Who Else is starting w/ a Kindergartner this coming year? - Page 4

[LionTigerBear]

My oldest son is turning five this month, and we will be getting back to "school-y" stuff this fall. We will be "doing" Kindergarten.

Reading and literature: We will continue slowly learning about phonics and working on reading (his interest, his pace). I will try to read to them as much as I can during the day. DH also reads to them almost every night from a chapter book (right now it's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).

We are deliberately NOT doing handwriting practice or any math curriculum-- that would be too much structure for us at this age, IMO. Plenty of math talk and exploration comes up in our daily life.

We will do "circle time" with him and his younger brother, my preschooler, almost every day. Circle time takes about 30 minutes, and during circle time we will sing a few songs, reinforce themes and ideas they are focusing on in Sunday school, talk about the weather, the calendar, and then do a little activity (usually arts and crafts something).

DH and I are also starting (again) to learn Spanish, so I will be sharing that with the boys, somehow, too. Maybe work some of that into circle time.

We will go for nature walks as much as we can, and also we have a membership to a couple of local museums.

I would like to get DS into gymnastics or martial arts or something as well, but I don't know if we will be able to afford it this year.

I think that about covers it. I am excited for the coming school year.

[zebrachick83]

dd will turn 5 in october, so she's not required to register until next year. i would start her in a couple of weeks with the school system, but i'm 36 weeks pg and there's no point in starting now only to stop for 6 weeks in a month or so. so we'll start up mid October with Ambleside's Year 0 program. i really like the CM method based on what i've read, so we'll give that a try. she already reads and writes so i'm more interested in getting her to love to read more books and we'll probably start regular math exercises too.

[kittie313]

My second dd is starting K this year, and we're starting to learn at home again (enrolled dd1 in public halfway through the school year because of my health) We are using the OH virtual academy, so we are ps at home here. But my oldest, we were independent hsing her until we had to enroll her and we used a huge variety of things, we had soooo much fun too with it. We did lapbooking and unit studies, alone with Sonlight materials (and a few failed math and reading programs before we completely gave up on that area lol) We are really looking forward to this year, it marks the beginning of our kids never being in a ps again as long as dh and I are both alive (at least, one that they will have to ride the bus to get to, the va is about as close to a ps as I wish to ever get)

[William's Mom]

My ds will turn 5 in August of this year, and shortly after his birthday, we'll start "kindergarten" at home.

We are a very nature-based family. We hike deep into the forests at least once a week, and have found so many wonderful ways to incorporate hands-on learning into our hikes.

We also do lots of reading together as a family. I have a loose set of ideas for a kindy curriculum, but we are following my son's lead. Right now, he is very interested in nature, animals and science.

Even though we've been learning together all along, my son knows we'll "start" kindergarten after his first birthday, and he's been saying, "I'm so excited! I can't wait!"

[LionTigerBear]

Originally Posted by zebrachick83

dd will turn 5 in october, so she's not required to register until next year. i would start her in a couple of weeks with the school system, but i'm 36 weeks pg and there's no point in starting now only to stop for 6 weeks in a month or so. so we'll start up mid October with Ambleside's Year 0 program. i really like the CM method based on what i've read, so we'll give that a try. she already reads and writes so i'm more interested in getting her to love to read more books and we'll probably start regular math exercises too.

We're doing Ambleside year 0, too! : I get so excited about it!

[Savoir Faire]

We are starting Kinder this year. We've been happily doing preschool at a school...but now it is time to take the plunge.

I'm scared to death.

So far...we have the Five in a Row and Muquon math. I feel like I pretty much have NO IDEA what I'm doing or how to go about all this.

Every day I keep meaning to figure SOMETHING out...I just haven't yet.

[rainbowmoon]

We are gearing up for kindergarten here!

I'm so excited!!!

(we are using Enki, OM and some other random things as far as curriculum goes)

[maciascl]

I think I have our curriculum picked out...well really only using a curric for math (Math U See) & reading (Hooked on phonics & Click N Read) the rest is a little of this & a little of that.

I am stumped on history/social studies. I am trying to stay relax so I am not interested in an intense history of the world curric. We do have a US map, a globe, some US state & president flashcards, Magic Tree House books & some videos about firefighters & trains...other than that I don't know what to look for. What are you doing in these areas?

