Who Else is starting w/ a Kindergartner this coming year?

[crunchy_mama]

We started this year w/ preschool but it has taken a bit to get my feet wet and feel like I am getting in the groove of fitting everything in the schedule and working w/ his learning style.

Currently things are pretty laid back- although I started w/ a curriculum it was too much for him and me. WE read books together and he "reads" them himself, we play outside tons- we catch bugs and lizards and talk about the weather - we love Magic School Bus. WE play lots of games for math and other skills- he loves games. WE do puzzles and other activities, legos, build pictures w/ magnets, draw pictures outside and in- paint and sometimes color- although it isn't his favorite. He just started being really interested in writing letters so I bought the Handwriting w/o Tears preschool edition for him- He helps me cook(when he wants) and we garden and lots of other activities outside. WE have library storytime every Tuesday and homeschool co-op on Fridays(although we don't always go).

For next year I am looking at doing more of the same but adding in some more resources- especially for science. A lot of times we are talking about something and there is a chance to explore it more - say ants for example- but it would be nice if I had some resources on hand to go into it right then when he is interested. I would also like talking about history as well and other cultures, and have an atlas available to introduce that as well. I like the idea of unit studies in a loose way.

He likes to do things on his own a lot and minimal instruction. For his letters he doesn't want me to show him how to do it. He likes to look at it and figure it out himself. I don't know if that is good or bad- but that is how he works and it seems best to work with that.

We are not what I would think would be unschoolers though as I am not opposed to using some curriculum when I think it will help give us some guidance. He is just 5 though and I don't feel anything too rigid will work for us right now(maybe not ever). However, I do want to work more on providing opportunities to learn and an enriched environment- without pushing him too much.

anyway- I am curious if anyone else is starting a kindergartner this year and what your plan is? Are you using a whole curriculum? Different parts of curriculum? A style you like to follow?

[Jennifer3141]

We are! We are officially starting kindergarten in May, when DD turns 5.

We're using Calvert, although it looks pretty easy. I think we're going to sail through it in a few months. I was expecting something tricky in that big box but it looks like we've already done more than half of it.

I went to a boxed curriculum to assuage my DH's worries about testing. But we're unschoolers at heart. He needs the security of a box coming in the mail to feel like DD is really getting "school."

On top of Calvert, we've got a bunch of science stuff from Carolina. My favorite is the apron with internal organs. My kids loves tearing them off and putting them in the wrong place. And bugs. And slime. And frogs. And hermit crabs. Next year, it'll be chickens for 4-H.

And I've supplemented with History Odyssey.

[earthmama369]

DD will be kindergarten age this fall. I'm still having a hard time wrapping my mind about that. I'm not concerned about the homeschooling aspect of it. She asked me to start her in a homeschooling co-op at 21 months, so we've been doing this for a while. It's just that my baby will be FIVE this fall! That's not a preschooler anymore. And preschooler is close to toddler, which is close to baby. No, five is a Big Girl.

[rainbowmoon]

My head is spinning with all of the HS options! DS just tuned five and I have since been consciously devoting time everyday for "homeschool" activities. at least 1.5 half each day. Though we are not doing anything super structured mind you!

We have stated with Enki for rhythm currently. Since my partner works from home and he has a little sister at home as well as we just moved across country, this is a good fit for us to establish gentle rhythm.. Though I definitely will be using more academic curriculum come fall and likely a little more each year as he gets older. (reading, writing, math,history). I also currently lean more toward montessori type activities at this age which I find blend well with Enki. We are also currently using the books Science is Simple and Alphabet Art as DS really likes tactile experiences. He was teaching himself to read last summer and into the fall. but he seems to be taking a break from it. He likes to practice writing. He also is doing a ton of art projects lately. Clay, paint, drawing,etc. He is learning to tell time and count money. We hike almost daily and are planting a garden. Last week he painted a birdhouse and we are growing flowers and making bird feeders as family projects. We also are going to be traveling quite a bit this summer, so I am not planning anything too serious until fall. Just taking the relaxed approach!

I think he's really love to learn to spin a pottery wheel but the studios around here that have classes are all for older kids. He is really into sculpting/painting though so I may have to look into it more as I think he'd love it!

He will also be doing different community art classes and a farm camp this summer. He has also been going to a friends nature workshops once a month. I am going to start another Earth Scouts group early next year. (I stated one last year but we moved across country in Jan.)..

