June was an exercise in child-led learning. Forget about class or mommy’s “lesson plans,” our theme was on B’s all time favourite things…
Theme:
(1) Things that go: It started out with us reading Brian Biggs’ excellently illustrated vehicle series, esp. Everything Goes: In The Air for days up till (and after) B’s first flight to Phuket. Shortly after, his Chengzhu holiday program took the Playclub tots on the Duck Tour bus AND boat. Then we ended up flying again (aka the unplanned haze-cation) to Penang. For a boy already crazy about wheels and diggers, it only seemed natural that this ended up as our special monthly theme
(2) Shapes: Learning shapes is fun and easier as B recognises his rainbow colours (he calls indigo “dark bool” 😉 Besides the hand-me-down shape sorters, blocks and a timely Gymnademics home package set, we reinforced shapes through bean bag games, geometric foam pictures and playdough
We used lots of puzzles this month given B’s growing interest (and affinity) for this. Besides the wooden peg puzzles, we took out slightly harder board and magnetised ones. It takes him some time to get the alignment right even if he knows where it should go. But he takes them out from the boxes himself to work at it almost every day. For a boy that can’t stay at a task too long, this is quite a feat! We also used more representative learning to support what B would see in real life, i.e. block building a “duck bus/boat”, drawing the jet pilots and helicopters flying by for National Day rehearsal, browsing through books, transportation art and flashcards with photos and/or illustrated print, role playing with toys and sound effects, etc. We even tried threading with his Good Night construction site set. Speaking of which, B can thread in and occasionally flips it over to thread out but doesn’t quite know? have patience? to keep threading the next sequence.
Art and Craft: So many this month given the special occasions, but no time to complete a big special project (that one’s already WIP for next month). Our faves were:

(2) Garden montage to reinforce shapes and colours

(3) B’s first personalised photobook. To make reading (pages, prints, photos) more personal and fun, and also as an alternative to flicking through photos and videos on my smartphone. He seems to enjoy flipping through it and it grounds him esp. when we are away from home and as we have more periods of separation. Worth continuing and building on…

Outings: June was children’s season and school holidays. So… You guessed it! We went back to the Singapore Art Museum (awesome Enchanted Garden kids exhibit) and Gardens By The Bay (Flight of Fancy’s hot air balloons). We also visited the Philatelic Museum to see geek!mom’s Star Wars exhibit. With the Singapore Duck Tour, Phuket and Penang trips, B is slowly touring his way through Southeast Asia 😉
Personal:
– Mealtimes are back to normal, even better in fact since our Penang trip. B feeds himself, has a robust appetite, is keen to try new things, and most importantly, happily eats fruits and veggies again! At his 18.5 month check in/jab, B weighed 12.5 kg. He couldn’t stand still to measure the height, but based on his ex-pants shorts and pajamas, he’s definitely over 86 cm!
– Resumed potty training which I started / stopped earlier this year. This time, we are going the distance i.e. no diapers while at home and playdates. Also bought another, lighter single piece “portette”