How many days do you do Kinder?

[BikeBookBread]

How many of you actually teach 5 days a week? I'm finding that I do it on average 3 days, one hour dedicated each day.

[Lovedtodeath]

I voted 4 days. We were about 30-45 minutes.

[Moni]

for Kinder

the assignments are

 

Read - independently, three sessions daily.

Write - daily, learn lowercase letters by pencil stroke (not a-b-d- order), progress to copywork daily.

 

No math in kinder.

Math facts only for math in 1st grade.

Math book starts in 2nd grade

 

:seeya:

Edited September 10, 2009 by Moni

[JenneinCA]

We do five days but it is more because I need to do five days with my older kids than it is because my kindergartener needs the fifth day.

[novagirl]

we take breaks as needed, but when we are on course, its 5 days a week.

[CookieMonster]

I average four days a week, with my goal being five. I know that for every week that we acutally do five days of school we will have another week where we only do three.

 

It takes us about 1.5 hours. That leaves 10.5 hours every day for him to catch bugs, kill crickets, whack my flowers, jump on the couch, paint, color, do puzzles, play board games, run errands with me, help me vacuum, pick his nose, accidently destroy his sister's toy - again, snuggle, read books, and more. Not to mention the three days of week when he's got all 12 waking hours to find stuff to do.

[lulubelle]

Last year I had my ds do 4 days. The other day was out and about (aquarium class 1x month, lego class 1x a week, day off, etc.). This year my second ds is doing preK/K and he is having a tough time with number and letter recognition. I'm pretty much having him do something with them 5 days a week. He is also tagging along with big brother with history and science. I think it really depends how the child is comprehending the work.

[Radish4ever]

We do 5 days or sometimes 6 if we didn't get to it all during the week. I'm pretty relaxed with it and DD loves doing school every day.

 

I try to make sure we do at least 3 pages of ETC and 4-5 lessons of OPGTR during the week and we read between 2-4 books a day based on the units we're learning about in the curriculum. Other than that, I adjust as needed :)

[gardening momma]

Other. 7 (very relaxed 7).

[christielee7278]

My goal is 5, but some weeks we hit 3 or 4 days. My k'ner does science and history with my 6th grader 4-5 days a week and we work on phonics 4-5 days a week. Sometimes if we miss a couple weekdays, we'll do a bit of work on Sat or Sun.

[Devotional Soul]

When we take days off, it's hard to go back, so we go 7 days, but 2-3 days are just reading stories, no work involved other than listening, and fun with painting and other art projects. "School" really just means 30-60 minutes of focused time.

Edited September 10, 2009 by Devotional Soul

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

Hmmm, the plan was to do school 5 days a week but that hasn't happened yet. Every week we have at least one day where we are busy with other things. Once we get into a better routine I hope to average 4 days a week.

[Pamela H in Texas]

It depends on what all you're counting as "teaching." I'd definitely do 4-5 days per week. At 30-60 minutes for 3R's, plus FIAR, then add in a ton of different things we do naturally or I'd come up with....It'd be a good morning 4-5 days per week, but little of it would be "schoolish." A lot of learning is through play, interest, daily life, child and parent led ideas/activities, reading together, etc.

 

But I would do "every day" as many of the skills at this level (reading, writing, fine motor, counting, etc) are aided with regular practice.

[MissKNG]

We go whenever dd wants to go. I have stuff ready for 5 days a week and extra activities and worksheets for when she wants to do more after "official school". Our school lasts about 45 minutes.

[SilverMoon]

I didn't vote. We don't really do kindy. In our house it's just a phonics lesson, counting, writing your name, and practicing writing letters in a workbook. That's done sporadically, as the child has interest, and doesn't account for all the reading we do on the side. I read to my littles a minimum of once a day, and their big sibs read to them fairly frequently too.

[kmacnchs]

Mine need a routine so everyday we are home (pretty much all but Sundays), we do school. It only lasts 1 1/2 hrs so it's not a big deal (8-9:30) and we still have the whole day to play :D

[Doodle]

We are doing 2 hours, 5 days a week.

[nova147]

I voted 4. We do somethings 5 days, like spelling (DS is an early reader; I'm using spelling instruction to cement his phonics skills) and some sort of math related game. But it seems that each week, there's that one day when neither of us has the drive for more. We both need a break, I guess. I don't have a problem with it, but I keep pretending we do 5 days, just so it doesn't slip until we aren't doing anything, kwim? I've never been that great at sticking to things, and this is an important thing, so I do what I have to! :D

[myfatherslily]

I have 5 scheduled days, though in 4 weeks we've missed at least one day a week already (cousins in town, labor day, etc). We do 1.5-2 hours/day.

