Newby HS'r welcomes comments...

[Aloha2U]

...regarding the PreK-1 curriculum chosen thus far.

 

Background... Mother to my one and only ds (4 at end of July) whom I will begin preschool with this fall. I initially had every intention of enrolling ds in first grade (age 6) at a private classical christian school wherein his cousins attend. This spring I decided to look into Pre-K and K curriculum to prepare him for the future. I began researching and that is when I found SWR. Although the pccs is great, it finally clicked in my heart and my head that the best for ds is to be homeschooled by me. I just couldn't see starting with SWR (which I'm really excited about) and not finishing it... or for that matter, continuing with it at home while dc does something else at the pccs. However, I think I still want to stay somewhat close to the pccs curriculum... for now anyways, until my confidence level is up and I get a better feel for what is going to work for us. I believe that they use A Beka for Language Arts and VP for Bible, History, and Math.

 

With that said... basically, here is my planning thus far for K4, K5, and 1st.

 

Pre-Kindergarten/K4

Art: (ABeka) Readiness Skills K4 and Art Projects K4

Bible: (ABeka) Bible Activity Book K4 and Bible Doctrinal Drill, (VP) Story Bible & Illustrated Bible, (BHI) ABC Memory Book Bible Verses

Health: (ABeka) Character Development/Health & Safety visuals K4/K5

Lang. Arts: (SWR) Phonograms, salt box and white board for large motor skills, lots of read aloud w/living books

Math: (VP) Saxon Math K and manipulatives

 

Kindergarten

Art: (ABeka) Readiness Skills K5 and Art Projects K5, (VP) How to teach art to children and Fine Art Primer Collection

Bible: (ABeka) Bible Activity Book K5 and Bible Doctrinal Drill, (VP) Big Book of Q&A's and Read Aloud OT Collection

Health: (ABeka) Character Development/Health & Safety visuals K4/K5

Lang. Arts: (SWR) Phonograms, Cursive First, lots of read aloud w/living books

Math: (VP) Saxon Math 1 and manipulatives, Daily Math Practice 1

Science: (ABeka) God's World K5

Social Studies: (ABeka) Social Studies K5 and visuals

 

First Grade

Art: (ABeka) Art Projects 1, (VP) How to teach art to children, Fine Art Primer Collection and Draw then Write

Bible: (ABeka) Bible Friends Activity Book 1, and Bible Doctrinal Drill, (VP) Big Book of Q&A's about Jesus, The Big Picture Bible timeline and Read Aloud NT Collection

Geography: (VP) Legends & Leagues, Beginning Geography 1&2

Health: (ABeka) Health & Safety Manners 1

History: (ABeka) My America My World 1

Lang. Arts: (SWR), (VP) Shurley English 1, Punctuation, WOL books by Ruth Heller, Lit Pockets, Read Aloud Living Books

Math: (VP) Saxon Math 2 and manipulatives, Daily Math Practice 2

Science: (ABeka) Discovering God's World

Social Studies: (ABeka) Community Helpers Activity Book and visuals

*Health, History, Science time allotment = 2 months for each, 3x weekly

 

I left out some things of minor significance in my list, but that is roughly it. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I think that I plan on doing more from VP and less from Abeka for 2nd grade and on. I guess only time will tell.

[nukeswife]

I'm just curious why the Daily Math practice in addition to the Saxon. I have used Saxon K-2 and 5/4 (haven't had a kid with 3 yet but will in another year) I'm not sure if you don't think Saxon would be enough or if there's other reasons. I use Saxon alone and it seems to be enough.

[Rosy]

Good luck, and stay flexible! I think your plan sounds good, for myself I find that I'm constantly having to tweak my plans as I go. I think at that age, doing as much of his learning from reading and from play as possible is ideal. My tendency is to spend most of my time teaching phonics and a little math, once they're reading independently it makes everything much easier. :)

 

Have fun!

[Aloha2U]

I'm just curious why the Daily Math practice in addition to the Saxon. I have used Saxon K-2 and 5/4 (haven't had a kid with 3 yet but will in another year) I'm not sure if you don't think Saxon would be enough or if there's other reasons. I use Saxon alone and it seems to be enough.

 

Honestly, I don't know whether I'll need it or not, as I believe Saxon to be enough on its own. I just wanted to be thoroughly prepared and since I'm new to this I pretty much followed along with VP's recommendations. (Maybe overkill?!)

