Pre-K and Kindergarten with asynchronous children

[Dealea86]

I'm starting to feel very unsure about my plans for next year for my son. He is 4.5 and taught himself to read last month (he picked it up from TV, maybe, but I certainly didn't teach him). He does worksheets from Singapore Math's K workbook (Essentials, I think it's called?) every couple of weeks. We started it in a couple months ago and do it very infrequently. Usually he does several units in one sitting, and he's on unit 22/32 right now. I expect that he'll be done with Essentials by December at the latest. It's entirely possible he'll be through it by the end of the summer. But if he was in public school he would be too young for K this year, and he's wiggly and not great with attention (except with things he loves, like Transformers figures and legos, which he can spend hours on).

 

Some of the regrets I have from when DD8 was his age (reading a bit better than he does, but not quite as advanced at math):

* I didn't make school fun enough. I don't do fun well, honestly. I'm too low energy. I'm not sure I can fix this. But if I can, I want to.

* I gave too much challenge too early. I remember how bored I was in school, and I wanted to avoid that with her, so I made it my goal to challenge her. I'm afraid all it did was make her think she was dumb. I will save challenge for *later* with DS, when he's more mature.

* I didn't study handwriting or spelling in K, and only handwriting in 1st. She was reading so well and so often that I thought the spelling would come (ha!), and I thought handwriting in K would be too frustrating for her. We're playing catch-up in those subjects now, unfortunately.

* I really regret teaching DD with materials designed for children almost twice her maturity. They were correct for her mental age, but they were designed for children much more mature than she was, and that made them a bad fit for her.

What math, spelling, handwriting, etc materials are out there that are appropriate and engaging for an asynchronous 4.5 yo? I also need open-and-go options. I don't do well with projects or prepping for lessons. Is there any way to walk that line? Or am I looking for something that doesn't exist?

 

I'm so hesitant to leave him on his own this year. He's going to develop bad habits in writing and spelling like his sister did, and I don't want to have to remediate that again. I'm okay with continuing math the way we've been doing it, 2-3 lessons a month, but then what do I do when he finishes the Essential Math program? Just jump into Singapore 1A? That was too much serious math too soon for my daughter. He's stronger in math than she was, but less mature. Any advice?

[Jackie]

My daughter is only a bit older, so I only have random thoughts, not lots of experience.

 

I'm not good at fun, either. I have chronic depression that wipes me out for large chunks of time. The only way I've found to "fix" this is to choose some of the most engaging materials I can find. For math, that was RightStart until Beast Academy, plus a shelf of living math books and math games. For language, Brave Writer and Michael Clay Thompson. For science, I bought kits (and quickly learned to make sure we had all those "common household items" before giving it to DD). Some of these aren't quite "open and go" but they're pretty close; I've never done more than about two minutes prep with any of them, usually immediately before instructing DD. RightStart took the most work for me, because it was more difficult to speed up when she found it too slow. The curriculum itself had to be engaging, or I had to have fun independent materials on hand, because I knew I wouldn't add in my own fun with any consistency.

 

I truly have no idea how to make handwriting fun. We did find that cursive was easier than print at 4yo, and used a simplified style (New American Cursive) to make it even easier.

[La Condessa]

I don't think Singapore 1a will be too much serious math too soon if you continue to use it at his pace.  At a normal first grade pace would, but with my kids in a similar situation, I have tried to use curriculum that is appropriate to their academic level in doses appropriate to their age level. 

 

If you want to do cursive, my girls love Pictures in Cursive because of the beautiful artwork included.  I wish there were something similar for my son who needs a slower more incremental approach to handwriting.  I am leaning towards Handwriting Without Tears for him, but am concerned that he will be very disappointed that it is missing the artwork.

[Tumbatoo]

I don't think Singapore 1a will be too much serious math too soon if you continue to use it at his pace. At a normal first grade pace would, but with my kids in a similar situation, I have tried to use curriculum that is appropriate to their academic level in doses appropriate to their age level.

This.

[wendyroo]

With my asynchronous boys, I have pretty much done an additional year of preschool and then jumped right to first grade when they had the maturity.

 

So, the years they were 3, 4 and 5, we did slow, but steady, handwriting instruction; low-key, but challenging and interesting math; and phonics with lots of practice reading books of their choosing.  Of course, we also did lots of read alouds, puzzles, play dough, outside time, field trips, science and art experimentation, etc.

