dh wants me to put together a "scope and sequence"

[jillian]

So we are looking at possibly (very strong emphasis on possibly) doing a 2 day a week preschool program for our Little Miss. My only concern is that the program we found would put her in the younger group, which would be a great fit for her maturity level, but the skills they are teaching in the younger group she already knows or will know before the "school year" starts.

 

So DH and I talked last night and we decided to go to a private tour when I get back from going to texas to help out family. He said that if I put together a "working" scope and sequence for next year (starting at 3 years old) he will consider letting us just do more "extracurricular" style things (i.e. gymnastics, dance, playgroups, etc) for social interaction.

 

DD already is well on her way to knowing her letters and the sounds (thank you Starfall), already knows her numbers to 10 and we are working on getting up to 15 before the end of the year (she can do it with assistance), she loves science-y things and music.

 

How would you go about doing a "scope and sequence" for a younger child who will be 3 and who already is doing the skills listed above. At the rate she's going I am predicting that she will read early (my guess is starting to read by the end of the summer or end of the year). Most of the learning next year will be a child-directed approach with a little bit of guiding such as making sure we cover something in the big content areas (counting/math, letters/reading, arts and crafts, music, science/animals, etc) once a week but at her pace and how much she wants to do.

 

The format DH wants is as follows:

1. the goals for next year (what we want to learn)

2. the subjects we are going to do

3. projected time spent on each subject

4. materials to accomplish the goals

 

I have a hard time pinning down subjects because of the age she is (or will be) but he wants to see something like that. I have some "curricula" already in mind already (fun stuff like read-alouds, puzzles, etc) and some goals in mind already but I'd like to hear some ideas about how you would "schedule" (man i hate that term) a 3 year old

[EKS]

My son entered preschool at 2.75 already reading and being able to count pretty high (and understanding one to one correspondence). He went to preschool for social reasons only (he also left three years later for social reasons, but that's another story) and I taught him at home. He made friends at the school that are still his friends years later and this wouldn't have happened in a more sporadic social environment like an art class.

 

My point is that you can do both. If she goes to preschool 2 days per week, you can teach academics the other three days.

[musicianmom]

I found this skills checklist very helpful when my oldest was 3:

 

http://www.handsonhomeschooling.com/age_3_skills.htm

 

My oldest is much like your Little Miss, early in reading and math. The checklist helped remind me of all the other areas to work on.

 

(My second dd is almost exactly the same age as your dd, and we practically throw a party when she puts a 3-word sentence together. I sometimes read your posts and think "Seriously?" but then I remember "Oh yeah, that's what dd4 was like at that age.")

[jillian]

I found this skills checklist very helpful when my oldest was 3:

 

http://www.handsonhomeschooling.com/age_3_skills.htm

 

My oldest is much like your Little Miss, early in reading and math. The checklist helped remind me of all the other areas to work on.

 

(My second dd is almost exactly the same age as your dd, and we practically throw a party when she puts a 3-word sentence together. I sometimes read your posts and think "Seriously?" but then I remember "Oh yeah, that's what dd4 was like at that age.")

Our pediatrician thinks I am lying when I say these things because she is shy around adult males (always has been) that aren't in the family.

 

Thank you so much for that list.

 

We aren't 100% comfortable with her going just yet (we'd have to start in september) but we are working on it and are going to discuss it through the summer and see if this is a good place/fit.

[Dmmetler]

I ditto this-My DD did 2 day a week MDO/Preschool from age 2-4 (and was placed in K at 4 at the program's suggestion) for social reasons, and except for one teacher who was absolutely convinced that DD HAD to be autistic (apparently "gifted" never crossed her mind. I suppose it still was good thing, though, since getting the testing for autism identified that she really was a very, very gifted kid with a lot of OEs) it was a good experience. Not an academic one. I don't think she learned anything other than a few specific memory verses and prayers in MDO/Preschool/K-but socially, it was a good fit, and I think she developed a lot of interpersonal skills in dealing with children her age and willingness to try activities that maybe she wouldn't have done otherwise.

 

My only regret was that I let her move into full day K this past year, and while it was a good fit socially, that's just plain too many hours a day, and wore her out to the point that she didn't have the time and energy to explore learning at home as she had as a preschooler, so this past year has been about 90% social development.

