Suggestions for a not quite K'er next year?

[texasmama]

My dd will be coming home from preschool next year to start some sort of kindy program at home. I have two ds's who will be in 4th and 2nd grade next year. My dd is doing some pre-K Abeka early readers in preschool and learning the concept and how to write numbers 1-10. Mostly, she is having fun and that's great with me. :)

 

She will turn 5 at the end of October and while I know that kids vary a great deal, I am planning the following and wanted to run it past some folks with more experience. I started hs'ing when the youngest ds was almost 6 so I've not had a young student like this before.

 

I have very tentatively planned for the year:

 

Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons

the first three sets of Bob books

the first Spelling Workout ???

tagging along with bubba's history (we will be doing Core 4 in SL)

some sort of Singapore math (the ds's use Singapore and I want them all to use the same program if possible) - which one?

possibly FLL1 as the year progresses if she is ready - going to play this by ear

 

Since she will be a young k'er, my main goals will be to get her reading well and start some basic math. I am not trying to break any records for how quickly she can progress. Any feedback?

[Karen in CO]

Reading and math are perfect goals. I called this my dd's not-K year since she was too young for Kindergarten. I would not do spelling until she is reading independently which is for my kids has just above the short chapter book stage. If you want to do Singapore, the earlybird books are just fine. I have always included my youngest with the older's history - craft projects, coloring pages, and picture books if I can find them on a related topic, but I just aim for her to feel included not aim for her to have any mastery of any of the material.

 

Another thing that is nice is to get a big list of all of those great, classic stories you read to the older two and make sure you schedule time to read them to the youngest. Also try to schedule in at least once a month some messy art because it is easy to forget to pull out the messy stuff when you are busy with the older two (and let them "help" because that is always fun and makes for great homeschool memories).

 

Have fun.

[Aludlam]

We are doing the 3 Get Ready for the Code books. My 4 year old loves them!

 

Angela

[MeganW]

We are in a similar position. My kids will be 5 in April, but are a little behind developmentally due to premature birth. They might be OK in kindy, but I plan to send them back to preschool a few hours a week for one more year, and homeschool kindy at a slow pace.

 

Here's my plan for the next year or two or three:

 

Reading - I have 100EZ Lessons. If I hadn't already bought it, I would probably get OPGTR instead, based on reviews here. We may get OPGTR anyway and run through at a quick pace after finishing 100EZ Lessons so we don't have gaps. We will also do Explode the Code workbooks alongside.

 

When reading fluently, we will start All About Spelling. We will add in First Language Lessons and then Writing With Ease when we have everything else going smoothly.

 

Handwriting - we are using Handwriting Without Tears.

 

Math

Stage 1 (combo of things to try and establish a strong base and figure out which program works best for each kid's learning style)

- Peggy Kaye's Games for Math

- Mathtacular 1 DVD

- Miquon preschool folder (found in a prior post - let me know if you need link)

- Singapore EarlyBird A

- Rod & Staff C & G books

- Math U See Primer

Stage 2 (will drop some things from here based on how kids do with each program in Stage 1)

- Singapore EarlyBird B

- Miquon Orange & Red (parts that fit in with other programs)

- RightStart Level A

- Math U See Alpha

- MEP Reception

Stage 3 (will drop some things from here based on how kids do with each program in Stages 1 & 2)

- Mathtacular 2 DVD

- Miquon Orange & Red (remaining)

- Math Mammoth Light Blue Grade 1 or Singapore Math 1A

- RightStart Level B

- Math U See Beta

- MEP 1

 

Geography - Galloping the Globe, coordinated with Five In A Row

 

Finishing Developing the Early Learning workbooks

 

Lollipop Logic

 

Booklist a mile long for readalounds in hopes of "catching up" - reading everything I should have read to them as preschoolers, as well as reading kindergarten classics

 

Hand-strengthening (my kids all have issues in this area, but it can't hurt for ANY kids!) Tweezers; Tear & scrunch paper; Playdoh; Tongs; Penny pickup; Marble pickup; Theraputty w/ googly eyes; Squeeze out sponges; Squirt guns or bottles; Cutting cardstock; Eyedroppers; Clothespins

Edited March 13, 2010 by MeganW

[FairProspects]

This is our not-quite-K year too. Personally, I think reading the first 3 sets of Bob books sounds pretty ambitious for a young K'er, but I only have experience with one younger student and if it works for your dd, great! Teaching reading to ds has been very hard indeed, and there is no way he could get through all those books, but kids have different rates of learning, so I'd maybe keep it as a loose goal.

