arranged their pictures in order and then we talked about how they looked in each picture, what has changed and what they remember about that period of their life. I messed up the pictures after that and asked each child to choose their own and arrange them in order.
Talking about not noticing how time has passed; I realised I have missed a lot of lessons with Umayr. One day of him not wanting to do a lesson has turned to many lessons undone over weeks and months and now a year has almost passed us. This is the danger of not assessing one's teaching over the school year. I almost wish there is someone bugging me to finish the syllabus. I've got to buckle up as he enters the primary years.
I have to be like Miss Malarkey in 'Miss Malarkey Leaves No Reader Behind' by Judy Finchler & Kevin o'Malley who continues encouraging her reluctant students to read and tries to find out the interests of every child to hook them to reading. I borrowed the book to show Umayr that there are others like him and that even they are able to find that special book and that he'll find his too; but of course he didn't want to read today...
I bought a homeschool planner- yes 2010 here I come!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Walk Like an Egyptian
Today we continued with our Egyptian theme with the chapter on pyramids from the book
'Mummies and Pyramids' by Joyce Tyldeseley which I got on a trip to Harbourfront from a Big Bookstore sale for $13! It not only gives you interesting facts about life then but has materials you can use like paper samples of amulets and trinkets, playcards, a mask of Tutankhamen (which I wasn't really too excited about my kids playing and only allowed a try) and your very own Egyptian snake and ladder game and its in hardcover. I'm beginning to sound like a book sales lady.
After a game of table tennis (the boys, I just pushed a ball around with Sofiyya), we continued to make a pyramid from our 'Ancient Civilisations' template from Evan-Moor. While drawing in the bricks, I reviewed the concept of 'horizontal' and 'vertical' lines with the younger ones while Ihsan wrote a narration of what he remembered from what I read to him about the Great Pyramids of Giza from the information section provided.
Sofiyya cried when Umayr insisted on using her scissors to cut out his pyramid and went to her room so I printed out some pictures of her and she chose one to put on her 'My Body' lapbook and did some handwriting exercises to be put there too.
Umayr grew frustrated with not being able to draw perfectly straight lines for his bricks and gave up. I find this an issue of concern, however he has been able to do crafts for hours on his own accord and this might be more of a lack of practice on minor motor skills and his temperament for the day. I'll have to look out for this need for perfection and his inability to stay on the work and having an outburst after only a short time at trying.
I question how much I should really help him, as I did today as it would only result in him not getting the exercise he needs and a mentality that I will always do things he finds frustrating. How much scaffolding do you give a child without doing injustice to him? Sometimes I think it just benefits me as I get things done, or so I think, without the temper outbursts. He later grew frustrated with gluing the pyramid together, but sat down to see how I did it.
He did however, fetch me the square pyramid from the geometric solids box when asked (ok after a few times)to find the one with the same shape as the pyramid work he did. As a group, we explored how the pyramid from the geometric solid box is similar to the pyramids they made (faces, base, sides) and different from the triangular pyramid.
While Ihsan finished off his pyramid, I read 'The Busy Body Book' for the younger ones which explains how the body works and the different systems of the body. This is connected with our lessons on mummification in Egypt where the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines are taken out from the to-be-mummies. Sofiyya's 'My Body' lapbook is also an offshoot of this.
'Mummies and Pyramids' by Joyce Tyldeseley which I got on a trip to Harbourfront from a Big Bookstore sale for $13! It not only gives you interesting facts about life then but has materials you can use like paper samples of amulets and trinkets, playcards, a mask of Tutankhamen (which I wasn't really too excited about my kids playing and only allowed a try) and your very own Egyptian snake and ladder game and its in hardcover. I'm beginning to sound like a book sales lady.
After a game of table tennis (the boys, I just pushed a ball around with Sofiyya), we continued to make a pyramid from our 'Ancient Civilisations' template from Evan-Moor. While drawing in the bricks, I reviewed the concept of 'horizontal' and 'vertical' lines with the younger ones while Ihsan wrote a narration of what he remembered from what I read to him about the Great Pyramids of Giza from the information section provided.
Sofiyya cried when Umayr insisted on using her scissors to cut out his pyramid and went to her room so I printed out some pictures of her and she chose one to put on her 'My Body' lapbook and did some handwriting exercises to be put there too.
