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Walking-Iris
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Is there a thread for K4 plans for the year?

 

I'd like to hear what others have planned for their 4 year olds this year.

 

My dd is pretty precocious, so I've decided to call this a K year.

 

I'm going to work in Peak With Books with her. I've gone through this book with her brother at this age, and I'm excited to do it again.

 

I've decided to try Saxon K math with her because she's showing a real interest in numbers and measuring and other math play. I like the emphasis on learning the calendar, and that the lessons are only 3 days a week and I feelit's something we can have fun with.

 

I'd like her to work this year on her handwriting and fine motor skills. So other than continuing lots of sensory play and work on buttons, tying, bead stringing,cutting and gluing etc, I'm also going to have her practice in HWOT and the ETC Get Ready Set Go books for learning some letter formation.

 

I may gently start her on OPGTR lessons. She's known her letter sounds for some time and can occasionally sound out a few CVC words. 

 

She tags along in any way she can with any science or history project that her brothers do. Same with art.

 

That's basically all. 

 

What are your plans?

 

 

 

 

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These are tentative plans.... Ds is showing interest in school, but we will try to keep things lite and follow his lead.

 

Math

MEP reception

Rightstart-A

 

Spanish phonics/reading

Mi Libro Magico

Juguemos A Leer

 

Science

Mudpies to Magnets

 

Art

Child Size Masterpieces

Lots of coloring, cutting, and painting

 

Lots of read aloud in both Spanish and English. Manipulatives, clay play, painting, puzzles, etc

 

At the end of the year we will begin phonics in English with OPGTR and ETC.

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I'm calling this year pre-k, but my boy's 4 as well.

 

Spine: We're 11 weeks into Sonlight P4/5, we started that at the beginning of summer, it's so fun!

 

Math: We're just about to begin RightStart math A (2nd ed) at a gentle pace

 

Phonics: We completed the ETC primer series last year, but DS stalled out on the last few pages at figuring out the end sound of a word, so we are giving phonics a break and just keeping all the letter sounds fresh in his mind until he seems ready for the next developmental "leap" into sounding it out and such. Basically waiting for that c-aaa-ttt cat! breakthrough.No hurry! I own Happy Phonics but it's mostly dormant atm. I own ETC 1 for whenever he's ready.

 

Science: is taken care of by Sonlight on the book side and life, the backyard and our daily nature walk on the practical side.

 

Other: lots of random skills workbooks (think Kumon) I have plenty of educational manipulatives for patterning, writing letters in salt/sand/shaving cream trays stuff like that. I like the pinterest-y stuff to make school extra "fun." And I cannot stress this enough the biggest part if our early learning - READING ALOUD!!! I read tons of books to DS4, he loves it, it's my goal to keep it that way.

 

Great thread idea Walking Iris, I love to see what others are doing, esp at the same age!

 

 

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These are tentative plans.... Ds is showing interest in school, but we will try to keep things lite and follow his lead.

 

Math

MEP reception

Rightstart-A

 

Spanish phonics/reading

Mi Libro Magico

Juguemos A Leer

 

Science

Mudpies to Magnets

 

Lots of read aloud in both Spanish and English. Manipulatives, clay play, painting, puzzles, etc

 

At the end of the year we will begin phonics in English with OPGTR and ETC.

 

I printed out MEP Reception for my ds when he was at this age. And I do pull from Mudpies and More Mudpies. :)

 

I'm calling this year pre-k, but my boy's 4 as well.

 

Spine: We're 11 weeks into Sonlight P4/5, we started that at the beginning of summer, it's so fun!

 

Math: We're just about to begin RightStart math A (2nd ed) at a gentle pace

 

Phonics: We completed the ETC primer series last year, but DS stalled out on the last few pages at figuring out the end sound of a word, so we are giving phonics a break and just keeping all the letter sounds fresh in his mind until he seems ready for the next developmental "leap" into sounding it out and such. Basically waiting for that c-aaa-ttt cat! breakthrough.No hurry! I own Happy Phonics but it's mostly dormant atm. I own ETC 1 for whenever he's ready.

