What does kindergarten look like in your house? (and more) - Page 2

[Reebekah]

i havent read the other responses, so sorry if i'm repeating.  my children are 1, 3, 5, and 6......so i just did kindergarten last year with my oldest and now i'm starting with my 5 yr old.  we do Sonlight 3/4 and p4/5 because we really like reading and literature based learning.  we also do Singapore Math, Handwriting Without Tears, Ordinary Parents Guide To Teaching Reading, and Explode the Code.  We also do AWANA, Sunday School, and a homeschool co-op.  I got 2 books on Amazon that are useful.....What your Kindergartener Needs to Know, and Home Learning Year by Year.  I LOVE homeschooling for so many reasons....more family time, more flexibility, able to pick your own resources, able to teaching according to the interests and level of your child, able to integrate religion...the list goes on and on.   So far, I'm happy with my decision. 

[Silverring]

http://www.allianceforchildhood.org/sites/allianceforchildhood.org/files/file/kindergarten_report.pdf  I found this somewhere - maybe here?  I thought it was relevant for this thread. 

[sewchris2642]

This website might be useful for you.  http://www.handinhandhomeschool.com/resources/teachkindergarten.php  Also check your state's dept. of education's scope and sequence for Kindergarten.  In CA, it's called content standards and is divided by subjects, not grade levels.  In my experience most of Kindergarten can be taught through day to day living and doesn't require any special textbooks or curriculum.

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by sewchris2642 

Also check your state's dept. of education's scope and sequence for Kindergarten.  In CA, it's called content standards and is divided by subjects, not grade levels.  In my experience most of Kindergarten can be taught through day to day living and doesn't require any special textbooks or curriculum.

While it may be helpful to check your state's content standards or prescribed learning outcomes or whatever they're called, I've found that for myself doing so really worked against me having faith your second statement ... which I believe to be completely and totally true. Those scope and sequence documents tend to take very ordinary developmental learning that most children undertake naturally with nothing more than interesting lives surrounding them, and couch it in terms that make it sound so complicated and intentional that you'd think it would need curricular engineering. 

Since kindergarten is not compulsory where I live, and since my children were not going to be tested on their adherence to a KG scope and sequence I found it best to hold those documents very much at arms length. General awareness of their content and their silly language was perhaps helpful. Detailed reading of them during times when I was planning or evaluating my homeschooling strategy tended to awaken all my neurotic penchant for detailed planning -- and guilt over not following through, not covering everything, not planning and executing detailed 'lessons.' Very counter-productive, when my kids were obviously, in the big picture, learning wonderfully by living interesting lives led forth simply by their own curiosities.

Just my experience.

Miranda

[sewchris2642]

Originally Posted by moominmamma 

While it may be helpful to check your state's content standards or prescribed learning outcomes or whatever they're called, I've found that for myself doing so really worked against me having faith your second statement ... which I believe to be completely and totally true. Those scope and sequence documents tend to take very ordinary developmental learning that most children undertake naturally with nothing more than interesting lives surrounding them, and couch it in terms that make it sound so complicated and intentional that you'd think it would need curricular engineering. 

Since kindergarten is not compulsory where I live, and since my children were not going to be tested on their adherence to a KG scope and sequence I found it best to hold those documents very much at arms length. General awareness of their content and their silly language was perhaps helpful. Detailed reading of them during times when I was planning or evaluating my homeschooling strategy tended to awaken all my neurotic penchant for detailed planning -- and guilt over not following through, not covering everything, not planning and executing detailed 'lessons.' Very counter-productive, when my kids were obviously, in the big picture, learning wonderfully by living interesting lives led forth simply by their own curiosities.

Just my experience.

Miranda

Just goes to show how people think differently.  I took the scope and sequence terms and redefined them in every day language, then rewrote what we did back into educational language to fulfill state requirements just in case we came to their attention.  But while I found it easy to interpret the elementary school scope and sequence, the high school one is much harder so I went the charter school route this time around and let my educational facilitator (the school's term for her) do that for me.

[moominmamma]

Originally Posted by sewchris2642 

But while I found it easy to interpret the elementary school scope and sequence, the high school one is much harder so ...

That's funny, I found the opposite. KG and 1st were the toughest, with the weirdest most flowery language to describe the most basic of developmental achievements, while things got progressively simpler as the years progressed.