Umayr grew frustrated with not being able to draw perfectly straight lines for his bricks and gave up. I find this an issue of concern, however he has been able to do crafts for hours on his own accord and this might be more of a lack of practice on minor motor skills and his temperament for the day. I'll have to look out for this need for perfection and his inability to stay on the work and having an outburst after only a short time at trying.
I question how much I should really help him, as I did today as it would only result in him not getting the exercise he needs and a mentality that I will always do things he finds frustrating. How much scaffolding do you give a child without doing injustice to him? Sometimes I think it just benefits me as I get things done, or so I think, without the temper outbursts. He later grew frustrated with gluing the pyramid together, but sat down to see how I did it.
He did however, fetch me the square pyramid from the geometric solids box when asked (ok after a few times)to find the one with the same shape as the pyramid work he did. As a group, we explored how the pyramid from the geometric solid box is similar to the pyramids they made (faces, base, sides) and different from the triangular pyramid.
While Ihsan finished off his pyramid, I read 'The Busy Body Book' for the younger ones which explains how the body works and the different systems of the body. This is connected with our lessons on mummification in Egypt where the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines are taken out from the to-be-mummies. Sofiyya's 'My Body' lapbook is also an offshoot of this.
Monday, December 14, 2009
Holiday or Not to Holiday
As a homeschooler, there is always that sense of insecurity that your child is not getting enough 'academic time'. We wake up at 6 +-,saunter to school around 8.30+- and end at 12.30+-. On good days, we do some work after zuhr and end at two.Thus, even though most kids are in the middle of their holidays right now, I try to do something 'educational' with the kids everyday.
If I could list down five insecurities as a homeschooler:
1. My kids are not 'covering syllabus'
2. My kids do not 'do homework' and hence there is that question of rigour
3. My kids don't do 'exams'; they are thus not 'exam smart'
4. My kids don't follow structured formats in their work; (go back to part 3.)
5. My kids don't follow a timetable but rather a rhythm in their days.
I do plan for what to cover for the year; but we have these little projects that become other projects or BIG projects. My kids are at different phases in their academic growth; one is advanced, one is a grade lower and one is on grade. Well, I guess I can say that at least that balances out.
In terms of practice, its the same; one devours work, one just says 'no' and the other is just fine with anything. One thing for certain they all have to pick up is exam skills; they tend to concentrate on their interests and don't follow formats or what teachers like to call templates or model answers.
However, I'm thinking I've got some years to go even for my eldest; I'll just make them suffer for the year they have to take PSLE and let go after that. Yes,it's painful but from what I hear even with all these changes they are trying to introduce to the local education system; we will always be exam oriented, eventually, even if they let you off in the non-critical years.
Now, maybe we should really go have that holiday, a real one...
If I could list down five insecurities as a homeschooler:
1. My kids are not 'covering syllabus'
2. My kids do not 'do homework' and hence there is that question of rigour
3. My kids don't do 'exams'; they are thus not 'exam smart'
4. My kids don't follow structured formats in their work; (go back to part 3.)
5. My kids don't follow a timetable but rather a rhythm in their days.
I do plan for what to cover for the year; but we have these little projects that become other projects or BIG projects. My kids are at different phases in their academic growth; one is advanced, one is a grade lower and one is on grade. Well, I guess I can say that at least that balances out.
In terms of practice, its the same; one devours work, one just says 'no' and the other is just fine with anything. One thing for certain they all have to pick up is exam skills; they tend to concentrate on their interests and don't follow formats or what teachers like to call templates or model answers.
However, I'm thinking I've got some years to go even for my eldest; I'll just make them suffer for the year they have to take PSLE and let go after that. Yes,it's painful but from what I hear even with all these changes they are trying to introduce to the local education system; we will always be exam oriented, eventually, even if they let you off in the non-critical years.
Now, maybe we should really go have that holiday, a real one...
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
Rolling Schoolyear
I've been on a hiatus after a bout of food poisoning and my anaemia taking a toll due to my bad eating habits. We've also been gallivanting a lot; Vivocity, IMM, Science Centre, the Zoo, the Airport and the like- I get too tired to do anything plus the housework gets piled up.