[Emmy]

We school 4 days a week (all of us) and do a "enrichment" type coop the other day. Before we were in our coop, I still schooled 4 days but we took fridays off.

[Snickerdoodle]

We do about 1/2 hour 3 times a week.

[FairProspects]

Well, I voted 3, but clearly I am in the minority. We have playgroup one day a week and then usually some kind of preschool program like MOPS or Moms Club once a week. We like our field trips, park days and nature walks! This transition from pre-k to K (or real school) is hard for us! Anyone else agree?

[BikeBookBread]

Thanks for your input everyone...I guess I'm not as far "off" as I thought I was. As stated in OP, I have been averaging 3 days a week, about an hour a day, doing the PP reading lesson every day we teach, and filling in the other stuff the other teaching days.

 

Since I'm teaching 3 and 5 yos, part of this is really dictated by the 3 yo..:glare: We've also had lots of uggy sickness this summer and again, are sick (3:00 am this morning, dd5 came into my room crying...she's resting on the couch now listening to a Magic Treehouse CD -- can that count as school :)?)

 

I really do want to be more consistent and my goal is to teach 4 days a week, with Tuesdays off for my Ladies Bible study at church, where DDs get to play with other kids, have a craft, socialize -- they're mostly homeschooled kids -- so they're with their own age.

[BikeBookBread]

Well, I voted 3, but clearly I am in the minority. We have playgroup one day a week and then usually some kind of preschool program like MOPS or Moms Club once a week. We like our field trips, park days and nature walks! This transition from pre-k to K (or real school) is hard for us! Anyone else agree?

:iagree: DD5 went to pre-K at the school at our church...I'm just having a hard time getting into the rhythm of things.

[nono]

Three afternoons a week M-W-F while ds, 2 naps. My dd, 5, and I average almost 3 hrs for each of those afternoons, but she's into learning. I must be the luckiest person on earth because my 2 yr old sleeps for just about 3 hours! :) On T & Th, my dd still takes a nap (as do I usually!).

 

On Tuesday mornings, I try to do some sort of theme day that both can participate in, so that they'll get used to the concept of a deep-dive in a unit study as they get older.

 

On Thursdays, my dd does a few minutes with Explode the Code online...I have a hard time counting "gamer" time as real school though, so I don't categorize that as school time. ;)

[ladydusk]

We're doing K4 this year and I don't see it changing when we do K5/K4/PK3 starting in January. We do "school" 3 days a week, MTW. Thursday is an off day and the kids hang with my mom & dad (swim, play, do crafts/projects, read books, etc.) Friday is an "off" day too ... we do some art and some geography (cooking a "cultural" meal) and review our memory work to Recite for Daddy. We do parts of what is considered school curriculum every day (devotions, memory work, reading, books, etc) I know it seems strange to do our focused work 3 days then be off 4, but it works for us.

[frogger]

I would have chosen other, 0 days, or 7 days but none of those are options.

My son is learning all the time. I do read to him everyday unless it's a very strange day like doing something special on vacation or something that simply takes the whole day. That is very unusual though.

[Classical Country Mama]

I soooo wanted to start DD(4) in first grade this year--she'll be 5 in October and can already read, count who knows how high (the other day she counted to 250 until she got bored; she can count by 5s and 10s), but I am forcing myself to go as sloooowly as I can (excellent character development for me!).

 

That said--for K we're doing 5 days, with reading, math, and some type of P.E. every day; and art, music (including piano lessons), and science spread throughout the week. Lots and lots of wonderful hands-on stuff: crafts, experiments, storytime, tumbling, running around outside, dancing to music from around the world, baking cupcakes.

 

Things may, er, change slightly, however, in the future... I'm due the first week of May...! haha!

[Guest RecumbentHeart]

I schedule formal lessons for 5 days a week but we never turn down an opportunity for a spontaneous lesson so we may or may not do lessons (most likely phonics) up to 7 days a week. Informally we are always learning and reviewing.

 

It was a lot of work for ME to get into the habit of regular lessons. We started very irregular because I didn't have it scheduled into my day and would totally forget but it eventually grew to be habit and we had a 4 day week but come Friday, DS was always asking about his lesson and so we ended up eventually doing 5 days as it became an expected part of his schedule.

