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Help me plan my weeks


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Ds will be 6 soon so we are counting this year as a k/1. Last year we took academics slow. Mostly life experiences, going places and read a lot, lots of games etc.

 

We started (since summers are HOT) phonics, MEP 1 (my goal is to finish the first half this year).

 

Our lives are busy this year. The month of November is full of visitors. We need to take that month off of school. We also have an international move in the spring.

 

Now what I really need help with is looking at my weekly plan and tell me if you think this is enough or if I should be doing more formal stuff. Being we will have some large chunks of time where school will take a back seat to life.

 

I have two days a week where school needs to be light- phonics and math only. I am in language classes and it is the bazzar day too so I just can't do much. I have one day a week that I would like to go on a field trip. We have so many museums in our city, and a great zoo. Field trip days should I be doing any seat work or just the trip? That leaves us one day where I really can do more than basics unless we take up our two days off that we use for family days. One day is a full day of work for the whole family no way I could add school to that we have a hard time just reading!

 

We do read everyday from picture books at night and a chapter book around lunch. We have audio books too. So ds does get a variety that way. We have both fiction and non fiction books.

 

What are your thoughts is three days of phonics and math enough? Is one day a week where we can do some history, science, art, music enough?

Edited by lolo
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On the days when he doesn't have phonics lessons you could just do 5 minutes of drill before bed. Or get some apps for reading and throw them on the phone so he can play games or work on fluency when you're out and about on errands.

 

Your plan overall sounds totally fine and age-appropriate! Enjoy! :)

Edited by OhElizabeth
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My goal for that age with my DS was really focused on phonics. If that was all I did I was happy it was done. I was pretty relaxed and probably did only 4-5 days a week. We had a lot going on that year too so I think you'll be fine! Math at that age was really too easy for him. Does your math have handwriting? Handwriting would be the only thing I'd try to add in to keep it improving or at least not back sliding. We did AAR which doesn't have handwriting so I'm not sure if your phonics has any. My priority was teaching DS to read and I'm glad that was my focus. A little a day will get you to fluency and I think is sufficient on your lighter days. It's great now that he's older and ready for more work not to have to devote so much time to phonics, it can be intensive at first, and I felt taxing for him. I think learning to read can take a lot of work so don't feel like you're not doing enough when it's "just" phonics. I also read a lot to him daily which I think is so important. Everything else is really just a bonus! So many more experienced posters always say they wished they'd been more relaxed and enjoyed the early years and done more fun things so your field trips sound perfect to me!

 

If you want a fun add on check out Memoria Press Enrichment for K. I know you said it's really a k/1 year but the K one is really great and they only have K-2 so if you like it you can do 1 next year. It's a great series that follows the traditional school calendar from fall to spring with seasonal activities. Every week usually has a theme, could be random like frogs or a holiday from the big ones to groundhogs day, with a read aloud and questions to ask tied in with a poem, picture study, classical music selection and sometimes a science topic that follows the theme. It sounds long but it's actually very short and a fun way to add extras and a theme for your week when you're too busy to prepare them. Since your signature says global if your library doesnt have the picture books you could buy them used since they're all classics and really great. You could do the same for the extra books if you want to expand the study of the science topic or an artist study.

 

With your global situation something like Galloping The Globe could be a fun supplement too. My DC are really enjoying the country study and reading about how other children live and listening to stories from those countries. But again no matter what I think your plan is absolutely fine!

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Sounds like a pretty near ideal K/1 year to me!

 

All the books you read totally and absolutely count, in my opinion...a lot of formal K and 1 curricula won't necessarily introduce more content than your child will get from experiences and read alouds alone...and at this age the math and phonics you're doing will be pretty easy to incorporate informally into your daily activities as fun reinforcement...in fact, the only thing that is keeping me from totally envying and coveting your year is that whole international move bit (eek).

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