Its nice to go back doing something structured again.I've decided to catch up on things that tend to get the least attention during school (which should not be that way)i.e. history, geography,physics and chemistry.
Today we did the first writings- hieroglyphics and cuneiforms of the Egyptians and the Sumers. While the younger kids play with playdoh, Ihsan wrote cuneiform sentences using a flat screwdriver and playdoh and help from his Story of the World workbook, a series which I use with a pinch of salt. Prior to that we read chapter three of the text and did the narration.
I revised the days of the week presentation with Umayr and he wrote them down in his exercise book. While he did that, Ihsan revised abbreviations of the months on his 'Writing with Ease' workbook and he then decided to read the stories from the text.
Umayr and Sofiyya had their reading sessions with Level A books from Learningatoz and I then revised the sounds of the alphabets with Sofiyya. She has forgotten 'a' and 'b' so I decided to revise them with a new letter 'n'. Apparently she picked up 'k', 'm'and 'p' from her starfall.com sessions. Oh God, I'm doing literacy again...
We had a fun time at the zoo on Monday and the Jurong East Library yesterday. In between picking up books we had lunch at Cafe Galilee and later explored the youth section of the library which I have never been to in search of Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' to pick up on a conversation I had with the kids on how Umayr can sometimes turn rebel from angel in seconds.
We amazingly came back on the train and bus ( we usually travel one of the way by taxi)It felt like a real achievement till I thought of the real expensive lunch that we had. I'll just take it as a holiday treat even though we are technically not on holiday. I'd like to think we can be on holiday and homeschooling at the same time- sort of a work-life balance.
I have just finished reading a book on homeschooling which I have forgotten to take note of by whom but it's available at Choa Chu Kang Library and one of the author's first name is Matine, the title is 'Homeschooling': ). I think in every quarter I have to read one book on a family's homeschooling experience to remind myself how great a non-institution homeschooling is and how I am doing the right thing for my kids considering our situation in Singapore now.
Matine homeschooled her kids using the unschooling method mainly and three of her kids are in good colleges- I remember at least one of them is in Brown and the other three are still between high school and elementary levels.
Its nice to go back doing something structured again.I've decided to catch up on things that tend to get the least attention during school (which should not be that way)i.e. history, geography,physics and chemistry.
Today we did the first writings- hieroglyphics and cuneiforms of the Egyptians and the Sumers. While the younger kids play with playdoh, Ihsan wrote cuneiform sentences using a flat screwdriver and playdoh and help from his Story of the World workbook, a series which I use with a pinch of salt. Prior to that we read chapter three of the text and did the narration.
I revised the days of the week presentation with Umayr and he wrote them down in his exercise book. While he did that, Ihsan revised abbreviations of the months on his 'Writing with Ease' workbook and he then decided to read the stories from the text.
Umayr and Sofiyya had their reading sessions with Level A books from Learningatoz and I then revised the sounds of the alphabets with Sofiyya. She has forgotten 'a' and 'b' so I decided to revise them with a new letter 'n'. Apparently she picked up 'k', 'm'and 'p' from her starfall.com sessions. Oh God, I'm doing literacy again...
We had a fun time at the zoo on Monday and the Jurong East Library yesterday. In between picking up books we had lunch at Cafe Galilee and later explored the youth section of the library which I have never been to in search of Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' to pick up on a conversation I had with the kids on how Umayr can sometimes turn rebel from angel in seconds.
We amazingly came back on the train and bus ( we usually travel one of the way by taxi)It felt like a real achievement till I thought of the real expensive lunch that we had. I'll just take it as a holiday treat even though we are technically not on holiday. I'd like to think we can be on holiday and homeschooling at the same time- sort of a work-life balance.
I have just finished reading a book on homeschooling which I have forgotten to take note of by whom but it's available at Choa Chu Kang Library and one of the author's first name is Matine, the title is 'Homeschooling': ). I think in every quarter I have to read one book on a family's homeschooling experience to remind myself how great a non-institution homeschooling is and how I am doing the right thing for my kids considering our situation in Singapore now.
Matine homeschooled her kids using the unschooling method mainly and three of her kids are in good colleges- I remember at least one of them is in Brown and the other three are still between high school and elementary levels.