[Satori]

Right now for kindy we are doing 7 days. Of those 7 days, only 5 are formal, with about 1-1.5 hours of schooling. The other 2 days are to do the fun stuff like art, Literature Pockets, or to get caught up from the week.

[FlutterbyMommy]

I put 4, but one of those is CC. Also, I am refering to having more formal moments of sitting down and working 15 minutes at a time (45 total). Of course we learn through play 7 days. :tongue_smilie: However, I officially "teach" 3 days and the 4th the CC tutor does. Does that make sense?

[Laura W.]

We do K 4 days a week. The 5th day is an "Educational Fun Day", and part of what they do that day are games and software that help them review math and phonics. However, I don't consider it a full day the way the others are.

 

Blessings,

 

Laura

[FairProspects]

How do you all find the time to do kinder everyday or even 5 days a week? Are you at home everyday? One of the reasons we are not doing public school K is because they only have recess twice a week. My boys need to run everyday!

 

That means we have to spend a lot of time at local parks or outside walking every morning, and then I try to get us in a social situation with other kids at least once a week. Afternoons are out because of quiet/rest time (my 5 y.o. still naps). With all of that, I am lucky to get our work done 3 days a week and we only work for 1 hour maxiumum - usually divided up into 2 or 3 segments with major lego & train breaks in between.

 

Do you all just have kiddos that can sit still or don't need to be outside running around? I would love to get as much work done as everyone else's K'ers seem to be doing, but I just can't see how it would be possible at our house. Is my ds really behind or something? There is no way he could sit that long! I can barely get him to stop playing and come to the table for lessons, and ALL of our curriculum (reading and math) is kinethestic!

[Crimson Wife]

Last year I had my ds do 4 days. The other day was out and about (aquarium class 1x month, lego class 1x a week, day off, etc.).

 

:iagree:

In kindergarten, I focus on reading, math, and religion.

[CookieMonster]

How do you all find the time to do kinder everyday or even 5 days a week? Are you at home everyday?

 

First, I make school a priority, so if push comes to shove on something, school time wins. He knows that he can't go to the park, play in the backyard, etc. until we have finished our work for the day. Not that I'm not flexible; I am. That's why some weeks we only hit school on three days.

 

Second, my five-year-old stopped napping two years ago. Sometimes we do kindergarten when the other two are napping.

 

Our days when we complete school usually look something like this:

 

6:30 Rise and Shine (TV and milk while I nurse the baby)

7:00 Breakfast

7:15 "Morning Chart" (teeth, bed making, etc.)

7:30 I feed the baby solid food while the kids piddle around with whatever

8:00 We start school

8:30 We get interrupted because the baby is ready to go down for nap

8:45 We have snack

9:00-9:45 We finish Kindergarten work

 

9:45-5:00pm we spend doing anything and everything else: the park, the grocery store, flag football, swinging on the rope in the backyard, cleaning the house, doing laundry, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, playdates, long walks around the neighborhood, etc.

 

When we first started 'doing school' we did just 15 minutes a day. Then we added one thing at a time until we are where we are now.

[gardening momma]

How do you all find the time to do kinder everyday or even 5 days a week? Are you at home everyday?

 

Do you all just have kiddos that can sit still or don't need to be outside running around? I would love to get as much work done as everyone else's K'ers seem to be doing, but I just can't see how it would be possible at our house.

We're at home most days. It doesn't take long. Just a few minutes here and there. Dd plays most of the time. My main focus right now is learning to read. We have learning songs that we sing whenever and wherever. Then sometimes I read something to her while she colors or something. She occasionally does a page or two (or several if the mood strikes her) from a Kumon book. Her day is mostly play.

[Radish4ever]

To answer the PP, we are at home most days.... but even on the days that we go out, DD doesn't like a bunch of idle time. She begs to do school stuff.

 

Most of our school is child-led as far as when she does it and which order she does her assignments...except our OPGTR lessons. I try and get her to do that one when she is most attentive. :) Our "studies" are very relaxed so schooling 5 or more days a week isn't a ton of work - a lot of it is fun like reading a book or doing a dot to dot

[Doodle]

We are home most days too. My boy is very active and constantly moving. If he were in public kindergarten this year, he'd be there for a full day (6+ hours?). We do 2 hours. I consider that only a small fraction of the time. He still has ample time for running, jumping, bouncing, playing... Today he woke up at 7am. He'll go to bed at 8pm. 13 hours awake. 2 hours of school. 11 hours of glorious boy fun.

