Starting Kindergarten - how do I get started?

[StormySar]

I think my dd is ready for K. She's going to be 5 in Feb. and according to the things I've been reading, she seems more than ready. She's also very eager to learn these days and I want to take advantage of her desire to learn to read and write and everything.

All of a sudden I'm feeling overwhelmed and not sure how to explain it. I guess hearing about how you plan or how you did your K years would help me get going.

What kind of activities did your K child enjoy? What topics did you cover? What kind of field trips did you do? Did you use a curriculum? Boxed or eclectic? Tell me all about it, please!!

I have a book coming up from my sister in law called "What every kindergartener should know" and I think that will help me to make sure we cover the bases. Next year I have to start reporting her to my state though, so I'd like to use this year as 'practice' in terms of keeping the proper records, and proper planning, too.

We did preschool last year but it wasn't very structured. I have to renew my license, in my new state, and we'll have access to the libraries here and that'll help a lot. I just hope the system here is as good as I had it when I lived in MI!

[elizawill]

my k schedule & the curriculum we used is at my blog. my dd was just shy of 6 when we started though, so some of the curriculum may not be a good fit for your dd. i saved lots of good links for preschool/k age at my site too.

be SURE to check out lillian's site. she has loads of goodies there for your dd's age!! http://www.besthomeschooling.org/

hth!!

[Mongoose]

We are just finishing K. It has been a great year! We do about 1 hour of actual "school" time in the morning after breakfast and after she has played for a while. My DD is very into seat work, so that is why the hour....many Kers are not ready to sit that long. The only 2 things that I feel are the most important to get started in K are math and phonics. I do however sneak in science, art, history, geography etc on the side. We do alternate days...one day is a phonics day, the next is a math day. Then after the daily "core" subject we do whatever she wants...a science experiment... an art project etc. As far a curriculum, we don't like boxed simply because we found that eclectic is more flexable. Here is what we use:

Math-Singapore Math New Standards Edition Earlybird K

Phonics/handwriting-Sing Spell Read and Write

Science- Books and DVDs from library about whatever she was interested in or experiments from The Backyard Scientist books

Art- Childsize Masterpieces in Art

Lit/Social Studies-Five in a Row with lapbooks from homeschoolshare.com


DD really seems to like all the curriculum that we chose. Some lessons we break up into 2 days instead of 1 if she is tired or wanting to do other things. Usually at this stage we run into attention span and ability to do the work are not equal with eachother. She is often able, but she is unable to pay attention any longer.

Activities- She loves going out to the park or the Zoo or other kid friendly stuff. She also just likes to go out and play in the dirt. Often you dont have to plan that much and they are completely content. If we study a certain thing like fish or something, it is always fun to go to an aquarium. I like to find places that line up with things we are learning about and that she seems very interested in.

I think K level is an easy place to get your feet wet. GL!

[3kiddos]

My dd's are 4.5 also, but we are not starting K this year, we are doing preschool.

We'll be doing Five in a Row this year- in a light manner, plus lot of fun science, math, craft things that we always do. Along with music / gym/ library/playdate etc.

My entire goal for this year is to get our lives into a rhythm activities/household/fun homeschooling so that it will just flow into the following year when we will start K for real.

I have decided on Sing Spell Read and Write and RightStart Math for them when we *start* schooling... am giving myself *time off* in figuring out the rest

[littlemizflava]

all i did was to find what is taught in k and mark off what my dd already knows. we just went along as we had been. about once a month i would look at the list and mark of the new things learnt. if she was not ready i would skip it if she passed it. i would have the grade 1+ list to mark off. there is no set rules saying that you have to wait or rush they will learn it when they are ready.