[ticklbee]

Hi CMama -

 

Your plans look good. One thing I want to mention though- try not to do too much too soon. At 4 yrs old your ds is still very young. I made the mistake of trying too hard and doing too much with my first and I regret it. We've been h'schooling for 7 years now and if I had to do it all again, I would definitely not do too much formal stuff until 5 or 6. I would explore, do museums, nature hikes and things like that; all the while be pointing out colors and shapes and counting acorns. Fun stuff like that.

 

Just have fun and don't stress too much and it will be great!

[Starr]

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/images/smilies/iagree.gif

[Starr]

What happened to the little "I agree guy" ?

[PeterPan]

Hi Melissa, I second what the other Melissa says, that I wouldn't try so hard. So many of these things come naturally as you have FUN together and explore together and do things together. I taught my dd, now 3rd grade, to read with SWR, and it's GREAT for that. If you like SWR, you might like to check out RightStart math. People who like SWR often also like RS. It teaches them to really THINK about the math and understand the concepts. Check it out.

 

If I were suggesting, here's how I'd tweak your list:

 

K4-

-SWR-do a letter of the week and use the book Alphabet Art for fun activities to go with it. Toss the Abeka stuff, all of it. It's not that it's bad, so much as that it's not necessary or the best, kwim? You can have SO much fun doing simple things together. Get trail guides and take nature walks, drawing your phonograms in the sand. Make collections. Read books together. Get him lots of books on tape to listen to and create a language rich environment. I had a friend use the Abeka K4 materials and she said the real value was it got her talking to her kid (she had quite a few). Well you don't need an expensive curriculum to get you doing that! Just do things together and talk. Check out Alphabet Art and the other Judy Press art books, so adorable for that age. (Zoo Art, Big Art for Little Hands, etc.) This should be FUN, not tedious. If he likes workbooks, get him Kumon or the R&S or something reproducible, something simple and FUN. But keep that part like. Exceedingly few K4ers want to do anything but play nor do they need much more. You're talking 20 minutes of structured time total a day. Everything else is reading to him while he plays, putting on books on tape, singing together, etc. And for Bible, I'd just use a good Bible story book. At that age we liked the Read n' Grow Picture Bible published by Zondervan.

 

K5-

-You're going to pick up with SWR and do more as he is able. Continue the RS math as it fits him. A textbook for science?? Why? Kids at this age want to do and explore. I did the Apologia Astronomy book with my dd in K5. We took nature walks with guides specific to our state. Kids that age are often into animals, so you could do animals. Or do projects from any book that interests you. Or use the Let's Read and Find Out series available at your local library. Anything would be better than a science text with a K5er. You don't need the abeka social studies or any of the other stuff either. This is K5! Just have fun, HONEST. It's enough. You could read the SL read alouds for that level and missionary stories and map things. Read the Five in a Row books and do a few activities, even if you don't do it exactly like they say. Read the D'Aulaire books. Just read broadly across a variety of genres and you won't need ANY of that Abeka stuff, honest. You'll save a ton of money, have way more fun, learn more, and not get burnt out. He doesn't need all that! When my dd was that age, we read 3 hours a day, no joke. We read across the genres: poetry, missionary stories, history, fiction, FIAR, you name it. I kept the books in a bin and we just read and read. As we finished one, I found another to replace it in that category. So we typically had a lot of books going at once. About midway through K5 she was ready for more (these jumps don't always occur at the beginnign of the year!), so I adding Galloping the Globe.

 