[LadyAberlin]

Well I voted 5 but my goal is 7.

 

My ds 5.5 goes to a little homeschool K class 2 days during the week for 1.5 hrs. He is usually tired when he gets home. So I've revamped my schedule. We don't do school on the days he has class. So on Mondays and Wednesdays we do Phonics, math, handwriting, science, history, analogy workbook, Bible and Spanish. Then Tuesdays and Thursdays is his class. Fridays we do Bible, Phonics, math, Handwriting, analogies and Spanish. I timed it today and it took 1 hr to do all those. Saturdays we will do Bible, Phonics, math, History and music. Sundays are the same except we do Art instead of Music. So that is the plan anyway. I just switched to this schedule Thursday and it seems promising. Ds is being more cooperative. I'm more relaxed because we have a lighter load on the days I work too. After a full week of this schedule I will try to work my prek into the schedule.

 

Just wanted to add that we get up between 8:30 and 9:30 and school takes any where from 1-2 hrs. We go to bed around 10-11 pm. My 5 yr old stopped napping at age 2. My newly turned 3 yr old still takes a 1/2 hr-1hr nap most days with me holding him or he will wake up. I want him to take a little nap or he will fall asleep around 8pm and if he does that he will wake up at 9 and not fall back asleep again until 1 am.

Edited September 12, 2009 by LadyAberlin

[Devotional Soul]

How do you all find the time to do kinder everyday or even 5 days a week? Are you at home everyday? One of the reasons we are not doing public school K is because they only have recess twice a week. My boys need to run everyday!

 

That means we have to spend a lot of time at local parks or outside walking every morning, and then I try to get us in a social situation with other kids at least once a week. Afternoons are out because of quiet/rest time (my 5 y.o. still naps). With all of that, I am lucky to get our work done 3 days a week and we only work for 1 hour maxiumum - usually divided up into 2 or 3 segments with major lego & train breaks in between.

 

Do you all just have kiddos that can sit still or don't need to be outside running around? I would love to get as much work done as everyone else's K'ers seem to be doing, but I just can't see how it would be possible at our house. Is my ds really behind or something? There is no way he could sit that long! I can barely get him to stop playing and come to the table for lessons, and ALL of our curriculum (reading and math) is kinethestic!

 

My boys need to play and exercise or else they are jumping off the furniture, wild and crazy. So, I make sure they get a lot of outside play and exercise in the morning and the afternoon (walk, bike ride, soccer). Sometimes they just want to sit and play in the dirt, but I make sure they walk down the road to exercise some. We come inside during the hottest time of day 11-2 for school, stories, inside play, and lunch. We still go out 2-3 time a week for soccer practice and games, library trips, playground time, grocery shopping, and the beach. My boys really like having a repetitive daily schedule.

 

If my Ds5 doesn't get enough exercise, he gets really squirmy in school. When he has exercised a lot in the morning, he is relaxed during school. I can't let him take a nap because then he won't go to bed at night until way too late. With no nap, he is asleep by 8:00pm, so I still get a break at night.

 

Here's our daily schedule to give you an idea of how much we are just freeplaying, and school is just a 30-60 focused time while the baby naps. More snacks are added as needed.

 

~Wake up, freeplay through prayers, breakfast

~Outside time (usually 1-3 hours)

~Inside, wash up, lunch

~Free play

~Read stories (while baby falls asleep)

~School focused time

~Read more stories (when baby wakes up)

~Snack

~Housecleaning (or go out to soccer/playground/library)

~Outside time (2-3 hours)

~Inside, wash up, dinner

~Stories, bedtime

 

It's all about finding what works for your family. I think that the most important thing about school at this age is to build a love for learning. If it's a struggle, I stop and just read stories because I want school to be considered a positive thing. HTH!

Edited September 11, 2009 by Devotional Soul

[LoveBaby]

It takes us about 1.5 hours. That leaves 10.5 hours every day for him to catch bugs, kill crickets, whack my flowers, jump on the couch, paint, color, do puzzles, play board games, run errands with me, help me vacuum, pick his nose, accidently destroy his sister's toy - again, snuggle, read books, and more. Not to mention the three days of week when he's got all 12 waking hours to find stuff to do.