 

I think that "Scope and Sequence" for a child who isn't yet 3 is overkill. Having said that, I did get the public school standards for 1st grade and went through them with my DH to show him just how far ahead of them DD really was already and that there would be NO, ZERO, ZILCH problems with meeting them via homeschooling next year, which I think reassured him. So if you can find pre-K standards for your state, maybe doing something like that would reassure your DH.

[nmoira]

How would you go about doing a "scope and sequence" for a younger child who will be 3 and who already is doing the skills listed above. At the rate she's going I am predicting that she will read early (my guess is starting to read by the end of the summer or end of the year).

Please be careful not to put yourself in a position that if she is not reading early that you've "failed." Knowing letters, and even letter sounds, at an early age does not necessarily an early reader make. Far more important than early reading is vocabulary development through reading wonderful stories, talking and reading about the world around you, and everyday life.

 

The format DH wants is as follows:

1. the goals for next year (what we want to learn)

2. the subjects we are going to do

3. projected time spent on each subject

4. materials to accomplish the goals

I'd lean towards words like "exposure" and "opportunity for exploration" when considering goals. Give her opportunities for hands on play with water and sand (or equivalent), moving toys, exploring the workings of simple machines (ramps, gears, pulleys etc.). Let her play with mud and sticks and in puddles. Have lots of simple art supplies at the ready. Read, read, read. Cook. Go on nature walks and make albums and collections. Do things like keep pill bugs until they have babies (way cool). Think of different ways to sort things. And resist the temptation to jump in with a "right" answer. :001_smile:

[nmoira]

If she goes to preschool 2 days per week, you can teach academics the other three days.

:iagree:

You might also wish to consider a non-academic preschool.

[catz]

:iagree:

You might also wish to consider a non-academic preschool.

 

:iagree:

 

Both my kids went to social, laid back, non-academic preschools and it was a great, fun fit for both of them. It wasn't until my oldest went to all day kindergarten did I even piece together he was gifted and school was going to be a tough fit for him.

 

Anyway - I agree that scope and sequence seems a little heavy for a 3 year old. 3 year olds should be learning through play at home or at preschool. If they are interested in some sit down academics, that's fine. But if they're not I wouldn't worry about it. Maybe showing your husband end of kindergarten goals would help if you want to keep your daughter at home.

 

Both my kids were way ahead and I did ZERO academics with them. That's just who they are and how they learn. And once we started academics, they zoomed through quite a bit very quickly. And still are zooming. I also wouldn't worry about reading. Both my kids knew letter sounds and letters for a LONG time before they were interested in sitting down and reading. Some kids just can't track text that early. But both are reading many years ahead of grade level now even though neither started really reading until age 5.

[jillian]

We really don't do much academics now and she is learning so much. I think he just wants to make sure we aren't doing nothing kwim? I appreciate all the advise. Dh is very list oriented and goal oriented so I think that's where he is coming from. That hands on homeschooling website previously listed is giving me some good ideas on what to expect :) I might look into a social preschool style place for her :)

[8filltheheart]

Please be careful not to put yourself in a position that if she is not reading early that you've "failed." Knowing letters, and even letter sounds, at an early age does not necessarily an early reader make. Far more important than early reading is vocabulary development through reading wonderful stories, talking and reading about the world around you, and everyday life.

 

I'd lean towards words like "exposure" and "opportunity for exploration" when considering goals. Give her opportunities for hands on play with water and sand (or equivalent), moving toys, exploring the workings of simple machines (ramps, gears, pulleys etc.). Let her play with mud and sticks and in puddles. Have lots of simple art supplies at the ready. Read, read, read. Cook. Go on nature walks and make albums and collections. Do things like keep pill bugs until they have babies (way cool). Think of different ways to sort things. And resist the temptation to jump in with a "right" answer. :001_smile:

 

:iagree: I would hate to see you set you and your dd up for failure based on an unrealistic scope and sequence. You are talking about skills that seem related, but in reality aren't.

 

Knowing letters and numbers is a recognition/recall skill. Reading requires sequencing, pattern recognition, auditory recognition, blending, and processing skills. There are simple pre-reading markers that you can use to evaluate whether or not kids are ready to learn to read. (These are not fool-proof. Some kids that pass pre-reading skills tests still don't have the processing skills required for reading. These are simply "eliminators.")