[Shianne]

Wow! I didn't really think about it til you brought it up. I have one starting kindy this year. I may just wait though since he has a late birthday.

We tend to be more unschooly, definitely child led. I have textbooks and workbooks available and it is their choice to use it, but we tend to do more activities. We spend more time taking nature walks and are more play oriented. I don't see that changing with him. He is that type.

As for resources, I have been downloading things for ages it seems like especially since there are two that come before him. I've just been printing things out and storing them in folders for whenever their use comes up. We also have tons of books that could rival a library.
He can already knows his letters and can read a little. I think its funny when a friend of mine tries to get him to sing the alphabet song. She thinks I'm doing something wrong since her kids knew the alphabet song since they were like 2 and 3. I just stare blankly. Although he can sing several songs in Japanese.

Time sure flies. I have one moving out this year and one starting school. Wow. I'm getting up there.

[Lillian J]

Not starting kindergarten - my son is already grown and close to finishing up college - but I'll offer my article, A Homeschool Curriculum for Preschool and Kindergarten.

And this page has lots of other articles above an annotated list of links to sites that have fun learning activities for little ones - Preschool & Kindergarten Learning Activities. Lillian

[laf512]

I'll be starting kindy with my dd in August. It will be our first year homeschooling as she goes to a private preschool right now. I've kind of picked and choosed various things for our curriculum. We'll be doing the McRuffy K Phonics and Reading curriculum, McRuffy K Science, A Reason for Handwriting K, and Math U See Primer (or Alpha...she can already do the basics covered in Primer, but I want to start with that to gently ease her into formal math). We'll add in various arts and crafts, field trips, reading and bible lessons. We're not the unschooling type. Both my dd and I need structure and she LOVES doing worksheets and book work so I think this will work out well for us.

My dd will only be turning 4 in May, but she already knows all the preschool stuff and a lot of kindy stuff so we decided to just jump in with kindy. If it appears to be too much though, we'll take it at a slower pace and spread it out over 2 years.

[purplemoon]

Originally Posted by Lillian J

Not starting kindergarten - my son is already grown and close to finishing up college - but I'll offer my article, A Homeschool Curriculum for Preschool and Kindergarten.

And this page has lots of other articles above an annotated list of links to sites that have fun learning activities for little ones - Preschool & Kindergarten Learning Activities. Lillian

:

You answered a question for me about a week ago about play and my preschooler. It was very supportive and I am new to this. I am also new to MDC.

However, the reason for me writing is that I read that first link long ago (you added more links I believe) and it was long before I even knew of MDC.

It was inspiring. On my old computer I had it bookmarked.

Just had to let you know that.

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by purplemoon

Just had to let you know that.

How nice to hear! Thank you! Lillian

[Whistler]

My DD turns five in November. So she is not eligible to start Kindy at the PS or at the Private school. They simply draw a hard and fast line at September 1.

We are already doing reading and math stuff though because she asks for it constantly. I looked through some Wal-Mart workbooks to fins some fun activities to do together and her current level of need is in the first grade workbook.

So while not technically eligible for Kindy until 18 months from now, she is doing first grade work and is so thirsty for more. I don't push her and mostly just enoucourage play. I decided not to worry about labels and levels or whether her social or motor development is on par with her reading level. It simply doesn't matter to me.

I'll let her keep working on her workbooks and doing educational games because she likes them and take more of the unschooling approach. I doubt I'll bother o put her in Kindy when we get there because by then who knows what level of academics she'll need. As long as we can keep enough social stuff going on, and I think we can as many of our good friends are homeschooling, I imagine we'll stick with the eclectic/unschool approach. As far as "what grade is she in?" I assume we'll just go by age. She's in Preschool.

[elizawill]

my little boy just turned 5. he will officially start kindergarten in the fall (i.e., i'll register him through our association). he's very excited ...and this summer he even switches classes at church from preschool to K-2 class. he thinks he's hot stuff, lol.

for curriculum, i have MUS primer and ETC primer. he likes www.readingeggs.com too. all other subjects he'll learn alongside his sister (we have FIAR)

[ebethmom]

My dd will be 5 in July, so we'll be starting K in August. She likes to mess around with the Explode the Code primers, and we do a lot of conversational learning.