 

 

:lol::lol::lol:

 

That sounds like my 5yo ds! We can add pick on the dog, let out the rabbit - again, purposely bug his older sister and brother while they are doing school and generally making a nuissance of himself! Gotta love those little boys! :D

 

We shoot for 4 days/week, but sometimes only get in 3. He's a ball of fire, so we work in 15 min. increments. He's coming in and out of the picture as I work with the older 2 and take care of the toddler. Some days he's ready and willing to do more so we do, other days we just get the bare minimum done and call it good. He's a young K'er, so I'm not stressing about too much this year.

Edited September 11, 2009 by LoveBaby

[Penelope]

I put 3 days but by that I meant structured stuff. We read lots every day, to all the children. My second is starting K work but we have not gotten into official reading lessons yet. Once real reading begins, that will be every day, 5-6 days. But that is short, 10 or 15 minutes.

[HarbourLights]

We are doing PreK/K and I voted four days a week. In those four days are OPGTR lesson/review, HWOT, Singapore EB, writing practice, BOB books and Brain Quest workbooks. We typically do about 45 mins in the morning, go run errands, lunch and BOB books and a craft plus several stories in the afternoon. Fridays I leave for zoo trips, exploring the area and free play etc... So far it is a good fit for us! Great thread as I love to see how other families set up their days!!

 

:lurk5:

[selh09]

We are doing prek/k this year, so we do 3 days a week MTW. Thursday is library, park, errands, etc. Fridays are family days. Saturday and Sunday off (church on Sunday). We usually go for about 40-45 minutes.

[Aloha2U]

We started doing lessons 4 days a week last year (during our K4 school year) to work around daddy's schedule and well... it works just perfectly for us, so this year (K5) we're doing the same thing.

 

Hmmm... I wonder if we'll do 4 days a week next year for G1 too. :tongue_smilie:

[~Kirsten~]

Well, I voted 3, but clearly I am in the minority. We have playgroup one day a week and then usually some kind of preschool program like MOPS or Moms Club once a week. We like our field trips, park days and nature walks! This transition from pre-k to K (or real school) is hard for us! Anyone else agree?

 

I'm like this, too! I voted 3 days, by the way. I'm shocked to be in the minority, but perhaps it's all in what we consider "school," which probably differs from family to family. I have a tendency to get obsessive and overdo things, so I'm deliberately staying very, very relaxed with kindergarten. In my favor with that is that DD is already reading very well, so I feel less external pressure to make sure she's doing "real" school work, if that makes sense. I aim for 4 days of handwriting (1 sheet), 4 days of math, 4 days of spelling/grammar (since we're done with phonics, we're just moving very slowly ahead), and then 2 days of science and social studies. Both science and social studies are either me reading aloud books or hands-on activities. Art and music fall into read-alouds and hands-on, too, so we try to do those at least twice per week.

 

I'm very, very satisfied if we only do 3 days of work at all. But mostly, we play. I read. She reads constantly also. We get out of the house and play with other kids. We do fun stuff. In reality, that means we're schooling more like 6 days, if you count all that other stuff. But I don't, really. We'd do that stuff, as much as we could, even if she was going to school.

 

However, I've been having a major complex about this lately, as everyone I'm meeting is really stressing about getting school done, even for K. You all aren't helping! :lol: Both of my girls really could sit at the table for 1.5-hour stretches, but I'm trying to avoid that! :001_huh: Again, I'm going to keep telling myself that it all depends on what we consider school. Really. It does. :tongue_smilie:

Edited September 12, 2009 by ~Kirsten~
never said what I voted

[FlutterbyMommy]

How do you all find the time to do kinder everyday or even 5 days a week? Are you at home everyday? One of the reasons we are not doing public school K is because they only have recess twice a week. My boys need to run everyday!

 

That means we have to spend a lot of time at local parks or outside walking every morning, and then I try to get us in a social situation with other kids at least once a week. Afternoons are out because of quiet/rest time (my 5 y.o. still naps). With all of that, I am lucky to get our work done 3 days a week and we only work for 1 hour maxiumum - usually divided up into 2 or 3 segments with major lego & train breaks in between.

 

Do you all just have kiddos that can sit still or don't need to be outside running around? I would love to get as much work done as everyone else's K'ers seem to be doing, but I just can't see how it would be possible at our house. Is my ds really behind or something? There is no way he could sit that long! I can barely get him to stop playing and come to the table for lessons, and ALL of our curriculum (reading and math) is kinethestic!

