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Kindergarten plan, thinking aloud


Xahm
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My rising Kindergartner is pretty low on a waiting list to get into the immersion charter school we'd like to get into, and the admissions lady says that there's a decent chance she'll get a place in January, but pretty much no chance she will get in for the fall semester. We have two other schools we are considering, but right now it looks like homeschooling is the frontrunner. Would you mind talking it over with me as I think aloud?

Kindergarten, to me, is no big deal. I'd try to hit math every day, read something every day, and get her writing sentences confidently by the end of the year. I'd want to do plenty of fun science and social studies stuff. We'll sign her up for some kind of choir (probably going to do anyway), a sport like gymnastics or martial arts, library book club, and anything else we find interesting. Maybe homeschool classes at the zoo or other places. Maybe park day.

 

Math: She's doing well and almost done with MEP 1. Conceptually it's easy, but she doesn't have her facts memorized, at all. I'm slowing her down a little and adding in quick easy review of either doubles or numbers that add up to ten each day until those are automatic, then I'll add in other facts. Should I be focusing on this or letting them come with time and repetition? We practice American money with real money and making up our own word problems. She loves word problems best.  I'm planning on continuing with MEP, though I also have Math Mammoth if I feel a need to supplement. I'm keeping an eye on the Beast Academy 3 placement test to see if she gets ready for that before Beast 2 comes out.

 

Reading: She decodes well and easily, except for a few words (ie through vs though) and long words of three or more syllables, unless she's paying close attention. Her stamina lags a bit, so we'll keep buddy reading aloud as well as me reading to her and her brothers. She chooses to read independently a lot when I'm busy. I don't think she needs more instruction, just practice. We just started the Mensa reading list, so we'll go through that.

 

Writing: I plan to have her do a little copywork each day, drawing from Bible verses, famous sayings, etc. After that becomes easier, we'll probably do prepared dictation from the same. She likes the idea of "creative writing," so I'll help her write out her stories to illustrate. We'll also work on proper letter formation. Her letters look good, but some of them are a little too creative. During letter practice and copywork time, I'll make her do them "the right way" and let her do things her own way when playing around. Is that a terrible idea?

 

French: We'll keep exposing her to French and playing around with it. I was hoping to get her in that immersion program. If she does get in for Spring semester, it could be French, Spanish, or Mandarin that has an opening. We can simply accept or reject whatever opening there is, but there's no second opportunity. The main point of the language, for us, would be to give her a bit of a challenge, so that's okay either way. 

 

Music: Basic recorder lessons from me to get some idea of reading music, learning popular hymns and patriotic songs together

 

Art: Drawing with my husband, whatever crafty stuff she decides to do, visiting museums from time to time

 

Science and social studies: I'll come up with lists of topics I'll want to cover, like geography, food webs, ancient history and mythology, healthy habits, and so on. I'll give her four or five at a time to pick one or two to do next. We have lots of resources and a good library.

 

Is there anything glaring I'm leaving out? Or anything you recommend we check out? If I can find a evolution-accepting co-op that looks beneficial we may join in, but it's hard to imagine that for Kindergarten it would be worth dragging two younger brothers along. We know lots of folks who homeschool, but they are all somewhat more conservative than us. Great for playdates, not so much for certain subjects.

 

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What age is kindergarten? About 5 or 6?

 

I started homeschooling my daughter at age 5, after taking her out of a school that wasn't working for her. She was very unhappy there, and in hindsight I can now say that she was super-bored and also lonely. 

 

When I first brought her home, I had so many ideas and plans. I love structure and lists and especially ticking things off lists. 

 

This just didn't suit my daughter and we ended up being quite unschoolish for a few years. This really worked well.

 

I was very intentional about what was available for her to choose from, but I absolutely let her take the lead. She'd ask a question and we'd explore it for as long as it took (maybe half an hour, maybe it went on for days or weeks). 

We had games, books, manipulatives etc all available for her to choose from at any time.

 

If there was something I thought she really should be working on, I did my best to make it purposeful eg she wrote to penpals at that age. Copywork was an absolute fail here. Writing needed a purpose.

 

My point is that our plans don't always match the style of our child and I really had to adapt to best suit my daughter's needs.

 

I love the sound of your plan for your child. It sounds rich and fun and diverse and very well thought out.

I wish you all the best and I hope it works out really well. I would just suggest that you stay open to adjusting if necessary.

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Thanks for the encouragement and explanation of what you did. Yes, five or six is the normal age for kindergarten. She'll be one of the younger kindergartners in our state as she turns five at the end of June. I will be flexible. (That is almost a mantra as well as a promise to myself) 

The pen pal thing has been happening here a little already. Up to this point I've been mostly avoiding having her write, but she loves making cards for family and friends.

Her main school experience to this point was a preschool in France. Being dropped into a foreign language at 3 was a great, fun challenge for her and she misses it. It was a lovely, warm environment. I wish I could give that to her all the time.

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I think it sounds like a great plan. I'm assuming you'd alternate days for the various subjects? We do reading and math daily but don't do the other subjects daily.

 

My daughter will start K in a Spanish immersion school. She finishes with English phonics this month and we will start Spanish phonics and vocab this spring. She can read somewhat in Spanish (read the title of one fish two fish) but doesn't have any Spanish vocab other than hello and party.

 

Is there a good chance your daughter will get into the charter? And do you plan to send her there definitely? I would cater my foreign language lessons around that. Introducing vocab and such in the language she may take.

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There's a decent chance for spring semester, but not really for the fall. If she doesn't get in in the spring, there's a very low chance for the following fall. The trick is that she could get assigned French, Spanish, or Mandarin, and there's no way of knowing which. If she had gotten selected in the first go-round she would have probably gotten French because of her background.

If she does get selected, we'd stay there either through 8th grade (which is when the school ends) or until she'd be better served elsewhere. The school has a pretty advanced student body, on average, and at least claims to differentiate reading and math for each student. There would be many kids reading at least some on the first day of Kindergarten and a few reading fluently.

 

I wouldn't try to do all that in one day, no. My plan is to shoot for doing a bit of French, some math, some reading, and some writing daily and the other subjects on an interest-led basis. There is a good chance that this kid will figure out that her friends spend a good bit of time in school and might demand more scheduled "school time" than I would be inclined to require. Reading and French don't feel at all like school to her.

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There's a decent chance for spring semester, but not really for the fall. If she doesn't get in in the spring, there's a very low chance for the following fall. The trick is that she could get assigned French, Spanish, or Mandarin, and there's no way of knowing which. If she had gotten selected in the first go-round she would have probably gotten French because of her background.

If she does get selected, we'd stay there either through 8th grade (which is when the school ends) or until she'd be better served elsewhere. The school has a pretty advanced student body, on average, and at least claims to differentiate reading and math for each student. There would be many kids reading at least some on the first day of Kindergarten and a few reading fluently.

 

I wouldn't try to do all that in one day, no. My plan is to shoot for doing a bit of French, some math, some reading, and some writing daily and the other subjects on an interest-led basis. There is a good chance that this kid will figure out that her friends spend a good bit of time in school and might demand more scheduled "school time" than I would be inclined to require. Reading and French don't feel at all like school to her.

That makes sense. It sounds like a great plan. Science and art are our favorite ways to add some extra learning.

 

The advanced reading is one of our main reasons for doing immersion. The other being to achieve bilingual and biliterate ability. Our immersion school only offers mandarin and Spanish and you enter the lottery for one or the other. You could do Spanish first choice and mandarin second, but not an open lottery to get a spot in the school. We still don't know if our DD got in or not though. Hopefully!

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