DIY Flash Card #4: Occupations

In my earlier post, I mentioned about sharing my DIY flash card files. A few mothers e-mailed me to express their interests in sharing the flash cards. I’m so delighted. Thanks all for your e-mails.

I’ve uploaded all the flash cards in Microsoft PowerPoint in Ripway. The download links have been added to my previous DIY Flash Card posts. The short-cuts have also been created at the right sidebar of this blog. If there is any broken links, please notify me via comments or e-mails.

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If you are using A4 size blank flash cards, you can print one slide per page. For me, I'm using A5 blank flash cards. So, I print in handouts with two slides per page. Two slides will be printed on one A4 paper. Then I cut them into two and paste them onto A5 blank flash cards.

This is set #4 for occupations.

Title: Occupations
Contents:
1. Doctor
2. Dentist
3. Police
4. Teacher
5. Scientist
6. Pilot
7. Singer
8. Pediatrician
9. Nurse
10. Soldier
11. Sailor
12. Barber

Download URL: http://h1.ripway.com/newbb77/Occupations1.ppt

More about Flash Cards

Today, I’m going to blog about this boring subject again – Flash Cards. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you’ll notice that I talk a lot on flash cards. In fact, if you are with Shichida Method (SM), you know that we can’t escape from flash cards. I believe that it works somehow, and that’s why I’m putting so much effort in it.

Purposes of Flash Cards
If you are wondering what the purpose of practicing flash cards is, let me give you a good introduction about it. Flashing the cards in a high speed activates our child’s right brain and empowers their memory ability. When we flash the picture cards, we read out the words at the same time. While the pictures are processed by the right brain, the left brain picks up the language. Both sides of the brain are connected during the process. In addition, flash cards can also increase our child’s vocabulary.

Topics for Flash Cards
I focus on the basic concepts; i.e. colours, shapes, sizes, numbers, orders, time etc. Understanding these basic concepts is the most important milestone for a one year-old. In addition, I also make picture cards with the same theme or topics, i.e. types of flowers, occupations, food, fruits, things you’ll see in town, Disney characters etc.

Pointers
I want to share with you four important pointers when we are practicing flash cards with our child. [taken from Shichida Method Parent Education Course Manual]
1. Do not repeat the same set of cards at a time.
2. Start with 100 cards in the first month, then to an average of 250, and then slowly move forward to 1000.
3. Have a title for each set of cards.
4. Set the cards higher than the child’s eye level.

DIY Flash Cards
I’ve made lots of them. In fact, it’s very easy, not to mention the cost savings if we make the cards ourselves. We can customize the pictures, themes and topics the way we want.

Sharing of Flash Cards
Yes! E-mail me! I’m open to sharing of flash cards and resources. Oh, I’m thinking of sharing my flash cards in Power Point format with you. I need a web hosting site for me to upload these files. Let me think of how to do this.

Read:
DIY Flash Card #3: Sesame Street Characters
DIY Flash Cards – It is so easy!

Okay, after a long post, let’s relax your eyes with pictures of cute Edison...

--Yippee! Christmas coming! Can you see the snow? =)

DIY Flash Card #3: Sesame Street Characters

Edison’s attention span has improved tremendously. He is able to sit and listen attentively during our home practice. Last night, he amazed me with his initiative. He pulled my hands and walked into our room. Then, he opened the cabinet and pulled out the flash cards. I was so surprised!

I’m motivated to make more flash cards for him. Since he loves Elmo so much, I’ve made this set of cards with Sesame Street Characters.

Title: Sesame Street Characters
Contents:
1. Elmo
2. Cookie Monster
3. Abby Cadabby
4. Big Bird
5. Ernie
6. Zoe
7. Bert
8. Oscar
9. Rosita
10. Grover

Resources:
http://www.sesamestreet.org

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Download URL: http://h1.ripway.com/newbb77/Sesame Street Characters1.ppt

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Read:
DIY Flash Card # 1: House of Disney
DIY Flash Card # 2: Sports

DIY Flash Card #2: Sports

Title: Sports
Contents:

1. baseball
2. badminton
3. soccer
4. diving
5. tennis
6. rugby
7. hockey
8. basketball
9. cycling
10. golf
11. boxing
12. water ski

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Resources:

1. http://www.pdictionary.com/english/browse.php?db=sports

2. Microsoft PowerPoint Clip Arts
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Download URL: http://h1.ripway.com/newbb77/Sports1.ppt

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Read: DIY Flash Card #1: House of Disney

DIY Flash Card #1: House of Disney

Last night, after Edison dozed off to Lala-Land, I quickly started my mission to make one set of flash card. With the assistance from my helper, the flash cards are completed within an hour!