 

Some of the simple markers:

1- sequencing---can they determine what comes next in a sequence

 

2- initial sounds---if you say a word, can they distinguish the first sound in the word (dog----d, etc)

 

3- final sounds--can the identify the final sound in spoken words (dog--g, etc)

 

If a child is incapable of those simple tasks, nothing other than reading by recall (whole word recognition vs. phonics) is going read earlier. Those are brain maturation processes and simply take time to develop.

 

When it develops is completely individual dependent. There is no "defined" time, only averages which is why most kids are ready to learn simple reading around age 5.

[Jumping In Puddles]

So we are looking at possibly (very strong emphasis on possibly) doing a 2 day a week preschool program for our Little Miss. My only concern is that the program we found would put her in the younger group, which would be a great fit for her maturity level, but the skills they are teaching in the younger group she already knows or will know before the "school year" starts.

 

 

I suggest you take the time now to let her play. a lot. If its right for your family, then let her go to preschool and don't worry that she knows all the skills already. Take a look at other preschools where they don't just have a set of skills that they teach.

Do they sing songs and have show and tell? Do they let the kids play outside everyday? Do they have classroom pets? Snacks? Art and music? Read alouds? Field trips? Preschool can be so much more than the letter of the week and counting to ten.

 

At home it would be age appropriate and a wonderful experience to let her learn about nature. Take her to explore nature in her own yard or a park or nature reserve. Subscribe to My Big Backyard, collect rocks, make mudpies, get a jar and catch lightning bugs.

 

Forget extra curricular activities for a 2 year old (or a 3 year old). There is plenty of time for gymnastics and soccer and scheduled play time. There are only a few years of her life where she won't have to be scheduled so I would encourage you to embrace that and avoid the temptation to order a reading curriculum and sign her up for gymnastics.

 

I signed my ds up for soccer when he was 4. Ugh, he liked it just fine but I remember pulling him out of the sandbox where he was engrossed in play and told him it was time for soccer. He was fine, but it was a big mistake. Seriously, he is not going to be some soccer prodigy and I should have just bought him a dang soccer ball and kicked it around the yard with him. There is plenty of time for soccer.

 

Do leaf rubbing and fingerpaints, build with blocks and legos... take her to pick strawberries in June and apples in September. Let her splash in puddles and pour water from a big plastic pitcher into smaller jars.

 

Here would be my "scope and sequence" for a 3 year old:

 

Like you mentioned, you could be reading aloud. Read fairy tales and poetry, aesop and mother goose. Keep reading mother goose and she will probably start memorizing them. (memory work!!) If she points to a word and asks how to read it, just say "that word says down, d..ow <<ow says ow>> n" (phonics!!). Count seashells and toy soldiers, play store, play cards. (math!!) Read books like the Ox-Cart man and picture books about the greeks and egyptians, knights and princesses, indians and odysseus. (history!!). Work on habits and obedience and attention span. Keep reading longer and longer books (literature!!), Give her a sketch book and glue stuff she finds in nature, or draw it, then look at the library for books that relate (science!!), Bake cupcakes and let her measure for oatmeal, take her out for sushi, have her set the table (home ec, math, culture, chores!!).

 

good luck, and have fun!

Edited May 20, 2010 by Jumping In Puddles

[joannqn]

I would argue against formal schooling with a child that young but if I had to put together a scope or sequence to keep my child home, I'd make sure it was on the light side to assure success. Putting too much on there, even if you think your child might be able to do that in a year, might set you up for failure and make your DH think your child needs school even though she is already well above the expected norms.

 

You have a lot of people suggesting a limited preschool for social reasons. I personally wouldn't jump to that option unless it was a co-op where I could supervise.

 

My daughter was bullied at a preschool at the age of four. She had play dough deliberately smashed into her hair, was punched in the stomach, was kicked/tripped, and had her hair pulled. The school wasn't responsive when I complained so I pulled her out.

 

On the other hand, my son was in special ed preschool at a local public school for learning delays and had a wonderful experience. I wish my younger son could go to the same class/teacher.