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Spontaneous Development
'The spontaneous development of the child should be accorded perfect liberty; that is to say, that its calm and peaceful expansion should not be disturbed by the intervention of an untimely and disturbing influence...' Maria Montessori
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Rainforest and such
This week has passed by more quickly than I expected and is already coming to an end. Its the second week of our Rainforest co-op and I am grateful to Raihanah for preparing some of the materials which I have managed to use in my daily lessons.
Monday morning was mainly the co-op thingy, I enjoyed walking around Choa Chu Kang Park and looking at the trees and trying to identify what type of leaves they have. I was very ambitious because after that we went to IMM and managed to do some shopping, eating and playing at the playground but had to ditch the water area as I realised my lighter than usual baggage was due to the fact that I didn't bring a change of clothes and towels for my children.
Tuesday was a long work session as I woke up half awake to Sofiyya asking for papers and stationery to do the metal insets (what did we move up the school hours?) I managed to squeeze in some housework as the boys worked on the 3D puzzle of the globe. After breakfast, Ihsan was timing himself on the puzzle as I worked with Umayr on his bromeliad model which was unfinished from Monday's session. Ihsan later joined us and made his while Umayr worked on the Darby activity book with his sister.
I put together some materials to make the miniature environment of a farm and asked Umayr to help me get some animal farm figurines. There was some confusion about which animals lived on a farm and this led to a 'modified' presentation on wild and farm animals. The boys searched for figurines and toys of animals around the house and put them into two groups. At the end of the search, we went through each pile and decided whether they belonged to the correct group and why. We then identified the similarities and differences between wild and farm animals.
We then worked on our miniature environment with a hut, bridge,pebbles,a cow and a horse I got from Daiso and a matchbox truck. There used to be more on our old farm but they 'got around' as most things do when it come to miniatures especially.Umayr of course took the opportunity to play with the truck with the excuse that he's working on the miniature farmhouse.
During this time, Sofiyya was working on her painting of fairies who flew through a gate to go back home.(I need to cut down on fairy storybooks)She then related this story to my mum, my dad and my husband, besides me of course. (My parents are staying with us as they are in between houses)
In between the works I've mentioned, Umayr and I actually did a 3 part lesson based on the Lego Knights and Castles book he asked me to read. At first we just read the book and Umayr would reproduce the scene with his magnetic figurines on the book. He then came to me asking which character was which and after I read to him the snippets at the back of the book I suggested he write them on labels.
The next day, he continued to work on this and labelled them to the figurines and checking his answer with the book.
On Wednesday, we somehow managed to start school on time which was not the case for almost the whole of last week. We usually start school at 8.30 and end by noon but I have not been disciplined in teaching the Islamic and Arabic lessons (basic Arabic with much reference to books ya..)if not class will usually resume after zuhr and end around 3p.m.
On that day, I revised with the kids how to take photos of the crafts we made for the rainforest co-op with my handphone and transfer them to the laptop. They then learned how to print out the photos and paste them into their lapbooks with a tagline. Ihsan wrote his on his own but Umayr refused to have any words in his. The boys worked for almost and hour decorating their covers with drawings of plants and animals of the rainforest.
Sofiyya had pictures of herself printed and I showed her how she can arrange them and staple them together neatly. The next day, I found pieces of paper folded together and stapled like an A5 sized book on the floor.
She also continued drawing circles with her metal insets on Wednesday and she came to me saying she couldn't cut a proper circle with her scissors. I asked whether I could show her. 'Oh, you have to turn then you'll get a circle!' Sofiyya said.It was a revelation to her that you have to turn your wrist around the circle outline to cut out the shape.
This continued on Thursday and she was drawing circles with her metal inset and cutting them that I suggested we make a centipede based on the book 'Speed,speed, centipede.' we read last week. Umayr joined in. The book was about counting in tens to hundred and I wanted to cut out ten sets of ten shoes but realised that it was too challenging (mostly for me) and settled on teaching Umayr how to make a paper chain of shoes.
While we were working on the centipede, Umayr said that he will make one that stands up. I was almost commenting that it'll be a complicated process requiring hardier cardboards and joining the pieces together with something ( what kind of explanation is that?) but I stopped myself and let him go figure it out himself. In the end he did make one that stood up. I actually thought he didn't realise that he was joining the head and tail together when in actual fact, he made a three dimensional model.
