Kindergarden -- what were your main goals?

[Momma Aimee]

we are failrly relaxed about academics; Big Brother is starting to read and does math in his head.

he is a late Birthday and is tencially Kindy age this fall (just before tunring 6).

we already 'offically homeschool' since he had ST via the school so his IEP has him dual enrolled.

we are not looking for much for kindy for the fall -- he is a boy, he is young and he is immature.

but I am jsut trying to keep myself in line, and have been thinkings about our 'offical plans for kindy" (LOL)

I wanted to hear how others straddled the "not pushing academically" but providing structure and starting off well "fence"

Aimee

[LuxPerpetua]

Well, I'm going to focus on increasing imagination, living deeper in the seasons, and more detailed and varied crafting.  I plan on using Little Acorn Learning to do this, so not academic at all.

[elizawill]

we read a lot in kindergarten & had a lot of fun!  

my only real academic goals were the following (but we may be more structured than you - so this isn't necessary by any means):

write & recognize all letters upper case & lower case (i use HWT)

write & recognize numbers 1-10

write full name 

introduction to basic math (I used making math meaningful)

tell time on the hour

simple blending (learning to read basic CVC words like cat, etc)

often more is covered, but if my kids knew just this, i felt we were doing fine & on track for what i wanted to accomplish. hth.

[RJones1204]

DD is 5 (this past Dec was her bday) so next year really is when it starts. But the preschool stuff is so easy for her. She knows her ABc's and sounds, how to write them, etc. We are just "perfecting" it by having her rewrite the the letters and tracing. She gets relaxed about it and kind of lazy. I make her do it for a few minutes, but don't push her to that burn out point. She can write her first name "Joy".She fell in love with addition and can do that up to 10. But next year we are going to focus more in depth in reading, subraction, telling time, art and music, read more about the solar system (she really really enjoys that), tying (or is it tieing) her shoes, character training, how to deal with problems/ stress (ie not screaming when someone takes a toy, come tell mommy and lets talk to the person together). We are working on a lot of the non academic stuff right now and its a slow but steady process.

At the end of next school year I will be happy if she is beginning to tell time, read, doing her own shoes, and is secure in herself.

[LuxPerpetua]

I just bought our kindy stuff, Aimee, so I thought I'd post here what I foresee we'll be doing just to maybe give you some ideas as well as to take the pressure off of you feeling like you have to academics in kindy.  Blessings! http://canticlesbycandlelight.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/kindergarten-ready-set-go/ 

[chaoticzenmom]

My main goal with my kindergartener is to have him recognize all of his letters and start reading small words.  Also to have him doing basic addition and writing his numbers.

[Momma Aimee]

thanks eveyone!!!!

it is a struggle -- he is 2e -- and as gifted -- he is soooooooooooooo immature and silly -- LOL

[Momma Aimee]

hey have you see the book list i have on my site (a complation of others i have loved):  http://scribinglife.wordpress.com/education/readling-list-for-preschool-and-kindergarten/  if i am missing any good book likst you love, pease alert me.

I love the playsilk link -- i need to look at that --

do you have a blog about the wet-on-wet painting or the other painting (beyond fingers, LOL) i have been trying to add more art in here. 

 

Originally Posted by LuxPerpetua 

I just bought our kindy stuff, Aimee, so I thought I'd post here what I foresee we'll be doing just to maybe give you some ideas as well as to take the pressure off of you feeling like you have to academics in kindy.  Blessings! http://canticlesbycandlelight.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/kindergarten-ready-set-go/ 

[dantesmama]

My ds1 turned 5 in October, but we're in NY with a late kindy cutoff so this is his kindy year. My goals for him this year are:

Reading: I wanted to get him reading relatively fluently at the "Frog and Toad" level; we've met that goal by now and are working on increasing his stamina.

Math: To become more comfortable with addition and subtraction, begin to memorize some facts, tell time to the half-hour, skip count, and recognize coins. (We're having trouble with coins, but he's met the other goals.)

Handwriting: To write fairly legibly. My son has atrocious handwriting. This is mostly my fault, as I assumed it would just come naturally. I'm going to order HWT to work with him on this.