[Tracy]

There are a couple of books that you can use as a guide. Home Learning Year by Year by Rebecca Rupp and What Your Preschooler Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch.

 

However, I would strongly caution you about actually writing out an academic scope and sequence. Abilities vary so much at this age. And it really ought to be a very fun time, though that doesn't mean that she isn't learning. At that age, my dd became interested in classical music, and we spent a lot of time reading books about composers and listening to their music. I would never have put this into a scope and sequence, but I am glad we did not fill her time with so much academia and activities that there wasn't any room for this interest of hers. I guess I am suggesting keeping structured academics to a very bare minimum and letting her interests guide her learning in these early years.

[jillian]

Thanks for the suggestions. We did find another preschool that looks like a potentially better fit, focusing more on the gross motor skills and social development.

 

I don't even know what to think about all this stuff since we had no plan to put her in one. I kind of fell into researching and have no clue what i am looking at kwim? Dh thinks she should go but at the same time he respects my decision on finding one that she'll be a good fit at.

 

Dh has off Wednesday so we might go take a look at this other place that I found.

 

I really do appreciate the suggestions and am anti the scope and sequence but do want to keep her at home so I feel like doing it to help dh get on board for the preschool phase (he's fine when she reaches compulsory age).

[Rivka]

Please be careful not to put yourself in a position that if she is not reading early that you've "failed." Knowing letters, and even letter sounds, at an early age does not necessarily an early reader make. Far more important than early reading is vocabulary development through reading wonderful stories, talking and reading about the world around you, and everyday life.

 

:iagree:

 

My daughter knew all her letters and letter sounds by about age 2, and I thought she'd be reading fluently at 3 the way my husband and I did. At 2 or 2.5 she was asking me to "show the words" when I read aloud and was showing a lot of interest in print.

 

Then we started reading more complex picture books with more words on the page and smaller print, and "show the words" fell away. We tried a little phonics when she was a young four and she just couldn't blend. At 4.5 phonics took off and went much more smoothly, and now at just-turned-five she reads at about a first-grade level. It definitely seemed to involve a developmental transition.

 

In the interim, we did read-alouds like crazy - advanced picture books and chapter books. She has a huge vocabulary, a great memory, and an ability to reason about textual material, all of which we might have missed out on if we'd focused more intensely on texts near her reading level.

 

Interestingly enough, although her reading is fairly close to age-level she is much more advanced in math and loves to explore things like patterns, sequences, negative numbers, fractions, the concept of infinity. I saw her early interest in identifying letters and thought "reading!!" but instead, apparently, I should have been thinking "visuospatial pattern recognition!!"

[In The Great White North]

:iagree:

You might also wish to consider a non-academic preschool. __________________

 

:iagree: Have you looked at a Waldorf preschool?

[HeatherInWI]

that it fits to each child's needs at any given moment!

 

I'm finishing my eleventh year of homeschooling highly gifted children, after several years as a ps teacher, and I have yet to wind up exactly where I thought I would at the end of the school year. Some years, a child has burned through two or more years of math, at other times, it's taken two years to really master one year's worth. One child learned to read earlier than the other, and one took until the middle of the elementary years to really master scissor use, while reading at an adult level from the age of six.

 

A scope and sequence makes sense when it's telling what a textbook or prepackaged curriculum covers, but not much when trying to predict what a gifted child will cover in a year. I didn't use a scope and sequence when teaching them to walk, talk, or use the potty, and one wouldn't have been useful. I provided what they needed and they learned when they were ready. If I had the early years of schooling to do over again, I'd purchase one or two books per subject at a time to see what fits and what we enjoy, not try to plan too far in advance.

[mmpmelmack]

I would consider making monthly goals. This way you can rethink your goals often. which is often necessary. when I started my goals for my first month were simply:

1. read a science book after lunch ( he was very interested in bugs)

2. incorportate a sit down workbook time starting with 5 mins 3 X a week

3. do a weekly art project

 

month two looked very much the same except we added in 5 extra minutes in the workbook time, and I added a math game from a book I found

 

and so on and so on rethinking each month to follow his intrests and ensure that we covered some numbers and some letters every week.

 

I did write each set of goals every month in a notebook, so DH and I could see what we were doing.

