Kindergarten

 

Here’s Harry.  He’ll be starting his first “official” year of homeschooling in September.  Please ignore Sam’s fist in this picture.  Poor Harry was just innocently smiling for the camera; I’m sure he wasn’t doing anything to antagonize his older brother to the point of insanity. 

Don’t you just love kindergarten?  It’s my favourite year.  Kindergarten stuff was what got me hooked on homeschooling in the first place.  Teaching Daisy to read was amazing…kind of like when your baby takes her first steps.  My plan for Harry’s kindergarten looks fairly similar to Daisy’s first year homeschooling. 

Language Arts:

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons – I’ve used this with all of my kids so far.  Harry has three lessons left.  It’s easy, it’s simple, and it gets them reading quickly.  Except it didn’t work quite as magically with Sam.  Don’t even ask me about teaching him to read.  I’m not ready to talk about it yet.

Explode the Code - I love these workbooks.  They satisfy the need for “real” work, they’re uncluttered and they have a point.  I use the Get Ready for the Code series informally while doing 100 Easy Lessons.  Harry will start Explode the Code 1 in September.

BOB Books – I follow up 100 EL with the last set of BOB books.  I have flashcards made for all of the new sounds (like “qu”) and I approach them in a similar way to how a new sound is taught in 100 EL. 

Accelerated Reading List - I don’t use the program, but they have a great list by grade level that is perfect for finding a book that is just right.  You can use the library, read real children’s literature (rather than “readers”) and use books that are easy as well as books that are at the correct “instructional” level.  I make sure we have a good selection.  I want my early readers to feel successful reading so I keep some easy books around but I also want some books that I can use with them at an instructional level.  After finishing the last set of BOB books my kids are usually ready for a mid-grade one to early grade 2 level book.  Then we just slowly work our way up through the reading levels and then all of a sudden they’re reading The Secret Garden or Black Beauty.  No boring reading program or formal phonics required. 

Spell To Write and Read – Speaking of boring phonics (or phonograms in this case)…I’m using SWR to teach spelling.  I’m sure that some of it factors over into the reading as well – in fact it may have been what made the difference with Sam – but, my emphasis is on spelling.  Daisy is a natural speller.  Her first experience at studying spelling was for last year’s spelling bee (*WARNING* shameless brag – she placed 3rd at the Regionals).  Sam, however, is not a natural speller and I’m not taking any chances with Harry.  We’ll be going over the phonograms this year and learning spelling rules.  I may or may not have him start his own notebook this year.  SWR is, by far, my biggest homeschooling challenge.  I think it’s worth it.

Math:

Right Start Math - I really like Right Start with little people.  I dabbled in level A with Harry last year and plan to start level B in September – even though we didn’t finish level A.  Harry loves the games and the attention and the songs.  He would be so at home in a classroom and I’m terrible at things like songs and games.  Right Start brings it all together for me and also approaches math in a way that promotes understanding and application.  We’ll eventually transition over to Singapore, but this year we’re going to enjoy Right Start together.

Bible:

We’ll be learning a lot about church history in TOG, but we’ll also be doing daily Bible reading together as a family and we’ll be attempting to memorize the book of James.  Pointers would be appreciated.

I’m working through the book, How to Make Brothers and Sisters Best Friends with all of the kids right now.  Can you guess why we’ve chosen that title (hint: what is Sam trying to do in the picture at the top of this page?).  I remember being absolutely confused by the idea of sibling rivalry when I only had two children and they were 4.5 years apart.  Daisy adored Sam, Sam adored Daisy, all was well with the world.  Then he turned two and started destroying her stuff.  It kind of snowballed from there.  My four get along really well most of the time, but you don’t want to be anywhere near them when they’re not getting along.

History/Art/Geography/Literature: 

Tapestry of Grace Redesigned Year 2 – We’re studying the Middle Ages this year using units one and two of TOG Yr2.  The bigger kids will be doing more of TOG; with Harry I’ll just be reading out loud and doing hands-on projects.  He may do some mapping if he’s into it and he may do a lap book at some point.  This will be really low-key and he’ll join in when he wants to.

Latin: 

Prima Latina – I started this with Harry last year in co-op.  I spent the entire school year doing the first five (or so) lessons in Prima Latina with a group of 3 to 6 year olds.  It may sound painful, but we had so much fun!  I’m not even very good at teaching small children in a fun way, but we played tons of games and generally enjoyed learning some Latin together.  This year I have older beginners as well so we’re going back to the beginning of Prima and we’ll finish it by doing a lesson each week. 

French :

See my French post : ) 

Italian :

Yes, I’m a little nuts.  We’re doing Italian, too.  We’re blessed to have an incredible Italian community here and they offer weekly Italian classes (2 hours each Saturday) to children during soccer’s off-season.  So, from the end of September until April my kids go to Italian.  The teachers there are so warm and loving with the kids and besides, they cook a big Italian meal for the Christmas recital and party.  If you ate it you’d see that it’s worth a year of driving kids to Italian every Saturday morning.  My big challenge this year will be to review what they’ve learned with them during the week (I’m sure that will end up being my resolution for next year, too).

 

Violin :

Harry is in Suzuki violin and has one private and one group lesson each week.  We aim for a minimum of half an hour of practice each day. 

Taekwon-do :

He’s dying to take TKD.  You see, his career depends on it.  How can he possibly be a ninja without learning TKD?  I’m actually stifling his dreams right now.  I’d like to wait until he’s 6 but I think I’ll be outvoted. 

That, in a nutshell is Kindergarten.  Or, will be.  Or will be something approximately like what is written here.  Maybe. 

And here’s my weekly planning sheet: Harry’s Planning Sheet