What is your 5-6 yo doing?

[Philothea]

I am just trying to get a spectrum of what most 5 year olds are doing in their homeschool. Not for competitive purposes.

 

Mine is a little over 5.5. I'd also like to know what they struggle with and common mistakes that they make.

[Haiku]

My son started K at 5. Here is what he does:

 

Listen to 30-45 minutes of literature read-aloud per day

 

Listen in on dd's first-grade history, participating as he chooses (he usually chooses to do a narration and any supplemental activities).

 

1-2 pages of Explode the Code per day

 

5-10 minutes of reading practice per day

 

Science with dd (following TWTM's first grade recommendations)

 

Math with dd (We use RightStart and I have different expectation for each of the kids, but ds is keeping up.)

 

He usually spends around 2 1/2 hours on schoolwork, mainly because he chooses to participate in dd's activities. I would only require of him, however, around an hour to an hour and a half, including our 30-45 minutes of read-aloud.

 

Tara

[swellmomma]

My son is 5.5, we are jsut starting K for real on Monday as he really resisted in the fall. We are doing 1 lesson in HWOT, 1 page from MUS Primer, themed topics will guide our crafts,reading etc(next week is firefighters), and studying a letter a week until he knows all 26 and is ready for phonics/reading lessons.

[Mandy in TN]

My ds turned 6 in Oct. He is very wiggly! Also, he doesn't like to write much. Imagine that- a wiggly 6yo boy with sloppy handwriting.:tongue_smilie:

 

And this may be personality rather than age, because my other boys didn't do this, but instead of letting me tell him something he wants to have dialogue about everything. It makes me crazy.

 

Is that sorta what you wanted?

Mandy

[Mommy22alyns]

Our curriculum is in my siggy. Becca will be 6 in March and is a very proficient reader. We're basically doing 1st grade right now.

 

ETA: For a better breakdown, we do the spelling, handwriting (sometimes NAC, sometimes just copywork in a grammar or spelling lesson), math, and grammar daily. We do science two days a week and history three days a week. Latin lessons are two days a week with daily use/review/songs. And we read daily - I'm working on giving her quiet reading time for fun reading, and there's always a read-aloud time before bed. She does gymnastics (at the gym) 2 days a week and has choir once a week starting at the end of the month.

 

And then there's the constant activity... drawing, a little coloring, playing with her sister in all sorts of pretend games... it's a whirlwind around here!

 

Now as for her struggles...

 

Math is not her forte. Sometimes I think she hasn't actually learned any of it. It's a trial to get her to practice math facts.

 

She sometimes still has to stop and think about which way a lowercase b or d points.

 

Focus in general is a struggle. She usually does grammar while tumbling, jumping, bouncing, galloping... you get the picture.

 

She can be overly sensitive and sometimes bursts into tears if I point out (however kindly) that she hasn't given her best effort.

Edited January 4, 2009 by Mommy22alyns

[coffeegal]

My ds's (6 as of November) biggest problem is a large case of the wiggles so we keep schoolwork short and sweet. We do 1/2 lesson of Saxon 1 (either the drill sheet or worksheet), 2 lessons of Queen's Language Arts for Little Ones Vol. 2, and a page of Phonics Pathways every day. He receives a small snack afterwards as a 'good job'. It helps to keep him focused. Ds also has the option of joining us for SOTW and biology, but rarely does. We usually take around 20-30 minutes for formal schooling. Informally he enjoys reading picture books, searching for worms and ants in the yard, playing math games in the car, artwork, and other fun activities for a kindergardener.

[kalanamak]

I am just trying to get a spectrum of what most 5 year olds are doing in their homeschool. Not for competitive purposes.

 

 

At 5.5 my very wiggly kiddo was done with EB and we were doing Sing 1A very gently. It took us 8 months to do 1A and we are burning through 1B in about 2 months. At 5.5, I don't want a kid to hate math. Kiddo is mathy and he was NOT interested in manipulatives....they slowed him down from doing it in his head. No more than 20 minutes at a time

 

We had finished pre ETC and were doing Plaid Phonics A and ETC 1, plus the short vowels in phonic Pathways. No more than 20 minutes at a time.

 

We were all done with Z-B K handwriting and beginning Z-B 1, and he was using grown up pencils with a grip (he has since moved on to kiddy pencils). 5 good work minutes at a time.

 

We were learning to classify animals via dinosaurs, studying the Ice Age and the concept of "history", listening to "100 Greatest symphony" shorts, or something like that, just leaving finger painting for brush work. Papa started taking him to more "events" and museums during the day (I homeschool in the late afternoon and evenings).

 

Our read aloud was My Father's Dragon. From 3-5 I read 2+ hours per day (and was hoarse for one entire year!), after 5 I"ve cut down to 1/2-1 hour per day because we are doing other things.

