Questions about kindergarten

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

I have a few questions as this is my first year with a kindergartener- I started homeschooling when my oldest started 5th and my now 3rd grader started 1st. So how long do you spend on kindergarten a day? Right now we are not schooling everyday with him because the weather is still nice but its getting colder and I plan on doing ALOT more when its to cold to go outside for months. As of right now my main goals for kindergarten is teaching him how to read :001_huh:, write and basic math. I read many MANY threads where kids are reading and writing by 4 or 5. Well my 6 year old just is not. He is not there yet. So that is my main focus this year. We will be doing some interest led science, and I have many of the if you lived books that I plan on reading and taking rabbit trails through. We are also going through Leading Little Ones to God and reading the Little Boys Bible I have for him (specifically written for sons and their mothers :001_wub:) I also have him doing pattern blocks every day.

 

So question 1-- how much time a day should we be spending?

 

question 2-- Am I missing something that I should be teaching to him this year?

 

question 3-- How long at a time should he be able to sit still? :001_huh: I am lucky to get a solid 15 minutes from him at a time unless its math. He LOVES doing math with MUS and when we start I have a hard time getting him to stop. He is not so thrilled about his Horizons but we are going to start that harder around Dec or Jan I think- just focusing on the MUS right now.

 

Anybody have fun game ideas for a kindergartner and 4 year old pre-k boy? I would like to do learning games with them together if at all possible. I have cuisenaire rods- game ideas for them until I get some c-rod activity books in?

 

Thanks in advance :D

[Hedgehogs4]

my goals for my k5 girl is to read, write letters, grasp numbers, counting, time, calendar, and beginning addition, etc.

 

however, she is picking up TONS from listening in with her brother's lessons.

 

i work with her formally for maybe an 1 1/2 -2 hours max in a day.

[SweetMissMagnolia]

with my son when he was preschool-kindergarten we would do several study sessions through out the day-for as long as he was interested-a few mins here and there-we mainly did phonics,reading, math......the basics......

[NavyWifeandMommy]

My Ker is 5 1/2 and she cannot read either. Honestly she's been a real pain to teach unlike my oldest two. She does daily seat work with the other two and she has to sit in history/science. She also gets read to daily. As for sit down one on one I do that with her three times a week. Next year I will be stricter with her. Last year her brother did K work about three times a week and he's now reading first and some second grade books and knows all his math facts as well as his Mario game.

[Joyofsixreboot]

I made k very relaxed. We probably didn't do school for more than 30mintes/day. I concentrated on learning the letters and sounds. She did tons of puzzles, building blocks, pretend play, huge amounts of time outside, and PBS shows. I also let her play jumpstsrt and starfall. She figured out how to read by fall of this year.

[Closeacademy]

So question 1-- how much time a day should we be spending?

 

As little or as much as he is wanting/able. If he doesn't want to do it, then let him go. Next year is the year to buckle down and have as set amount to do. I would say 30 min for phonics, penmanship and math activities is more than enough. You could even add in a picture book or poetry that you read to him.

 

question 2-- Am I missing something that I should be teaching to him this year?

 

I wouldn't worry too much about making sure he can read by the end of the year. Just teach the letters & sounds, formation of the letters, numbers and work with them a little, shapes, show him money and what the pieces are called and what they do, clocks and how they tell time. BUT, don't stress out if he is not reading or have his math facts down or doesn't know how to use money or tell time at the end of the year.

 

This is a good year to cuddle and read, let him follow and help you with chores and activities, explore painting, clay, and drawing as he wants to. It is a time to be creative and start the transition to seatwork but not a time where he should have to sit there yet.

 

 

question 3-- How long at a time should he be able to sit still?

 

15 minutes is great and that's all he really needs.

 

As far as games and such, I have a page on my blog with links to fun activities for visual and hands-on learners.

 

Hope this helps and that you have a wonderful year.:001_smile:

[MissKNG]

All kids are different...some will sit still short amounts of time and some will sit for longer amounts of time. Listening to "our" responses to your questions will never be the "correct" answer since all kids are different! And sometimes hearing about kids that sit longer than yours will just make you more paranoid!!

