What's a day look like for your K'er?

[StaceyinLA]

Schedule? How much time on school? What programs are you using?

 

This is for a young K. She will turn 5 in December, so if she were starting school, it would technically be pre-K. I personally think she is ready, as does dd, for a gentle K program.

 

She has a brother doing 1st grade, so anything that would be good to teach together, I'm open to suggestions. I'll likely have them for school 1-2 days/week and will do the "dirty work" (as in messy things, crafts, fun projects, etc.). Mom will get the day-day grind. ;-p

 

Ideas?

[Mommyof1]

My DD will be 5 in December also.

 

We don't do formal school.

 

I do read aloud's daily on various subjects. (Depends on the amounts and type of books). Sometimes 1hr sometimes less.

 

Working on counting, telling time, add/sub, etc. Occasionally. (Takes a couple mins)

 

Life skills

 

Review phonograms and read a Bob book, every other day or so. (Takes a few mins)

[Melissa in Australia]

My twins are 6 1/2 BUT they are developmentaly delayed and functioning at 4 1/2 to 5 in all areas. They go to 4 year old preschool 2 days a week. ( repeating) and fit right in with the 4 year olds there ability wise. At preschool they get their finger painting, slime play, mud pit etc.

 

A school day here looks like this.

We are working our way throughRod andStaff preschool workbooks. They currently do a page out of each of these books

everywhere we go

Inside and outside

Hearing and helping

Going on eagerly

Finding the answers

These books give them practice with fine motor skills - cutting and pasting, counting, a small amount of colouring, tracing letters and numbers, beginning word sounds, and very basic comprehension tasks and sitting and focusing on a task for a length of time.

 

For each task completed theyplace a peg onto a numbered strip of paper. This motivates them to continue on, each peg then is converted to a star on their star rewards chart.

 

Then they do some Reading eggs and some Mathseeds

They have morning tea and a play outside

 

We then do a alphabet maze page

AAR prereading with Ziggy

Read either a Bob book or I see Sam book ( only started doing this in the last 2 weeks)

Occasionally a Bob book activity that I found on Pinterest

Some lapbooking, currently about Australia, we have done sharks and jellyfish before this.

At least 2 times a week we do a pre literacy game, something like matching upper case and lower case letters in a form of face up memory game, or go fish, etc.

 

We then have lunch and the twins go to their room for an hour "napping" really playing with a story from libervox on.

I spend the afternoon doing schoolwork with ds13. So only if I get time we will do a little bit of history, ancients- only because we are in the ancients this year with ds and the twins want to join in. Mostly they do a little bit more reading eggs. Sometimes we don't get AAR done until the afternoon.

Edited September 1, 2017 by Melissa in Australia

[happynurse]

We haven't gotten into a really good schedule yet. I have a 5 1/2 year old, a two year old and an 11 month old. I basically have a list of what I want to accomplish in the day, but no particular order in which we complete it, kwim?

 

We try to start around 8ish. I give them breakfast and we read a Bible story while we eat. I have some Bible verse memory cards, and we recite those at the table. Short and easy.

 

After that we start our other subjects. He has a 'calendar notebook', which is basically a 3 ring binder with pages covered in page protectors and we use dry erase markers on them. It has a calendar, weather graph, and a page to practice his address and phone number. It also has a page that counts the first 100 days of school. 

 

I do Memoria Press Kindergarten Enrichment twice per week, and we'll do that at this time if it's a day we have it scheduled.

 

Then we do usually ONE other subject (Penmanship, Singapore Essentials math, or Logic of English Foundations).

 

We take a break next. Sometimes I set a timer for 15 minutes, other times I just let him play until we both feel like restarting. 

 

Next we'll usually finish up the other TWO subjects that we didn't finish previously (penmanship, math or LoE).

 

We may do a field trip, park trip, playdate or something at this point. Then comes LUNCH.

 

After lunch they play some more, then I do Rightstart B math 2x/week, or Social Studies/Geography 2x/week (this is because he has a HUGE interest in Geography, otherwise I probably wouldn't bother).

 

When the the youngest kiddos take a nap I read to him from a read-aloud, and I have him read to me. He's reading Owl at Home, Frog and Toad style books right now. 

 

That's about it. He goes to a homeschool enrichment one day per week where they do science, spanish, computers, PE and some other things like that. I also do a little bit of science with the Memoria Press enrichment, but very little. That's mostly because it's very challenging with the baby and toddler running around.

 

Again, we don't have a really regimented schedule. This just seems to be how it works out most days. We are 12 days into our school year, and this is the stride we seem to be hitting. Subject to change, I'm sure!!

[medawyn]

My DS will be 5 in February.  We're doing gentle Pre-K/K this year.  Here's what we do:

 

DS 4.5 and DD 2.5 have "Table Time" in the morning while DS 15 mo naps.  We start with "math lab", which right now is playing with C-rods.  DS4.5 gets to play with focused questions from me (learning the rod values, playing with K math concepts); DD2.5 just gets to play, with occasional suggestion from me (build a.... or find the... ).  We will transition to Miquon worksheets when DS has a good grasp of the rods.  After "math lab" (usually ~10 minutes), we quickly review a dozen phonogram cards from the stack (again, focus is on DS; DD can chant along if she wants to) and practice our memory poem of the month.  Then we move on to "handwriting".  Currently, handwriting time is focused on building hand strength and pre-writing skills.  We rotate among q-tip painting, cutting (paper, cooked pasta, fabric), playing with play dough, and coloring.  As we move on, I'll integrate letter formation instruction with bags of shaving cream/paint, sand or salt boxes, and eventually paper and pencil.  I often read aloud while the kids color or play at the table, but it does depend on how much supervision the day's activity requires.  