 

We were working on making his own bed, putting clothes on face forward, the polite rather than fist grip of a fork, and remembering to take off shoes EVERY time he came in and to not to forget when he was just busting to tell me something.

 

HTH

Edited January 3, 2009 by kalanamak

[LadyAberlin]

My ds is doing what is listed in the siggy. I don't think I listed the read alouds we are doing. I'm reading through the Burgess books and also right now we are also reading Peter Pan. I takes about 2-3 hrs to do all that I ahve planned out. Not everything is everyday.

[Bee]

Oldest dd learned to read,was doing first grade math and Sonlight's Core k program and science.Youngest dd was learning the alphabet,sounds of the letters, and numbers 1-10.She had absolutely no interest in anything academic at age 5.

[Tree House Academy]

My son turned 5 at the end of Septemeber. He is doing really well in school...though getting him to actually sit down and conscent to starting his lessons is a whole 'nother story.

 

We are about mid-way through Singapore Earlybird book B (standards ed) where he has learned number bonds with addition and subtraction. He knows numbers through 100.

 

For LA, we are doing LLATL Blue - he is almost finished with Part II and we are almost halfway through the book. He is reading early readers and doing well. We are also working on ETC book 2 and will have that finished in the next few weeks and will move on to book 3. We do Come Read with Me once a week for fun and ETC online twice a week to shake things up a bit. :)

 

We are doing Singapore EB Science - learning about animals, plants, our bodies, and so on.

 

We do calendar daily as well as handwriting.

[Emmy]

Between vital Matchbox car races and plastic dinosaur expeditions, my recently turned-6yo ds listens to lots of picture books every day, traces 2-3 sentences, completes one page of MUS Primer and one page of ETC (often with help). He also colors as he listens to SOTW and sponges up some FLL from his big brother.

 

He does many of these things in full SpiderMan garb.

 

I love 6. Good times.

 

 

This post made me smile. :) Love it.

[Emmy]

My 3rd son just turned 5 at the beginning of December. I have not considered this school year to be kinder for him because he was only 4 in the fall so his school is a bit loose really. The only thing I really want to do with him is work on phonics and play math games - but he likes to "do school" when the big kids do and he likes to listen in on the big kid stuff so he does more than what I'd do with him if he was my oldest.

 

Typically he does a little phonics, and a page or two of Explode the Code (he is in book 1). Sometimes he reads Bob books or the Nora Gaydos readers to me but certainly not everyday - when we feel like it. I'm not rushing him on reading. He does a couple pages of MUS primer but not everyday - maybe 2-3 times a week. I read to him daily from a variety of books. I have the sonlight preK and K books, as well as a lot of caldecott/FIAR book selections. We have a couple fairy tale books that we read from over and over. He has a handwriting book or sometimes I print handwriting pages for him to trace. I will print ones with our address or his full name, or phrases I want him to read/spell. He also colors daily, cuts out little art projects and has a lot of free art time.

 

He listens in on our history frequently and when the older kids do SOTW activity guide pages I always print a copy for him as well. He listens in on our composer and picture studies.

 

He plays with playmobil and legos a lot and he spends a lot of time playing with various building toys (blocks, duplos, etc).

[Susan in TN]

My just-turned-6yo is working on Phonics Pathways, Singapore Earlybird math, piano, and handwriting - basically learning the Zaner-Bloser style but not using the books. Handwriting is by far her most difficult subject but she's getting better with a soft pencil grip and lots of review of basic letter patterns. She is like her oldest brother - math and reading are fairly easy for her.

[laughing lioness]

My almost 6 yo is done with ETC 3 as of a week ago and on lesson 73 of AlphaPhonics. We do 4-6 ETC pages a day and 1-2 lessons of AlphaPhonics a day.

She memorizes a poem a week ala IEW

She memorized John 1 in English and Latin this fall (though she doesn't have it down perfectly in Latin).

She can do simple addition and subtraction through 5's

She has done the Foundations Cycle 3 memory work through lesson 12.

She is making a "body," doing crafts/drawing, simple grammar, etc at co-op.

She does mazes, colors, etc. daily and has begun writing simple notes.

She listens to SOTW, Lingua Angelica, grammar CD's, Foundations CD's throughout the week.

She listens in and does simple memory work for Latina Christiana.

She watches Prima Latina and has memorized some of the vocab/sayings.

She plays on the computer as often as she is allowed, listens to stories daily, and spends copious amounts of time playing playmobile, polly pockets, barbies, etc. When it's nice out, she's outside as soon as she wakes up (to play with the kitties and to pick flowers :))

 

My big struggle is finding enough age appropriate challenge to keep her busy! We spent a day at a one room schoolhouse and she would like to go everyday! Her older sibs are busy far longer than she is with school and she is very social!