At the same time this was happening, Ihsan was sitting at the same table, working on his rainforest map and trying to figure out where the tropic of cancer and capricorn are on the globe to indicate on his map to demarcate the area where most rainforests are.
He then coloured the map according to the Montessori colours and pasted it into his lapbook. He worked on this for the next hour. I think I should have let him rest but him doing so in the room meant a diversion from his work mode; maybe this is 'false fatigue'. I had worked on the Birds nomenclature, in relation with the birds from the rainforest book we read in the morning,with Umayr earlier and was going to an extended one with Ihsan but he complained of tiredness.
I confess I should have dealt with it more intelligently, but my threshold was up to the neck today and I sadly, threatened deprivation of toys instead of trying to find a hook. He came reluctantly, and stated that he will read everything backwards and spoke to me backwards. It was easy with labelling, but I guess reading paragraphs on the functions of each part backwards ( he was reading from the end of the paragraph and right to left)was too much and he gave up after two paragraphs...hehehe...
I later did a presentation on the 3 part animal puzzle with Sofiyya and we traced the puzzles to reproduce the puzzle into a picture. I let Umayr play with an Oxford Reading Tree program on the laptop later and Ihsan worked on Math games with a Math Lab CD-Rom. Sofiyya got her Wordworld CD. I'm going down the drain with my sensorial and play philosophies with these CDs but sometimes they can be rather attractive.Sigh, I hope I can get the materials done soon, so I won't cave in to this...
Monday morning was mainly the co-op thingy, I enjoyed walking around Choa Chu Kang Park and looking at the trees and trying to identify what type of leaves they have. I was very ambitious because after that we went to IMM and managed to do some shopping, eating and playing at the playground but had to ditch the water area as I realised my lighter than usual baggage was due to the fact that I didn't bring a change of clothes and towels for my children.
Tuesday was a long work session as I woke up half awake to Sofiyya asking for papers and stationery to do the metal insets (what did we move up the school hours?) I managed to squeeze in some housework as the boys worked on the 3D puzzle of the globe. After breakfast, Ihsan was timing himself on the puzzle as I worked with Umayr on his bromeliad model which was unfinished from Monday's session. Ihsan later joined us and made his while Umayr worked on the Darby activity book with his sister.
I put together some materials to make the miniature environment of a farm and asked Umayr to help me get some animal farm figurines. There was some confusion about which animals lived on a farm and this led to a 'modified' presentation on wild and farm animals. The boys searched for figurines and toys of animals around the house and put them into two groups. At the end of the search, we went through each pile and decided whether they belonged to the correct group and why. We then identified the similarities and differences between wild and farm animals.
We then worked on our miniature environment with a hut, bridge,pebbles,a cow and a horse I got from Daiso and a matchbox truck. There used to be more on our old farm but they 'got around' as most things do when it come to miniatures especially.Umayr of course took the opportunity to play with the truck with the excuse that he's working on the miniature farmhouse.
During this time, Sofiyya was working on her painting of fairies who flew through a gate to go back home.(I need to cut down on fairy storybooks)She then related this story to my mum, my dad and my husband, besides me of course. (My parents are staying with us as they are in between houses)
In between the works I've mentioned, Umayr and I actually did a 3 part lesson based on the Lego Knights and Castles book he asked me to read. At first we just read the book and Umayr would reproduce the scene with his magnetic figurines on the book. He then came to me asking which character was which and after I read to him the snippets at the back of the book I suggested he write them on labels.
The next day, he continued to work on this and labelled them to the figurines and checking his answer with the book.
On Wednesday, we somehow managed to start school on time which was not the case for almost the whole of last week. We usually start school at 8.30 and end by noon but I have not been disciplined in teaching the Islamic and Arabic lessons (basic Arabic with much reference to books ya..)if not class will usually resume after zuhr and end around 3p.m.
On that day, I revised with the kids how to take photos of the crafts we made for the rainforest co-op with my handphone and transfer them to the laptop. They then learned how to print out the photos and paste them into their lapbooks with a tagline. Ihsan wrote his on his own but Umayr refused to have any words in his. The boys worked for almost and hour decorating their covers with drawings of plants and animals of the rainforest.
Sofiyya had pictures of herself printed and I showed her how she can arrange them and staple them together neatly. The next day, I found pieces of paper folded together and stapled like an A5 sized book on the floor.
