Kindergarten Planning

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

Next year we are doing a Continents & Cultures focus for Kindergarten, using a curriculum I'm in the midst of putting together.

 

Each week would consist of reading aloud from our encyclopedia / atlas or picture books (daily), an independent reader (3x/wk), a mapping activity (1x/wk), copy work / narration (1x/wk), science extension (2x/wk), & art extension (3x/wk)

 

In addition to this we'll have RightStart Math & read-aloud chapter books. He is reading decently, so we'all be using the aforementioned readers in lieu of a reading curriculum.

 

If I had to guess, I would say the Language Arts portion of our WorldGeo study will take 30min, then another 30min for that day's extension activity. Math takes us 30-45min a day & read-aloud is 30min a day. With breaks we are likely looking at 2.5-3hrs total.

 

Does this sound reasonable?

[wendyroo]

For me and mine that would be too much for K.

 

My current K'er does 15 minutes of phonics/independent reading, 15 minutes of math, 5-10 minutes of handwriting and 20ish minutes of history or science or art.  So, about an hour of somewhat mandatory, sit-down academics each day.

 

He is strongly encouraged to listen to our read aloud (about 30 minutes), play our daily board or card game (about 30 minutes) and participate in any projects or experiments we might be doing in the afternoon, but they are optional.

 

Wendy

 

 

[Tumbatoo]

Sounds fun! But, for us, we'd spend about half the time or less on each subject. Last year DD was did kindy and math took about 15 min a day (even though she did grade 2 math), reading another 15, etc. I would aim for 1-1.5 hrs total for that age.

[rainbowmama]

That sounds like a lot. For kindy last year, we did phonics instruction, handwriting, Rightstart math, and violin. That was it. It took around 1.5 hrs/day.

[Jackie]

Well... I simply look at the time differently.

 

DD read independently and without needing to have anything "assigned", so I just dropped the books into the library bin and either she read them or I decided to read them aloud. I did not count that as school time, since both of us saw it as fun time. That was in addition to the 30 minute family read aloud time in the evening, which also didn't count in our "school time".

 

RightStart is often 10-15 minutes of lesson and then a bunch of time for games. If he's playing the games as fun, I only would see it as the 10-15 minutes of lesson time, not the entire extended time that the game takes. (DD found most of the RS games to be a chore, so I did count them in lesson time.)

 

Reframed that way, you would be doing 30 minutes LA, 30 minutes rotating other, 10-15 minutes math, plus lots of reading and educational games.

[Shoes+Ships+SealingWax]

Well... I simply look at the time differently.

 

DD read independently and without needing to have anything "assigned", so I just dropped the books into the library bin and either she read them or I decided to read them aloud. I did not count that as school time, since both of us saw it as fun time. That was in addition to the 30 minute family read aloud time in the evening, which also didn't count in our "school time".

 

RightStart is often 10-15 minutes of lesson and then a bunch of time for games. If he's playing the games as fun, I only would see it as the 10-15 minutes of lesson time, not the entire extended time that the game takes. (DD found most of the RS games to be a chore, so I did count them in lesson time.)

 

Reframed that way, you would be doing 30 minutes LA, 30 minutes rotating other, 10-15 minutes math, plus lots of reading and educational games.

I don't think my DS is as independent in his work as your daughter. Any reading he does is 1:1 on the couch with me - he won't read to himself.

 

RightStart was taking us 20-30min for shorter lessons, then 30- but I don't think we were ever done in 10-15min.

 

If I don't count Evening read-aloud, school this year has taken us 2hrs (breaks included) for RightStart, LOE (reading / handwriting) & other topics very occasionally thrown in. That amount of time has worked well for him.

Edited January 9, 2017 by Expat_Mama_Shelli

[ReadingMama1214]

I think your time is fine. I also wouldn't count family read alouds as school. But I don't see an issue with giving each subject half an hour. If you use that time great, if not great.

 

DD will go to an immersion language school for K since I am in school still and we can't keep them home next year.

 

I plan to have her read aloud to me daily in English and in Spanish. I also will continue doing LA with her in English since the school doesn't. We will do spelling and copywork. I'll do math if she seems to need it. But the school has an excellent math program.

[2_girls_mommy]

It doesn't sound like too much as long as it works for you all. My first Ker liked our school activities and was advanced in reading and math, so we spent that amount of time. 

 

I was like Jackie in that we did most of her reading separately from school. We spend about an hour every night reading together for bed. She read to me, I read to her.  It just worked for us since that is how she had learned to read, with me, for fun. So there wasn't a curriculum. Sometimes in preK/K age range she wanted some workbook pages so that it felt like school. So I got her store workbooks for practicing writing that reinforced phonics, things similar to Spectrum that she would work through.

 

So for K I made sure she did some reading and some math daily. We did use a math curric. We did some read alouds at night most nights, and we also listened to lots of books on CD in the car. We did lots of fun enrichment activities like you are planning, but I did them like once or twice a week max. Other days were filled with library storytimes, field trips to all kinds of things, park days with friends, etc. Then at some point in the day we would work on her math curric and do our nightly reading. So the art, science, music, activities weren't every day at home. 

 

 

[keirin]

We also did a intro to geography and cultures unit this year for Kindergarten. My typical day is:

 

15 minutes Morning Time (MP Kindergraten Reception for Music, Art, Poetry and Picture Book, Bible, MP Recitation, and Nursery Rhymes)

10-15 minutes Reading (First Start Reading from MP / BOB Books and activity sheet)

15 minutes Math (MEP Reception and now Singapore Earlybird Kindergarten B, CT Kindergarten Thinking Skills, OSMO and Dragonbox Numbers)

5-10 minutes handwriting.

 

Then 2x a week we do the geography/cultures which includes 3-4 picture books a week, the Children Like Me book, a wall map and world map puzzle, and youtube playlists and usually a craft. This takes approx 30 minutes.

 

And then at night we read aloud a chapter book at least 15 minutes before bed.

 

So if you count that we're doing 1 hour 3x a week and then 2x a week we spend 1.5 hours. We pick up another half hour or so on Saturday if we get behind during the week in any of the lessons.

 

So to me it sounds like you're spending a lot of time for a kindergarten student - I know my kids won't sit and do work for more than about 20-25 minutes at a time. Even on the days we do an hour it's in three chunks usually. But my twins are young Kindy students - it might be different if I had 6 year olds.