Everything else is just gravy at this age, IMO. But we have lots of gravy.

[LuxPerpetua]

Originally Posted by Momma Aimee 

hey have you see the book list i have on my site (a complation of others i have loved):  http://scribinglife.wordpress.com/education/readling-list-for-preschool-and-kindergarten/  if i am missing any good book likst you love, pease alert me.

I love the playsilk link -- i need to look at that --

do you have a blog about the wet-on-wet painting or the other painting (beyond fingers, LOL) i have been trying to add more art in here. 

 

Originally Posted by LuxPerpetua 

I just bought our kindy stuff, Aimee, so I thought I'd post here what I foresee we'll be doing just to maybe give you some ideas as well as to take the pressure off of you feeling like you have to academics in kindy.  Blessings! http://canticlesbycandlelight.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/kindergarten-ready-set-go/ 

 

 Oh, somehow I have missed your booklist!  I'm going to bookmark it.  Thanks so much!

I'm going to do a wet-on-wet painting tutorial this week.  I'll pm you when I have it.  It's really quite easy.

[Momma Aimee]

thanks Lex -- I need more art ....

[CCJWGM]

I would have responded earlier but we've been sick.  I've been spending long snuggle hours on the couch.  It was a perfect time to learn to crochet and plan kindy!!!

I found this neat website on CM if you haven't seen it before.  They have a free schedule and book list.  http://www.charlottemasonhelp.com/2009/07/books-and-schedules.html 

We are starting K on March 1st because clearly DD isn't PK anymore.  Why March 1st?  I just need time to plan and organize.  We are going to ease into K gently with the full swing of things starting next Oct.  Sept. is too big of a canning month for me to get much homeschool done so Oct. seems to work.  :) 

We have been doing unit studies which basically is books and crafts on a nature/holiday topic with a circle time to go with it. 

I'm extended those units to 2 weeks to go more in depth and spend more time.  In Waldorf preschool and Kindy repetition is the key.  I will be adding handiwork crafts to the units.  My goal is one handwork craft a unit.  That is where we are seriously lacking.  The K units will also include animal habitats using the earth^school units.  This will include a trip to that habitat when possible.  Luckily, Oregon has a lot of different habitats from ocean to glacier to forest to desert. 

I will be adding this book http://www.amazon.com/Language-Thinking-Young-Children-Beechick/dp/0880621524 to our language activities as well.  This is a book for oral language activities, something I'm lacking in.  I think too much in my head and not aloud to the children.

And we will add Family Math for math.  http://www.amazon.com/Family-Math-Young-Children-Comparing/dp/0912511273/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1297723407&sr=1-2

And the Earth*School Waldorf-inspired ABC Curriculum http://www.holdenslanding.com/pages.php?T=EarthSchool.  We will have a letter a week and read a few books whose title start with that letter. They have REALLY fun art activities here. 

I also am going to work more on oral telling of stories.  I need a lot of work at that.  We read a ton of books but I want to move to more oral.  My goal is a story a unit told orally with props.  Wish me luck. 

Science will be part of the units and is incorporated in living with nature. 

I need to figure out PE and/or meditation.  My DD gets hyper and that is her way to self-soothe.  I want to figure out a way for her to self-soothe without the hyperness.  Maybe I too need to work on using our yoga DVD's more. 

Aimee - if you are lacking in art you might check out Seasons of Joy.  Waldorf art is a little more tame than the art other people do.  It covers wet-on-wet painting, modeling, coloring projcts, and handiwork.  Oh, which makes me remember. For K I will be using Seasons of Joy more!!  http://naturalfamily.50megs.com/index.html  This is going to be my base for circles, stories, and story extensions. 

[AAK]

If you are expecting to hs throught elementary (if not further) I would take a look at where your son is at and write your goals from there.  

For example:  My five year old (sept will be kindy as well) knows her letters and sounds.  Rote counting through the 30s consistently, but then mixes up fifty for forty or something like that.  She can count objects correctly until she messes up the numbers.  She can write her numbers to 20.  She can do basic addition.  She is beginning to sound out cvc words and loves to try to "pull them apart" for spelling.  