She also continued drawing circles with her metal insets on Wednesday and she came to me saying she couldn't cut a proper circle with her scissors. I asked whether I could show her. 'Oh, you have to turn then you'll get a circle!' Sofiyya said.It was a revelation to her that you have to turn your wrist around the circle outline to cut out the shape.
This continued on Thursday and she was drawing circles with her metal inset and cutting them that I suggested we make a centipede based on the book 'Speed,speed, centipede.' we read last week. Umayr joined in. The book was about counting in tens to hundred and I wanted to cut out ten sets of ten shoes but realised that it was too challenging (mostly for me) and settled on teaching Umayr how to make a paper chain of shoes.
While we were working on the centipede, Umayr said that he will make one that stands up. I was almost commenting that it'll be a complicated process requiring hardier cardboards and joining the pieces together with something ( what kind of explanation is that?) but I stopped myself and let him go figure it out himself. In the end he did make one that stood up. I actually thought he didn't realise that he was joining the head and tail together when in actual fact, he made a three dimensional model.
At the same time this was happening, Ihsan was sitting at the same table, working on his rainforest map and trying to figure out where the tropic of cancer and capricorn are on the globe to indicate on his map to demarcate the area where most rainforests are.
He then coloured the map according to the Montessori colours and pasted it into his lapbook. He worked on this for the next hour. I think I should have let him rest but him doing so in the room meant a diversion from his work mode; maybe this is 'false fatigue'. I had worked on the Birds nomenclature, in relation with the birds from the rainforest book we read in the morning,with Umayr earlier and was going to an extended one with Ihsan but he complained of tiredness.
I confess I should have dealt with it more intelligently, but my threshold was up to the neck today and I sadly, threatened deprivation of toys instead of trying to find a hook. He came reluctantly, and stated that he will read everything backwards and spoke to me backwards. It was easy with labelling, but I guess reading paragraphs on the functions of each part backwards ( he was reading from the end of the paragraph and right to left)was too much and he gave up after two paragraphs...hehehe...
I later did a presentation on the 3 part animal puzzle with Sofiyya and we traced the puzzles to reproduce the puzzle into a picture. I let Umayr play with an Oxford Reading Tree program on the laptop later and Ihsan worked on Math games with a Math Lab CD-Rom. Sofiyya got her Wordworld CD. I'm going down the drain with my sensorial and play philosophies with these CDs but sometimes they can be rather attractive.Sigh, I hope I can get the materials done soon, so I won't cave in to this...
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Best Buys
Today was shopping day,Alhamdulillah.I sometimes think I buy too much for schooling everytime I touch something it must be educational. The boys bought walkie talkies which I thought would be a good hook for learning sounds for $15.90 from Children's World at IMM level 2, the shop opposite Baystreet 21.They also bought a box of around 50 country flag erasers for less than $5.00 which they of course use to play 'erasers' but I'm gonna use it for geography lessons. Sofiyya bought wooden cutting materials shaped like food from Learn-thru-Play. We had them before, but they died a natural death (parts got lost).
However, my best buy has to be my 3D globe puzzle from Children's World for $9.90.
The shop has a better one for I think around $60 and Puzzle World of course has the works if you've got the bucks.The boys were interested at first but the small size of the puzzle means they need good minor motor skills so they did parts after I divided them into continents and I put the whole thing together. A spherical base would also have provided more support.
They put numbers at the back; so younger children can start from there but I realise that some of them were wrongly numbered and it can get confusing as they go by layers. There were some spelling mistakes but that can be used as a lesson and for $9.90 this is a very engaging Geography lesson.
Now I need to find one missing piece...
However, my best buy has to be my 3D globe puzzle from Children's World for $9.90.
The shop has a better one for I think around $60 and Puzzle World of course has the works if you've got the bucks.The boys were interested at first but the small size of the puzzle means they need good minor motor skills so they did parts after I divided them into continents and I put the whole thing together. A spherical base would also have provided more support.
They put numbers at the back; so younger children can start from there but I realise that some of them were wrongly numbered and it can get confusing as they go by layers. There were some spelling mistakes but that can be used as a lesson and for $9.90 this is a very engaging Geography lesson.
Now I need to find one missing piece...
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