6 weeks into kindergarten, my rambling thoughts

[Mommie_Jen]

We started the first week of July because it was crazy hot outside and DS was getting bored. My original plan was ARFH, OPGTR, Singapore EM, ES Intro to Science, Expedition Earth (Confessions), and a ton of library books.

 

Every day. Then art, both appreciation and crafty stuff, thrown in somewhere. And field trips. And all of us singing Kumbaya at the end of the day, apparently. Go ahead and snicker. I am.

 

Reality - OPG was the first to get shelved. DS hated it. Still does. Replaced with ETC and BOB books. Making slow and steady progress. Science and EE never even got off the ground. Eh, eventually. Maybe this year. Whatever. Art appreciation? In kindergarten? With glue tasters? He doesn't care.

 

Reality has morphed into a daily plan that works for us. In the morning, I read while they eat breakfast, then they have book basket time. Morning goals include ETC, math, and handwriting, as well as play breaks and read alouds.

 

After lunch is outside time, then devotional time, read alouds, science or animal books or videos, and another book basket time. The hour before dinner is wind down time so poor DH doesn't get hit with two mini tornadoes when he gets home.

 

We have time to run errands and play. I've learned I need a schedule that is consistent, but flexible. And Spiderman doesn't care one bit about Mozart!:lol::lol:

 

It works. It gets done. And we're happy! (now, if I can just fight the voices in my head telling me I should be doing "more"!)

[blondeviolin]

Last year, we consistently completed math and reading. Some times we were capable of rowing a book or two or completing some geography work. If we didn't complete the extras, I didn't sweat it. We're three weeks into "first grade" and are not hindered in the least by making sure only math and reading were completed.

[tabrizia]

This sounds fairly similar to what we are doing as well. We started July 2nd as well.

 

We totally shelved OPGTR, he hated it, and I wasn't far behind him in my dislike. It just didn't work for either of us. We did go for AAR rather then just ETC and Bob books (mainly because he is not really a fan of Bob books and ETC either).

 

We're doing decently on Math, we're doing Singapore 1A, which should finish this month or next month depending on how soon a few things click in his little mind.

 

We do Science semi regularly, but it is mostly just reading about dinosaurs and digging a fossil out of the rock. I think we've done 2 days of history so far, oops! And don't get me started on how much handwriting we haven't done.

 

DS laughs at the idea of art, he hates writing, and will spend less then 2 minutes drawing if I insist, so since he has OT twice a week working on his handwriting, I have just given up for now, though we do work on photography occasionally which he likes, but I hate letting him use my big expensive camera.

 

I am focusing on getting some math and reading done every day, and working on the others as we get to it.

[boscopup]

Ha! :lol:

 

We are 8 weeks in here. I was just discussing reading/handwriting with a friend yesterday, and I'm going to try doing reading 3 days a week and handwriting 2 days a week (we'll be writing words, so it technically will double as "reading", but without him thinking it's "reading" ;) ). Doing both in one day has just not been working that well. He gets stressed out. He struggles with both.

 

Math is going very well, and he's finding it easy (doing Singapore 1A and Life of Fred Apples). I'm keeping this "easy" right now, since he has to work so hard at reading.

 

We're using Sonlight P4/5 for read-alouds, and it includes science, Bible, nursery rhymes, and stories from around the world. He loves Sonlight time.

 

I'm going to add in some concentrated coloring work today to help the fine motor skills for handwriting. His fine motor skills are actually better than DS1's were going in to K, but he just needs help being more precise. This is a child who WANTS to write. He likes making up stories and writing them down in little books. He made one yesterday about dancing tables, and he had various letters and numbers that were dancing on each page. :D

[ErinE]

Sounds perfect to me. If you have library visits, I'd recommend encouraging him to "find out more." Last year, I would ask DD one thing she wanted to learn more about during our weekly library trips. She and I would use the computer catalog together then we would browse the shelves. Part of her read alouds were books on elephants, bears, and insects. We also watched a lot of National Geographic, Nova, and PBS documentaries. We were flipping through the channels the other day and dd exclaimed, "Brian Greene!" which made me do a mental happy dance. She loved the Fabric of the Cosmos series.

 

She also really enjoys the Magic School Bus shows.

[Mommie_Jen]

Oh yeah, we love Magic School Bus videos! That's a great idea about "find out more", thanks!

[SorrelZG]

I actually made it 6 weeks with my chosen K curriculum before I started wandering off down other paths. Things that still got done daily were: Bible, phonics and then Latin, copywork, math, and then reading and being read to and a fair helping of educational videos and a lot of time just running around being 5.5-6.5 - riding his bike, building forts out of blankets, playing make believe and telling stories.