Title: House of Disney
Contents:
1. Mickey Mouse
2. Minnie Mouse
3. Pluto
4. Donald Duck
5. Daisy Duck
6. Winnie the Pooh
7. Piglet
8. Eeyore
9. Tigger
10. Lilo
11. Stitch

Download URL: http://h1.ripway.com/newbb77/House of Disney1.ppt

What I used:
UHU stick, blade, cutting board, long ruler, printed pictures, blank flash cards

How I do it:
1. Download the disney pictures from these websites.
http://i-love-disney.com/disney-gallery/
http://disney-kingdom.com/

2. Make flash cards using Microsoft PowerPoint. Insert one picture into one slide. Print them on A4 size papers using a colour printer.

3. Next, cut the pictures in accordance to the size of the blank flash cards. I am using A5 size blank flash cards.

4. Paste the pictures onto the blank flash cards using the UHU stick. UHU stick does a better job than glue. Less mess and no spillage. You don't have to worry about the flash cards sticking together due to the excess glue.
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5. Finally, write the names of the Disney characters (i.e. Mickey Mouse) at the back of the flash cards. This enables us to read out the names when we flash the cards.

These are the pictures of the flash cards and PowerPoint.

Linking Music to Flashcard Slideshow

This is something that I learned from the Shichida class: Linking music to flash cards or slideshows. In this way, you will make learning FUN for the kids.

I made a flash card slideshow using Edison’s favourite song COUNTING BY TENS. He will shake his butts and clap his hands whenever he hears the song. Amazing! Hehehe...

I use the Microsoft PowerPoint to make the slideshows. First of all, I design the slides based on the lyrics of the song. Example, for lyrics “I love to count by tens’, I insert a picture of two children counting using an abacus and the numbers from 1 to 10. I put the lyrics at the bottom of the slide. I put some animation on it too, i.e. the wordings will ‘fly’ out when the music is started.

After all the slides are created, I insert the music (sound file) into the slideshow. You can set the music to be played Automatically when you go to the first slide or When Clicked.

The most tedious part is to custom the music and set the timing. I set the music to continue playing from the first till the last slide. I adjust the slide transition based on the music. You have to time every lines of the song and adjust the slide transition based on the timing. It takes a great deal of time to complete this part.

Once this part is completed, I do a final demonstration to confirm that the slideshow is working well.

Edison likes it a lot. Needless to say, I’m delighted as my hard works finally paid off! Looking forward to make another musical slideshow for Edison this weekend.

DIY Flash Cards - It is so easy!

DIY flash cards? Well, it is not as tedious as I thought. I made my first set of flash card last night. With the help from my hubby and helper, we completed 90+ pcs in about 2 hours! We have five titles altogether - Food, Things at Home, Counting by Tens, Animals and Numbers 1-20 (in Red Dots).

I bought the blank flash cards from Hiap Moh, a paper supplier in Singapore. The cost of the blank cards is:

1800pcs of A5 size (350gm) = $53.00
900pcs of A4 size (350gm) = $53.00

It costs you as little as 3 cents for one A5 flash card (if you make your own!). Besides the cost savings, you can design your own cards and select your own titles.

These are some of the useful websites that you can use as reference. I downloaded mine from BrillBaby.

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http://www.brillbaby.com/baby-downloads/flash-card-printout.php
http://www.search4dinosaurs.com/
http://store.banknotes.com/home.php
http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/
http://www.mes-english.com/flashcards.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_colors
http://www.eslflashcards.com/
http://www.lenntech.com/periodic-chart.htm

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These are my end products.... :)