So, my goals for her are to improve her reading skills.  I will get Singapore 1A and 1B.  Since she loves spelling, I will start AAS with her.  I will also use HWT and various mazes/hidden pictures/etc for brain puzzles.  Beyond that, my main goal is for her to have fun with "learning".  I want her to explore science is a somewhat more directed way.  We will take time to read books from and about different cultures and then find them on the map.  Etc, Etc, Etc.  I expect sit down learning to be 30 min a day.  Just a routine.  More if she wants.  Less some days.  Assuming she stays home for kindy--the jury is still out.    

But, if she didn't know her sounds yet, or couldn't count, then my goals would reflect that.  And if she could already read well, or was ready for multiplication, my goals would reflect that.  

As far as the goals our local school district has, she has already met them except that she can't yet count and write to 100.  

Amy

[Daffodil]

When DD was in kindergarten, my main goals were for her to continue to improve her reading skills (she was already a beginning reader), to learn how to use lower case letters and punctuation in her writing, to practice addition and subtraction (mostly just with numbers up to 10), to learn to recognize numerals up to 100, to learn about fractions, and to learn something about time telling, coins, and measuring with a ruler.

For other subjects, I didn't have any specific goals.  (Though I had to make up a few arbitrary ones for our state-required curriculum summary.)  I read lots of books to her - fiction, non-fiction, poetry, picture books, chapter books.  We read lots of books on science or social studies topics, and spent a lot of time outside catching and observing frogs, insects, etc.  We did some simple science experiments.  DD drew, made things out of paper, and did some simple sewing.  We went hiking, skating, swimming, etc.  DD tried skiing and learned to ride a bike. 

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by beezer75 

I would have responded earlier but we've been sick.  I've been spending long snuggle hours on the couch.  It was a perfect time to learn to crochet and plan kindy!!!

I found this neat website on CM if you haven't seen it before.  They have a free schedule and book list.  http://www.charlottemasonhelp.com/2009/07/books-and-schedules.html

We are starting K on March 1st because clearly DD isn't PK anymore.  Why March 1st?  I just need time to plan and organize.  We are going to ease into K gently with the full swing of things starting next Oct.  Sept. is too big of a canning month for me to get much homeschool done so Oct. seems to work.  :) 

We have been doing unit studies which basically is books and crafts on a nature/holiday topic with a circle time to go with it. 

I'm extended those units to 2 weeks to go more in depth and spend more time.  In Waldorf preschool and Kindy repetition is the key.  I will be adding handiwork crafts to the units.  My goal is one handwork craft a unit.  That is where we are seriously lacking.  The K units will also include animal habitats using the earth^school units.  This will include a trip to that habitat when possible.  Luckily, Oregon has a lot of different habitats from ocean to glacier to forest to desert. 

I will be adding this book http://www.amazon.com/Language-Thinking-Young-Children-Beechick/dp/0880621524 to our language activities as well.  This is a book for oral language activities, something I'm lacking in.  I think too much in my head and not aloud to the children.

And we will add Family Math for math.  http://www.amazon.com/Family-Math-Young-Children-Comparing/dp/0912511273/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1297723407&sr=1-2

And the Earth*School Waldorf-inspired ABC Curriculum http://www.holdenslanding.com/pages.php?T=EarthSchool.  We will have a letter a week and read a few books whose title start with that letter. They have REALLY fun art activities here. 

I also am going to work more on oral telling of stories.  I need a lot of work at that.  We read a ton of books but I want to move to more oral.  My goal is a story a unit told orally with props.  Wish me luck. 

Science will be part of the units and is incorporated in living with nature. 

I need to figure out PE and/or meditation.  My DD gets hyper and that is her way to self-soothe.  I want to figure out a way for her to self-soothe without the hyperness.  Maybe I too need to work on using our yoga DVD's more. 

Aimee - if you are lacking in art you might check out Seasons of Joy.  Waldorf art is a little more tame than the art other people do.  It covers wet-on-wet painting, modeling, coloring projcts, and handiwork.  Oh, which makes me remember. For K I will be using Seasons of Joy more!!  http://naturalfamily.50megs.com/index.html  This is going to be my base for circles, stories, and story extensions. 

