Fall Kindergarten Thread - Page 3

[frugalmama]

DD's been sick most of this week, so we're not doing much.

She has done a few worksheets by her request, and watched lots of educational videos.

[eclipse]

DS2 is a ker this year! So far, we're doing Right Start level A for math, Explode the Code + ReadingEggs + possibly Sing Spell Read Write for phonics. Add to that a lot of read alouds and science as it comes up, and that's about it.

[Bluegoat]

So far things here are going well. Dd's favorite subjects are music (MYC) and math (MEP). She is finding reading tiring, but I am keeping it short and told her it will be very fun once she is good at it.

I did end up enrolling her in ballet. Riding will be done in Nov, and we may even miss a few weeks before that since the instructor is expecting a baby. We can always cut back after Christmas.

[kgianforti]

Originally Posted by astra

What did you read?

Having a slight mind block, but I think:

-3 Bible stories
-3 stories from the P3/4 booklist (Little Golden Books)
-A Harold and the Purple Crayon Adventure
-Stuart Little chapter (we read chapter book stuff at bedtime)
-I know there's one or two other things but I can't remember

It was light but I was a bit grouchy yesterday!

My big girl also did one of her activity drawers at night (a healthy food mobile and a math sheet).

[tankgirl73]

Things are going well here. I'm liking my mindset/approach... I *try* to do something 'schoolish' every day, but I don't fret if we don't. Sometimes she actually asks to do something, sometimes I suggest something and she says "YESS!!!!". Occasionally I suggest something and she's not interested, but that's much less often.

I just picked up a set of BOB books -- the 'grade one sight words' set. She's been REALLY interested in reading lately and is getting the hang of it quickly. I also got "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" from the library. I know it says not to skip, but soooo much of it is review for her, we worked through the first 9 lessons in one session. I took out a lot of the repetition, just made sure she got exposed to the different kinds of activities and how it works. She actually really gets a kick out of it.

She's LOVING the BOB books though. She thinks they're hilarious and is doing a great job learning the sight words and sounding out everything else. Even some trickier words I wasn't sure she was ready for.

Yesterday 'school' consisted of a big piano lesson. She just kept wanting to do 'one more page'.

We did the first unit from Meet the Masters last week, and she wrote her whole name by herself. I blogged about that.

Haven't done much math this week, but I think she benefits from taking a few days to 'digest' in between lessons anyway. But we HAVE been playing Monopoly Jr which I just bought last week... she INSISTS we play it quite often, in fact. The first time she had to make $4 but didn't have a $4 bill, she figured out pretty quickly that she could use two $2. When later in the game she didn't have two $2, it was a bit trickier for her to realize she could use $1 and $3, and she's quite stumped by the idea of "making change". What a great way to learn and practice these concepts though, she looooves it!!

We spent most of yesterday at the local annual exhibition. She rode a pony, hugged an alpaca (so cute! the owners even took pictures), watched a dog show and a step dancing show, looked at horses and chickens and peacocks and bunnies and cows, and rode the kiddie rides. Then she rode the scary rides too! She went on the Scrambler, the Tornado, and the Tilt-a-Whirl, and was even asking to go on the Zipper (uh, no.) She giggled and screamed with joy the whole time. She's not even 4yo!!! I've got myself a little thrill seeker, it seems!

[limette]

Originally Posted by tankgirl73

Things are going well here. I'm liking my mindset/approach... I *try* to do something 'schoolish' every day, but I don't fret if we don't.

I put together a curriculum for this year and we do as much as we feel like it each day (or none at all). I'm happy with one lesson for any subject each day but we usually do several different subjects because dd1 loves to "do school".

Our curriculum consists of

Yogakids
Creativity Express
Rightstart Math Alpha (which is turning out to be way easier than I expected, probably should have went with Beta)
History Odyssey Ancients
Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding
BrainQuest Grade 1 worksheets

She can read pretty much anything at this point and reads for pleasure often so we aren't doing anything formal there.

