Tell me what you teach for Kindergarten...

[mommy5]

DD is supposed to be in Kindergarten this Fall ... we start school in May and she will barely be 5. She is several months younger than my 2nd child when he started K because of birthdays. She does know all her letters and letter sounds ... can count up to 65. Can id and write her numbers 1-10 but I'm not sure of what type of curriculum to use. She still seems really young for "real school work". Should I not focus on written work (other than practicing handwriting) ... or should I buy her some workbooks ... what about math? With baby5 coming soon, I've decided to not stress too much over what she does ... maybe even start more desk work at the beginning of next year like after Christmas break. Any thoughts? Any good curriculum? She is not reading yet ... should I just go through the BOB books with her or do phonics?

[Whereneverever]

Solidifying reading. Handwriting not to perfection, but enough that the letters are recognizable, pencil grip is good and comfortable, and usually writing their name. Math at whatever level they are ready for. History from good books. Science as desired, but mostly outside observation and nature study.

 

We also do foreign languages and religious instruction, as well as piano.

[keyjoh62080]

Math skills, phonics and handwriting.

[Crimson Wife]

I focused on reading, early math skills, and penmanship.

 

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

I did have my 2nd child tag along in history & science by having him listen to picture books related to what my oldest was studying. But K is primarily about the 3R's and anything else is gravy.

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

We are focusing on basic math, handwriting, and spelling (my kids spell their way into reading). I also make sure to include lots of fun read-alouds. For a child who is ready, I would move on to copywork, but this would not be until they knew how to form all of the upper and lower case letters and could read the words/sentences they would be copying. DD started copywork about this time of year (late January) when she was in Kindergarten. DS will probably start next year in first grade.

[chepyl]

We did reading with 100 easy lessons and the Bob books, then I picked up 10+ early readers every week from the library. I coordinated the subject matter with the science and history topics in What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know.

 

For math and handwriting I used various workbooks I picked up at theWalmart, Target, and Sams. We used a Core Curriculum Book I found at Sams that had a great phonics and reading comprehension section in it. We did the Schoolzone Big Math 1-2 book and software for our main math practice.

 

We started all of it when DS was 4.5(Feb-Mar) and worked a little through the summer and then all last year. It was a combination of prek and k in 1.5 years.

 

He loved workbooks, so we had a lot of them. We did phonics, math, sequencing, find the matching picture, find what's wrong, etc. We were pretty laid back, we covered a lot in 30 minutes a day.

[5LittleMonkeys]

We are focusing on reading, handwriting, early math skills, and basic skills.

 

Reading : Phonics Pathways, Reading Pathways, Explode the Code, Reading Eggs, and lots of reading aloud. The formal programs only take up maybe 45 minutes a day - spread throughout the day.

 

Handwriting : Practice while doing ETC and daily 5 minute focus through copywork from living books that we are reading or Draw Write Now.

 

Math : We dropped formal curricula for this. It was overkill and caused us to only think about math during our set "math" time. Now we talk about math and do math throughout our day. Practicing counting up to 100, counting by 5, and 10, lots of work with patterns, grouping and sorting, number relationships (if 2+3=5 then 5-3=2).

 

Basic Skills : fine motor skills, gross motor skills, learning to listen, learning to sit for longer periods of time, learning to communicate confusion or frustration about school related issues.

 

He also participates in our weekly science experiments, listens in on history read alouds and I spend about 2 hours a week going through What Your Kindergartner Should Know. We were doing a morning board with calendar, time, weather\temperature and weekly flashcards (states, animals, landmarks, planets) but he was becoming bored with it in the last couple of weeks so we've put it away for awhile.

 

We are very laid back with K. There are days that we only spend about 20 minutes on reading and then he goes off to do his own thing all day. I'm fine with that. It is amazing how much they learn simply from living life in a homeschooling family.

[Soror]

DD1 will be starting k in August, she will be 5y4m. I'm keeping things very informal and mostly am concerned with reaching some goals; basic phonics, counting to 100, adding under 10, basic money and geometry, solidify penmanship and listening to lots of good books. I don't plan on using a lot of formal curriculum but might buy her the Hwot K book and on phonics I might use the I See Sam books I have or some vintage program or something else I put together myself. Otherwise she joins in with ds1 on things when she wants like History and Science.

[Ellie]

Phonics/reading, penmanship. No formal math. :)

[5Bmom]

DS is not yet 5. You can see our plans in my siggy

[5LittleMonkeys]

Phonics/reading, penmanship. No formal math. :)

 

I really enjoyed that article Ellie. Thanks for sharing it!