 LOL I had planned to start March 1 also -- but i have 2 sick ones here and have nothing done -- so i ma pushing back to April 1.  :)

for yoga -- i have this set for the boys http://www.amazon.com/Gaiam-Kids-Yogakids-Fun-Collection/dp/B000AYELBK/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1297780011&sr=8-2-catcorr

and it has silly to calm -- and our PE is going to be mastering these 2 DVDs he also does yoga / Whis OT to teacfh self soothing.

[Momma Aimee]

ok fair is fair -- here is my outline for kindy:  http://scribinglife.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/planning-kindergarten/ -- looking for your thoughts Allison: 

 

Originally Posted by LuxPerpetua 

I just bought our kindy stuff, Aimee, so I thought I'd post here what I foresee we'll be doing just to maybe give you some ideas as well as to take the pressure off of you feeling like you have to academics in kindy.  Blessings! http://canticlesbycandlelight.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/kindergarten-ready-set-go/ 

[sbgrace]

I'm going to look at your blog and I may be no help at all but I will share my thinking going into our K year and now as we move out.

We read great books and all but I didn't start anything at all academically until my kids turned six. That was almost year ago. I called that K starting then. I forgot about stuff like cub scouts so I told them they were first grade this fall but in reality we just kept plugging along.

My goals: They will enjoy learning/school. My number one goal was to make it positive. I hoped we would be handwriting (as in could write more than their names) and I hoped for some age appropriate reading. I hoped we would be done with Rightstart A. I hoped the history, science, art, music, literature, bible, etc. were fun and enjoyable--good experiences.

We're now almost (next month) at the year point and this is where we are:

1. They are reading above grade level. I'm glad I delayed that for many reasons. I identified some special issues with one child and, so, I'm also glad I didn't delay anymore than age six. I switched our reading program very quickly seeing one child with major issues (this guy can almost instantly memorize anything he sees...guess how he was learning to "read"....)

2. We're into our 1st grade math now so post-Rightstart A. I'm finding (well up until this week....) that my attention deficit special needs otherwise kid has been much easier to teach as he approaches seven years. I don't regret starting math in K mostly because of his brother. But for that kid I would have been just as well and, I think perhaps, better to wait.

3. They are able to write legibly. They write stories together. I doubt we're where the first grade kids around here are in public school by a bit yet but I'm fine with that.

4. They love school so I'm glad for that--this is due to those subjects I mentioned previously mostly.

I'm nervous as we go into some more remediation with one child and more deeply into spelling with both. Slug, slug....waiting until 7ish for that.

I looked at your blog. I am going to mention what we used specifically I think:
1. Reading--started w/Headsprout...bad choice for us and I regret the wasted money. Switched to I See Sam and teaching the phonograms in a Orton-Gillingham way (I found a great free resource along the lines of the Recipe for Reading book--which I used parts of but focused on reading first and now we're cycling back to spelling) and did some Gaydos readers, Progressive Phonics readers, and then reading real books i had selected based on reading levels and etc. I'm very happy with our progress there.

2. We used Handwriting Without Tears. I started at six as I said but it has been in the last few months that my ADD/other stuff/with fine motor issues kid has really blossomed. It's much easier now! i should have delayed with him likely and we would have got this far without the frustration I felt early on (not his frustration at all...he has fun no matter what he does...I was pulling my hair out). That said, I was starting to feel uncomfortable as most kids here learn to write in preschool and his twin was more than ready so I forged through.

3. We used Rightstart A (not pushy..still wish I would have delayed with the one child but it's so hard to balance the needs of both kids for me) and some MEP math (that one is free). I'm happy with Rightstart and MEP as well but we didn't use as much of that as I discovered it late and didn't want to use ink printing given the RightStart purchase.

