Who Else is starting w/ a Kindergartner this coming year? - Page 3

[emilys_mom1]

Anyone interested in doing some lapbooking together with our kinders this next year? We could have a book club and then do lapbooks for them. It would be fun to post them for all the kids to see.

[Autumn Breeze]

what is lapbooking?

[Plummeting]

Originally Posted by emilys_mom1

Anyone interested in doing some lapbooking together with our kinders this next year? We could have a book club and then do lapbooks for them. It would be fun to post them for all the kids to see.

That sounds fun...I'll have to see how DD feels about the idea. We've done the five senses and haven't gotten the book all put together yet. I think she'll be really excited when she puts it all together, but she may not.

[AdoptChina]

We are doing kindy this year and I just wanted to add that my DS has really liked the program we are using. Its McRuffy Reading & Phonics (which also encorporates handwriting). We also do Explode the Code just to switch it up a bit. For math we do Singapore Math but don't do this every day. My main goal for kindy was to get him reading so we've focused on that but taken it slowly

This summer we hope to work on some fun stuff---french, some science w/experiments and maybe try the Five in a Row book that we haven't gotten to yet.

[EviesMom]

I think I have the general calendar/concept I would like to use for homeschooling next year. I'd love some input on it!

I want to focus on the questions and concepts that DD is most curious about and asking me about; especially things that are too big for me to really answer in a short conversation. IE-in my sig, she asked about paper being made from wood; she's also asked about where metals come from, how wood becomes furniture; glass; rock; concrete. I think I could do a great "unit" on where things come from and carve something; see glassblowing (have relatives that do it); make paper. I can do books about the topics, and build in math where it fits; it will obviously use science; could toss in some social studies concepts easily.

That unit I think would run 4-6 weeks, then I want to take a week to do a project/lapbook about what we've learned. Then I'd like 2-3 weeks off to catch up on housework and errands, take a trip sometimes, and also start compiling resources for the next set of questions.

So I think it would run roughly 5-6 "sessions" a year; maybe 5 sessions and a mini session or two over the summer where we can focus on a single zoo animal or art style.

In addition, I think I want to do RightStart Math and something for basic reading per her request, maybe ABeCeDarian, but I don't know if we'll "schedule" them or do them whenever DD is interested. (She likes sit down lessons and worksheets, so I think she'd be interested often enough.)

[Plummeting]

I think that sounds fun, EviesMom.

[laf512]

Originally Posted by AdoptChina

We are doing kindy this year and I just wanted to add that my DS has really liked the program we are using. Its McRuffy Reading & Phonics (which also encorporates handwriting). We also do Explode the Code just to switch it up a bit.

We're also using McRuffy Reading & Phonics in conjunction with Explode the Code. Dd is really enjoying the McRuffy lessons and doing very well with it. I feel as if they could move a tad faster, but she doesn't seem to mind. I love all the extras included with the program. It certainly makes things a lot easier on me!

[emilys_mom1]

Lapbooking is taking information that you have learned from a book or subject and making a project out of it. Here are some of the Kinder ones I'm looking at doing:

http://www.homeschoolshare.com/level_2_lapbooks.php

I'm currently doing this one with my first grader:
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/chrysanthemum.php
We have read the book, watched the movie, and gone to the nursery to look at the flowers. I'll post pic when we are done for all to see.

We will be using
Sing, Spell, Read, and Write along with Before the Code (explode the code)
Math U See
Time4Learning (web)
Lapbooking with Before Five In A Row
Lots of board games and file folder games


I will also have a 2nd graders, so I can use the same programs for both.

[elizawill]

Originally Posted by emilys_mom1

Anyone interested in doing some lapbooking together with our kinders this next year? We could have a book club and then do lapbooks for them. It would be fun to post them for all the kids to see.

heck yea! that'd be awesome!! we love lapbooking and notebooking!:

[elizawill]

Originally Posted by emilys_mom1

We will be using
Sing, Spell, Read, and Write along with Before the Code (explode the code)
Math U See
Time4Learning (web)
Lapbooking with Before Five In A Row
Lots of board games and file folder games


I will also have a 2nd graders, so I can use the same programs for both.

you might want to incorporate FIAR volume 1 too. B4FIAR is super duper gentle and you may find it isn't enough (...even a little boring for your second grader). but of course you can use homeschoolshare for free and that will serve as a wonderful supplement. i love the FIAR boards and frequent the blogs there. they help me so much!! anyway, that just a thought

[sogriffin]

Us too!

DD turns 5 (gulp! that is a big girl!) a month after the public school cut-off date, so by the school system's definitions she won't be a kindergartener until Fall 2010. Back in the olden days when I was planning on sending her to school, I was actually quite pleased to have her delay official kindy by a year...I think I was just happy to keep her out of that environment though, since she's really sensitive to crowds and big noisy places. Now that we are definitely decided to be homeschoolers (forever, as far as I'm concerned) dd is showing that she is more than ready to start in on the kindergarten curriculum. The plan is to do a year-round relaxed scheduled so I think we may try to start in June and see how it goes. It'll either work or it won't, lol.

I go back and forth all the time on what curriculum to use. I am a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of gal, and I'd probably be just winging it in the future as we grow into our homeschooling skin. But I think that a boxed curriculum might work best for us for our first year, plus I will also be in school full-time so I need some help organizing our time.
At first I was thinking we'd use MBTP, but now we're thinking My Father's World.