[Aurelia]

I would skip SWO and FLL this year. You can pick them up the next year without harm. You might want to consider some unit studies on topics she is interested in, as well as getting some fun science kits (Ariel LOVED the butterfly house and first science kits from Insect Lore) and books from the library on topics of interest. Art and handicrafts are fun, too.

[texasmama]

Wow, thanks for all the great ideas so far! I do already have 100 EZ lessons but if we don't love it, I am open to changing. The only thing set in stone is that she will tag along for readalouds with the bubbas for history. :) My thought was to use the Bob books after we are least partway through the 100 EZ lessons, whenever her skill level seems to fit it. I used them with my older kindy ds and he raced through them, but he was ready. I tell everyone that he taught himself to read. I just sat there with him holding the books and giving gentle correction. She may not be ready, though, and that is fine.

 

I will wait on FLL and on the SWO. Plenty of time for those. I've not heard of the Getting Ready for the Code books and will check these out. :) Messy art, unit studies, living science and reading classics sounds great, too. The wonderful thing about this year is that it is a no pressure one for me...we are free to go at her pace, whatever that is. I would only be stressed if she didn't learn to read next year and work on some basic math. Everything else feels like gravy. Having reached the stage with the older ds in which I am scrambling to get caught up in some areas, it is a great relief to have a child to school with few expectations. :)

 

Megan, thank you for putting that out there in such detail. My hat is off to you with triplets and a baby. I stretched my four out quite a bit. :)

Edited March 13, 2010 by texasmama
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[StartingOver]

The only other suggestion I would to what you have already received. Would be to get Sonlight P 4/5's science book...... Berenstains Bears Big Book of Science, PreK 4 and 5 Science . My son really had a blast with it, and even insisted in doing it twice. I also have Mudpies to Magnets.

[Heidi]

Wow, thanks for all the great ideas so far! I do already have 100 EZ lessons but if we don't love it, I am open to changing. The only thing set in stone is that she will tag along for readalouds with the bubbas for history. :) My thought was to use the Bob books after we are least partway through the 100 EZ lessons, whenever her skill level seems to fit it. I used them with my older kindy ds and he raced through them, but he was ready. I tell everyone that he taught himself to read. I just sat there with him holding the books and giving gentle correction. She may not be ready, though, and that is fine.

 

I will wait on FLL and on the SWO. Plenty of time for those. I've not heard of the Getting Ready for the Code books and will check these out. :) Messy art, unit studies, living science and reading classics sounds great, too. The wonderful thing about this year is that it is a no pressure one for me...we are free to go at her pace, whatever that is. I would only be stressed if she didn't learn to read next year and work on some basic math. Everything else feels like gravy. Having reached the stage with the older ds in which I am scrambling to get caught up in some areas, it is a great relief to have a child to school with few expectations. :)

 

Megan, thank you for putting that out there in such detail. My hat is off to you with triplets and a baby. I stretched my four out quite a bit. :)

 

My dd4 will be 5 in December, but I've already started her as a sort-of-Ker because she seems fairly advanced for her age and she wants to be big like her sister.

We're doing OPGTR along with the Bob books, very casually. She has started reading set 2 of the Bob books with me and I let her read set 1 independently as her "free reading" -- she loves this.

We are also doing math like Memoria Press's kindergarten, using the R&S 1 math book with the Counting With Numbers workbook... basically just writing numbers and counting. Taking it slow because I don't want to get to the addition facts any time soon.

And she is doing HWT K, zooming through it because it comes easily to her.

I thought about FLL, but I don't want to put the effort into it yet. Too early. I've also tried AAS, but again, I don't want to put the effort into it. I just don't see it as necessary at this age.

Other than that I read to them a lot. I'll probably start SSL in the fall with both of them, as well as BF Am. History, and maybe Beginning Geography, which is too big for her right now.