DD1 is currently in the dining room making cave drawings with her dad.

[phathui5]

I have a kindergartener again this year. We're going into our sixth year of homeschooling and my kids will be listed as Pre-K, K, 2nd, and 5th graders.

One thing I'm not looking forward to is that my 5yo ds turning "school age" means that his speech therapist through the Early Intervention program won't be coming anymore. For him to get speech services, I'll have to drive him to and from the school three mornings a week. I called the school today and asked the principal for suggestions on what to do with my other kids for the half hour that he's in speech and she didn't have any ideas other than sitting in the cafeteria. She said we can't hang out in the library and there are no classes (like art or PE) that the older kids could join in on. This is going to be three mornings a week for the whole school year, so I was hoping that there would be something we could do in the building. The principal said that she's never had a homeschooled child coming in for speech and that they didn't have a "program" for families who were tagging along. I didn't want an official program. I was just hoping we could work something out.

[kgianforti]

Oh dear! The Kindergarten thread was buried on page 4!! LOL!

We are still doing pretty good. My big girl is starting "water life" in our Living Things unit for science. We learned about the animals/plants in the tide pools on the shore.

I have all the Magic School Bus books that I ordered! We have been going through the picture books from the library and now the readers. We will start the chapter books when we finish Stuart Little. These books are such a hit!

Math is going well. I'm trying to stretch Singapore 1a out until the end of the month but this last section seems fairly easy. We will work in Horizons 1 for a month or so before returning to 1b.

Let's see...still doing lots of crafty stuff, read alouds, yadda, yadda, yadda!

how is everyone else doing?

[frugalmama]

We've all had a wonderful end of summer cold/flu thing, so school stopped for a week and a half. I hope to get her started again on Monday.


I've been thinking about it, and I think I'm going to let her take her math book and run with it until she gets to harder topics for her. She is so bored right now working on basic numbers, which she already knows. We'll work on writing them better later when she is more able.

I'm trying to figure out how to do the same in Alphabet/Phonics.

On a related note - does anyone know how to mark work done EARLY in Homeschool Skedtrack? I can't figure out how.

[kgianforti]

Originally Posted by frugalmama

I've been thinking about it, and I think I'm going to let her take her math book and run with it until she gets to harder topics for her. She is so bored right now working on basic numbers, which she already knows. We'll work on writing them better later when she is more able.
.

What math are you using? My big girl is bored with Singapore right now and this last section is going to be really easy.

[frugalmama]

Originally Posted by kgianforti

What math are you using? My big girl is bored with Singapore right now and this last section is going to be really easy.

We're using MCP Math K. We really like it - not a lot of busy work, DD likes the illustrations, and it's easy to teach.

[tankgirl73]

Originally Posted by frugalmama

On a related note - does anyone know how to mark work done EARLY in Homeschool Skedtrack? I can't figure out how.

If she did more than one Activity on the same day (no matter whether early or whatever), you have to combine them into one Activity. It won't let you put multiple Activities from the same Course on the same date.

So I find that if they work ahead, the easiest way to manage it is to just change the day's Activity to match what they actually did and delete the extra ones.

DS recently did that, there's a book about managing music practice time, I was just having him work through it gradually, one 2-page "lesson" at a time a couple times a week. I had all the Activities spelled out and scheduled through to the end of the book. One day, he just really got into it and read from page 20 all the way through page 60...

I just changed that day's Activity from 'p 20-21' to 'p 20-60'. You can do that within "Edit Activities" or right from the "Today" page if you've set the Course to be editable there. Then I went into the "Edit Activities" page, checked all the Activites from p. 22 to 60 and hit "delete".

It's not the cleanest way to do it, I do wish there was an easier way for it to automatically let you check off "worked ahead" stuff by just letting you give it the same date. But at least for now I think it's a limitation of the way the database works. It's not really THAT hard to compensate for it so I'll put up with it. It's free after all!