 

I am six weeks into this year's curriculum and ... I miss that. I'm not dropping anything (much) but I am reworking my daily plans. I have a child that pretty much takes care of art, history and science by himself but he loves to be read to also so I read whenever he's willing to sit still (mealtimes are perfect :) ).

[angela in ohio]

In the morning, I read while they eat breakfast, then they have book basket time. Morning goals include ETC, math, and handwriting, as well as play breaks and read alouds.

 

After lunch is outside time, then devotional time, read alouds, science or animal books or videos, and another book basket time. The hour before dinner is wind down time so poor DH doesn't get hit with two mini tornadoes when he gets home.

 

We have time to run errands and play.

 

This sounds much like how we spent our early years of homeschooling. It turned out very well. :D You won't be sorry.

[RootAnn]

Jen - It totally sounds like enough.

 

Really.

 

Reading to them - check!

Phonics - check!

Math 2-3x/week - check!

Have fun - check!

 

I personally don't do handwriting with mine until "second semester." Their fine motor skills are better, they already know their letters from phonics, and it seems to go much faster (get through the whole alphabet (lowercase) in one semester vs. taking the whole year).

 

You have plenty of time to make life difficult in later years.

 

(See all the things that, IMO, aren't important for Kindergarten? Quiet down those voices in your head!)

[...................]

Kumbaya! Hilarious.

 

Your new schedule sounds wonderful though, really.

[tuzor]

We started the first week of July because it was crazy hot outside and DS was getting bored. My original plan was ARFH, OPGTR, Singapore EM, ES Intro to Science, Expedition Earth (Confessions), and a ton of library books.

 

Every day. Then art, both appreciation and crafty stuff, thrown in somewhere. And field trips. And all of us singing Kumbaya at the end of the day, apparently. Go ahead and snicker. I am.

 

Reality - OPG was the first to get shelved. DS hated it. Still does. Replaced with ETC and BOB books. Making slow and steady progress. Science and EE never even got off the ground. Eh, eventually. Maybe this year. Whatever. Art appreciation? In kindergarten? With glue tasters? He doesn't care.

 

Reality has morphed into a daily plan that works for us. In the morning, I read while they eat breakfast, then they have book basket time. Morning goals include ETC, math, and handwriting, as well as play breaks and read alouds.

 

After lunch is outside time, then devotional time, read alouds, science or animal books or videos, and another book basket time. The hour before dinner is wind down time so poor DH doesn't get hit with two mini tornadoes when he gets home.

 

We have time to run errands and play. I've learned I need a schedule that is consistent, but flexible. And Spiderman doesn't care one bit about Mozart!:lol::lol:

 

It works. It gets done. And we're happy! (now, if I can just fight the voices in my head telling me I should be doing "more"!)

 

The dream vs. reality. :lol: I think the voice in our head never goes away if we constantly compare ourselves to others. Boards like this are good and bad for that reason. For K we only did Reading/phonics math and some science and spanish. Thats it.

[tabinfl]

We started the first week of July because it was crazy hot outside and DS was getting bored. My original plan was ARFH, OPGTR, Singapore EM, ES Intro to Science, Expedition Earth (Confessions), and a ton of library books.

 

Every day. Then art, both appreciation and crafty stuff, thrown in somewhere. And field trips. And all of us singing Kumbaya at the end of the day, apparently. Go ahead and snicker. I am.

 

It's nice to know I'm not the only one. We're a few weeks in and I am already wondering what insanity led to my grand plans for art, field trips, cool science experiments, and a relaxed, laid-back Mommy who ditches the worksheets and has an exciting, interactive lesson plan for everything so school is so much fun they can't wait to start each day.

 

I'm taking history and some writing/grammar & art ideas from ToG; read-alouds, LA, and science from Sonlight; Singapore EM; HWT; ETC; Faber piano... Plus gymnastics lessons, two half-day co-ops and a church kids' program starting next month.

 

Fortunately I have only one level to teach. Unfortunately, I have THREE doing Kindergarten this year: 5 yo twins and their little sister, 10 1/2 months younger.

 

Are you all finished laughing now? Glad I could provide some entertainment. :D

 

On a more serious note, I am using the buffet idea heavily, though I have a feeling I'm still pushing too hard. We have morning circle every day. I try to get through at least some reading (read-alouds and their reading) and some math every day. Everything else comes after that; history, science, etc. sometimes only once a week. I have also made arrangements with a teacher friend to come once a week as a consultant, to peek over my shoulder and keep us going at a reasonable pace, give me clever lesson plan ideas, and to help me handle the 'classroom management' issues I encounter trying to teach 3 at once. Oh, and I've loaded up the ipad & computer with educational games so I don't have to feel too guilty on those days they're staring at screens way too much. ;)