They both go to preschool and get their "messy art" there for the time being.

[Tracy]

I agree with the others about spelling. I started my 4yo in both phonics and spelling at the same time, and it was too much for her. Since she was already reading fluently, I dropped the phonics and kept the spelling. But if she was still working on reading, I would have done the phonics and put off the spelling.

 

Tracy

[skueppers]

We've been doing not-K here very, very casually.

 

Reading: Reading Eggs, Progressive Phonics (the memory game is a big hit here), BOB books, and Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading. I'd say that each of these have had their place, and my daughter has gotten different things out of each of them. We are not doing a formal program this year (that is, I do not require her to do any "schoolwork"), so it's been key for us to be able to switch around between different things based on what interested her at any given time.

 

Math: Miquon, Mathematics Enhancement Programme, Math Mammoth clock worktext, and other random stuff.

 

We also play a lot of board games, have lots of read-alouds, have occasional drawing lessons, do crafts, and so on. My daughter is very interested in science right now.

[MissKNG]

I'll have a young K student next fall as well and I like to stick with the basic 3R's and the Bible. I also asked her what she wants to learn about the most and added that - which is "math, science and arts". So I added Sonlight Science K now and plan to stretch it out as long as possible. Math we are doing Horizons K now and will move to Singapore 1A in the fall or so. Reading - I'm going to introduce her to Progressive Phonics. Writing - right now, I'm using various books from the Dollar Tree that she is tracing the letters. She is also tracing the numbers in the Horizons book.

 

One thing I do on this forum is check out blogs with kiddos with the same age/grade level to get ideas.

[Terabith]

My youngest turns five at the end of April, but she is chronically anxious, perfectionistic, socially something (shy? not confident in interactions), and easily frustrated. She is very smart but she pays attention to very little, especially if it's not her idea. (I've been working on learning address and phone number for more than a year. Just not happening. The year she was three, she never once could tell you how old she was. "Catherine, you're three. How old are you?" blank look...)

 

My plan is to send her to another year of preschool. Her teacher is fantastic, truly wonderful. Taught kindergarten for years, was a reading specialist, just an all around great teacher. Her preschool class is really what kindergarten should be, imo. They cover a lot of academic material, but the focus is on social development. Lot of fun. There will be three other kids from her class this year who are "repeating," and two of them are a set of twins with birthdays the day after Catherine's, so it will definitely be an older preschool class.

 

But Catherine is also academically ready for kindergarten, I think. She's starting to sound out words and is on lesson 37 of Headsprout. My tentative plan is to register her as a homeschooled kindergartener with the city and send her to preschool for her "program." I'll do some work with her in the afternoons on reading and simple math. My goal is to get her reading fairly well. We'll do Singapore Essentials or Earlybird. (We're doing Essentials A now, and it's way too easy, but I think it has been important for her to start there.) We may also play around with Miquon and maybe RS A. Her math skills aren't where I think they should be. And I'll keep reading out loud to her, of course, both the "preschool" picture books and the more advanced books that I read to her sister, if she's interested. (She opts out of some of the "scarier" books now.)

[MeganW]

Megan, thank you for putting that out there in such detail. My hat is off to you with triplets and a baby. I stretched my four out quite a bit. :)

 

Aah - think about it. You are planning lessons for FOUR different levels. I am planning for ONE! :) (My baby is normal/advanced, and the triplets are a little behind, so they are very similar in levels.) My workload is a LOT lighter than yours!

[texasmama]

Aah - think about it. You are planning lessons for FOUR different levels. I am planning for ONE! :) (My baby is normal/advanced, and the triplets are a little behind, so they are very similar in levels.) My workload is a LOT lighter than yours!

 

Good point! :) Though my oldest attends private school so I only have three students to plan for. If they were all on the same level, it would make things much simpler!

[texasmama]

Terabith, kids are so different in terms of what they are ready for at what age, aren't they? My two boys couldn't be more different from each other. My oldest son is much like you describe your four year old. He is a more difficult child to teach, but I do see progress. :)

 

I appreciate being able to toss around our ideas for kindy with kids this age - the collective wisdom is always better than our individual ideas. :)

[Aludlam]

Hi again,

 

I just re-read your original post and saw that you have a child in Christian school. I wanted to suggested a book that my littles LOVE it's called Leading Little Ones to God. We've read it through at least 3 times. We don't do any of the additional readings. They just love the stories. It pretty much teaches a bible story/principle and then shows how it would be applicable in their life.

