A home for their hearts Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 I'm trying to decide on a curriculum for my dd5 for next year. She will be 6 in the fall. Right now we are working on letter sounds. By looking at the samples online it looks like Jr.Kindergarten doesn't have a lot of phonics in it, just letter recognition. I think if we work on letter sounds for the next few months she would be ahead of Jr. However I'm concerned at the speed of the phonics in Kindergarten being too fast. If you've used the kindergarten level what did you think of the phonics? General reviews of both programs would be appreciated! Thanks! ETA: I was also wondering if the Numbers books they use in Jr. is the same that they use in Kindergarten? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicianmom Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 I tried Jr K, haven't tried K. Jr K only covers the alphabet and counting to 20. It is equivalent to what my dd5 does in her brick-and-mortar pre-kindergarten program. Not appropriate for a 6-year-old, IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CherryBlossomMJ Posted January 29, 2014 Share Posted January 29, 2014 I'm sure by now you've made your choices. But I wanted to say I've written long reviews on the various parts of the Junior Kindergarten. Also we are working our way through the Kindergarten and already making plans to start the First Grade curriculum in the fall. http://creativemadnessmama.com/blog/tag/memoria-press-junior-kindergarten/ JrK is recommended for a 4-5 year old, but we did it successfully with a 3 year old (my oldest at the time). In the Kindergarten time frame she has been four and she'll turn five before we start he first grade materials. Kinder phonics (First Start Reading) has been right on key with what we've needed. At times we had to stop for a week or two when she felt overwhelmed and just continued along with math and other subjects and caught up along and along with the phonics assignments. JrK is just letter recognition and writing upper and lowercase forms. With basic pictures to emphasize sounds. Actually putting letters together to form words and suffixes doesn't occur until Kinder. Originally the Numbers Books, parts 1&2 and coloring book were part of the JrK. They moved the Numbers Books, parts 1&2 to Kinder and left the coloring book in JrK. It worked very well for us this way. The coloring books are easy for my girl but delightful to combine with our Rod & Staff Beginning Arithmetic, part 1 studies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mel13 Posted February 11, 2014 Share Posted February 11, 2014 Hi, we used First Start Reading and the Copybook from Memoria for DD who is 5 and doing Kindergarten. I think the pace of learning the phonics was fine, if even a maybe a bit slow-paced for my DD. I think if yours recognizes the letters and basic sounds, it would be great. I personally don't think it was overwhelming at all. I didn't use the numbers book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dallasmom Posted February 13, 2014 Share Posted February 13, 2014 For those of you who have used First Start Reading, has it been too much writing for you? My son is 5 and attends preK at a university model school two days a week. We have slowly been using OPGTR at home but he sort of sneers when I get the book out because as you know if you look at it, it's not written for the child. I think the lessons are solid and he goes through them pretty well but I wonder if he'd like something with a workbook for him. Best I can tell First Start follows a similar style of teaching phonics so I was eying that as an alternative. He knows his letter sounds very well and assorted CVC and sight words that have come up through BOB books and the Nora Gaydos readers. In OPGTR we are finishing short vowels and about to enter two consonant blends. My concern with first start was the amount of writing and that perhaps we ought to skip the first book or so because of how far we are into instruction already. He writes pretty well for his age (using HWT PreK at his school). He likes reading real books like the BOBs but I can tell he tries to guess on words instead of doing the work of learning how to read them. He wants to dive into reading without the boring reading lessons! I'm afraid with the writing and pace he'd get frustrated with FSR. But I love the look and feel of them and really all of the MP stuff looks great. Any advice would be appreciated. I would love to be more intentional with him this spring and summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragonflyer Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 We did not use the First Start program, but I did get a copy of Scamp & Tramp. S&T was a great transition from BOB books for us. My son was exploding forward in reading, could blend really well, but was not ready for all the tricky vowel combinations. S&T stuck with the short vowel sounds and gave him practice in blending multiple consonants. It was a perfect reader to solidify blending until he was ready to tackle vowel rules. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CherryBlossomMJ Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 We did not personally find FSR to be too much writing. We've actually added in more by her request. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esperella Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 I'm thinking of getting Jr K for my 4 year old, but I want to make sure its not just coloring. It looks so sweet and gentle, and he's begging to " do school" but I know he will hate tons of coloring. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CherryBlossomMJ Posted March 8, 2014 Share Posted March 8, 2014 You could skip the 3 coloring books completely if you wanted. The Alphabet Books are available but they are not just pictures to color, they are inclusive of tracing pages for learning letter formation as well as little letter games. Then the included R&S books are much more activity than just coloring including tracing, copying, cut and paste. There is plenty to be colored in these black and white books but the knowledge can be learned without rainbowing every page. This alphabet and number recognition is only part of the beauty of JrK. There are stories (and comprehension questions), crafts if you're that kind of person, nursery rhyme music, devotion and prayer introduction, and more. We loved it. It was perfect for my oldest, at the time three year old, but will be too much for my second DD that is almost three so she'll probably wait until 4 or more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esperella Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 Awesome thanks! I don't usually like formal academics for littles, but he really wants something. I was going to go more waldorf but we did that this year with another of my boys and I can't handle it anymore haha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CherryBlossomMJ Posted March 9, 2014 Share Posted March 9, 2014 In the 'science's section there are lots of prompts that I find to be fairly Waldorf or Charlotte Mason in inspiration with nature walks and study. It was different for me, but when I was organized enough to make it happen she loved it. It is semi formal, but as I said only two days and fun gentle stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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