4. We started with HOD and did half if it (the bible half) and then I had issues with the history materials. I switched then to do my own plans with the Core Knowledge Curriculum. This allowed me to tailor it to them (hands on to the maximum here) and add in those extras that were missing in HOD for me. I am using Karyn Henley bible materials now and my own stuff for all the rest. It's going great. It's also a lot of work and has spoiled us all in terms of being exactly what we need. I don't know if I'm up for this much work indefinitely!

5. We've done so many great chapter book read alouds that i get from various curriculum lists.

You may be tied a little more to needing to progress or scope and sequence (ie would Asian math be ok or not) if you're dual enrolling?

[LuxPerpetua]

Originally Posted by Momma Aimee 

ok fair is fair -- here is my outline for kindy:  http://scribinglife.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/planning-kindergarten/ -- looking for your thoughts Allison: 

 

 

I just read your blog post, Aimee.  It sounds like you are taking a similar approach to us just with different resources.  Let me know how the phonics books work out for you.  We will not be doing any phonics until grade 1 (actually Waldorf doesn't do phonics at all but I wanted to do a bit of phonics if we needed it).  I need to start making my list of resources for then and I'm all ears for anything that works well!

I think you've got a fun year planned and it sounds like you've put a lot of thought and effort into it.  Would you mind telling me more about the Bible resources you use?  We have a Bible liturgy we do every evening for evening prayers where we read a Bible story from our children's Bible, sing hymns, and say prayers together as a family, but I like what you said about wanting to make the Bible come alive as a "whole" rather than as bits of stories.  One thing that has helped us a lot is by focusing on Advent and Lent as times to "live into" the Bible as the story of redemption, although, I will avoid the "fallen world" and "evil" discussion for a few more years.  I think it is essential that we explore that but not right now--I want dd to believe that the world is good at this point.

I can't wait to see how your year goes.  Best wishes!
 

[Momma Aimee]

http://www.mothering.com/community/forum/thread/1289925/christian-parents-that-are-doing-bible-as-a-core-subject-with-younger-kids-talk-to-me#post_16255653 this is thread about my seeking resources to use for our Bibel Core.

Basically desire for Bible to be a core subject for us, part of the reason they are at home.  BUT I feel they are too young for many "Bible Studies" AND also most Bible Stuides, that i have seen, kinda assume some concept of the BIBLE as a UNIT or TOTAL and as Speech of God -- so they more or less do not start at the start, if that makes sense. 

I am reading though the Bible, or trying to, start to end with Big Brother -- but it is still over his head in some part, or a lot of parts, it still seems like a collection of stories, rather and a comminucation for God for our lives.

I also want to start a daily devoptional -- fast, easy, active, with them.

I have not got the book, ordered it, can't vait to see it --i am hopeing to build a foundation. 
 

Originally Posted by LuxPerpetua 

I just read your blog post, Aimee.  It sounds like you are taking a similar approach to us just with different resources.  Let me know how the phonics books work out for you.  We will not be doing any phonics until grade 1 (actually Waldorf doesn't do phonics at all but I wanted to do a bit of phonics if we needed it).  I need to start making my list of resources for then and I'm all ears for anything that works well!

I think you've got a fun year planned and it sounds like you've put a lot of thought and effort into it.  Would you mind telling me more about the Bible resources you use?  We have a Bible liturgy we do every evening for evening prayers where we read a Bible story from our children's Bible, sing hymns, and say prayers together as a family, but I like what you said about wanting to make the Bible come alive as a "whole" rather than as bits of stories.  One thing that has helped us a lot is by focusing on Advent and Lent as times to "live into" the Bible as the story of redemption, although, I will avoid the "fallen world" and "evil" discussion for a few more years.  I think it is essential that we explore that but not right now--I want dd to believe that the world is good at this point.

I can't wait to see how your year goes.  Best wishes!
 

it is going to be an intresting year for both os us -- I'll tag along with you, you tag along with me :)

 

[kohlby]

We didn't do any structure for Kindy.  I did 100% unschooling for kindy with ODS.  My DD, who is almost 5, will likely want some structure however.  I'll figure that out closer to the time.  ODS managed to learn quite a but with unschooling.  Anything he was "behind" in took off in leaps in bounds in first grade.  I'm glad I waited until he was ready for more formal learning.