Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

Over the past years, I’ve written a few posts on the impact of technology in our lives, especially in the lives of our little ones.

[I shared how ‘Technology can be both good and bad‘, and also the topic of ‘Human Interactions versus Gadgets‘ earlier this year]

And today, I’d like to share how a child’s ‘natural curiosity and interest’ on mobile phones can be steered towards learning how to spell simple words too.

You see, I’m still using Nokia E63, and since I don’t play mobile phone games, I deleted them all from my phone. So, whenever my kids ask for my Nokia, they’d usually watch old videos of themselves, OR … they’d scribble all sorts of stuff on my ‘Notes’.

Anya, who is 7yo and can already read and write well, would sometimes create a ‘New Note’ and write sentences or short stories.

Vai, who is 4.5yo, on the other hand, prefers to randomly press on the keyboard and create random alphabets on the screen! =)

Now.

Since the beginning of this year, I’ve been teaching him how to read and write simple words at home. More like a ‘supplement’ to what he’s learned at school.

[Not a ‘compulsory’ activity where I’d pressure him to do worksheets daily though, as I believe at his age, he should be encouraged to LOVE to learn, and NOT be overly pressured against his will, which eventually will make him reject the whole idea of learning altogether]

So these days, once in a while, when he asks for my Nokia phone, I’d ask him if he could write simple sentences for me.

I’d say a sentence, slowly repeat the words, and he’d type them out one by one (note: ‘Predictive texts’ feature is turned off, so he’d need to type the alphabet one by one)

Sometimes he’s not sure of the spelling of certain words, and I’d then guide him (ie. Instead of immediately telling him the alphabets, I’d exaggerate and say the ‘sound’ of the alphabets in the word, so he could guess what alphabet comes next, based on the sound. eg. I’d go ‘Bbbeeehhh-Oyyyy’ … ‘Boy’ … ‘Bbbbeehhh – Ooooyyyy =)

Anyway.

This activity allows him to ‘revise’ the spelling of the words that he’s learned with me so far, WHILE using my phone at the same time. And, you can do this using the simplest mobile phone available, ie. No ‘applications’ need to be downloaded

And the good thing about it is, to him … it feels like he’s playing with my phone! =)

He doesn’t feel like he’s revising or learning how to spell =)

[Note: This little guy is more into playing with his Lego bricks and making jet aeroplanes, than writing or learning how to spell]

It’s quite a win-win situation, I guess =)