 

In your case, I might consider MEP practice books once your DS is done with Essentials.  As for handwriting, I have had the most luck with handmade copywork sheets focused on each child's favorite character/show/game.  My kids are much more willing to write about Star Wars and Plants vs. Zombies than they would be a boring, generic handwriting curriculum.

 

Then, once my kids are 6ish, they have matured to the point of being able to handle 1-1.5 hours of first grade work...though obviously I'm giving them academics that meet their needs, no matter what grade level is officially printed on the cover.  This is when they start completing school work on a more consistent basis and I add in more subjects like spelling, writing (in addition to handwriting), more formal science and history, Spanish, etc.

 

Wendy

[Dealea86]

My daughter is only a bit older, so I only have random thoughts, not lots of experience.

 

I'm not good at fun, either. I have chronic depression that wipes me out for large chunks of time. The only way I've found to "fix" this is to choose some of the most engaging materials I can find. For math, that was RightStart until Beast Academy, plus a shelf of living math books and math games. For language, Brave Writer and Michael Clay Thompson. For science, I bought kits (and quickly learned to make sure we had all those "common household items" before giving it to DD). Some of these aren't quite "open and go" but they're pretty close; I've never done more than about two minutes prep with any of them, usually immediately before instructing DD. RightStart took the most work for me, because it was more difficult to speed up when she found it too slow. The curriculum itself had to be engaging, or I had to have fun independent materials on hand, because I knew I wouldn't add in my own fun with any consistency.

 

I truly have no idea how to make handwriting fun. We did find that cursive was easier than print at 4yo, and used a simplified style (New American Cursive) to make it even easier.

 

That's actually the approach I've come to for my daughter this year. We're doing Redbird for math (Stanford's gifted and talented math program, very engaging), MCT for language, and Mystery Science for science (which I haven't started yet, because it's "too hard" to prep the lessons :-P ).

 

I have been letting DS do the games on the Gifted & Talented website, and he really enjoys them. I suppose I can do a lot of those kinds of math games for the time being. And I'll do Mystery Science with him, too. I hadn't considered doing cursive first. He's left-handed, will that be a problem?

 

Along those same lines, just tonight I decided to try the free month trial of ABC Mouse. I ended up putting him in the first grade track, and it's still easy for him so far, though admittedly he only did three lessons. It may get more difficult as the lessons progress? And I think second grade would be too serious for a 4.5 yo, probably? If this is still engaging him at the end of the month, I may decide to pay for a year so he can have a more fun school option than I can provide.

[Dealea86]

I don't think Singapore 1a will be too much serious math too soon if you continue to use it at his pace.  At a normal first grade pace would, but with my kids in a similar situation, I have tried to use curriculum that is appropriate to their academic level in doses appropriate to their age level. 

 

If you want to do cursive, my girls love Pictures in Cursive because of the beautiful artwork included.  I wish there were something similar for my son who needs a slower more incremental approach to handwriting.  I am leaning towards Handwriting Without Tears for him, but am concerned that he will be very disappointed that it is missing the artwork.

 

I think I'm nervous about Singapore 1A because it was too much of a jump for my daughter. She's definitely gifted, and tested very high this past year even with math, but she's been school resistant for years and has other issues (like anxiety) that complicate things. So maybe it'll be okay. I just don't want to have another disaster on my hands like I did with her.

[Dealea86]

As for handwriting, I have had the most luck with handmade copywork sheets focused on each child's favorite character/show/game.  My kids are much more willing to write about Star Wars and Plants vs. Zombies than they would be a boring, generic handwriting curriculum.

 

Oh, he would love that. Star Wars and Transformers copywork, yes, he would love that so much. But that does require me to make worksheets, which means I have to be on top of things. But if I could manage it....

[Pegs]

Oh, he would love that. Star Wars and Transformers copywork, yes, he would love that so much. But that does require me to make worksheets, which means I have to be on top of things. But if I could manage it....

You could just write a sentence neatly on appropriately sized lines and have him copy below. This is how I've done copy work with my 7yo for the last few years. Sometimes we take a sentence from a story he's enjoyed recently, or a silly line from a favourite song or poem, or a sentence he dictates to me about a topic which interests him.