For instance, the language arts document for kindergarten consists of nine pages of expectations like these:

respond to prompts such as reminder cues and informal symbols

use gestures and other nonverbal means to communicate more

effectively

use sound/word discrimination to

– indicate when words or sounds are the same or different

– identify which word is different when given a choice of three

– tell the difference between single speech sounds when given
a choice of three 

– identify alliteration

use segmentation to

– clap or count the words in a three‐ to six‐word sentence 

– clap or count the syllables in a one‐ to three‐syllable word 

– identify two words in a compound word

– identify the first sound and ending sound in a one‐syllable

word

sequentially look at pictures in the text to build schema for

reading (e.g., picture walk)

There are hundreds of such points, just for Language Arts. Just figuring out what each point means takes a long time. Many of them are just "duh!" things (like the second point in my list above, which just means "nods or shakes head to emphasize a response"), but it's an intimidating document. I suppose it depends a lot on your jurisdiction.

Miranda

[greenemami]

I downloaded my state's requirements mostly just for reference-since this is my first time homeschooling and because I have a decent amount of outside pressure to do it "right" (hah!) I found it helpful to go through and check off what she has already accomplished and make a note of things I'd like to accomplish by the end of the year.  This is also handy to show to doubters :) We don't have to report anything or take any tests until dd will be in 3rd grade, so it is also good for me to make sure I am generally on the right track. 

I agree with the PP that at first the list was pretty intimidating-there are tons of bullet points and some of them seem hard at first-until I read through and realized they were really simple points and most were definitely accomplished through everyday living and our very basic instruction. 

[CoBabyMaker]

Thank you!  The Hand In Hand scope and sequence was just what I was looking for.  (I was having a hard time finding our state's.)  While I do believe in learning through play and not being overly structured I wanted the scope and sequence for a few reasons:

1.  DD actually does significantly better with more semi-structured activity.  She does have some minor sensory issues so I am flexible about it but it really helps her.  I am NOT a structured person by nature so I actually need things to help me help DD in this way.

2.  In connection with point two DD is also very curious and sometimes I need ideas to keep her challenged. 

3.  I have always wanted to home school but also have always viewed it as something we would do until it wasn't right for us, IF that day comes.  That may be for many different reasons.  Should we need to integrate into a public or private system I don't want to be too far behind. 

DD taught us VERY early on that she is not going to do something before SHE is ready so I won't be pushing things.  She already has a good grasp of many of the concepts listed and I can see how the other things would be learned very naturally over the next year and a half.

[tiqa]

We are kind of doing K and pre-K together for my almost 5 and almost 6 year olds.  They went to preschool before and really enjoyed it - but we can't afford to have them continue going, and "big kid" school is a whole 'nother animal.  Still, they discovered they really enjoy crafts and worksheets and that kind of stuff.  So we set up a homeschool room where they have their "cubbies" and we have a round table and chairs and such so we can work formally.  Their choice, not mine. I download various themed curricula from free sites and we go at it.  When the weather is good (we're snowbound right now for example) we visit the library at least once a week, for group storytime and also to check out books, both fiction and nonfiction.  They also have various little workbooks they enjoy.  And we do various craft kits etc.  Other than that most of their toys are educational to a degree (like pattern blocks, marble runs, matching games, things like that) so we spend some time reading together, some time doing household stuff (like cooking, measuring, etc), some formal worksheet time, some arts... and then the rest of the time they just play with whatever interests them.

I'm 9 months pregnant right now so we're taking the rest of January off (we are going to do full year schooling anyway) and I've ordered some textbooks for them to start with in the spring semester.  We have strict homeschooling regs in our state so I will have to submit a full curriculum to the school board in the spring, gah.

Next year we'll also add in a homeschool program at the Y for them which is once a week art, gym, and music.  Probably also one extracurricular class each (DD wants to do ballet, DS isn't sure yet).  DS would have been old enough for the Y program this year but I didn't want DD to feel left out, plus I didn't want to be preggers and lugging them around really.  So she'll be in K and he'll be in 1st when they start that.  They're also going to do a week of camp each in the summer.  We have a couple of homeschool activities that we've gone on with local groups (apple farm field trip, nursing home visit) but the groups aren't totally active here, small town.  We do some stuff on our own, like donating goods to the hungry, going to the pumpkin patch, going on the train - and we call them "field trips" and learn about them via books before we go.  And honestly if I wasn't so exhausted/sick we would have gone on tons more nature walks etc - we live in a gorgeous area but I just didn't have the energy.  We'll do more next year.