 

Science: is taken care of by Sonlight on the book side and life, the backyard and our daily nature walk on the practical side.

 

Other: lots of random skills workbooks (think Kumon) I have plenty of educational manipulatives for patterning, writing letters in salt/sand/shaving cream trays stuff like that. I like the pinterest-y stuff to make school extra "fun." And I cannot stress this enough the biggest part if our early learning - READING ALOUD!!! I read tons of books to DS4, he loves it, it's my goal to keep it that way.

 

Great thread idea Walking Iris, I love to see what others are doing, esp at the same age!

 

We're having the opposite experience. She knows the letter sounds and can (occasionally) sound out some CVC word. I decided to introduce the ETC primers to help with her handwriting. Her formation of the letters is still a bit shaky. 

 

And yes so much reading aloud!!! 

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We run by calender year, but I have to plan ahead due to ordering books internationally, so this is what we will be starting after Christmas

 

Math - Mathematical Reasoning A, possibly add Life of Fred

Thinking - Hands on Thinking Skills by CTC and some assorted supplements.

Reading - 100 Easy Lessons

Handwriting - Motor skills books like Kumon cutting books, and maze books, and those huge Kindergarten books which have lots of pencil work (she LOVES workbooks) etc. Also Startwrite worksheets to begin letter formation

Computer Skills - Mouse Control with Reader Rabbit games, plus they reinforce what we are already doing.

 

The rest we handle informally through books, TV and life right now

 

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We are doing K-4 this year...

 

SM Essentials

HWOT pre-K

AAR pre level

FIAR (very lightly)

She tags along for science, read alouds, and Bible.

 

She begs for school. I was only planning on 3 days a week, but I don't think I can ignore her begging every T/R...may have to rethink that. ;)

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Mine will be 5 in Sept. so this is her K year. We're going to use FIAR which I used with her brothers. I thought about doing something different but to save $ went with what I already have. I use it more as a jumping off/planning point than as written. We're working through OPGTR. I have Singapore Math for her and Miquon which we dabbled in a bit in the spring. She likes workbooks now, I think it "feels like school" for her. She'll do art and science and whatever else we are doing. Oh, and she's starting piano which she is super excited about. 

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We are doing:

 

Build Your Library K- Around the World. I'm really looking forward to starting this! It's an overview of people and animals around the world, and schedules art projects, read alouds, and recipes.

 

Skills- lots of Kumon workbooks, art projects, and just life in general as others have mentioned

 

When I decide she's ready to read, we will use Phonics Pathways. She knows all the letters and sounds, but hasn't made the leap to sounding out words yet.

 

For math I haven't decided if I'm just going to be informal this year or use Mathematical Reasoning Beginning 2.

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k-4

 

We are using Saxon math k 

OPGTTR after the second set of BOB books 

One page a day of a Kumon book of his choice

physical ed: tae kwan do classes 

We also do art, social studies, and science informally.

 

I bought FIAR but I am not sure if we will be doing it or not. 

 

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I'm not sure if my second dd belongs on this thread or not. We're not calling this year K4. Technically she won't be K age next year, since she has a November birthday and the cutoff is September. But we have considered sending her to K next year, if we were to use public school, and she'll be 4 for more of this year than not.

 

She is currently doing the CVC section of OPG for the 4th time, because she insists on getting her daily "reading cuddle", but hasn't been ready to move on in the past. I think she will be ready to continue this time.

 

She will finish Mathematical Reasoning Beginning in the next few weeks and start Miquon Orange.

 

She is learning the violin from me with Suzuki methods found on teachsuzuki.blogspot.com in very short daily sessions.

 

She gets Spanish by watching Salsa or another kids show in Spanish during quiet time.

 

She also loves to tag along with her five-year-old sister for history (SOTW 1) and science (BFSU 1 & bird study), as well as read-alouds and doing art projects together.

 

At some point I may add in handwriting of some kind as well, if she wants to.