[athena1277]

My dd just turned 6 the other day. She has become a very good reader, esp having only known a few CVC words when we started K in July. We spend about an hour a day one schoolwork. Read-alouds are extra (I keep meaning to do more). We do one lesson in each subject a day, alternating days for science and history. 2 pages of ETC. We are starting R&S Math 1 this week, I'm not sure if math will slow down or not.

 

I know some people take a more laid-back approach to K, but dd is thriving this year. The lessons are just enough for her to absorb the info without being overwhelmed.

[Lovedtodeath]

DD struggled with following directions, holding scissors and pencils correctly, and sounding out instead of guessing at words.

 

At the beginning of the school year she had just turned 6 and we were doing very little school. Sign language on TV with review, 15-20 min of math, one handwritibg page, and 2-3 pages of ETC, reading stories or SL 2 intermediate readers together taking turns. Oh, we were catching bugs and looking up info on them and reading that together too.

 

About twice a week we did only handwriting and math.

 

At 5 years old we only did handwriting and math. (She was already reading.)

Edited January 4, 2009 by Lovedtodeath

[Strawberry Queen]

My dd turned 6 at the end of Nov. She's basically doing 1st grade work. She struggled with some reading concepts and I thought we'd never get it, but then the light turned on and she suddenly got it in September. She was on the easy readers for about 6+ months(1 short sentence a page), but it gave her confidence and now she's progressing quite quickly.

Dd consistently reverses numbers, 6 and 9, and is often asking me what a specific number looks like. She can understand the concept just fine, she just forgets what 8 looks like.:001_smile:

Aside from that dd does well. I don't have to fight her to do schoolwork since I'm already doing it with her older sister and she knows what's expected. She's relieved she doesn't have to do as much as dd#1:D

[chiguirre]

Dd will be 6 in March. We just finished up Calvert K and will be starting LLATL Blue on Monday. We'll probably go through the CVC lessons pretty quickly because dd is doing well with reading and I think we'll finish up Blue by the end of the summer. Dd is currently doing R&S Math 1 and MUS alpha, but when she got stuck with R&S we used Scott Foresmann Exploring Math 1 to review/preview. If we don't hit any more roadblocks, I think we'll finish Math 1 and alpha by the end of summer. She's doing HWOT 1, too.

 

Dd is a full participant in our history, science and read-alouds because I only have two kids hsing and we do everything together. I pick curriculum with her in mind so it's not over her head.

 

BUT, ds was still stuggling with CVC words until he was almost 7 and we only did K math his K year. I thought reading would never click, but he's managed to keep on grade level and can read SL 2 regular readers without a struggle. Math is still hard for him, especially math facts, but I think it's just a question of maturity.

[DarcyM]

I always love to read those posts with 5 yos doing pages and pages of phonics and math. Tee hee.

 

My 5 yo, admittedly, isn't a typical 5 yo.

 

He can now name 5 letters of 26. He cannot identify any numbers yet, although he can count to 20 or 30 most times. He also understands a 1-to-1 correlation, and more and less.

 

He likes to color - and colors on the maps and history sheets (somewhat randomly, but occupied and focused in his seat) his big brothers do.

 

He mostly spends the day playing legos and wearing costumes. He is learning to be self-sufficient in the bathroom and getting his own drinks and snacks. We are still conquering life skills: getting dressing, brushing teeth, washing hands, etc.

 

We've done all the read alouds from b4FIAR, FIAR and many from the popular reading lists like Simply Charlotte Mason, Ambleside Online, Sonlight, etc.

 

He likes the HWT shapes and does a pretty good job of mimicking the shapes he sees to make letters, faces, shapes, etc.

 

He does NO pencil work, writing, or workbooks, etc. he cannot write any letters or his name or numbers. Although, he can now make most of his shapes (recognizible but not perfect): circle, cross, square, triangle.

 

he can also color in the lines much more effectively than he did at this time a year ago. While it's not perfect, it's definitely more intense inside the shape than out. he does a page or 2 from HWT preK. I make several copies of each page so he can do them over and over and over.

 

He can cut strips, but still struggles with shapes. He can hold a crayon correctly, but will go back to a fist if you're not watching carefully.

 

So there ya' have it.

 

No tales of long division and Shakespeare here...

 

But he has a sweet, sweet heart and is such a good boy.

[Tess in the Burbs]

she is doing the following(but has a big brother so wouldn't have some of the subjects if not for him)

 

HWOT 1st grade(1 page)

Horizons 1st grade(1 lesson)

ETC(2 pages)

OPG(1-2 lessons), daily reading for 15 minutes

Grammar book(1 lesson)

Earth Science(2 days/week)

World History(sonlight-4 day schedule)

Latin(1 lesson/week...so a little each day)

piano-she plays nonstop daily

PE(we have a weekly PE group that does fitness and games), starting basketball next week

 

my son was 6 a week ago...so here's his....