 

No worksheets required! :)

[Jackie]

I do think handwriting needs basic letter formation first.

 

Once he's got that, it can be made far easier. Find a joke book, and put the jokes into a handwriting program - setup on one side of the paper, punchline on the other of the next day. Ask the kid to pick the sentence by issuing challenges - what is the line you most remember? Was the funniest? And then type that one up into the program.

 

Sometimes, I go in bursts. I have energy and I write up 15 quotes of copywork. Sometimes, I manage two and I feel very accomplished because that's plenty enough for my week.

[Cake and Pi]

I second both RightStart and MEP for math.  My DS#3 started RS a couple of months after he turned 4 and has had a blast.  It doesn't have very many worksheets though, so I printed out the MEP student pages and he does those as he wants.  Mystery science is very fun and pretty "open-and-go" (except there's nothing to open, of course) if you have the supplies.  My 5yo is a worksheet-loving kid and also did Evan-Moor Daily Science grades 1 and 2 this year.  Grade 1 is very appropriate for an advanced 4-5yo with short, interesting worksheets.  It's also pretty easy to flesh it out with books from the library.  Those E-M science books and the E-M Daily Geography books were all he needed for motivation to learn to write.  He used to dictate to me what he wanted to write and I'd write it out slowly in front of him verbalizing all the strokes in a yellow or other very pale colored pen.  Then he'd trace the words while I carefully watched to make sure he was forming the letters correctly.  After a while he just stopped asking me to write for him.  

 

I think it's fine to offer material that is at his level as long as you don't get pushy.  I mean, you don't need to dumb it down because he's 4, you just can't probably expect him to sit for 30+ minutes to work on math like a 1st or 2nd grader.  But, if he wants it, I say let him have it.  He'll slow down when he's had enough.

[Dealea86]

Don't hate me, but RS and MEP have never jived with me. Unfortunate, I know. If we had the money for it, I would probably try G&T for him, too, since they start at Kindergarten. But the plan is to put him in Beast Academy once he reaches that level - assuming he's still showing signs of being gifted at math at that point. (And assuming BA hasn't been horribly delayed. But since we have 1-2 years before he he's ready for 2A, I think we're safe).

 

I think it's fine to offer material that is at his level as long as you don't get pushy.  I mean, you don't need to dumb it down because he's 4, you just can't probably expect him to sit for 30+ minutes to work on math like a 1st or 2nd grader.  But, if he wants it, I say let him have it.  He'll slow down when he's had enough.

 

Yeah, I don't push. I didn't really push DD much, either, but because of my experience with her I've been even more hands-off with my son. He actually asks to do school more often than we do it, and he's the one pushing for more worksheets. Like when we sit down to do math, I expect him to finish one worksheet, because otherwise why even sit down to do it? They're really short and (currently) super easy for him. After that I tell him he can quit whenever he wants to. He's the one that does 2 or 3 units' worth before stopping.

Handwriting is another thing, though. He hates writing. When he's doing math, he asks me to do the writing for him, and usually I agree. I may get a HWT workbook and let him work through it at his own pace (even if that takes years), and then once he's got the letter formation down try the joke book or Star Wars ideas.

[Sarah0000]

I've been using Singapore with my preKindergarten boy. But it was only in the last couple months, as he's wrapping up Singapore 3, that I've had him do regular sheet work with Process Skills and Challenging Word Problems. I've been using the textbooks as a spine and as a visual representation when necessary but using funner, age appropriate resources to actually practice.

 

I use Education Unboxed for core computation concepts. I use a lot of library books for concepts and vocabulary. I use Prodigy, board/cards games, and other apps for drill type practice. For actual written practice I wait until he's gotten that arithmetic down somewhat well mentally through games so all he's really practicing is the standard written expressions. For Singapore 1 I used Greg Tang's free worksheets on his website which have little rhymes to help with number bonds.

 

Oh also he used Miquon initially for a lot of his written practice. The pages are mostly different from each other and there are often puzzles and mini books to complete. I found the type of work age appropriate but higher level content. Now at 5.5 he seems to tolerate standard (aka boring) worksheets a little better for short periods of time so I'll do a 1-2 week focus on worksheets when he needs to learn something that really has to be written.