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I am doing PreK with FosterGirl4.  She insists on doing "her work" so I am using the daily notebook pages from CoaH, book lists and memory work from MP Jr K, and consistent calendar work.

 

Kindergarten with my DS (5 in Nov) looks like:

Literature based zoology unit studies through the year (we are about to start insects)

MM1

AAS1

Copywork

Practice reading using whatever book I can get him interested in (currently 26 Fairmount Avenue)

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We school January to December and my youngest will turn 4 in February - things changed here  regarding age in first grade - it used to be turning 6 before middle of June and now it has become turning 7 that year. Which means my child should have started school in the year she turned 6 which would make next year K4 (called grade 00 here), but under the new system she is meant to be starting grade 000 this year only. So because of all the confusion I will just do what my child is ready for.

 

We will continue reading books and phonics with OPGTR

We have been doing MEP Reception but I will look again when that is finished and see what she can cope with next

I imagine next year I will use to teach letter formation - she has started already, but I know there was a sudden big jump in my eldest the year she was 4 so will see where my younger DD heads as her fine motor is much better than my eldest's was at the same age.

And naturally loads and loads of read alouds,

I do need to concentrate on her gross motor skills more. She goes to gymnastics and will continue that I think.

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My DS just turned 4.5 but started reading (on his own) a year ago.  He is still doing BOB book type books, but solidly knows all his letters and letter sounds.  I am still planning on using OPG.  We are going to start with Saxon K and we will do Sonlight P 4/5 since I used it with my older girls and still have it.

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John turns 4 in November and we're starting in January. He's ahead in Reading and Writing, but hates math.

 

Finishing 100EZ with RFH K and beginning SWR in K style.

Education Unboxed MMM

Continuing our casual jaunt through AO Y0

Salsa and Spanish flash cards

Piano with Daddy

 

I like the look of Mathematical Reasoning and Building Thinking Skills, but I really didn't plan on a PK year, it just seems to be what he needs.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My son is just about to turn 4. I am not doing kindergarten with him, but I have scheduled 10-15 minutes of working with him into our school day so he gets some mommy attention before I start saying 'later, later'.

 

I sit down with him and do ONE of these each school day:

AAR pre level

HWOT, sort of. I have the kindy guide, the wooden letter pieces and letter cards, and the small slate. No workbook.

Singapore Essentials A and c rods. I have B, not sure if we'll do it this year, I may save it for next year.

I have some rainbow bear counters and activity cards I should throw in the mix.

Kumon maze, cutting, etc books.

 

I also read a story to him as part of our school day. He tags along with bible, singing, nature study. He has a variety of school time only activities- sorting, beading, etc. Though I should update these, they are left over from last year. Some were a little hard last year, those will probably be good for this year. I don't think I need a lot of these this year, he's very self entertaining. Legos are my friend. :D

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Well, my youngest DS turns 4 in September but I've decided to not *officially* call this K4. ;) However, we will be doing K4 type work. We have handed down from older DSs:

 

HWOT wooden letters and slate. He has the pre k book for this too.

AAR pre-level

Happy Phonics (recent purchase that we really like!)

Bob Books (lightly, since he's not really interested)

Memoria Press K Enrichment guide (LOVE everything about this book!)

Calendar activities (CoaH)

Math manipulative play

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We rotate around, doing activities from LOE Foundations, and Memoria Press PreK stuff and the CLE preschool books. Just grab one page or two a day and do them. Plus coloring/painting/drawing/playdoh/sculpey clay/chalk board fun/etc. OH, and the recitation list from Memoria Press. Lots of reading aloud.

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My DD will turn 5 in October, so she just misses the K cutoff date.  

 

Saxon Math K

MCP K--we started this last spring

ABC Mini Books (from Scholastic dollar days sale), organized to coordinate with her current MCP letter

Bible Nuggets 

Preschool Activities in a Bag

 

I'd love to fit in some FIAR books as well, but I never seem to get around to these.  I'm thinking of reading a FIAR book before we start our family read-aloud.  She also joins in with the bigger kids as interested...usually for MOH activities, science experiments or art projects.