1st--I use the VP history and like a lot of their recommendations, so I see where you're coming from. BTW, have you been on the VP_Elementary yahoo group yet? VP encourages a survey of state and local history in 1st grade and covers some geography. I pretty much took that as my permission to do whatever I wanted. You might consider Adventures from MFW. It surveys american history in one year and would be great for that age. I tried to survey american, wasn't very good at it, and finally moved on to VP OTAE in 2nd semester of 1st. That was a bit young (got us to MARR way early), so I don't recommend that. Instead, I'd do something like Adventures or even WP AS1 and 2. You could spend 2 years on american, start VP OTAE in 3rd and combine it with NTGR to finish in basically one year if you skip the Bible cards. Again for 1st I'd skip all the abeka stuff. It's just not necessary and not the most pleasant way of getting there. I wouldn't bother with SG 1 either, personal opinion. I wouldn't plunk out for Shurley before 3rd or 4th. There's just not enough content before that to be worth it. I'd suggest doing FLL, the memory work of which will create an EXCELLENT foundation for Shurley. Then go into Shurley later. I'm expecting, and honestly, with this next one, I'll probably continue through the FLL levels if they end up working for him. No matter what though, we'll do FLL1/2, at least, for the memory work. It's just too basic and too valuable a foundation in going forward. Science in 1st? Well kids that age are into animals, so that's what I suggest. See WTM has a progression of topics, and I blew it off at first, thinking it was just arbitrary and tied to history. Well turns out my dd's interests have directly correlated to those recommendations!! Go figure. So I'm not saying be tied to it or do science exactly as WTM says (we don't), but do consider that an abeka textbook is about the least thrilling way you could find to get it done and that it's sensible to follow your dc's interests a little. What we do now is the BJU science (which I HIGHLY recommend) as a spine and then do topical books and kits that interest us. That way we have a backbone and can still take our side trails.

 

Don't feel so compelled to add all that abeka stuff or worry you're going to mess him up. You're NOT going to mess him up!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All he has to do is learn to read, write, and do basic math over the next couple years. Everything else is gravy. You can make that gravy tasty and homemade, or you can make it dry and out of a box. Either way, it's gravy. You're going to be fine and do a great job. Just don't try to hard. But interesting things, fun things. Do things together. Read to him, craft with him, sing with him, take walks, talk, and play. You'll be so glad you did. If you totally didn't do that Abeka stuff, NONE of it, you wouldn't miss it one lick and he wouldn't be the worse for it academically. But if you missed talking, reading, etc., you'd be sad. So just have fun with it. Get a Timberdoodle catalog and see all the fun things there are to do at this age. What does he like to do? That's what I'd go with. My dd liked to craft, so we did lots of crafts and I bought her lots of nice supplies. If he likes to build, then buy him extra cool blocks to build with and call that school. Buy him books on architecture and then try to build those things. That's school! He's just relating to the material in a way that makes sense for him.

[MerryAtHope]

My best advice is start slowly & enjoy your children. It's so easy to overdo it with the oldest I think! (I tell my son I get otj training with him, poor kid!). Kids this age learn lots through play, but some are chomping at the bit for more formal learning. Follow your child's cues too :-).

 

Merry :-)

[Chris in VA]

It's so exciting, finding your heart leaping at the thought of schooling your own!

 

Go slowly--and yes, imo you have planned too much. You will never have as much freedom for field trips and just hanging around as in PreK and K. it seems when we start homeschooling that early that it "doesn't count," and many of us rush to fill the time with educational stuff. Let it come naturally--breathe your days, in and out, finding the rhythm and the gentleness. Get rid of the science texts until at least 3rd grade--unless it's just for the pictures. Explore! Like other's have said, just a few minutes of academics is enough. Saxon K is an excellent choice. We also use it a year ahead, but I'll tell you, it ramps up in Saxon 3. We had to slow down just a bit--I had to realize my dd was only 7 when she started working on long division--that's early. She wasn't quite ready--so know that you can tweak, and no one gets hurt.

Relax and let your little one unfold. You may be surprised how little you need to do to provide a PreK-K education.

 

Congrats on making such a wonderful decision! Hang in there! And come here often so we can see what great discoveries you make along the way!

[Pata]

Hi and welcome to the homeschooling world! I also have an only and we began at 4 yo with Abeka's K4 program. Now two years later, my advice for what's it's worth, would be to take it slow. Focus on math and reading, we had a few tears because I pushed to hard. I do think that you should add lots of library books, which you are probably already planning to do. You could use Sonlight Read-Alouds for Pre K(4/5) as a guide or just follow his interest, you'll be amazed how much they pick up!

 

You will also learn so much over the next year and things will change. You'll learn more about his learning style and your teaching style. You'll also learn about the thousands of resources out there and how they fit your homeschooling adventure. Our K year I feel like I had a much better handle on what I wanted to accomplish and how I wanted to homeschool. This year, I am very excited about 1st grade as I finally feel that we have all the materials that will work for us for now!

 

In the end though, you know what's best for your child. Go ahead order the K4 stuff you have planned, try it out. If it's too much, you can always shelve it for next year. Hope you have a wonderful year!

[Aloha2U]

Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and comments, as I greatly appreciate the feedback. I know that I will be tweaking our curriculum as we learn and progress in our hs journey. It's going to be an exciting and fun adventure. I'm sure I'll be asking more questions in the future.