[RootAnn]

Math skills, phonics and handwriting.

:iagree: And three fun things (each once per week). They get to pick - dress-up, building (blocks), cooking class, crafts/art, etc.

[NASDAQ]

Reading and writing numbers up to 130. Filling in numbers. Addition and subtraction facts up through 20.

 

Reading. We finished Saxon Phonics K in the first half of the year and we're doing Saxon Phonics 1 now, although I may veer off-course into Phonics Pathways. Saxon is going pretty slowly for her.

 

She decodes one lesson of McGuffey a day.

 

Hebrew alef-bais.

[NanceXToo]

With my K'er, I chose a Waldorf-inspired, gentle curriculum (Oak Meadow) which doesn't take very much time per day and focuses on upper case letters of the alphabet, stories, drawings, crafts, seasons, music and movement, that kind of thing. It's not an academic K, really, which was what I liked about it.

 

The only thing I've added to it is Funnix beginning reading lessons which we're doing a bit sporadically, we completed lesson 36 today I think. I'm not pushing them hard but doing them as we have time for them and as he's motivated to do them... I didn't want a lot of pressure on them, although I did want to at least start reading lessons this year, but I'm not really stressing over it, either, because, hey, 1st grade used to be time enough for learning to read back when I was a kid and I turned out fine. :)

 

That's about it for us! Plus of course I read to him, we go on outings and field trips, play games, and so on.

[LMD]

Language Arts. Primarily reading and handwriting.

Maths. Conceptual and experiential (ie. using blocks!)

Logic. Puzzles, meccano, lego, games.

Violin lessons.

 

My K-er does a lot of tagging along... absorbing!

[boscopup]

My biggest focus for K is learning to read, though we also do math since that's fun and I tend to have mathy kids anyway, so they want to do math. We also do some handwriting, though right now it's not my focus because he's technically not K until next year, and handwriting can wait a bit longer. We're just starting to do some formal instruction there, and he is ready (and he likes to write).

 

We're using MFW K to give us some "fun things" to do and remind me to get good picture books from the library. It's based around weekly science themes. I don't do all the crafts and such. I also am not using their phonics.

 

We use Webster's Speller and I See Sam readers for reading right now. When he's ready, I'll probably use the Treadwell readers, but we're not there yet. I do Webster's at the white board, sometimes with letter tiles. Last week we learned about silent 'e', and he had fun turing "cap" into "cape" and things like that. Then he'd say "cape, kepe, kipe, cope, cupe, kype" because of the Webster's patterns. I thought that was funny. He's into rhyming a lot lately too.

 

We use Singapore Essential Math K with Cuisenaire Rods. I love this combo! He's doing really well with book B because of the C-rods, and he's picking up his addition facts pretty quickly also (I think he's a visual thinker, so he's probably picturing C-rods when recalling the facts).

 

We use Handwriting Without Tears K book for handwriting, but again, we haven't focused on that much yet. This summer, I'll plan to be more formal about that.

 

That's basically all we do... well, read alouds and Bible reading, of course. But those aren't K specific.

[hmschooling]

I focus on the basics and then if I want to add more, I use Heart of Dakota or Teach Me Joy. With having older kids too, I really do mostly the basics for K-2 so I can keep up with teaching that many! I have done full programs for my 3 but have parred down. Lots of playtime and a little bit of the 3R's is plenty. 30-60m tops of school and sometimes less.

[ladydusk]

My Ks have done Circle Time (Bible, Catechism, Hymns, Poetry, some other memory work like skip counting. My current "K" is doing what everyone does, so she gets history, science, and geography memory work), Phonics, Math (we use MEP), Penmanship. My other Kers have been reading fluently, so they've done FLL.

 

My current PK/K is younger than they were when they started K, but she is ready for MEP Y1 (she did R last year, and started Y1 this month ... she's doing really well with it 9 lessons in). We'll see how it goes and take it slow. MEP Reception might be the perfect "math" for you to do with your to-be 5 year old as it's only 60 lessons and will get you moving very gently.

[burkeymouse]

Have you thought about the Primary Arts of Language by Andrew Pudewa. I am using that with my Kindergartener and he loves it. In fact, my 3 year old tags along and is retaining much from it too. This has 2 books and we are using both of them.

[mommy5]

Have you thought about the Primary Arts of Language by Andrew Pudewa. I am using that with my Kindergartener and he loves it. In fact, my 3 year old tags along and is retaining much from it too. This has 2 books and we are using both of them.