 

HWOT 2nd grade(1 page)

Horizons 2nd grade(1 lesson)

ETC(2 pages)

daily reading for 30 minutes(half assigned, half his choice)

Earth Science(2 days/week)

World History(sonlight-4 day schedule)

Latin(1 lesson/week...so a little each day)

piano-a new song each week. his sister won't ever leave the piano so he rarely gets to pracice

PE(we have a weekly PE group that does fitness and games), starting basketball next week

[Jen in PA]

DD turned 5 in July. On a typical school day she does half a lesson in ETC 6 (4 pages), about half an hour of math from SM 1B (sometimes that's 2 lessons, sometimes it's half a lesson, totally depending on how she feels about the topic), copies a sentence from whatever our current read-aloud is (currently The Wonderful O by Thurber), and practices Spanish vocabulary for a few minutes. Then she either reads with me on our current history or science topic, or does hands-on experiments and crafts on those topics. She reads aloud to me most days for 15 or 20 minutes, and is currently working on A.A. Milne's stories and poems. She takes science, ballet, and tap classes outside of the house as well, and swims weekly.

 

Art and music are woven into our recreational time -- I don't think she considers them to be part of school at all. She spends a lot of time working on art projects, dancing around the house, and generally being in motion. Even while she is working on math or phonics, she is constantly moving......

[learning2gether]

My dd will be 6 in March also. Her school days look like this:

 

Click N Kids lesson 3 X per week

1 page from MEP Yr 1

1 -2 pages from ETC

Animal Study/Lapbook/Notebook for Science

listens and sometimes participates with the older girls in History

scripture memory with the older girls

 

Her schoolwork takes about 1.5 - 2 hours a day.

 

The rest of her time is spent building with legos, playing barbies, coloring & etc.

[Renee in NC]

My 6yo (in October) is much like yours. I haven't done much formal schoolwork at all with him because he hasn't seemed ready. However, when we get back to NC I will be doing MUS Primer and the SWR phonograms with him. He can make letters with the HWOT blocks (and trucks and boats too!)

 

OTOH, my 4yo dd is mastering the phonograms and finishing up MCP MAth K before moving onto Singapore 1A.

 

All dc are different!

[Beth in SW WA]

My dd 5.5 attends a classical school 4 mornings/wk for K. She does SWR, math games, hands-on math, Cursive First, Latin prayers, tons of memory work/geography songs/chants. They do poetry memorization weekly. She reads to her classmates, which she loves.

 

We do Singapore Early Bird, Draw Right Now & Bible stories at home, as well as lots of reading, reading and more reading. She and dd 4 love Starfall.com. Who wouldn't? :)

 

She listens to audio books on our Ipod every night at bedtime: Beatrix Potter, Pooh, Story Nory, Lit2Go, Fairy Tales, Bible stories, etc. Her favorite story is read by Jim Weiss, The Elves & The Shoemaker.

Edited January 5, 2009 by Beth in SW WA
more info

[...................]

Last year my son was in K at 5-6 and this is what he did:

 

Classic Curriculum Workbook from Mott Writing Series 1 bk 1

Math Series 1 bk 1

 

Adventures in Phonics A, followed by Phonics Pathways and ETC

 

Horizons Math- didn't finish the whole K program - about 2/3 through

 

McGuffey Primer, then into Pathway Reader First Grade Reader Book 1 and 2

 

We also had the usual pattern blocks, tangrams, and other hands on learning materials.

 

Struggled with - too many worksheets, different expectations every day, (this year he has the same checklist with the same number of pages, and same expectations every day and he is thrilled) didn't like boring K/first grade readers (wanted real books), reversing tons and tons of numbers and letters.

 

Hope that helps. Also, my guy is more of an independent learner- he likes hands on stuff for fun, but not lots of teaching and drill WITH mom...so we keep that to a minimum and rely more on worksheets now for the bulk of his practice and drill.

[FriedClams]

DS turned 6 in October...

 

Horizons math 1st grade - 1 lesson per day, now at the half-way point, drill either addition or subtraction flashcards

Click-n-Kids - finishing up - in the 80s of 100, just making him finish it so I can transfer the membership to a friend

FLL - 1-2 lessons per day, around 3x a week

WWE - 1-2 "days" 3-4 times a week

Rod and Staff bible 2 - read and do a small amount of the non-writing questions

Handwriting - CLE 1 or 2 pages a day, depending on the writing with WWE

piano- daily practice and 1 theory lesson per week -usually a page a day to complete the lesson

Spanish - La Clase Divertida - watch dvd a few times a week until they get it)

SOTW - listen once or twice a week, color, narrate

 

All told, it's less than an hour of seat work per day. We also read a lot - a family read aloud, bible time, they read during daily quiet time, etc. Mostly we play legos, XBox Star Wars legos, play outside, play with the dog, play Good King Wenceslas on the piano and get in trouble (the King is on vacation --- I've heard too much from him lately), ride bikes, play more, build things, have a few chores, oh, and play.