 

perhaps this will be enough for your Dh as well.

[Murmer]

 

The format DH wants is as follows:

1. the goals for next year (what we want to learn)

2. the subjects we are going to do

3. projected time spent on each subject

4. materials to accomplish the goals

old

My dd will be three and this is my current "scope and sequence"

Pre-reading- abcs (so sub your phonics) and before five in a row for experiences related to literacy (a good teacher word is concepts about print) 2 days a week

Pre-writing -correctly hold a pencil and duplicate circles and other pre writing shapes 2 days a week

Math- count to 20, build patterns and designs with pattern blocks, and c-rods 2 days a week

Science - experience natural science with field trips and experiments 1 day a week

Social studies - addy, phone, family, self, community 1 day a week

Art- work with a variety of media and art skills such as cutting a pasting 1 day a week

Music- listen to and dance to a variety of music and rhythms, learn a nursery rhyme every month 1 day a week

Physical -gymanstics swimming ect 1 day a week

Color -learn a color a month 1 day

Shape - Learn a shape a month 1 day

Just for fun -cooking, imaginative play, field trips 1 day a week

This was just something I did to help focus on not going over board with my daughter so no activity is to last a longer than 15 mins. I hope that gives you some ideas that you can make more formal to help your husband get on board.

[Terabith]

I think there is a huge difference in the social interactions in a gymnastics type of class and a preschool. My daughter has benefited GREATLY from a play based preschool. She knew her letters and sounds by 18 months, and had good phonemic awareness by 2. (Could rhyme, identify initial and ending sounds, blend separate sounds to make a word) However, she did NOT read early, and is in fact learning now, after just turning five, and somewhat slowly. I've been a little bit puzzled. She never lost or forgot those skills, but the jump between seeing a letter/ saying a sound and the oral phonemic awareness just could not bridge into blending. Maybe it's just developmental.

 

She has been very advanced in a lot of ways (very abstract thinker, huge base of knowledge, huge vocabulary), but in many other ways, she is if anything a bit immature, and the good preschool has been great for her.

[....]

that it fits to each child's needs at any given moment!

 

I'm finishing my eleventh year of homeschooling highly gifted children, after several years as a ps teacher, and I have yet to wind up exactly where I thought I would at the end of the school year. Some years, a child has burned through two or more years of math, at other times, it's taken two years to really master one year's worth. One child learned to read earlier than the other, and one took until the middle of the elementary years to really master scissor use, while reading at an adult level from the age of six.

 

A scope and sequence makes sense when it's telling what a textbook or prepackaged curriculum covers, but not much when trying to predict what a gifted child will cover in a year. I didn't use a scope and sequence when teaching them to walk, talk, or use the potty, and one wouldn't have been useful. I provided what they needed and they learned when they were ready. If I had the early years of schooling to do over again, I'd purchase one or two books per subject at a time to see what fits and what we enjoy, not try to plan too far in advance.

 

:iagree: Wow, I completely agree. Your husband is missing the point of homeschooling if he's asking you to write a scope and sequence for a preschooler.

 

I gotta tell you, I have a gifted kid also (based on testing from when she was in ps) and I actually did not know that she was gifted until the school told me. If she would've done formal academics at a preschool age, she really would've burnt out. She started reading at 5 and I was actually getting complaints from the teacher about how slow she was with her schoolwork. First grade was fairly normal, with the occassional "Mom, I won an essay contest at school" or the teacher telling me that "she sees work like this from a 5th grader", but really, she wasn't writing operas or fighting for world peace. Towards the middle of 2nd grade, I started to see that she learns things almost instantly and was a little accelerated. Now, I think we are sort of doing a combination of 3rd/4th grade, but seriously, she still pretends she's a dragon with her brother, rides her bike around the neighborhood, gets upset when her sister gets into her stuff...

 

OK, so what I think I'm trying to say is...I'm afraid your husband has expectations that probably can be met, but is going to create an atmosphere where you and your child are going to burn out. Homeschooling is a gigantic marathon. You also could feel like a failure if your child isn't meeting certain benchmarks.

 

I agree with what other parents said about exposure. Just take her all over the place - to museums, aquariums, parks, etc. Show her the world.