 

Once or twice a week during Table Time I break out this month's IVY kids subscription box and we complete 2-3 activities.  The kids and I all love this.

 

Table Time takes no more than an hour each day, but usually closer to 30-40 minutes.  Sooner than later the baby will drop his naps, and I'll fold him into the activities as well, with whatever is appropriate on his tray to keep him occupied.

 

During afternoon nap time for the 2 little ones, DS4.5 and I do some school work just for him.  For math, we are working through RightStartA and Singapore Essentials.  We do one program a day, no more than 15 minutes.  We are using I See Sam for reading/phonics instruction, and again, no more than 15 minutes/day, which usually translates into a little review and reading one new story.  For now, if he doesn't want to do math or reading, we skip it.  After his birthday, I'll probably require both daily.  When we finish, he gets quiet play time in his room with an audiobook.

 

And that's it.  The rest of our day is spent playing outside, inside, helping mama, and reading aloud everything from board books to airplane encyclopedias.

[MeaganS]

DD5 is my 3rd daugther, so she's sort of been folded in to what her sisters are doing. We start school around 8 am with reading time. The older 2 read quietly for 30 minutes and then write and illustrate a sentence in their journals about what they read, which I do a lesson from OPGTR with the K'er. She's about 2/3 of the way through, so here pretty soon she'll start doing some reading out of the book also, moving towards independent reading while we finish OPGTR. By the end of the year, I think she'll probably be reading simple chapter books, but that's a ways off. (15 minutes a day)

 

Around 9am, she does her Miquon. She picks a page and I pick a page for her to do. She can usually do this mostly independently, with a little help at the beginning from me. I just bought her BA 2A, so once she finishes Miquon Red, she'll start that along with her Miquon daily. (15-30 minutes a day)

 

Usually around 10 am, I have her do her piano. We use Hoffman Academy, so she either watches her lesson or does her practice session.  (10-20 minutes a day)

 

Around 11 am I have her do her table work with me. For now, this includes WWE1 and AAS1. (10-20 minutes a day)

 

Somewhere in there, she also usually does a typing lesson, listens to grammar songs, and plays Prodigy math.

We also do Mystery Science as a family together and she participates in all our sort of "unschooly" history and other science. And she listens to about 2 hours of audiobooks a day on her own.

So formal stuff for her is about an hour and a half daily at this point, with maybe another hour for stuff she doesn't see as school, but I do. 

[Farrar]

I can remember from back in the day. We had two kinds of days - days with activities and days without.

 

Days with activities:

Get up, have some breakfast

From about 7:30ish until 8:30ish - do school - this included reading aloud, doing some math games, doing handwriting practice, maybe playing an online learning game, playing reading games, for my boy who was starting to sound things out I would read a BOB type book with him, we might color, etc.

9:00ish - go out... we had a lot of park days, a weekly co-op, a lot of field trips, etc. back then - we kept really busy because it helped us stay sane, so every day really was different after that but usually involved either socializing with a wide network of friends or doing some learning out in the world or both.

3:00ish - get home, have quiet time for an hour or more

5:00ish - have half an hour to an hour of TV time

dinner, reading aloud, bedtime, etc.

 

Days without activities:

The same, but instead of going out, we would do bigger projects - things like little science kits and experiments, messy art projects, some bigger history projects. Again, we played it by ear. This was "school" but it was never things like reading practice or anything along those lines. It was more like fun things.

[Mbelle]

My K child just turned 5 at the beginning of August.  I'm willing to repeat K if  necessary, but hoping not to.  On M, W, F we generally do mostly Memoria Press K except for math.  We use Horizons K math.  We begin this around 9:30 or 10 and just work through the program till completed.  It doesn't take too long.  I do add in a bit of my own games and letter or number work.  On Tu/Th my teens go to a 2 day a week hybrid, so we drop them off first and then come home and do our K program.  On Tuesdays he also goes to a coop for phonics and math.  It's just a fun social supplement that just happens to work perfectly with what we are doing at home.  

[Seeking Squirrels]

I also have a 4th grader, so it looks much different for my current K child than when my oldest was K. 

 

After breakfast we walk the dog or go out back to play a while. 

She participates in memory work and ASL, though I don't push her.

She listens in to our read alouds and plays nearby if she wants. She's welcome to run off but she generally doesn't. 

When DD9 and I start book work, she plays with educational games/toys in our school area, does some independent workbooks (because she LOVES workbooks), or can go next door to the play room. 

After I've given DD9 her math lesson and she starts in her workbook, I turn to DD5 and we do her math and phonics. 

The she usually does her Kumon books and maybe some handwriting.

She then goes back to doing whatever she likes the rest of the morning but often with or near us and often educational.

Depending on the day and how hands-on I need to be with DD9 through LA, I may do more activities with DD5 here and there, like any hands-on things from BYL K.

At lunch they can watch an educational program.

She almost always tags along for science or engineering after lunch, but again, she's free to go play instead. She usually loses interest and ends up mostly playing with whatever materials we needed for the lab. 

Then I send DD9 to do her independent reading and I go to the couch or up to our bed to read to DD5. This is when we do the reading for BYL K and any other books on our rotation. 

 

She would probably say she does school all day, since she is usually right there with big sis and she often IS doing educational stuff. But her actual work is probably 30 min, *maybe* 40 and 20 - 30 min. of listening to read alouds. 

 

Monday she does co-op with us from 10-3:30. Friday is extras day and we either do a field trip, or we do art, cooking, and games. She definitely joins for those!