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My dd doesn't turn 4 until the end of Nov., so she wouldn't be eligible for K until 2016. But, my ds also has a Nov. birthday, and I made the mistake of holding off on formal instruction to keep him aligned with ps grade level, even though he was ready. It would have been nice to have that flex year when he got to HS.

 

So, since little dd has known her letters since she was 18 months, knows her colors, shapes and can count to 30, I figured there was no point in putting off academics any longer.

 

Our K4 plan:

 

Wee Folk Art nature studies

 

All About Reading Pre-Reading level

Get Ready, Set, Go for the Code

Big Skills for Little Hands Alphabet Book

 

McRuffy Pre-K Color Math

Mathematical Reasoning Beginning 2

 

Things People Do

A Life Like Mine

Draw and Learn Places

Build a Town Sticker Book

 

Building Thinking Skills

Developing the Early Learner (books 1&2)

 

French

Arabic alphabet

 

Lots of read alouds, including:

Usborne Stories from Around the World

World Treasury of Children's Literature

Stories for 4 Year Olds

 

Also, independent work to keep her busy while I work with my high schoolers:

 

tracing, cutting, mazes, dot-to-dots, playdoh, blocks, educational apps

 

It'll be a busy year, but I'm excited to be working with an eager student again (teens can be less cooperative than preschoolers, believe me).

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Now I really feel behind! :)

 

Would it help if I shared my K4 plans?  Massive doses of Playmobil, American Girl dolls, Barbies, dress-ups, puppets, playdough, coloring,etc all under her own self-direction.   She is in the midst of re-learning the fine art of self-entertainment.   Throw in doses of snuggling on mom's lap and listening to stories and that pretty much sums up K4 for all of my kids (this one is #8 and the last time I will have the pleasure.)

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Now I really feel behind! :)

 No! Don't feel that way. I would never push school at a young age. Mine asked to learn to read, write, and play piano. Spanish is something that's important to me but we're doing it very lightly. Math will be optional and Ambleside is just fun family time in the evening.

 

I don't believe in starting school until about 6, he just likes it.

 

 

Would it help if I shared my K4 plans?  Massive doses of Playmobil, American Girl dolls, Barbies, dress-ups, puppets, playdough, coloring,etc all under her own self-direction.   She is in the midst of re-learning the fine art of self-entertainment.   Throw in doses of snuggling on mom's lap and listening to stories and that pretty much sums up K4 for all of my kids (this one is #8 and the last time I will have the pleasure.)

Yes! I want to like this over and over. This is what childhood is all about!

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I've noticed that everyone starts real early homeschooling their 1st born, I guess we can't contain our enthusiasm any longer! And often more experienced moms tend not to worry about school so much at such a tender age. I don't think either is wrong, I'm sure no one is behind and everyone is appreciated by their kiddos! <3 

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I've noticed that everyone starts real early homeschooling their 1st born, I guess we can't contain our enthusiasm any longer! And often more experienced moms tend not to worry about school so much at such a tender age. I don't think either is wrong, I'm sure no one is behind and everyone is appreciated by their kiddos! <3

Funnily enough, I did not start any formal school with my oldest till 6. But he was always asking questions and I had lots of time to just spend with him. Now that I have two older kids who I need to work with formally every day, I'm worried that my third child will not get my attention. That I'll be always saying later, later, after school. So now I schedule time with him at the beginning of our school day. A story, a game, etc. I have HWOT pieces, AAR, Singapore essentials just to remind me to sit down and do mazes with my child, or a rhyming game, or whatever he wants. :D

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I didn't do "K4" with Ds6, but I'll be starting it with Ds4 (5 in January) in a couple weeks. He's deaf and has cochlear implants, so I'm more concerned about his language development and reading than anything else. Our priorities will be AAR Pre-reading (if it works out) and reading aloud. A few times a week, we'll do some Picture Book Activities and Miquon math labs. He'll tag along with Ds6 for SOTW 2 and whatever science we end up using, and I have a handful of workbooks for him to use when he wants to do his own thing. 