 

If 15 minutes is what he can do, then that is the correct answer for YOUR family!

 

As for what you should be teaching him, I'm old fashioned so in addition to the Bible, I am a 3 R's kind of girl. We also do science because of my big girl's interest.

 

How much time a day should you be spending? Again, that varies! If he sits for 15 minutes to do this then 15 minutes later on to do that and that's all....then you spent a perfect amount of time on school work!

 

To combine your K and PreK kiddos, I like activities from this site:

 

http://www.dltk-kids.com/

 

I use it to print stuff for both girls to do.

 

It sounds like you are doing a great job!!

[Knittinfarmgirl]

I made k very relaxed. We probably didn't do school for more than 30mintes/day. I concentrated on learning the letters and sounds. She did tons of puzzles, building blocks, pretend play, huge amounts of time outside, and PBS shows. I also let her play jumpstsrt and starfall.

 

:iagree:

[LoveBaby]

I am teaching a 6yo K'er, too, mama! He's waaaaay too busy building stuff to knock it over again, climbing trees and generally being *BUSY* to stop for very long to do "school"! LOL

 

We shoot for about 30-45min. of instruction time 4x/week. Generally, I catch him first thing after breakfast for 15-20min. of phonics and handwriting(we are learning the phonograms in Phonics Road), later 15-20min. of MUS, then I read aloud to him and his younger sister. We listen to some Wee Sing songs and I try to remember to break out the Mother Goose rhymes. We don't do everything at once, but in hits and spurts throughout the day.

 

As for sitting still, Ha! We practice handwriting on a dry erase board, so except for math, he doesn't have any written work yet. We do a lot of our activities on the floor and I've gotten over him standing on his head while I read aloud. He just needs to be moving and I'm o.k. with that!

 

He is doing really well and I see results in what we are doing even though it doens't look like a lot. He's been spelling words aloud in the car, asking me to dictate words to him that he can sound out and spell. He isn't reading yet, but I feel like the spelling coming first is just a stepping stone to reading on his own!!

[snickelfritz]

I don't think you're missing anything. We do reading, writing, math-- maybe 30 minutes--3 to 4 days a week.

 

My kindy sometimes does art, history, science with her sister. And, sometimes, she's in la-la land. She does puzzles, pattern blocks, and starfall while I work with her sister. I try to gear some read-alouds to her and she does Suzuki violin. That's pretty much her day.

[Crimson Wife]

It's been my observation that the child needs to reach a certain stage of cognitive readiness before formal reading instruction will be successful. Now that I've gone through it twice, the marker I look for is the child spontaneously pointing out the beginning sound of words (i.e. "cat" starts with "c"). Both of my two older kids went through that stage shortly before they figured out how to decode CVC words.

 

Another marker (though a less reliable one) is ability to distinguish rhymes. For the longest time my DS couldn't rhyme but then shortly before he learned to read it finally "clicked". OTOH, my oldest DD could rhyme long before she figured out how to read.

 

I usually spend about 60-90 minutes per day on formal academics in K5. My oldest DD was able to do that all in one sitting but my DS does better with it broken up into multiple sessions throughout the day.

[lionfamily1999]

I wouldn't imagine you would HAVE to work too long, but if enjoys it you may end up doing it most of the day.

 

Reading, writing and math sound good to me. If you wanted to include him with the science projects of the older kids, he'll probably enjoy it. We let Luke run the same experiments down the counter from his older siblings.

 

I have my youngest stand at an end table to do his work. That way he can dance and write at the same time.

[....]

I So question 1-- how much time a day should we be spending?

 

question 2-- Am I missing something that I should be teaching to him this year?

 

question 3-- How long at a time should he be able to sit still? :001_huh: I am lucky to get a solid 15 minutes from him at a time unless its math. He LOVES doing math with MUS and when we start I have a hard time getting him to stop. He is not so thrilled about his Horizons but we are going to start that harder around Dec or Jan I think- just focusing on the MUS right now.