[kgianforti]

Originally Posted by frugalmama

We're using MCP Math K. We really like it - not a lot of busy work, DD likes the illustrations, and it's easy to teach.

I'm sorry...what's MCP Math K?

[frugalmama]

Originally Posted by kgianforti

I'm sorry...what's MCP Math K?

It's this one MCP Math K

They have K-F I believe which goes through 6th grade. It's printed by Modern Curriculum Press.

[kgianforti]

Originally Posted by frugalmama

They have K-F I believe which goes through 6th grade. It's printed by Modern Curriculum Press.

Ok, yes, I've heard of Modern Curriculum Press. I like Horizons because it's easy to teach too!

[major_mama11]

Hi everyone! We are starting K a tad early- DD isn't 5 until November. I ordered the P4/5 program with K language arts and readers from Sonlight, although we're only loosely following it. I really like the Sonlight book selection, but we pretty much just do whatever works on that particular day rather than following the schedule.

Reading- DD loves to practice writing her letters. She is really into phonics and is always putting random letters together and asking me what they spell. Not reading yet though. We have some BOB-knockoff type readers but they're not very good, so we may pick up some real BOB books in the near future.

Science- Mostly outside stuff. We do lots of nature walks in the woods behind our house, and also have a nice nature park a few miles down the road, with weekly kid programs. Also a zoo membership, which we need to use more this fall. DD was completely obsessed with the human body and all its processes a couple years ago, but lately is more into nature and animals. Yesterday daddy caught a small snake in a jar and we watched it for a while before setting it free.

Math- She recently figured out how to add and subtract small numbers on her fingers. She is obsessed with Legos, which I consider a math activity. She insists on following the example pictures exactly- a perfectionist like daddy. I wasn't planning to do formal math yet, but I may look into the RightStart math program that pp have mentioned.

Art/Music- Painting, gluing, cutting, drawing, general crafts. She wants to learn to knit this fall, and I know my sis will be honored to teach her next time she visits. She wants to do voice and dance classes, but I'm waiting until our budget is less precarious.

Activities- Nothing formal yet... Story hour on Thursdays, playing at the park, nature center activities, Sun night church program.

There are two fairly active homeschool groups nearby; one of them has park days, and the other has coop classes, such as homeschool gym and horseback riding. I'm excited to get involved with both, though my work schedule may get in the way.

This thread has been very helpful! I have bookmarked quite a few links to resources you all have mentioned that we might use in the near future - especially the RightStart math!

[major_mama11]

Working- Someone asked earlier if anyone else is a WOHM... I work PT nights, one or two 13-hr shifts per week. I don't even ATTEMPT to do anything school-ish for a day or two after a night shift, unless DD initiates it.

This schedule works out OK at the moment, but I honestly don't think I'll be able to maintain this beyond the next year or so, especially if we have a third child. I feel like half my week is eaten up by either work or exhaustion, which I don't think will leave enough time for hs'ing once we get into more organized activities in the future. I hope we can get into a position where I don't have to work... or maybe I will be able to go down to Per Diem, which would mean fewer required hours...

[kgianforti]

I just signed my girls up for the story time at the library. We go this coming Tuesday.

[astra]

We are finally getting more in the routine of this whole kindergarten thing.

My son started a weekly co-op last week, and loved it so much we decided to sign up for another day too. He had so much anxiety about the co-op I am glad he seems to be enjoying it. (so far at least)

We just added science to our list of studies. We are starting with the senses. We reserved the Magic School Bus book about the senses at our library, and will pick it up tomorrow!

[kgianforti]

Originally Posted by astra

We just added science to our list of studies. We are starting with the senses. We reserved the Magic School Bus book about the senses at our library, and will pick it up tomorrow!

We just took back 9 Magic School Bus picture books back to the library today! Those books are like candy to my big girl. I just bought the chapter book set and will begin reading them as read alouds when we finish Stuart Little.

I also found 11 of the readers for a cheap-o price!