Our state standards are:
- recognize US symbols (flag, eagle, white house etc..)
- understand the idea of being a good citizen
- recognize people in the community & what they do (police, fire, doctor, etc...)
- use a calendar
- understand that history relates to people & places of other times

[kgianforti]

We are getting closer to a final curriculum for PreK/K!!

Horizons Preschool - Bible, tracing, writing, arts/crafts
Singapore Earlybird B - math
Horizons Phonics/Reading K - phonics and reading

I don't have to report until 6 years old so we'll see where it goes!

[Radish4ever]

We're following the curriculum "Home Education Curriculum: Kindergarten" - it's a very easy (but literature intensive compared to several I've seen) curriculum that is very early childhood appropriate.... We're supplementing with The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and then I will add in First Language Lessons (level 1) once we're several more lessons into OPGTR. We are also doing the Get Ready, Get Set, and Go for the Code books and will soon begin the Explode the Code series.
I also supplement with extra math practice in the form of worksheets (my DD loooooooooves them lol) and I'll be going more into time and money practice as well.

[scheelimama]

Originally Posted by Radish4ever

We're following the curriculum "Home Education Curriculum: Kindergarten" - it's a very easy (but literature intensive compared to several I've seen) curriculum that is very early childhood appropriate....

I would love to get this, but can't seem to find it for an affordable price. I got the 1st grade level, but it's a bit too advanced for my 1st grader (she's a bit behind grade wise.)

[heatherdeg]

Well it's 4 months later and I'm back... in full planning mode for next year and with a different perspective than my last post. For one, Core Knowledge is OUT and Moving Beyond The Page is in. I liked concept 1 so much I bought the remaining 5-7 level manuals/workbooks. So there's that. It's a max of an hour/day--so it leaves us an awful lot of room for other stuff.

I'm going to build around that using activities and read-alouds from "What your Kindergartner Needs to Know".

Sticking with Saxon math. We love it. We're finishing K and I've bought 1st grade. (that's another 15-20 mins/lesson 3-4 times/week)

He gets enough handwriting through his OT. I'm so over it.

Beyond that, it's all enrichment stuff. We're diving HARD into foreign language--following his interest in it (since said interest has lasted beyond 6mo). We're going to see about Spanish and French (I speak French and we all need to learn Spanish).

If he's still into the violin after his summer lessons, we'll do that.

And this year we're really going to work on his gross motor skills since they were noted concerning during his evals this year (he's been special ed for 2 years). He'll continue with his 30 mins/week swimming and we're adding 1 hour/week at "MyGym" (kind of a multifaceted gross motor fun class).

Last, we're adding more nature to the deal. A pp said they hike deep into the woods once/week and I honestly don't know why we don't do that more. So I'm going to get a backpack for the baby and give it a go! The reservation has a nature center that runs 1-hour activities for 4-6yos and hopefully we'll get in early enough to sign up for the really messy water stuff (finding salamanders and the like).

I think that's plenty. He wants to do a Creative Drama class for K-2 but I'm thinking it may be a bit much.

That being said, if the schedule proves to be too overwhelming (and really, it sounds worse than it is--we had a similar situation this past year), the actual school-y stuff gets ditched in favor of the other activities... this year.

[rainbowmoon]

I'm so glad this thread is getting active again. :

I am definitely looking for a good globe that a younger child can use for DS this upcoming year. Any ideas for a good one or should I just get a regular one?

I am going to incorporate letterboxing/geocaching into homeschool fun somehow.

Looking for ideas for writing..any links to good sites with free worksheets? isn't there a site where you can make your own?

Definitely giving Saxon math a go!!!

Oh we are going to make up our own bookclub too..not sure how exactly but something with a common theme of some sort each month..then we'll do activities/fieldtrip..

what do you feel are essential kindergarten skills? (I will post mine later when I have more time)

we also are using herbal roots and learning about plants,botany, biology,etc.!

[rainbowmoon]

we have been talking alot about laws, basic US geography, the moon landing, space exploration, the president and what the police do.

Originally Posted by maciascl

I am not sure what else..and obviously some overlap into sciences..

I am stumped on history/social studies. I am trying to stay relax so I am not interested in an intense history of the world curric. We do have a US map, a globe, some US state & president flashcards, Magic Tree House books & some videos about firefighters & trains...other than that I don't know what to look for. What are you doing in these areas?