[Lovedtodeath]

Hi Melissa, I second what the other Melissa says, that I wouldn't try so hard. So many of these things come naturally as you have FUN together and explore together and do things together. I taught my dd, now 3rd grade, to read with SWR, and it's GREAT for that. If you like SWR, you might like to check out RightStart math. People who like SWR often also like RS. It teaches them to really THINK about the math and understand the concepts. Check it out.

 

If I were suggesting, here's how I'd tweak your list:

 

K4-

-SWR-do a letter of the week and use the book Alphabet Art for fun activities to go with it. Toss the Abeka stuff, all of it. It's not that it's bad, so much as that it's not necessary or the best, kwim? You can have SO much fun doing simple things together. Get trail guides and take nature walks, drawing your phonograms in the sand. Make collections. Read books together. Get him lots of books on tape to listen to and create a language rich environment. I had a friend use the Abeka K4 materials and she said the real value was it got her talking to her kid (she had quite a few). Well you don't need an expensive curriculum to get you doing that! Just do things together and talk. Check out Alphabet Art and the other Judy Press art books, so adorable for that age. (Zoo Art, Big Art for Little Hands, etc.) This should be FUN, not tedious. If he likes workbooks, get him Kumon or the R&S or something reproducible, something simple and FUN. But keep that part like. Exceedingly few K4ers want to do anything but play nor do they need much more. You're talking 20 minutes of structured time total a day. Everything else is reading to him while he plays, putting on books on tape, singing together, etc. And for Bible, I'd just use a good Bible story book. At that age we liked the Read n' Grow Picture Bible published by Zondervan.

 

K5-

-You're going to pick up with SWR and do more as he is able. Continue the RS math as it fits him. A textbook for science?? Why? Kids at this age want to do and explore. I did the Apologia Astronomy book with my dd in K5. We took nature walks with guides specific to our state. Kids that age are often into animals, so you could do animals. Or do projects from any book that interests you. Or use the Let's Read and Find Out series available at your local library. Anything would be better than a science text with a K5er. You don't need the abeka social studies or any of the other stuff either. This is K5! Just have fun, HONEST. It's enough. You could read the SL read alouds for that level and missionary stories and map things. Read the Five in a Row books and do a few activities, even if you don't do it exactly like they say. Read the D'Aulaire books. Just read broadly across a variety of genres and you won't need ANY of that Abeka stuff, honest. You'll save a ton of money, have way more fun, learn more, and not get burnt out. He doesn't need all that! When my dd was that age, we read 3 hours a day, no joke. We read across the genres: poetry, missionary stories, history, fiction, FIAR, you name it. I kept the books in a bin and we just read and read. As we finished one, I found another to replace it in that category. So we typically had a lot of books going at once. About midway through K5 she was ready for more (these jumps don't always occur at the beginnign of the year!), so I adding Galloping the Globe.

 

Don't feel so compelled to add all that abeka stuff or worry you're going to mess him up. You're NOT going to mess him up!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All he has to do is learn to read, write, and do basic math over the next couple years. Everything else is gravy. If you totally didn't do that Abeka stuff, NONE of it, you wouldn't miss it one lick and he wouldn't be the worse for it academically. But if you missed talking, reading, etc., you'd be sad.

 

I just wanted to say that he is very little and really I recommend doing very little with this age of kid. 20 min of phonics, 20 min. of math and 5 min. of handwriting really can carry you through Kindergarten.

 

Also, you have this kid's life planned for the next 3 years. Be flexible. You may find out you hate Abeka and have to throw it out completely.

 

Also, quite a bit of what you have chosen was intended for a classroom. It will most likely have way to much drill and busywork. First Language Lessons and Writing With Ease were made for classical homeschoolers. If you are nervous I found the scripting in FLL a godsend with my first kid. Just a thought that if you are wanting a classical education, products with homeschooling and a classical focus might make your life easier.

 

:iagree: Really take all of the above to heart! I tried Abeka on the advice of a PK teacher and ditched it. Lots of busy work, lots of writing that is too hard for little fingers. I LOVE MFW K for a 4 year old. You can take it slow and drag it out to a year and a half or two years if you want and he will learn a lot. You can keep him on the same grade level with the school kids without using the same programs.

[Aloha2U]

oops, see new thread i just posted