I'm homeschooling my two oldest children, the younger of them is a boy who is also 4.5 with a late december birthday. We work all year with random weeks off when we are so inclined so right now he is doing kindergarten work. He's going math u see primer and it's a bit on the easy side for him. He also has a kindergarten phonics book (the same one my almost 6 year old did at this time last year). He's fine with the phonics and math material but has difficulty with writing stamina and neatness, which is totally normal for a four year old. I have a k handwriting book for him as well but it's too much for him right now.
Other than that he just participates in listening to me reading aloud and k/first grade level science reading and projects (like growing sugar crystals and visiting museums), history (reading and visiting museums and historical sites), art (drawing, painting, color mixing, drawing with chalk, cutting/glueing, and going to the art gallery), music (he took suzuki violin before we moved and we are continuing it as a family at home until we can find another instructor), geography (simply talking about what we see on the globe and on maps).
I tried to get him to do preschool workbooks starting last summer but he found them boring, they were just coloring and letter identification. Now he enjoys doing the workbooks he saw his older sister doing last year. My tentative plan is to stretch the kindergarten material out so he will finish it around the time he turns six (when, presumably, he will be ready for first grade level work).
Another option if you want to work at a kindergarten level but the writing is too much is to write in the answers for him. I do with with my daughter and it helps her learn without getting tired out from lots of handwriting (which gets pretty sloppy after awhile). It's been my experience that anything made to be used in a classroom will require lots of writing and reading when it's not really needed for a child to learn in a one on one environment. Searching out materials that are printed for homeschoolers can make working above age based grade level easier.
Other than that he just participates in listening to me reading aloud and k/first grade level science reading and projects (like growing sugar crystals and visiting museums), history (reading and visiting museums and historical sites), art (drawing, painting, color mixing, drawing with chalk, cutting/glueing, and going to the art gallery), music (he took suzuki violin before we moved and we are continuing it as a family at home until we can find another instructor), geography (simply talking about what we see on the globe and on maps).
I tried to get him to do preschool workbooks starting last summer but he found them boring, they were just coloring and letter identification. Now he enjoys doing the workbooks he saw his older sister doing last year. My tentative plan is to stretch the kindergarten material out so he will finish it around the time he turns six (when, presumably, he will be ready for first grade level work).
Another option if you want to work at a kindergarten level but the writing is too much is to write in the answers for him. I do with with my daughter and it helps her learn without getting tired out from lots of handwriting (which gets pretty sloppy after awhile). It's been my experience that anything made to be used in a classroom will require lots of writing and reading when it's not really needed for a child to learn in a one on one environment. Searching out materials that are printed for homeschoolers can make working above age based grade level easier.
