Talk to me about SL 4/5 - what would you add?

[Ameena]

I will be hsing a friends dd for pre-k this coming year. The little girl has some delays & will also be getting therapy. Parents want me to hs her as they don't feel she is ready for ps pre-k even though she is almost 5 {pre-k here starts at age 3 or 4 depending on the district}. I agree with them - she isn't ready for ps pre-k at all IMO. At the moment, the plan is for me to hs her for pre-k & try to help her catch up a little, then she will go into ps for kinder in 2014.

 

I'm strongly thinking of using SL 4/5 for her, but don't feel it's meaty enough in areas besides reading. But I haven't been able to actually look at it in person either {won't be able to until convention in May}. I do REALLY feel she would benefit from having lots of books read to her - her parents are not the type to read to kids, and her older brother {age 6, 1st grade but probably should have been held back a year to mature IMO} has reading difficulties.

 

So - if you did SL 4/5, what did you think of it? And what would you add for a child looking at just hsing pre-k, so they wouldn't be behind for Kinder?

[shawthorne44]

Have you looked at AAR-pre?

[celticadea]

i second AAR-pre. We started this about a week ago with my 4.5 year old daughter. Even though she knows her letters (upper and lower case), she's enjoying this program. My tag along 2.5 year old is picking up her letters quite nicely too (she really just listens in and get to color her page). Besides just letter identification, it works on phonemic awareness starting with rhyming and gets to word counts, syllable counts, etc...and letter sounds.

 

I haven't used sonlight, but am considering using the 4/5 with my kindergartner next year (for the literature basically). what part do you think isn't meaty enough? that could help you decide what to look at instead.

[Ameena]

I'm not at all familiar with AAR - can you give me link / explain it? With my dd it was so easy - she taught herself to read at age 4 from watching LeapFrog DVDs, so this is a whole new ball game for me.

 

I am eyeing the kindergarten items from Christian Light Education {They borrow a lot from R&S} after much researching and reading of catalogs - I think they would be a good fit with this girl. She needs to work across the board to get up to speed - she really is like a 2 or 3 year old in many many ways, including speech & fine motor skills. I haven't tried yet to see exactly where she is, but I really really doubt she knows her numbers / letters at all.

 

I love SL myself, but where the plan is for this little girl to go into the PS for Kindergarten next year, I'm not sure it will really ready her for it. I don't feel there is enough math for one, and some of the books they have picked are not appropriate for this age IMO. Plus I will only have her for at most 4 hours a day 4 or 5 days a week, and I know the parents won't do much with her at home, even if I send stuff home for her to work on over the weekends.

 

If it were my kiddo, and I knew she were going to continue being hs-ed, I'd relax and let her mature a bit more, then catch up later. But with this little girl going back into the PS setting for the next grade, I don't want her held back any more than she has to be for her delays. She will already be one of the oldest in her class - if they made her repeat pre-k I could see it posing a big problem for her. I also want to get and much done with her as possible, knowing that she will likely fall though the cracks in the PS just as her brother has.

[celticadea]

AAR is all about reading. it's made by the same people who make all about spelling and is a scripted package for teaching reading using a version of orton-gillingham methods. this is a method recommended for dyslexics but is a good, incremental method of teaching reading. you can check out more of their program at http://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/all-about-reading/?fullSite=1 AAR-pre would do a great job of letter ID and pre reading skills needed for kindergarten.

another thought would be the HWT getting ready for school stuff. I don't know about their pre-reading skills but its definitely about letter recognition.

 

we've done some of the R&S with my daughter but have gotten pretty burned out just doing the counting with numbers and then inside & outside that were included in my MP junior K package. of the two I liked counting with numbers the best. I added manipulatives to work on counting but she got the gist of counting to 12 with it. I&O does so much nature stuff in the middle of numbers that's its gotten annoying.

 

I've recently had oak meadow and my fathers world recommended to me as gentle kindergarten material. have you looked at those? at least MFW also has preschool and prek to choose too if the k looks too hard.

http://www.mfwbooks.com/products/M50/10/10/0/1

 

maybe do the 3/4 package for the read alouds from sonlight instead of 4/5?

 

another thought, have you looked at the developing early learner books or mathematical reasoning at timberdoodle? I haven't used them but am heavily considering at the least the early learner books.

 

[shawthorne44]

If you are worried about Math you could look into Mathematical Reasoning by the Critical Thinking Company. I think the start age is 3, although mine started to bring it to me at around 2.5. So, it might be the correct age for her.

 

You might also look into the two big story collections books in P3/4. I was able to get them pretty cheaply at a used bookstore. One thing I like about the collections is that you can stop when the story ends. Or, you might hear "next one", and then "next one".

 

But, it would seem to me that if she gets the idea "Books are good" from her time with you, that would be the biggest long-term help.

Also, sustained imaginative play to help her Executive Functions.