Is this too much for K?

[Melenie]

DD will turn 5 in February and we start our K year in April. She was an early reader, loves to listen to stories and we have always done science experiments together (growing crystals, raising butterflies etc.) I would love any input to know if I am attempting to do too much or too little.

 

We plan to do school in the morning and during my 2 year old's nap. Afternoons are left free to do what the kids want.

Monday-Thursday

Reading (10-20min) Easy readers and OPGTR

Penmanship (10-20min) not sure what to use yet

Math (10-20min) Right Start A

Latin (10min) Song School Latin

Monday

History SOTW 1 (plan to do this over 2 years)

 

Tuesday

Science

All practical projects like making rain forest habitat for frogs, planting Spring and fall garden, raising butterflies, silk worms and so on.

 

Wednesday

Spanish - I am not sure what to use yet, but DD's friend is doing Spanish at preschool and dd asked me to teach her. I don't know Spanish myself so play to use a DVD or free online website for her to play with.

 

Thursday

Make up or read-aloud day

Make up work missed or have a read-aloud day

 

Friday

Music, art and projects

Art and music appretiation and any follow up on Science or History projects.

 

 

We will also do Classical Conversations in the Fall and Winter for 24 weeks, that will add weekly memory work. DD does Ballet once a week and I am cosidering a 6 week art class if she is still interested when the time comes.

 

So any thoughts?

[mycalling]

The three languages might be too much, but maybe not for your child. She's just learning English (reading it, writing it, and the mechanics of it), then to add both Spanish and Latin to that might be overkill. Try it. If it's not working, come back to Latin in a few years.

[LisaKinVA]

It would be for me... but that's only because I'm dealing with more than one (ha). When it was just my oldest, we did a lot more than I'm doing with my current Ker (at least formally).

 

All I would say, is just keep to the priorities (reading, writing and math), and don't be afraid to scale back and have fun. Add in "extras" once you've solidified the basics.

 

For example... begin in April with just reading, writing and math (formally), keep doing the other "fun" things, read alouds, etc. Once reading, writing and math becomes routine, add in something else. Build up to your "big plan."

 

Building up the schedule makes it easier to figure out if something isn't working and WHAT that something might be. It's also easier to find the limit for you and your dd (without going through a lot of guilt).

 

Have fun!

[Mama2Three]

My DD will be starting K soon, too -- officially in the fall, but we may start sooner. I haven't BTDT with a hs-ing K yet, but I'll pipe in to say that we've used Handwriting Without Tears with great success, with my two big kids. Also, you may consider easing into your schedule... starting off with a few light days (or weeks) before slowly adding more school time and subjects to your day. Loving to learn is my top priority for K.

Edited December 17, 2008 by Mama2Three

[Melenie]

Thanks everyone, it is great to have a place to come and get input from everyone. I think it is a good idea to start just with the basics and slowly add the rest. We may need to scale back again in the fall when we start Classical conversations.

[Melenie]

My DD will be starting K soon, too -- officially in the fall, but we may start sooner. I haven't BTDT with a hs-ing K yet, but I'll pipe in to say that we've used Handwriting Without Tears with great success, with my two big kids. Also, you may consider easing into your schedule... starting off with a few light days (or weeks) before slowly adding more school time and subjects to your day. Loving to learn is my top priority for K.

 

Thanks, I am leaning towards HWT. I may get the work book and see how it goes.

[Aurelia]

JMO, but I think the multiple foreign languages are a bit much for K, but everything else looks fine. I'm planning to start Latin around 3rd grade so Ariel will have some experience reading and writing English and studying Spanish before adding more.

 

We used HWT for K and it worked well.

[SonshineLearner]

The Latin in Classical Conversations is not overwhelming. Looks like Cycle 1 is filled with 24 weeks of non ending. Hmmm....I hope it's little songs. We haven't done Cycle 1 yet, so I guess we'll see.

I am in the process of having little books read to my son in multiple languages (he's 5) I'm going to try for Spanish, Japanese, French and Russian. Just for the accent...and getting some sentences down. He's really good at languages, and I figure he can build on this knowledge later.

He's five this year and so I can say, that for us, it looks like you have a lot of fun stuff planned. For handwriting, I'm doing Cursive First, It maintains that cursive should be taught first and after researching this, I agree. Memoria Press has a good article about why cursive is best, too. You might check into this:-)

I'd say for the next year or two...plan to have lots of activities and do everything that the 3 of you thinks is fun! (And wait for anything you think isn't making everyone smile.) Just my opinion. Course, I believe in slow and steady:-)

Carrie:-)

[Blessedfamily]

It looks fine to me. If the two languages are too much to get done, you can always delay one.

[Aletheia Academy]

We have similar approach in that we foucs on the 3 R's first and add in other subject areas as we are able based on interest/energy level/time, etc.

 

We have loved SSL, and I think the time commitment you mention is appropriate.

 

I agree with PP that handwriting may not take as long as you think. My ds varies in the time he is able to do that task, but 20 is definitely the upper limit.

 

Two suggestions you might consider from my experience:

 

1. Invest time in daily read alouds. The effort has really payed off here in terms of learning to love reading and exposure to challenging vocabulary and language in general. Plus, ds *really* enjoys it. http://www.amblesideonline.com has fabulous suggestions.

 

2. Instead of beginning a full-blown history curriculum, consider scaling back to something like reading from James Baldwin's Fifty Famous Stories. Based on my own observations and advice from friends who have more experience, young children are not really going to remember many details of history at this point, and most are not developmentally ready to undertake mapwork and timelines with much, if any, independence or understanding. Unless you just really love, love love SOTW and want to begin reading the stories and actually do a lot of the activity work yourself, give yourselves a break.

 

FFS is a collection of engaging 1-3 page stories that introduce kids to well-known characters and events of history in well-written, clear, engaging, understandable language.

 

There is plenty of time to begin a full-blown program.

 

Just my humble opinion! You will start out with what seems best now and make changes as you go along. It's OK to start with the basics and add other subject areas/activities over time.

 

;)

[Haiku]

My kindergartner only does five things, and you are scheduling nine, so yes, it seems like too much for K. You know your child best, of course, but three languages seems very overwhelming.

 

Tara