 

I don't even have a scope and sequence for my 3rd grader.

 

I'm ready for the machine gun fire... :leaving: Sorry if I offended anyone.

[musicianmom]

I think I have a solution for you -- make a scope and sequence for YOURSELF. Don't include goals that she's supposed to reach by a certain time, because really, it is absolutely impossible to predict for a 2-year-old.

 

If you try and project the next couple of years based on what she's doing right now, you'll end up frustrated. There's a thread on this forum about how kids move in and out of rapid acceleration phases. They're not ALWAYS advancing quickly.

 

But here's an example for you. Make a list of great composers. Decide to "study" one each month. Get some CDs from the library or download some tracks from I-tunes and let your daughter listen to them all the time. Get a video from Netflix of an orchestra playing pieces by that composer. Read a picture book about the composer's life. Talk about the different instruments you hear. Take a field trip to a child-friendly concert. If you write it all out in educationese, it sounds really impressive, but there are NO expectations placed on your dd. You're the one doing all the work.

 

The same thing can be done for art, science, social studies, etc.

 

Don't decide when she's going to learn to read. My dd knew all her letters and sounds by 18 months. I tried to teach her to read at 2, but she absolutely was not ready to blend sounds. Thankfully I backed off quickly and put the reading lesson book away (even though she kept asking me to do the lessons!). At 3 we tried again and she was ready. So there was nearly a year-and-a-half between her learning letters and sounds and actually being ready to read. Same with math. At 3 1/2, she could work addition and subtraction problems all day long with blocks. She finished the MUS primer and I thought we'd be doing 3rd grade math by kindergarten, given how fast she was moving. But guess what? She was NOT ready to memorize math facts or even how to compute in her head. Again, I had to back waaaaaaay off for nearly a year. She's doing first grade math pretty easily now, but I'm still re-evaluating and considering starting over with a more play-based approach.

 

As for preschool, if you can find a good Mothers' Day Out program or play-based preschool (not a get-ready-for-K, letter-of-the-week thing), then that could be a good thing, especially since (I'm assuming) she doesn't have siblings. I sort of wish I'd done that with my oldest. But I was afraid of her becoming too peer-dependent and unwilling to come home for kindergarten. In retrospect, it might have been worth the risk.

[skueppers]

If your husband's main concern is that you be doing something, would he respond well to a schedule of what you'll do?

 

For example, library story time once a week, nature walk twice a week, museum visit twice a month, reading aloud 30 minutes daily, art project twice a week, swimming twice a month, etc. Perhaps if he sees that you'll be providing lots of great learning activities, he'll be more on board.

 

I agree with musicianmom, you can't predict what kids are going to learn and when, but you can plan interesting and fun things to do.

 

Oh, and for the record- I intentionally avoided even thinking about academic stuff for my kids at this age, and they learned just fine!

[....]

:iagree: with skueppers... And nature walks, museums, read-alouds, art projects...those sound AWESOME. Isn't there another thread on the general board where people are talking about loss of imaginative play/creativity being one of the suspected reasons for US kids scoring behind 26 other countries' kids in later academics? :confused: So, in other words, don't forget to encourage lots of fantasy play and imaginative games. Those are also academics to a toddler.

 

Darn its. This conversation makes me want to do something special with my 2 year-old... :001_wub:

[Tracy]

Darn it. This conversation makes me want to do something special with my 2 year-old... :001_wub:

 

 

:iagree: Me, too!

[jillian]

If your husband's main concern is that you be doing something, would he respond well to a schedule of what you'll do?

 

For example, library story time once a week, nature walk twice a week, museum visit twice a month, reading aloud 30 minutes daily, art project twice a week, swimming twice a month, etc. Perhaps if he sees that you'll be providing lots of great learning activities, he'll be more on board.

 

I agree with musicianmom, you can't predict what kids are going to learn and when, but you can plan interesting and fun things to do.

 

Oh, and for the record- I intentionally avoided even thinking about academic stuff for my kids at this age, and they learned just fine!

this is exactly it. he wants to make sure we are fostering her learning in an appropriate way. i think that's a great idea putting in the field trips, some of our goal books to read (like go through A Child's Garden of Verses, Just So Stories, our book of Bible stories, etc).