 

Angela

[texasmama]

Thanks, Angela. I will look for that. We do kind of a hodge podge of Christian character lessons and Bible readings, but it is not my strongest point so I am very open to new ideas. :)

[Aludlam]

I am the same way with the hodge podge. LLOG has by far been my kids favorite homeschool thing period (ages 8,4,3) followed second by ETC. Of course every kid is different, but mine could listen to it all day long.

 

Angela

[EmeraldGirl]

Oh my, everytime I read one of these "gotta get my K'er ready for next year", my heart skips a beat b/c I have one that just turned 5 and I am so used to her just tagging along with everyone else that I can't get my brain to wrap around a schedule just for her yet. She has been using those Pre-school type R&S books. She is adopted and seems very young to even start something more "formal", so I think I am just going to have to feel this out....oy, better get started! (thanks for the reminder)

[texasmama]

:grouphug: Lisa...every child is different and I do believe going with your "mom gut". If you don't think she's ready, then she's probably not. If she is, then it sounds like you have already made a good start. My biggest concern about next year is adding the not quite K'er to the mix of the two boys. We have such a nice thing going (and have for the past two years) with her at preschool. She, being the baby princess, is very demanding and not so much fun to have around when the boys are schooling - disruptive and demanding. Yes, I know...I need to address that issue...and I will - but I can't promise that it will be fun for anyone while we are getting there!:D

[MeganW]

My tentative plan is to register her as a homeschooled kindergartener with the city and send her to preschool for her "program."

 

I am doing the same thing - sending my kids to preschool for another year, while homeschooling at an easy pace the kindy stuff. I had not planned to register them as homeschool, just because I didn't think there was any reason to. Is there? I just figured I would wait until they are required by law to be in school before registering as homeschool. Doesn't it just add more paperwork/recordkeeping/oversight? Is there any advantage to registering before you have to?

[MeganW]

bump - hoping for reply re: need to register as homeschooler! :)

[MissKNG]

I am doing the same thing - sending my kids to preschool for another year, while homeschooling at an easy pace the kindy stuff. I had not planned to register them as homeschool, just because I didn't think there was any reason to. Is there? I just figured I would wait until they are required by law to be in school before registering as homeschool. Doesn't it just add more paperwork/recordkeeping/oversight? Is there any advantage to registering before you have to?

 

I would wait until you legally have to report them. If you register before the required age, you'll just have to submit all your paperwork and reports, etc BEFORE you are legally required to! Save the headache, imo!

[MeganW]

I would wait until you legally have to report them. If you register before the required age, you'll just have to submit all your paperwork and reports, etc BEFORE you are legally required to! Save the headache, imo!

 

Gotcha - that's what I was thinking, but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something! Thanks!

[FairProspects]

Gotcha - that's what I was thinking, but wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something! Thanks!

 

I would say the caveat is unless you have a good reason to register them, like a virtual academy or access to a general fund or something. I'm registering ds for K next year even though I'm not yet required to by law, because we are going through a VA with funds for homeschooling. HTH!

[MeganW]

I would say the caveat is unless you have a good reason to register them, like a virtual academy or access to a general fund or something. I'm registering ds for K next year even though I'm not yet required to by law, because we are going through a VA with funds for homeschooling. HTH!

 

And now I have just found out that if I don't send them to public or private school, I have to sign a waiver saying that I understand that not sending them to kindy is detrimental to their education and so on. Grrr!! I realize it's just a piece of paper, but since I am clearly doing what is best for their education, it irks me to have to sign something saying otherwise.

[StartingOver]

bump - hoping for reply re: need to register as homeschooler! :)

 

I am not in a state that I have to register, but I would never register before I absolutely had to. Once you register there are hoops to jump. :001_smile:

[jclinton]

Focus on your goals- teaching her to read and some math - otherwise have fun! Read to her -enjoy this time.

JoAnne