help me tip the scale?

[mamalink4]

Hi mama's. I am very curious about homeschooling, I have started my research on it and it seems a little overwhelming. So what I was wondering, and isn't in any of the research I've seen, but what would need to be done/focused on for a kindergarten year? I have a preschooler this year and while my school district is totally fine, I just don't like the lack of control that I have over what my son is being taught. It's nothing bad, I just am not too fond of having to ask him daily "what did you learn today". I would like to be able to go to bed at night knowing what he learned. Not to mention he cries at least two days a week about not wanting to go to school and that he wants to stay home. I know that he can't make the decision for us, but I have asked him what his thoughts were on mommy being his teacher next year, he was super excited about it. So my ? is what kinds of curriculum should I consider teaching him for his "kindergarten" year. I am hoping to be able to do a combination of unschooling and relaxed schooling. If that makes sense.

[Shianne]

I love this age. I have a 5 year old ds and we have a lot of fun. We do a combo of unschooling and very relaxed schooling. For math, he helps me cook, we count his change that he finds around the house, count flowers growing in the yard...etc. We read a lot together as well as listen to books on cd. He also attends storytime at the library once a week. I am an herbalist so he learns about herbs by helping me as well as nature walks that we do. We do lots of arts and crafts. He loves to do needle felting. He is learning Japanese through songs and games.

There are so many opportunities to teach what you want and how you want. I focus on the whole child and his enjoyment at the moment. There are so many things for him to experience and I don't want to waste it with him sitting in some classroom away from me.

[cappuccinosmom]

For kindergarten (and even first grade) we are super relaxed. The bookwork is more of an afterthought. The real learning happens in conversation and daily life.

We do have a formal curric though (takes very little time per day). What it covers:
-alphabet, writing letters, basic phonics and at the end of the year, beginning reading
-numbers, sorting objects, basic addition, time, money and measurement
-introduction to basic physical science and the human body.

All of this stuff could easily be taught if you have access to the internet and a library. We just like having it all there in front of us, pre-organized.

[Reebekah]

i bought a book on amazon.com called what your kindergartner needs to know....i also bought home learning year by year by rebecca rupp that covers what should be taught each year (you dont have to follow these exactly, but they give you a good idea if you need some direction)

[Savoir Faire]

Well...honestly, as he is K and it is your first year...not much

My daughter is K and my son is 4. So I'm TOTALLY there. I'd give yourself time to ease into things....just to get the feel of how it is going.

For the basics, I'd start with Handwriting Without Tears for writing. Don't ask me about reading (we have our own issues with that) so I'm not much a help there. We're doing Right Start Math for 1st grade for my daughter (level a) but are also having our 4-year-old son go along.

My question I always ask is....what do you want to get out of this? Do you like structure? What's your son's personality like?

[SundayCrepes]

My kids are 4 and 1.5. We are on the unschooling spectrum. We already belong to an unschooling group. We've gone on a tour of the fire department, PBS TV and NPR radio station combo, yesterday we went on the tour of a print shop where the kids got to make pin on buttons and watch t-shirts be silk-screened. Tomorrow we are going to play legos at someone's house.

This past week my son wanted to build a dam like he'd seen other kids do in this documentary: http://www.amazon.com/Building-David...9577136&sr=1-1 So we built it in his sandbox.

Another day he wanted to do an experiment he saw in his National Geographics Little Kids magazine--we put balloons on 2 water bottles and stuck them in containers of hot or cold water and saw what happened.

Recently he's helped me plant a garden. He knows how to care for chickens.

We read several books a day. His favorites are from this series: http://www.amazon.com/Say-Can-You-Se...9576804&sr=8-1

When I put the baby down for naps, he's allowed to watch documentaries. Recently my husband was quizzing him: What type hoses do they carry on a fire truck, what colors are firetrucks painted, how many welds in an average fire truck, etc. etc. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ef=oss_product

He also knows a lot about building houses-- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ef=oss_product

and cars http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ef=oss_product

He won't be old enough for kindergarten until August 2011 so I'm not worried about introducing academics, we just do what is fun for us. Since we'll be unschooling that's how we'll do academics as well--what is fun.

Sometimes I worry that we won't cover the right subjects just through normal life or he'll somehow get left behind so I bought these learning guildes: http://www.fun-books.com/books/livin...ing_guides.htm

According to the guides, a kindergärtner's math skills should include the ability to sort and count to 18 (along with other skills.) He's long been able to sort and only misses a couple numbers on the path to 18. I've looked at other subjects and just by living our life he's already accomplished many of the Kindy skills. Probably some of 1st grade as well.

[RiverSky]

My son was to public school for kindergarten and learned absolutely nothing all year long.

Read to your child every single day for 30-60 minutes, or more. Take your child to storytimes at the library and local bookstores at least once a week. Join your area homeschool support group and go on field trips, to park days and join any playgroups. Let your child play, play, play all the time, with toys and play-doh and with crayons and paint, and maybe sign your child up for weekly Music Together or Kindermusik classes.

If you do those things, your child will learn more than the kids in private or public school kindergarten.

I did buy the "what your kindergartener needs to know" book by E. D. Hirsch but I swear, my son wasn't exposed or taught anywhere close to 1/10 of what was in that book. It's cheap enough, so you could always buy it and read some sections in it during story time, but yeah, no stress.

[christinar]

I also recommend the Home Learning Year by Year book by Rupp, as well as The Well-Trained Mind. I really appreciated them for some guidance. We're very eclectic and not what I would call classical homeschoolers, but even still I found those books (and the Rainbow Resources catalog) extremely helpful. Lots & lots of reading, time outside, playing educational games (Mancala is great for counting, and so is Shut the Box; Bananagrams is fun for spelling/reading), and time with art materials is a lot of the way to go, I think.

[kittie313]

I have a K'er right now, she's the second one to do K. Here's what we've done this school year.

letter sounds and starting to read cvc words (she was already there though)
a few basic sight words (the, is, and, or, etc)
printing lowercase letters
introduced basic addition and subtraction concepts
introduced geometric shapes
started working on time and money skills

Oh, and we also did some geography like starting map-reading and learning bits about the continents and now are onto some US history, she's joined in on her 1st grade sister's ancient history and general science lessons, we've done K level health talking about the food groups and eating well, done soccer, stuff like that. We used a pre-packaged curriculum provided by the k12 school we're using *this year* for K and it has gone really well. But this stuff is about the level that I'd be doing with a K'er in math and reading for *formal* instruction if they showed that they were ready (dh actually had taught our K'er to add and subtract on a Saturday in about 20 minutes last school year by using the box of Cheez-its that he opened for their snack that day, they added and subtracted them by getting some from the bowl to add and eating some to subtract LOL)

But if you want a basic general guide of what to cover and when, here's one that I am planning to use (but we personally follow the guide one grade higher than each kid is supposed to be in because THAT more realistically follows our local ps on these things)

www.worldbook.com/typical_course_of_study.html

HTH and have a great year.