 

Are you talking about this: http://www.christianbook.com/primary-arts-language-complete-reading-package/jill-pike/pd/471572?event=CF

 

or this: http://www.christianbook.com/primary-arts-language-complete-writing-package/jill-pike/pd/471575?event=CF

 

or something else?

[ErinE]

I'd recommend phonics instruction, light math, and penmanship. Since you have other children, I wouldn't worry about much else.

 

Phonics: We're using OPGTR and I used tips from the forums to make the lesson more interesting for dd. We don't do the sentences in OPGTR; I use a phonics reader instead that has the phoneme we covered that day. 10 mins.

 

Penmanship: Last year, DD did HWT. This year for K, I select a sentence for her to write. At first, I wrote the sentence using a highlighter and she traced the words. Now, I've added 1 day were she copies the sentence from the whiteboard. 10 mins

 

Math: We used Earlybird (Singapore), but others liked Essentials better. I think simply working on counting, cardinality, and grouping would be fine.

 

Also let the older children play games with her. My dd likes Go to The Dump and Addition War.

[The Governess]

My youngest is a young K-er this year. Here's my recommendation on what to focus on, in order of importance:

 

1. Reading/Phonics. I am currently using Spalding (intense for the student and teacher) and Hooked on Phonics (more relaxed and "fun"). I think both programs have their pros and cons, but I would recommend either. We have also used Starfall and the Leapfrog videos and I highly recommend both. I used AAS with my oldest dd and she did really well with it. The ETC books were pretty good too. My oldest was an early reader, my youngest reads at grade level. I'm realizing that school is so much easier once they can read their own directions and have silent reading time while I get other things done. :D This is one reason why I put reading instruction at the top of the list.

 

2. Handwriting. I used Handwriting Without Tears and now use Spalding. The Spalding method has turned my oldest into a beautiful writer.

 

3. Read Alouds - as much as possible, and a mix of reading levels. The sooner they get used to listening to, sitting still for, and comprehending difficult books, the better. :D I have them practice retelling some of the simpler stories afterward.

 

4. Simple memory work: poems, rhymes, songs. To get them ready for more difficult work and dictations later.

 

5. Math. I've always used Singapore Earlybird. It is fun and gentle and introduces basic concepts without requiring too much else until first grade. I have heard good things about Rightstart and Miquon for this age as well.

 

Hope that helps a bit!

[mommy5]

I own 100EZ Lessons and just bought Phonics Pathways...was thinking of using one of those programs and maybe having her practice her letters (she already can write her name ... just has to work on staying on the line, etc. For math, I own MUS Primer but I don't know if it will be too hard for her ... she can count and loves playing with counting bears, tangrams and c-rods.

 

I'd recommend phonics instruction, light math, and penmanship. Since you have other children, I wouldn't worry about much else.

 

Phonics: We're using OPGTR and I used tips from the forums to make the lesson more interesting for dd. We don't do the sentences in OPGTR; I use a phonics reader instead that has the phoneme we covered that day. 10 mins.

 

Penmanship: Last year, DD did HWT. This year for K, I select a sentence for her to write. At first, I wrote the sentence using a highlighter and she traced the words. Now, I've added 1 day were she copies the sentence from the whiteboard. 10 mins

 

Math: We used Earlybird (Singapore), but others liked Essentials better. I think simply working on counting, cardinality, and grouping would be fine.

 

Also let the older children play games with her. My dd likes Go to The Dump and Addition War.

[LittleIzumi]

MFW K

MEP Reception

ETC 1

Lollipop Logic

Signing Time

tagging along on science & grammar

 

:)

 

I also have but need to USE Happy Phonics, HWoT, and BOB books.

[Mrs Twain]

I also say the three R's are the most important.

 

I disagree with the "no formal math needed." I think having basic math goals and some limited practice every day (even if it is only writing the numbers) is important.

 

I taught all of my kids to read with 100 EZ. They already knew the basic letter sounds before they started, and it worked fabulously. You don't need to do the writing exercises with that book IMO.

 

I like to read Hirsch's Core Knowledge K-8 Sequence. I follow things in there, such as teaching the continents and oceans in K. You can download the sequence for free here:

http://www.coreknowledge.org/download-the-sequence

 

I also have the What Your _-Grader Needs to Know books. These are helpful to read throughout the year.

 

If you want to branch out from the three R's, you can do foreign language, civics, a little history, art/drawing, music/music appreciation, and science (I love BFSU for K-2).