[RootAnn]

My 5.5 yr old is a "social sue" type who loves to write & draw. She is the type of kid who likes coloring pages, filling out workbooks, writing (copying or scribbles), and being read to constantly -- usually while doing one of the first three things.

 

She burnt out on 100EL, so we stopped that and just say the phonogram names (a la SWR) when we write (copy or from dictation like for thank you notes) in cursive.

 

She goes through math workbooks at the pace of 2-4 pages per day, but still can't figure out that 1-3 means "thirteen" or that "2-1" doesn't come after "eleven." So, we've started doing dot-to-dot pages that she can color after she's finished them.

 

She memorizes poems because she likes to - and frequently knows her sister's poems just as well as her own.

 

The best part of each day is when she gets to do an art craft, have "tea" with the family, do "dress-up class" (she's usually a princess), participate in "cooking class" or just sit and color and draw for awhile while listening to me read some pony/princess book aloud.

 

She tags along in science & history with her sister and has for the past year and a half. She struggles with her temper, her vocal volume when agitated ("screetch" or "squeal"), and frustration with not doing something perfectly. She insists on wearing a "pretty" dress every single day and still takes a nap a couple times a week when she is tired during the day. She's a drama queen that cuddles wonderfully on the couch anytime you want to read her a book - even if it is a history book from the library.

[mom31257]

My ds is 5 and will be 6 in May. We've been doing "school" since he was 2. I started homeschooling his sister when she was in 3rd grade. He kept asking to do school too, so we started then.

 

He is in Kindergarten this year. We do Mystery of History together. We do this along with a friend who homeschools, and we get together for special events. We've watched movies together, field trips, special food and craft days, and even our own Olympics. This has been the most fun part of our schooling this year, but the book part of it is really above his head. It's been good exposure for him, though. I still am trying to study some of the social studies stuff he would get in regular Kindergarten.

 

We use Positive Action for Christ Bible Curriculum. It's designed for school, but we've been able to make it work. He enjoys it and usually wants that first.

 

He does Horizons Phonics combined with other readers (Bob Books, A Beka, library). We've done 2 lessons a week with lots of other reading, but we're stepping it up to 4 this semester. He's reading well, and trying more and more to read things out and about.

 

I've used Horizons Math this year because it was given to me. He did an easy Kindergarten program last year, so we did Horizons K program the first semester (2 lessons a day), and I'll be doing the 1st grade program this semester the same way. I don't require him to do something twice that appears on both lessons that day.

 

For science, I've done some unit studies, along with some first grade Alpha Omega lifepacs that I was given.

 

Handwriting has been the most difficult thing for him. The Horizons had tons of it in the earlier lessons (some of why we did fewer each week), and I didn't make him do it all. I found skill development books by Mead at Wal-mart that he likes. One is stencil drawing. He never liked to draw ANYTHING before this book. I think he likes this because a stencil makes things look like they are supposed to. The other book by Mead is a cutting skills book. Monday he'll be starting two handwriting books by the same company. One is Capital Letter Stories and the other is lowercase Letter Stories.

 

The time frame varies but, I would say that his school work takes about 1.5 to 2 hours a day.

[Osaubi]

DS turned 6 in July.....Here is his schedule

 

ETC book 3 (2 pages daily)

R.E.A.L. science (2 days a week)

TOG Y1/SOTW V1 at DS rqst to do history everyday

RS level B (4 days a week)

Living Math.net (1 day a week)

HWOT 1 letter per day (5 days a week)

FLL1 (1 lesson per day)

Mazes/Word Search/Puzzle (2 times a week)

Read Alouds by me every day

Harmony Fine Arts (2 times a week sometimes more)

Homeschool PE 2 times a week

Book club (for young kids)

 

While it looks like a lot, my wiggly DS doesn't do any handwriting except for HWOT and the puzzles/mazes. He has struggled in handwriting, so I don't push it. He also is not big on crafts, but will color some.

 

Struggles:reversing b and d, handwriting, thinking he can't read, any sort of crafts esp involving glue or scissors, and attitude about school

 

Even though my dh thinks I am crazy, I let him pick out what he wants to do in school. We go over his schedule twice a year to see if he wants to change something or do something different. He has a list of electives and core subjects. He knows I will not budge on the core subjects, but I do allow him to complain about a subject(usually math and phonics) only during these times. Once I started allowing him to pick and choose he has really had a change of attitude in school.

