Newbie with a million questions!

[Jerico]

Hello,

I found this forum and need help! I'll give you a little bit of information and will appreciate any advice you can give me. We have a 5 year old. My husband and I spent a year deciding whether or not to homeschool or send our son to a private, Christian, classical school. (Let's just say decisions aren't my strong point!) Finally we decided and enrolled him. Then my husband got a new job and we moved very suddenly. Private school is no longer an option and we are homeschooling. I feel very unprepared. I've read The Well-trained mind several times but it was never a pressing issue! I love the book and will be rereading it again very soon.

We are currently doing "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons." We had started this last year but forgot about it when the baby was born :) We have a very limited budget so I want to make the best choice for us right now. I'm looking into Veritas Press and Memoria Press. But I think we want to use Saxon for math. I think I want something pretty structured but I do need to be flexible as I also have a 3 year old and a 6 month old. I know we'll end up having to find out what works best with us but I would like a continuity of a program. And any ways to get used curriculum cheaper would be helpful.

Thank you!

[roanna]

I just finished K with my son and I think you can relax a little bit :)

 

Use the library a lot. Get a good Aesops Fables book with the best pictures you can find. I read it while my kids were trapped at the tabLe for lunch.

 

Use Legos for math in a gentle way. K math is very simple. There are some cute books at the library that use Cheerios or M&Ms. Just talk a lot about math concepts and he'll be ready for K. Print out a 100's chart and help him get familiar with it.

 

Print free handwriting sheets off the Internet. Donnayoung.com has great resources. Use a laminated map of the world to just gently talk about continents as you read stories.

 

Usually libraries have Bob books you can borrow for learning to read along with your lesson you are giving with phonics.

 

Don't forget lots of cutting and play doh to help with motor skills.

 

You have a whole year to really start school in a serious way and get more knowledgeable.

 

I am no pro but you'd be surprised how easy going K is in a brick and mortar school. If you ignore him and have him watch Sponge Bob all day long then I think he might have problems :). He'll do fine with you.

[PeacefulChaos]

My plans for when Pink (my now 3 year old) starts Kindergarten (yes, I have things loosely planned out that far in advance - and much, much farther ;) ) are just The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, Explode the Code, Zaner Bloser Handwriting K, and maybe Math U See Primer or a Singapore equivalent. That's it for actual 'school' stuff.

So you don't need to stress or worry about it. K is very laid back!

[Esse Quam Videri]

My first year of K I was in a similar situation, and we ended up using Heart of Dakota Little Hearts For His Glory with all of their recommended resources. It worked really well for that time- structured, engaging, easy to use, quality learning, and not a huge financial investment. After a couple of years of having things planned out for me, I finally decided to branch out and do my own thing, which made K for my youngers a little different. But I am so, so thankful I started with HOD, because it made school fun and doable for DC and me.

[momma2three]

K is such a fun year, because you can just totally relax.

 

There are also many fantastic free resources.

 

For math, check out the Reception level at the MEP website. It's an English curriculum available online for free. http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/primary/default.htm The Reception year really does need to be printed out in color, which costs money if you don't have easy access to a color printer, but beyond that it's all black and white. There is a very detailed teachers script, too.

 

Wee Folk Art (http://weefolkart.com/content/homeschool-companion-guides) has seasonal kindergarten curriculum guides with ideas for books and art projects and themes. They're very simple and flexible, and I had no trouble incorporating a 3yo into many of the activities.

 

They are not having a sale now, but Scholastic often has $1 sales for their e-books. They offer many fantastic ideas, worksheets, activities, etc in every subject. We use them a lot.

 

You can also get a free monthly curriculum guide at this site for all of elementary school: http://www.cstone.net/~bcp/BCPIntro2.htm It doesn't include a math program, but it has project ideas for most subjects for every month of the school year.

 

And, mostly, this website is a great resource!

[morosophe]

The #1 resource I would suggest for new homeschoolers is Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum. See if it's available at your local library, and look particularly at the first few chapters. She really helped me focus on what kind of homeschooling works best for me.

 

She has come out with a newer version of the book, but it's so new (came out in June, I think?) that I doubt your local library will carry it. Still, if you decide to purchase the resource, that's the version you'll want. You can purchase that at her site, but joining the Homeschool Buyers' Coop will allow you to buy any of the electronic versions (.pdf, epub, Kindle) for a lot cheaper.

 

Sorry that I'm not really answering any of your questions. I just found that book to be the most useful when I was starting out. (I did find it at my local library, and ended up buying the Kindle version when I realized I was checking the book out every year for more specific curriculum recommendations.)

[Tracy]

You really don't need to do a lot for K. I do not plan on doing any formal math at all until 1st grade with my ds next year. But if you want something structured and free for math, you can try CSMP. This is my 3rd year using it with my oldest, and we really love it.

 

If you want to do some geography, I compiled a list of books I used with my oldest when she was in K. These are books I got from the library. We just read the books and found the country on the wall map.

[freeindeed]

For K, I recommend a gentle approach. We used Five in a Row, Saxon math, and Phonics Pathways. That is all we did for K.:)

[sgo95]

I agree with other posters about a gentle approach.