[NickelB]

:

[mama_om]

unschooling mostly

My son is technically a kindergartner now (he turned five in early August and the cut-off here is end of August)... but I think of him as a kindergartner next year.

Though, really, he might just be in between! Because a couple of months ago, on the spring equinox, we started doing more with daily rhythms (again, after falling out of them) and also began using the kindergarten Oak Meadow curriculum (it's Waldorf-inspired). He loves to do the craft projects and to hear the stories about science (for example, evaporation is explained by telling the journey of a raindrop, etc.). The stories, since they're based on nature and timed to the seasons, dovetail wonderfully with our weekly walk in the woods.

He told me wants to learn how to read so I am feeling my way around with that, in addition to all the reading I already do to him... He has started the Explode the Code primers (he loves worksheets, which was a total surprise!), and we read the Bob books, easy readers, etc.

We walk in the woods by our house every week. We go the library once a week. We have a home day for cooking, baking and cleaning. We have Park Day with the homeschooling group we're part of. He takes a baseball class, and just recently stopped his musical instruments class, circus class, and art class. Quitting all the classes really opened up our days and gave us a good, grounded feeling.

So... that's us!

By the way, I'm a new/returning member to Mothering after a couple of years away. I've got two boys (almost 5 1/2 and 2 1/2 yrs old). It's nice to be back.

[scheelimama]

I suppose we're not officially doing K next year, but unofficially yes. I started K this past August with my 6 yr old, but she wasn't quite ready, we hit a lot of bumps in the road, took lots of breaks, and also moved several times during the year (military related). I would say she is ready for K work now. But my 4.5 yr old is also ready for K work. So, in the past few weeks, we started a new curriculum at the K level for both and both are enjoying it. If at some point my 6 yr old suddenly jumps ahead, I will move her ahead, but for now, it's working well to keep them both together in our school time.

[sbgrace]

My boys would be starting K in the fall. I don't know yet how I'm going to approach things. A big part of my reason for homeschooling was I want them to be free to imagine and play at these young ages.

I do have Handwriting Without Tears--PreK and K here and we started gently working through the prek when they turned five. And it's been fine and we just finished the alphabet so they can write their names which has been fun for them. I think I'm going to go back through the "tough" letters and add in a whole bunch of extra activities. So M I might read "If you feed a Moose a Muffin" and we'll bake muffins and I'll try to find a song and we'll do some type of art activity...maybe make sock puppets since the moose does that in the book or an art activity with a moose (or mouse...or the moon or whatever I end up focusing on). That sort of thing with a variety of activities for each letter just to make the repitition more interesting. I plan to do it in the shoebox type system so it's fun to see what's next for the letter of the day or week or however I decide to pace things. I'm a little bit torn as I don't want their time filled with academic type stuff so we'll see how it goes. If I pace it right it shouldn't take up much time and I'm in no hurry.

I plan to use Headsprout for reading though I don't know when we'll do that. They learned all the sounds of letters naturally and one kiddo is really into "building" words so maybe it'll just happen on its own for one or both of them. I don't want to push reading before they are ready and turn them off. I'm not concerned about when they learn to read as much as that they continue to love books. We'll probably continue to read a bunch of great books together and I'll answer questions as they come up for quite a while yet unless they indicate they really want to learn.

Math. I bought RightStart used. I planned to just have it because it's what I wanted to try and I found a good deal. But in looking through it the boys were really excited and it looks very gentle so I may try some stuff.

We do fun bible story stuff and I'll continue that and hopefully get a little bit more regular with it than I have been. They love this stuff but I'm just not good with follow through.

I'm letting great books and living life fill in the other curriculum areas for the early grades.

[rainbowmoon]

I think my DS will dig lapbooking. Do you have any links for a beginner?

[kgianforti]

So we are doing preschool this coming Sept and K next Sept. I'm using Horizons Preschool along with the "animal" concept from Moving Beyond the Page to supplement the first part of the Horizons curriculum. Just thought I would hijack this thread and toss in my preschool dd!

[Mommyintraining2]

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

Thank you! Thank you! You have so many amazing resources. I love the article on not forcing pre-schoolers and kindergarteners to read. I really needed this! And so many ideas. I'll be up all night reading all these great ideas. I so very much appreciate you posting this!!!

[maciascl]

I wanted to bump this up again so others can add to it. I need to read through it again & hopefully it will help me to stop obsessing about curriculum choices for next year. There are so many options I am overwhelmed.

[dotnetdiva]

I didn't respond to this thread a few months ago, but we've made so much progress since then that I think we're considering fall to be "kindergarten". My dd will be 5 in November. That said, here's what we're using this fall:

• Primary Math: Math-U-See Alpha
• Right Start Math for fun math games, might use Singapore for any extra clarification
• Reading: Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading - this is going super well and I love it! ReadingEggs.com when we take a break from real lessons, she's on Map 4 now
• Writing: Handwriting Without Tears - Letters and Numbers for Me
• TONS and TONS of read-alouds with the family
• History: History Odyssey and Story of the World with Activity Guide
• Science: using a bunch of sources, not planned out yet
• Literature: Five in a Row
• Language: few minutes of First Language Lessons a week
• Spelling: All About Spelling (she loves spelling!)
• Art: Artistic Pursuits and more

Wow, sounds like a lot, but I plan to do just an hour a day to start. We already started last month and some of this.