 

he's so list oriented that it is difficult for me to say that we will be doing stuff without providing something for him to tangibly hold

 

eta: musicianmom yeah we found a more "play" oriented one that do some "academics" like educational stories, some a,b,c's etc without being the focus. she doesn't have siblings (yet we are working on it lol)

Edited May 23, 2010 by jillian

[musicianmom]

If a sibling is a possibility in the near future, then do all the field trips and nature study you can NOW, lol.

[Dmmetler]

Would your DH accept a log after the fact?

 

I hadn't really planned to formally start hsing right away, but DD had other ideas in mind, demanding to begin at 8:00 in the morning, the DAY after her last day of ps K.

 

So, instead of writing out the nice lesson plans I'd planned to do (I'm a former ps teacher-overplanning kind of comes with the territory), instead I found myself working backwards, and instead of planning what to do, recording what we did.

 

You know what? I like it better this way. I still have the records that I and DH (and that theoretically I might need for documentation) want. I'm still recording what pages we did in SM or what books we've read.

 

But I'm also recording that DD, in response to reading about boats in China, built a boat of her own, tried it out on her wading pool, then discovered that it could hold 11 rocks before it sank. That's not officially part of the 1st grade curriculum, but darn it, she learned something ;). And there's a lot more that has made it on the log that wouldn't have been on a lesson plan, or scope and sequence, or any sort of advanced planning because I wouldn't have expected it to go that way.

 

DH is thrilled. I'm pretty pleased. And she's enjoying hsing so much that she's demanding school 7 days a week ;).

[easygoer]

I very much that any scope and sequence is something you draw up for yourself, to keep organized etc.

 

That said, you might like looking at the the Core Knowledge preschool document, which is free for download now (yay!):

 

http://www.coreknowledge.org/mimik/mimik_uploads/documents/494/CKFSequence_PreK_Rev.pdf

[jillian]

update***

 

thanks for all the wonderful advice. i managed to put together a "education-ese" style document that dh approves of but really is just code for lots of field trips to places she likes (aquarium, museums, etc) and reading aloud with art projects mixed in. I used the previously listed "skills checklist" to get some ideas of fun ways to incorporate other things she might not get focus on.

 

For example for fine motor skills I showed it to dh like this: "We will increase the fine motor capabilities of Little Miss by doing art projects including coloring in the lines, pasting projects (think pasta pasted to a piece of construction paper), learning to use scissors correctly and safely. We will also work on how to hold a pencil, crayon, marker properly. Furthermore we will use different mediums to create different types of artwork such as: crayons, marker, paint, clay, chalk, etc.

 

 

The above is just code word for art projects. It worked perfectly though, he ate it up.

 

We have found also a seemingly "perfect" preschool for her. She and I went to visit yesterday and she loved it, jumped in and played with the 3 year old class that was doing gross motor time and she loved it, wanted to join right in with the young 3's class when they were singing about the months and days of the week. She seemed to fit perfect there. Plus the director has heard of TWTM (came up when i mentioned that we are planning on homeschooling when she becomes of school age) and really enjoys it and actually uses the methods to afterschool her high school age daughters. The director is also very health conscious (no bad snacks, the whole facility is cleaned with a green cleaner every day in a process that takes approximately 2-3 hours), and she seems really nice and like she will be a joy to work with. Little Miss does need some more social interaction and this place doesn't really begin "formal" (use that term loosely) until 3 when they introduce phonics (using Hooked on Phonics).

 

holy cow that was a long post. anyway i took 99.9% of the suggestions and did realize that the scope and sequence was for us (dh and i) and not what we should be expecting her to do. i wrote it out as a goal for me to go through with her such as "work on", or "increase knowledge of" versus have her "know" or "master" kwim? I will be buying some materials that i would like to have on hand (especially for our religious instruction like a young child devotional style book and a "why we do what we do at mass" style book) but most of it is going to be easily found at your local store (art supplies, etc) and library.

 

I appreciate the advice so much, more than you can possibly imagine. We just get so excited, me especially, because of so many reasons, some of which are selfish I admit. However, I love having you ladies to reign me in, I do not want to burn out Little Miss nor do I want to make her feel like she is ony worth what she does in school.