 

Meet your son wherever he is at in terms of math and reading. You can try a formal program for math and if it clicks with your son, great. However, if your son is not getting it or getting frustrated with it, just lay off and play games that have him counting. You don't need a formal curriculum to teach him counting and simple addition and subtraction (with numbers 0-10), which is mostly what is covered in K-level math.

 

For phonics, we like the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. We don't actually follow the script, I just follow the order of what's covered and use magnetic letters as manipulatives. Again, you don't have to push your son if he's not getting things as quickly as you think he should.

 

Beyond that, just read interesting books from the library. Get a zoo or museum membership. Pick up a fun enriching curriculum, if you'd like, to guide any extra activities. As long as he's being stimulated with enriching experiences and books, he'll be fine. It doesn't really matter what you cover this year. Just make as much progress as you and he can towards math and reading. Also, in the early years, I feel half the work is really on developing their character anyway (learning to be more patient, obedient, etc.) and training them to help out around the house (life skills!).

 

I know it's hard when he's your first, but really, looking back at myself, I stressed out so much more than was necessary with my first.

:grouphug: and feel free to ask more questions.

[Tracy]

I know it's hard when he's your first, but really, looking back at myself, I stressed out so much more than was necessary with my first.

 

:iagree: Me, too. Once I saw how little was expected in 1st grade, it made it really easy to ease up with my next dc.

[Aurelia]

I wouldn't go with a boxed program for K, especially if you're on a tight budget. As long as you cover math, learning to read, and handwriting, you could just use the library for your other subjects. Just make sure when you go to pick a variety of books, like science, history, art, etc.

 

You already have reading and Saxon is a solid choice for math. For handwriting, you can use a workbook like Zaner-Bloser or what you find in Wal-Mart or something, or Handwriting Without Tears (which can be expensive if you buy all the extras, very few of which are really helpful). Five in a Row is good, we used it for Ariel's kindergarten year, it's gentle, uses picture books and can cover a number of topics on different levels, depending on your child's abilities.

[Mergath]

Looks like Logic of English is still offering their manuscript handwriting program for free:

 

http://www.logicofenglish.com/resources/free-downloads/free-manuscript-handwriting-program

 

Free is always good when money is tight. ;)

[Ritsumei]

We did a pretty laid-back K year as well. We used the Happy Phonics games with some structure for me that I got from Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading. Hero played games; OPGTR in front of him would have caused tears. We did that about 3 times a week for 15 minutes.

 

For math we used Math Expressions K. You can get the teachers' manuals (2 volumes) on Amazon for very little. I'll use Miquan with Dragon; he already loves the cuisenaire rods and has to play with them whenever his brother does math, so it's a natural for us. Even with the various teachers' manuals (which you shouldn't skip) Miquan is pretty reasonable. In K it was probably 15-20 min 2-3 times a week. We were very laid back about K.

 

We had some Kumon books we did for writing, and then when they were used up moved on to mom-made stuff. If you're looking for ways to cut costs, then writing is a natural, IMO. Again, 2ish times a week.

 

Other than that, for K we did read-alouds and crafts and went out to the parks and looked for "interesting things" for nature study. And that was pretty much it. My kids help out in the kitchen (if you can call it help at that age! :tongue_smilie:) and their daddy lets them "help" with his various building projects. We answered the zillion questions, limited television and computer time, and snuggled a lot. We planted a garden and visited animals at a friends' farm.

 

K is easy. You got this.

 

One thing that sticks out in my mind when thinking about pre-K and K is this study I saw on daycares. They counted the number of questions that kids ask in daycares verses kids that are at home, and they found that the kids at home ask (and get answers to) about 20 questions to every one in the daycare. The authors thought it was the individualized attention. Those questions are probably the most valuable part of a kid's education! I'm guessing that it's a difference that persists into regular school: questions are relegated to specific parts of the day (a necessity of classroom management), and nearly always have to be asked in public, so odd questions are quickly discouraged by peer pressure. But that doesn't need to be the case at home.

[Jerico]

Thank you all! I'm looking into all of these links and "taking it easy!" My mother-in-law doesn't seem supportive of homeschooling so I do feel some pressure there!

 

Love the forum so far! I'll be back and hopefully someday I can have something to contribute!

[Dolphin]

Our kindy girl I am keeping very simple.

 

We are working on handwriting, HWT.

 

We are reading Bob books and Little Books from the library

 

Science, she is doing some experiments with big brother and watching the Magic school bus (PBS or the library)

 

We are doing miquon for math. But you could look at videos at education unboxed and khan academy for ideas on introducing Math (both free)

[LEK]

i have similar aged kids; 3 girls ages 5, 3 and 9 months. my oldest dd is nearing the end of her kindy year.

 

We have used OPGRT, ETC, MUS (although there are some great free programs which i would use if money was tight) and galloping the globe. All up very budget friendly except for the mus which i would happily substitute for one of the free programs if needed. other than this we have a kids atlas and use the library and internet a lot for research.