Our state standards are:
- recognize US symbols (flag, eagle, white house etc..)
- understand the idea of being a good citizen
- recognize people in the community & what they do (police, fire, doctor, etc...)
- use a calendar
- understand that history relates to people & places of other times

[heatherdeg]

Originally Posted by rainbowmoon

what do you feel are essential kindergarten skills?

In general? I'm not sure I have any. I kind of feel like the "educating before the age of 7" theory has proven to work so well (look at Finland) that I'm really just following my kid when it comes to academics. But if he weren't bent on teaching himself math and already reading at much higher grade level, we wouldn't be bothering with it. Seriously.

And I guess this is why the enrichment stuff I'm planning takes priority over academics if time doesn't accommodate all of them.

I know the majors for our district are:

* Knowing letters and letter sounds
* Starting to print letters (with end of year doing so on a drawn line)
* Understanding "pulse"/beat in music (being able to pick up the beat and clap with it)
* Knowing the primary colors and understanding they can be combined to make secondary colors
* Being able to tell time (on the hour--not the increments)
* Identifying coins
* Counting to 100
* Understanding that a map is a way of knowing where something is

I can't remember the rest. It came up during my argument that my son didn't need to attend a classroom program to receive SpEd services since he's so far ahead that he'd be bored and therefore misbehaved.

[Radish4ever]

Originally Posted by scheelimama

I would love to get this, but can't seem to find it for an affordable price. I got the 1st grade level, but it's a bit too advanced for my 1st grader (she's a bit behind grade wise.)

The book series "Learn at Home" is VERY, VERY similar. In fact, I think that McGraw Hill bought out the series from Instructional Fair/TS Denison and then replaced it with that series. It's pretty good and has color worksheets and stuff - the layout is a little more user friendly and you can find those books for $10 or so shipped used on abebooks, amazon, half.com, etc

For the HEC: K, you might check homeschoolclassifieds.com

[scheelimama]

Originally Posted by Radish4ever

The book series "Learn at Home" is VERY, VERY similar. In fact, I think that McGraw Hill bought out the series from Instructional Fair/TS Denison and then replaced it with that series. It's pretty good and has color worksheets and stuff - the layout is a little more user friendly and you can find those books for $10 or so shipped used on abebooks, amazon, half.com, etc

For the HEC: K, you might check homeschoolclassifieds.com

Thank you! I looked at the preview on Amazon and you're right, it does appear to be pretty similar.

[limette]

I guess I am even though it doesn't really feel like it. Nothing serious just play stuff.

DD1 is going to be 4 in December and has surpassed all the kindergarten knowledge stuff, she's already reading and she's been asking to "do school" so I've picked three themes based on her interests to explore this year; dinosaurs, astronomy and the human body.

I have no plans on doing anything scheduled so much as I want a list of activities to do that we can pick from as she wants.

Here's what I've got so far. It's mostly reading and crafts.

Dinosaurs;

story books
non-fiction books (they have puzzles to put together and field guide stuff)
puzzles
stickers
paint a dinosaur
make play dough dinosaurs
make dino puppets
make dino fossils/tracks (with plaster of paris)
paper mache volcano
dig a fossil kit
misc crafts
dinosaurs movies

Human Body;

"Me and My Amazing Body"
"Big Book of the Human Body" pop up kinda book
stethoscope for listening to her heart

Astronomy;

"There's No Place Like Space"
viewing of planets, the moon, nebulas etc (we have a really great telescope)
viewing of meteor showers
make a model solar system

I'm still brainstorming so if anyone has any idea let me know.

[MamaPam]

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.

Yes, we'd definitely be interested in doing this.

[MamaPam]

Our oldest DD will be doing K this year. We've decided to use Tapestry of Grace and slow it to half pace. DD is half way through the second Explode the Code Book. And we're in Singapore Earlybird Math 2B. We're using Bob Books for readers and Dr. Seuss. We're dropping Handwriting Without Tears to use a more standard print. We'll probably continue to do a chapter or two a day out of another book for a read aloud as well. We'll do some science projects here and there. We may pick of First Language Lessons or Langauge Lessons for Little Ones at some point.

There's a PE class a twice a week and a Story Time/Art Project Class twice a month with our homeschooling group. We'll also do field trips once a month with our homeschooling group.