 

I also have started making him a checklist for school everyday, and if he doesn't get an attitude he gets to pick the order of subjects for the day.

 

The time we spend on school varies(depending on how long he stares at his HWOT page) but I would estimate 1.5 to 2hrs per day.

 

HTH

Edited January 4, 2009 by Osaubi

[Cornerstone Classical]

My dd who just turned 6 3 wks ago, is doing:

 

*We're implementing a LCC curriculum*

 

Bible-Leading Little Ones to God

 

Penmanship-A Reason For Handwriting K

 

Math-We are on around lesson 45 in Saxon 1, but will suppl. w/Singapore Early Bird

 

Reading/Phonics-OPGTR (just finished CVC words, but not going ahead until fluency gets better) ETC will begin book 2 tomorrow, Bob Books

 

Literature-LCC line up-

Volland Series Mother Goose

Nursery Stories

Volland Series Aesop For Children

 

 

History-First half of CHOW

 

Science-Nature Study/ Abeka Science Reader 1

 

Health-Abeka Health Saftey and Manners 1

[Tonia]

Here is what my dd is doing (she's a young 5) -

 

1. Reading - reads Little Bear books on her own, loves to listen to me read longer books - we've recently branched out into chapter books.

 

2. Handwriting - I think she's about average for her age - still a few letters that give her some problems and she tends to reverse a few of them.

 

3. Math - math is her favorite thing (behind science) - she can add numbers to ten mentally and just seems to have an intuitive sense for numbers.

 

4. Fun stuff - science projects at least once a week, French, lots of read alouds (using MFW K and our own geography/culture study) and hands-on projects . . . she loves art projects.

 

Hope that's the kind of info you're looking for . . . :001_smile:

[FO4UR]

I have spent the first part of the year kinda trying stuff and switching.:001_huh:

 

I have started with SWR and now, after reading the thread about Webster's Syllabary, I am shelving SWR for a time and focusing on Websters (thank you OhElizabeth :D) until he is reading with some fluency. Ds5 (will be 6 this month) is reading 3 letter words, and he has many of the phonograms from SWR memorized. He did not write a THING (not even to draw a stick man) until he was over 5yo, and now he CAN write legible cursive. However, if he is spelling and writing his writing is quite sloppy. When he copies, his handwriting is fairly neat. He has picked up printing on his own, even though I am teaching cursive. He prints if he is copying print.

 

He just started Singapore 1A last week. We tried Saxon K, spent a long time just keeping math informal, tried Horizons K in the fall.........and I really like Singapore. We have Miquon for supplement too. Oh - ds5 is counting, writing numerals and number names, simple addition and simple subtraction.

 

He plays outside a lot and we read aloud tons! We are starting our 1st year of Ancients now, taking a good 6 weeks to study Creation/early history before we dive in.

[Guest 4boys]

My Toby is almost 5 (will be in February) and right now is only doing:

 

Horizons math K (just book 1, about 3 pages a week)

Spectrum phonics K (2-3 pages a week, it's too easy for him so I have the K HWT book waiting as well as ETC 1)

Bob Books, CLP K phonics readers & Starfall for reading

 

He also participates with Bailey in memorizing verses, science and read-alouds. We also do some singing, drawing, crafts and storytime.

 

Bailey is 6 (turning 7 in a few weeks) and I have him doing Gr. 1 stuff:

 

HWT My Printing Book

ETC 3

Horizons math 1 (just finishing up book 1 right now)

Pathway readers, McGuffey primer, Bob Books, I Can Read books for reading.

We are also going to be starting Studying God's Word B and a beginning map skills book this week. I also want to start Music for Little Mozarts 1 and see how he does with that. Plus, he does all the above-mentioned activities like drawing and singing with Toby.

 

So those are two different ends of the 5-6 year spectrum.

[dragons in the flower bed]

I am just trying to get a spectrum of what most 5 year olds are doing in their homeschool. Not for competitive purposes.

 

Mine is a little over 5.5. I'd also like to know what they struggle with and common mistakes that they make.

 

My son Bear will be six in three weeks. He struggles with feelings of inadequacy, mostly.

 

All of his spelling is invented, but he likes to write. He confuses br and f sounds, and can't sort out vowels at all, except oo and consonant-a-consonant-e patterns.

 

He doesn't think he draws well enough even though his drawings are amazing for his age. He struggles with copying. Visually, it's hard for him.

 

He has a hard time with reversals. He mixes up 14 and 41.

 

Often he breaks into mirror writing.

 

Program-wise, he's been using Click n Kids' phonics program for months now. He hated it at first, but now he does it willingly and is sounding out text in his environment more or less constantly. (As I type, I hear him sounding out the title to sheet music that caught his eye when he walked past the keyboard.)

 

He writes constantly for fun, so I only make him do handwriting once a week. He is copying his memory work as well. When he copies his memory work, we talk about the punctuation we find in it.

