K4/5 motivated and 1st grader bored

[homeschoolkitty]

My oldest always complains that younger one is having more fun "doing" school because last year to keep the youngest out of trouble I bought one of those Preschool workbooks from Walgreens. I guess my Kinderone thought that it was more fun than what she was doing.

 

Last year my kinderone did:

 

Cursive first (some, we did it slow...)

Epikardia (kinder/1st grade) which included: Bible, History (ancients, though it is a world history in a yr curriculum), Science (she has samples online if you want to see it)

Math-u-see Primer

SWR

 

Both did the phonograms of SWR, both did calendar, Bible, Aesop, Bible memory, and Science activity together. But when we broke circle time for me to work with kinderone with MUS, or Writing I would give litte one his workbook (couple pages at the time, usually a letter, then coloring activity, or cutting activity) then the older would look longinly and say I wish I were in PreSchool.

 

How do I keep the 4/5 yr old doing level school (happens to be colorful and fun) while 6/7 yr old has to do MUS, SWR, MOH, etc.?

 

 

They will do SWR drill together, oldest will do dictation, younger will practice writing.

We will do Mystery of History together, and whatever reading will be together,

BIblie will be together.

We will be using 106 days of creation for Science, my hope is to do it together, but required more of the oldest, and youngest may join if wants to.

Will try to do some spanish worksheets for both of them

I don't know what to do for art. Last year we used a few famous paintings and looked at them and color them like Renoir, VanGogh. Not a formal artist study,

Music, the oldest is follwoing an old piano primer. mostly playing by ear.

 

My youngest will do Pathway readers (first steps), for math, I don't know yet, He wants to read so badly! For him I need to know what order of sports I should put him in.... I have no clue! help anyone here (fall?what sport?, etc)

 

my oldest will have extra things like chess, and free reading (this kids loves to read), considering ballet.

 

anyone encounter similar problems? green eye mosnter of jeoulsy I guess.

 

I wanted to make the oldest school a little more fun, any ideas to incorporate "fun" yet not time wasting things to do?

 

I guess it is a little more than me putting the foot down and say, you gotta do your school! I would like for her school experience not to be a constant fight... with her, I even stoped school since she was way ahead, she taught herself to write from similar books that I would get from Dollar store when she was 3.  Is it that she is soooo bored with what I am presenting.... we chose MUS as it is worksheetlike, she can color...she loves to draw and color....she can draw quite well.

 

I am wondering if she is doing school well below her capabilities and hence she is so bored. but how do I find that out. I know what I have not taught her, for instance, We didn't finish her Math Primer, do we jump to alpha (the next level in MUS) or finish the book?

 

 

Many many questions... for this board, though, my main concern is to know if anyone had similar problems when teaching together a preK and a 1st grader.

 

 

 

 

 

[Tanikit]

I have a similar problem with my nearly 6 year old and her 2 year old sister who I need to keep entertained (the 5 year old is working ahead) - what I have done is keep them together for crafts in the morning where both do the same - sometimes it is too difficult for the 2 year old who needs a lot of help and sometimes it is too easy for the 5 year old, but at least they can both have fun together.

 

Then I bring out more things for DD(2) while DD(5) does reading, writing and math and this is where the 5 year old sometimes gets upset, but I just tell her she can play with her sister when she is finished whatever she is doing. I also break the 5 year olds work up into very short chunks with breaks inbetween. In those breaks DD(5) can play with the toys DD(2) has played with or go outside and play or play with something else. I also take the 2 year old and teach her things that the 5 year old is less interested in - shapes, colours, letters etc - for that I take the 2 year old to her own room where the 5 year old cannot see what is going on just in case she is too interested.

 

I also try to make history and science fun for DD5 - and that means hands on activities as she is more a hands on child - DD2 can join us for these but it is made clear that this is mostly for DD5 and that her school is fun too (yesterday we built the Temple of Jerusalem out of cupcakes and icing and destroyed it by eating it - DD2 does not like getting messy and DD5 loves it so she knew this was for her).

 

As far as more fun workbooks for the younger - my DD2 loves sticker books and has fun preschool books too that she loves doing. I have bought more school appropriate sticker books for DD5 too (we are using some of the Usborne Sticker Dressing books with her) and this has helped a lot although DD2 then gets jealous so if they are cooperative enough then they can share putting stickers in BOTH books - if not then one sticker book belongs to one child and the other to the other child, but they both have one.

 

For your child who loves to draw I would add drawing and writing into the subjects she is less keen about - let her draw the sums out, use more blank exercise books, change the format for her - workbooks can be very soul destroying (easy or not). If you want to know if your child is working well below her capabilities then pick something to teach her that is more advanced and teach it but not using any workbook - use a method she would most enjoy and see if she gets it - sometimes just the change from routine is enough to excite them again. She may be bored, but she may also just not like the format of what you are teaching - maybe get something more colourful and fun for her. First grade doesn't have to look any less exciting than preK.

[Maela]

:bigear:   same problem here.  I set up fun things for DS to do while we do school work.  I've been making sure that after DS gets a turn with the fun thing, DD gets a turn also.  That helps a bit.  But yes, DS's workbooks are more fun than DD's because they're mostly coloring, dot-to-dot, etc.