For K, our routine will probably include:

Five in a Row

New American Cursive or Write Now Handwriting (I have both of these workbooks ready, so I'll just see which one works better for us)

RightStart Math

Violin

[elizawill]

Originally Posted by Whistler

My DD turns five in November. So she is not eligible to start Kindy at the PS or at the Private school. They simply draw a hard and fast line at September 1.

this happened with my dd too. her birthday is early october so she started k at almost age 6. even though we homeschool, i had to be compliant with public school standards. i'm glad we waited though...things are perfect

[True Blue]

DD1 will be 5 in the fall. Here in FL, that means she can't start kindy yet if she were in school, but in NY where we lived last, she could. LOL. Anyway, we move all the time and she's ready for more so we'll do K in the fall. She does Headsprout now, and we'll add Rightstart math A, more HWT, more Language Lessons for Little Ones (she likes doing it lol so I got it so she could have 'work' too), and she'll tag along with what DS does when she wants for science and history (I'm thinking History Odyssey maybe?). No pressure, just dabbling still mostly, but I'll call it kindy for her bc she is ready.

[xanandali]

My son turned five a couple weeks ago but we've already being using the kindergarten level of the My Father's World curriculum as a "k4" since I had heard it was fairly easy. My son HATES handwriting and reading, but of course they are fairly important academic achievements LOL Being a bit unschooly at heart myself, rather than push him with those I've decided to pretty much just omit them until he's a bit more interested and mature enough to sit still long enough to do it! Interesting to me since reading is often the first thing I hear people doing, but its definately last on our list.

My husband too is one who wants to see "paperwork" so we are going to get alpha omega lifepac's for Bible, History, & Science for the second grade level (kindergarten is only language & math, 1st grade was WAAAY to basic) and I'll just read it to him until he can read for himself. Makes it more interactive for us to have a conversation about the topics anyway. I ordered just two of the first grade books to check them out and see what he thinks and they seem like much less busy work than the alpha omega horizons books (which we used a little this year for langauge and math.)

Our schedule will entail a playgroup weekly, joining the local HS group so we can go on "field trips" together (monthly I think), and doing just a couple pages of the lifepac workbooks a day. We already go to the library frequently so we'll keep that up too.

[Marimami]

DD would be going into K if we had not pulled her out of school. She had just about completed the pre-K Handwriting without Tears at her private school before we pulled her out at the beginning of March. She has requested the next one in the series. Otherwise, we are not doing any established curriculum.

Holli

[theretohere]

My DD will be 5 in a week!
We did preschool stuff this last year- Rod and Staff's preschool, Hooked on Phonics Kindergarten, and Singapore Earlybird.

We've already started some of the Kindy stuff and will add in more after the summer.
Right now we're doing:
Singapore Earlybird 2A
Hooked on Phonics 1st Grade
Cursive First
and Galloping the Globe

and we'll start some gentle nature study once the weather is not so cold and FLOODING. : We'll also start Latin.

: DD loves homeschooling. And I do, too.

[tanyalynn]

My daughter will be school-age in Texas this coming fall, which prompted me to start thinking about goals I have for the next, say, half-year (I always need a plan, even knowing I will deviate from said plan, probably several times).

I came up with:
-get outside and run around every day
-enroll in readingeggs.com (we did the trial and enjoyed it)
-try to sit down a couple times a week to talk about numbers and patterns (DH and I are/were engineers, so we're a number-oriented family)
-see if we can do Rosetta Stone together, since I want to learn Spanish too
-see if I can fit in some other Spanish language activities a couple times a week

[Smithie]

My ds has finally persuaded me to pull him out of K4 (his last day was Friday! Woot!). I don't think he'll ever willingly walk into a school again, unless he figures out upon attaining puberty that all the girls are there.

He's very computer-oriented, and we can get K12 for free through a public virtual charter school, so we're going to try that for a year starting in September and see how it goes. I am actually not a huge believer in a structured kindergarten program, but ds loves curriculum and milestones and structure as much as he hates being cooped up in a room with his age peers for hours on end. I think he'll adore K12.

My big challenge for this year is to find a way for ds to work with animals - that is his passion. Maybe a 4H project?

Right now, we're working through Saxon Math K and Hooked on Phonics, mostly so that I can get in the habit of making schooling a normal part of our days.

[MaWhit]

My youngest will be kindergarten-aged this fall. We'll just keep doing what we've always done. No transition or anything, since we unschool.