 

He does math online, too. He's using Time4Learning's first grade units after having finished the Singapore Earlybird series. He's a *very* auditory learner and likes to click on the explanations five or six times to repeatedly hear them. The scope is here. It's mostly review for him, but I'm afraid he'll hit a developmental mountain in the road if I let him go up to the second grade work. His biggest challenge is learning to count money and make change, but he's pretty motivated to figure that stuff out. Fractions bewilder him. What he doesn't get is that one third, for example, is always the same amount, even though it's always a different amount. That's just more abstract than he can handle.

 

Hm, what else?

 

He listens to long chapter books and enjoys fairy tales still too.

 

He's learning piano, but even after a few months he is still working mainly on reliably locating C and making his fingers do what he wants them to do.

 

He likes to read science books with me, like the First Encyclopedias, and he often reenacts what he learns using his entire body. For example, when we read about the rotation of the Earth, he spun around. This is spontaneous, not dictated by me.

 

It's a nice age, I think.

Edited January 4, 2009 by dragons in the flower bed
apostrophes, as usual

[LoveBaby]

When my DS was 5 (almost 6) at the beginning of what would be his K year in P.S. we started the MFW K program. He did brilliantly and picked things up very quickly. He did really well on the handwriting, which I had actually tried to introduce earlier and it backfired, so waiting on that was a blessing for both of us. He struggled for a bit w/ confusing b and d (still does occassionally at 7), transposes # (14,41) sometimes and handwriting is still the most frustrating for him. Mostly because it takes time to do well and he'd much rather be building intricate stuff with his legos than handwriting! LOL

 

We don't start formal grammar until 2nd grade with PLL. We also didn't start a formal math program (MFW K has math built-in).

 

We don't push heavy formal academics any earlier in our house. Prior to starting K my children spend a lot of time listening to read-alouds, going to trips to the library, making mudpies and generally just being kids. We sing the ABC's, count to 10, talk about how many pieces of silverware at the dinner table etc. We don't do workbooks (except Kumon cut&paste, mazes etc.)

[Gwenny]

Wow! After reading all that I start to wonder if I do enough. Actually, my dd 5.5 hates the little "formal" work we do.

 

We do:

HWOT: 1 page/day but we just finished the book and do 1 sentence or half the letters/day. This is what she hates most. Her writing is great but she doesn't believe me! Sends her into a fit every time.

 

Phonics: Just reading 2-3 books/day. 1 or 2 of her choice and 1 of mine, followed by practicing trouble sound or a phonics game. Sometimes dislikes this as well, even though she is reading well (Amelia Bedelia level books).

 

1 Science experiment/week-she loves this

 

1 Art day/week (messy art that I would otherwise put off.) She also loves this.

 

The rest is completely informal and she doesn't think of it as school. We do:

 

-signing time videos from library

 

-picture books about an artist (1 artist/month)

 

-science books-whatever strikes her fancy in the library

 

-living math books and math games- no formal math program or written math

 

-lots or read alouds- picture books and chapter books

 

Looks like a lot more now that I have typed it!

 

Skill wise, she is doing well. Counts to 100 by 2's, 5's, 10's. Enjoys adding things and counting them. Reading and writing well even if she doesn't agree.

 

Gwenny

[Beth in SW WA]

 

He does math online, too. He's using Time4Learning's first grade units after having finished the Singapore Earlybird series.

 

Hi Rose,

 

Did he take a placement test to see where to start? Do you pay the $20/mo and do you feel that is a good value?

 

My dd5 loves Starfall. I might do the 14-day trial of Time4Learning.

 

I'd love to hear what you think, Rose. :)

 

Thanks!!

[Once]

I'm going to post mine for my just 6 year old son. I have not read all of the responses but I'm sure it will be varied. 5-6 years can be extremely variable, depending on the birth order and unique personalities. My ds is second in birth order and a bit of an old soul. There are no LD or attention issues. He is in every way the opposite of my dd and has watched and learned as I have taught and re-taught his older sister.

 

Ds is doing lesson 10 in MUS Beta.

Lesson 6 in English for the Thoughtful Child (only because I have it here for free, FLL Level 1 is my next step)

Lesson 17 in Level 1 in AAS

All letters in cursive lowercase (not uppercase letters)

HOD Beyond - 2/3 of the way through

Noeo Chemistry level 1 - 1/2 way through

He listens to all of our read a-louds. But he is not reading well on his own yet.

He is half way through his Origami Calendar from Christmas 08.

Lesson 5 in Prima Latin (ugg, I have to get back to that one!)