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DD4 just started going to a full-day Montessori program, but at home we are going to do:

 

RS A

CTC Mathematical Reasoning Beginning 1

BambinoLUK

Knowledge Quest Pre-K workbook

 

She desperately wants to do "mommy school" and these are fun and not overly taxing. We haven't started RS A yet - probably in the next sev wks or so. She also has an interest in reading (and has for over a year), but I'm leery of starting it because has speech problems. Maybe in January.

 

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Would it help if I shared my K4 plans? Massive doses of Playmobil, American Girl dolls, Barbies, dress-ups, puppets, playdough, coloring,etc all under her own self-direction. She is in the midst of re-learning the fine art of self-entertainment. Throw in doses of snuggling on mom's lap and listening to stories and that pretty much sums up K4 for all of my kids (this one is #8 and the last time I will have the pleasure.)

That sounds fantastic:)

Can I come play too?

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My youngest (and last DC) is 4 too. Our plan for him looks somewhat like 8's, except it's more like Hot Wheels, Thomas the Tank Engine, Legos, costumes, toy weapons, whiteboards/markers, and looking for treasures in DS/10.5's shelves while everyone is busy with school.

 

A couple weeks ago I designated a particular volume to be his read aloud and snuggle with Mom book. He was so tickled at having his very own that he spent the first story bragging to anyone who was close enough to hear him.

 

He is starting to sound out simple cvc words and writes his name, but completely without curriculum. He has absorbed it from siblings and playing at the school table. I have no intentions of starting formal curricula anytime soon.

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My youngest (and last DC) is 4 too. Our plan for him looks somewhat like 8's, except it's more like Hot Wheels, Thomas the Tank Engine, Legos, costumes, toy weapons, whiteboards/markers, and looking for treasures in DS/10.5's shelves while everyone is busy with school.

My 4yos plan looks more like Legos, then legos, then more legos, a maze or puzzle, and then some more legos. My boys are obsessed with building. Lol. Periodically he runs through the room and stops and sings with us for 5 minutes (the other day he surprised me by reciting my cell number that I'm having the older kids memorize) or demands ziggy! He asks for ziggy every day. It seems to be right up at the top of his list, under legos of course. I don't think he's learned anything new, he's already picked up all this stuff just being around the older kids, but he enjoys it as a game.

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I have one in pre-k this year.  He is doing:

 

HWT pre-k

working on pre-reading skills

MEP Reception

lots of read alouds

 

I have this work planned for ds, but we will be using it somewhat informally.  The read alouds will be kept up regularly, but the other work will be as it fits inand only as he is interested.  The older kids have completed two weeks of school already but 4yo ds has not started yet.

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We're doing K-4 this year with my second dd.  We've actually been at it for a few months already, but I can't pass up a "what are you doing with your x-grade student" thread!

 

4 years old is when school becomes non-optional at our house, but I do try to keep it light and very focused on the basics.

 

Reading: OPGTR.  I am also using several iPad phonics apps (LOE, HOP, various others I've acquired over time).  OPGTR is our spine, though, and dd is doing pretty well with cvc words so far.

 

Math: Essential Math and Miquon.  I can't decide which is our spine.  DD likes EM more, and I like Miquon more and we do both with success.  She is doing a great job so far and I'm not sure what we'll do after she finished EM, which will probably be in a few months.  We will probably give Math Mammoth a try since I have it already.

 

Handwriting: HWT PreK.  Her fine motor skills are average for her age, but she likes writing names a lot, especially hers.  I also use the LetterSchool app for practicing how letters are constructed.

 

As for everything else, she just sits in on big sister's science and sometimes math.  We also sing the CC timeline song every day and do family scripture study every day that she participates in.  She and her sister listen to audiobooks every night at bedtime, and I am working at getting better about doing read alouds.

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