 

 

Hi. Also teaching K now. We're taking things very easy right now. We're doing MFW K - which takes about 30 minutes and going slowly through HOP K and CLE LTR. We're also trying to do a lot of painting, listening to music, playing outside and some games. We're doing girl scouts this year, too - which does a lot of games, projects, etc. I'm also teaching her piano.

 

Game suggestions? We've been playing Memory, Bunco (lol) and Dominos. I also bought a puzzle of the 50 states for the older kids and the K-er keeps putting it together.

 

Attention span? Yeah, right. I think if I would have sent her to ps, they might have told me that she wasn't ready. The preschool she went to was telling me that she shows early signs of ADHD. She also (but she's getting better this year) wouldn't answer if we (or her teacher) called her name. Altogether, I think a lot of 5 yros can't pay attention to something for more than 15 minutes.

 

I think you guys sound fine. :001_smile: We do a lot of CLE and if you look at their K, it is just cut and paste stuff. They start academics in 1st grade.

 

Oh, I also have a philosophy for K...the second she says that she says she's tired, we stop. This doesn't work for an older kid, but an early 5 yro...I think it's a good idea not to turn school into a negative thing or start a power struggle.

[....]

I made k very relaxed. We probably didn't do school for more than 30mintes/day. I concentrated on learning the letters and sounds. She did tons of puzzles, building blocks, pretend play, huge amounts of time outside, and PBS shows. I also let her play jumpstsrt and starfall. She figured out how to read by fall of this year.

 

This sounds like us. We're very relaxed about K and my daughter is reading simple 3 and 4 letter words w/ about 4 sight words. We're working on counting to 100 right now, too.

 

Well, good luck Everybody with K! :auto:

[mytwomonkeys]

I made k very relaxed. We probably didn't do school for more than 30mintes/day. I concentrated on learning the letters and sounds.

 

 

this is us too.

 

my son did HWT for kindergarten & and for math, he used making math meaningful. we read a lot of books! we also dabbled with hooked on phonics. it was pretty laid back, but he learned a lot imho.

 

this year, he has a much fuller schedule, but it still only takes about an hour or more a day & he's coming along wonderfully.

[mytwomonkeys]

....and going slowly through HOP K and CLE LTR.

 

 

i am using the exact same combination with my son (6 1/2)!!:D HOP K & CLE LTR are the perfect combination!! my son is just about to start LU 104 and he's about 3/4 through with the K book (his was mostly review, since we incorporated it last year as well). i cannot believe how well each program reinforces one another! we're loving it!

[Dinsfamily]

You've already got a lot of great advice already.

 

My approach to K is to learn to read, do math at dc's level (whatever that might be as long as they learn something), and read-aloud. My last K'er demanded more but it was all interest-led. Reading aloud great picture (yes, picture) books with a few chapter books thrown in is so important IMHO. It also feeds into my last goal which is to teach them that school is fun and interesting. Sometimes, it's hard work but there's usually a light at the end of the tunnel. We did the hard work in small doses and added in liberal amounts of child-led fun stuff.

 

We usually did about an hour of seatwork including optional stuff like geography but not in one sitting. My ds could probably sit longer than most 5yo boys (he has an academic personality) but he is pretty active and had a lot of 'recess breaks'. His sitting limit was about 30 mins. I think 15 mins is pretty good for a 5yo boy. That's about how long my current 4yo lasts before he wanders off.

[johnandtinagilbert]

I can keep his attention for about 20 min TOPS.

 

5-10 min. reading review (previous sounds from flash cards and I call them out, he writes the sound I call on the white board) (The Phonics Road)

 

15 minutes on reading instruction (PR)

 

5 minutes on handwriting (single words only) (PR)

 

15 min on math (Family math and songs to learn skip counting and money)

 

22 min. bible video (Hannah Barbara)

 

sits in on science and history read alouds and only joins in when there are projects (mini/lap books) or experiments. (TOG, my design for physics and other unit studies using Apologia and Elemental Science)

 

play and play and play, color, playdoh, Light Brite, stencils, tracing, cutting, gluing, more play, more play, more play, cooking ;)

 

He turned 5 in May, so we are doing early K, not registered for K, so we have no pressure. We school 3 days a week (reading and math) and history and science is varied to go with the 2nd and 3rd grade schedules.