 

 

I have a child with ADHD and SPD. She has energy to spare and is EXTREMELY kinesthetic. We are out of the house a lot! If we are not away from home, we are outside at least 2 hours per day playing. But we usually go to the park once per day. We go to CC class once per week. We also usually do a special outing like the zoo, children's museum, or at minimum a jumping place on rainy days.

 

I do not expect my daughter to sit for a "lesson" or topic for more than 15 minutes. If she does, its just gravy. We break up the sit down stuff with learning through play. If we build with blocks, we group colors, sort by sizes, count, etc. If we are out playing with sidewalk chalk, then she puts her monster feet on (balancing stilt walkers) and she stomps the chalk letters and says their sounds.

 

We spend 15 minutes on 100 EZ lessons (phonics), 15-20 minutes on RS B (math), and 15 minutes on writing exercises. The other things are sprinkled in with play like reading aloud to her, playing music and chants for CC memorization, and then flipping through the Veritas cards.

 

Fridays we usually go out and if she wants to do some worksheets, cool. If she wants to play some educational software, great. However, I have no formal plans. I had several BTDT moms say a 4 day week is best long term, so I have been striving to stay 4. This week, we actually on did CC because I felt she had a lot going on (doctor's appointments, etc.).

 

I think your approach is good, unless you are seeing some problems. Pre-K and Kindergarten are a time to play and maybe sprinkle in some learning IMO. I like things child-lead at this age. If they crave more academics, then step it up. If they are doing well as is, then why change?

 

Whether it is 1 day or 7, it depends on what works for your family. Now i the time to play with things and see what works for all of you. I wouldn't stress.

[momto7]

I like to call it "Kindergarden-in-15-Minutes-A-Day!" We do it 5 days a week, and she's the first one I work with because, honestly, I would otherwise forget.:blushing:

 

This is year 9 of our homeschooling adventure, and as #6 starts K, I've learned that math, reading, and handwriting are all it takes for seatwork. With lots of older sibs, she gets read to daily, and she just hangs out in the schoolroom quite a bit during other lessons.

 

(Small rant: Our local PS just went to all day/every day kindergarden. My little 5yo would poop-out by lunch! I feel so bad for the littlest kiddos in those buildings from 8:55am to 3:30pm. Is kindergarten so difficult now that it takes 6 1/2 hours a day to teach it? YIKES!!!)

[Dinsfamily]

I voted 5 days, but really 6 since we do a fun science experiment with dh on Saturdays now. I've found that it's easier for us to have 5 easy days (+ 1 fun day) that leaves him wanting more instead of cramming a lot in 3 days. Unfortunately, that's what I did a few times at the beginning of our schoolyear (June) and it didn't work for us.

Edited September 12, 2009 by Dinsfamily
Add info

[LadyAberlin]

How do you all find the time to do kinder everyday or even 5 days a week? Are you at home everyday? One of the reasons we are not doing public school K is because they only have recess twice a week. My boys need to run everyday!

 

That means we have to spend a lot of time at local parks or outside walking every morning, and then I try to get us in a social situation with other kids at least once a week. Afternoons are out because of quiet/rest time (my 5 y.o. still naps). With all of that, I am lucky to get our work done 3 days a week and we only work for 1 hour maxiumum - usually divided up into 2 or 3 segments with major lego & train breaks in between.

 

Do you all just have kiddos that can sit still or don't need to be outside running around? I would love to get as much work done as everyone else's K'ers seem to be doing, but I just can't see how it would be possible at our house. Is my ds really behind or something? There is no way he could sit that long! I can barely get him to stop playing and come to the table for lessons, and ALL of our curriculum (reading and math) is kinethestic!

 

My 3 yr old and 5 yr old are the most active children I know. My kinder can be extremely hyper. They are so active to the point that I would never take them to the park by myself. They aren't bad there. They just dart between playground equipment so quickly that if you take your eyes off of them for a second they can disappear. It is extremely stressful at the park. So we stay at home and the kids run around and play in the yard. My ds is in the k class 2 days a week to make friends. I'm hoping to get him involved in 4H clover kids soon and cub scouts when he is 6 to give him some more social outlets, plus I think he'd enjoy them. Sometimes school is done orally with him jumping on a trampoline. Read alouds are done while coloring and block building.