Edited October 21, 2010 by johnandtinagilbert

[RootAnn]

I would say time-wise, you could spend as little as 30 minutes 4x per week and cover what your dc needed to know to enter first grade.

 

I try to make K fun. (My kids always complain when they get to first grade and have to "buckle down" (their word). They beg to go back to K. :tongue_smilie:)

 

I start the whole learn-to-read thing four times a week for about 15 minutes a sitting. We do some hand-writing in the second "semester" for another 5-10 minutes each day. We do numbers, colors, patterns, money, etc. informally. They get to pick something "fun" to do for 15-20 minutes three times per week. Here are some examples of things my olders chose: dress-up class, cooking, building, crafts, drawing, etc.

 

Total time is less than an hour per day. My goal was being able to sit still for 30 minutes. Honestly, my kids will do that while I read aloud to them. Sitting still while doing "seat work" is another story. :lol:

 

My not-quite-K'er is currently doing crafts from Shirley's Prepackaged Crafts & working on some K-level workbooks (patterns, mazes, counting & coloring objects, matching, etc.) from Walmart that I picked up to keep her happy while I'm "doing school" with the older two. I'm hoping to carve out some time to do more with her (interest-led) next semester.

[NanceXToo]

I spend anywhere from a few minutes to an hour a day on Kindergarten. The program I use is very laid back and gentle and Waldorf-inspired. It does not focus on teaching a kid to read in Kindergarten or pushing academics. It focuses on teaching the capital letters of the alphabet in hands on ways and through stories, and the qualitative values of the numbers 1-10 in similar ways, and crafts, nature, music and movement and so on.

 

I really wouldn't worry about a kid not reading at 4 or 5 or even 6.

 

There's that whole "Better Late Than Early" theory by some parents and 'experts' anyway.

 

K should be more hands on and fun IMHO, not really worksheet focused, unless your kid loves worksheets or something (I wouldn't FORCE deskwork on a K'er though)! And with lots of opportunity for creativity, imagination, outdoor play, free play, helping parents with things around the house and so on.

[Mommy of boys]

We are doing a K4 year, my oldest just turned 5 and was not ready with his fine motor skills to start full kindergarten. I agree with many of the responses so far that you do what your child can based on his/her attention span. You want to stretch that throughout the year to prep them for 1st grade, but kindergarten shouldn't be overwhelming. We spend 20 minutes for circle time (review calendar, phonogram of the week, and numbers) and Bible story. He gets a break with a snack or some play time, then we do a reading lesson for about 20 minutes. Sometimes, in the afternoon we read books together and sometime during the week we usually paint, color, and do other fun stuff that helps with his fine motor skill development. He has also discovered starfall.com for reading and will spend 1/2 an hour on the computer playing it because he loves it so much! This works really well for us and is giving enough school time to prepare him for next year. I challenge him a little with his attention span, but I try to watch my time and make sure I'm not expecting too much.

[Soror]

It's been my observation that the child needs to reach a certain stage of cognitive readiness before formal reading instruction will be successful. Now that I've gone through it twice, the marker I look for is the child spontaneously pointing out the beginning sound of words (i.e. "cat" starts with "c"). Both of my two older kids went through that stage shortly before they figured out how to decode CVC words.

 

Another marker (though a less reliable one) is ability to distinguish rhymes. For the longest time my DS couldn't rhyme but then shortly before he learned to read it finally "clicked". OTOH, my oldest DD could rhyme long before she figured out how to read.

 

I usually spend about 60-90 minutes per day on formal academics in K5. My oldest DD was able to do that all in one sitting but my DS does better with it broken up into multiple sessions throughout the day.

I am a newbie, however I noticed the same thing w/ ds. He wasn't ready for anything close to formal until those things started to happen. It was like a switch was flipped and he not only could handle work but enjoy it. For him that wasn't until about 5.5-6 y.o. I am a proponent of better late than early so that worked well for us. Until then though school consisted of lots and lots and lots of reading, circle time and playing games.