 

What is he doing wrong....he will occassionally get numbers backwards when writing them...he trys to "read" by guessing the words not by using the phonics he knows. He refuses to practice piano so he has a year off for now. He keeps the messiest desk in the house. His bedroom is a sty as well. :tongue_smilie:

 

If you had asked me three years ago what dd was doing, the answer would have been *very* different. She is coming along and is now not behind. But it took time for her to be ready and that was normal for her. Maybe your son is the same way. Kids are all different.

Edited January 5, 2009 by Once

[Melmc]

My 5/kinder turns 6 on the 13th. Here's what we do:

 

Saxon Math 1 - we're up to lesson 74 - four times a week

Singapore Math Early Bird - I do this with her once a week. Sometimes twice depending on our schedule. She likes it so much we've almost finished the last book/2B so I need to see what I'll use to supplement after this.

Sound Beginnings - she's learning the various "er" phonograms and reading the Primary Readers

ZB K writing book - 1 or 2 pages a day - she loves to practice her letters and numbers. As soon as she finishes the book, we'll start doing work with Drew's Living Memory.

Poetry memorization using IEW program

Little Lambs Art Book - 1 page a day

Child-sized Masterpieces for art appreciation - 1/2 times a week. I use the MODG syllabus to get ideas for activities. It's really low key and fun, but she's learning the paintings and asks to do this so it's working!

Religion - four times a week (curriculum varies each day read about saint, Catholic mosaic storybook, a page out of God's love story, prayer memorization)

Story time/Read Alouds from FIAR, the library, etc.

Piano

K workbook - this could be considered busywork, but she really enjoys it and it makes her feel like a big kid plus gives her something to do if I need to help the other two before coming back to her. Sometime she calls it her homework or we'll bring it along if we have an appt. some where. She does two pages a day, whatever pages she wants to do. It has everything from coloring to math.

Tag along for History (which includes our Geography), Science and Latin

[Jumping In Puddles]

My 5yo is hard to challenge because he likes to do things he already knows. :glare: So, his sister's preschool work, he loves! It is hard for him to control himself not to give answers when I'm asking his sister. I tell him "I know you know this, please let Lauren answer!" and he still blurts her answers. It is extremely frustrating (any advice is welcome!) for his sister and me.

 

So new stuff, I do briefly and I try to make it fun.

 

He hates phonics but (I think) he's doing pretty well. He just started ABeCeDarian level B but his reading is not totally fluent with BOB books but is decent.

 

Handwriting, no problems. Actually, he doesn't ask for new stuff frequently but for some reason this week he has asked me several times to learn script. Maybe we'll start that!

 

He loves being read to, so read alouds are frequent here. He loves nursery rhymes and he loves to memorize them. He loves word play and tongue twisters and jokes.

 

Math: We have given math a little break here. He is, I'm thinking, right where a kindergartner should be. He can count to about 40, he can count by tens to 100, he knows odd/even numbers, skip count by two's to 10 (odd/even). He can add numbers up to 10.

 

Science: He loves it. No complaints, No problems.

 

We do a little something each day and some days it's very brief. We probably spend less than a half hour a day on school. For example, I may have him write a sentence in his journal and color for handwriting. We may go over the days of the week, before/after stuff for math for a few minutes. Science about 1X per week and I like him to read a little bit for me each day.

 

Some days, we spend a little more time with phonics or math.

[Mommy22alyns]

My 5yo is hard to challenge because he likes to do things he already knows. :glare: So, his sister's preschool work, he loves! It is hard for him to control himself not to give answers when I'm asking his sister. I tell him "I know you know this, please let Lauren answer!" and he still blurts her answers. It is extremely frustrating (any advice is welcome!) for his sister and me.

.

 

 

Becca does the exact same thing! I've gone so far as to take pages out of Sylvia's workbooks and give them to Becca, but she's either oblivious or completely offended. :glare:

[dragons in the flower bed]

Did he take a placement test to see where to start? Do you pay the $20/mo and do you feel that is a good value?

 

 

I didn't give the placement test. We've used T4L before. Between my personal knowledge of it and the scope & sequence available on the website, I was able to place him where I thought he should go.

 

It's not the best value around, but for our situation, it's a good deal.

 

My ex-husband pays the $20/mo. He has issues with putting out chunks of money up front, but subscriptions he can do. He likes that he can log in and see what the kids are doing, too.

 

There's a discount for the second child; our 8yo uses T4L too.

 

Because Bear's so auditory, it came down to either T4L or RightStart. I was concerned about spending so much money on a program he'd probably breeze through in six months. I was also concerned with how teacher intensive RightStart can be, and how much his little sibling would want to get into the manipulatives, and how likely Bear was to get frustrated by manipulatives, too.

 

Also, with a T4L subscription, we get fun animated lessons in science and social studies topics. They're better than BrainPop's, and we had been paying for that before we rejoined T4L.

 

So all in all, I can't say it'd be a good value for you, but it is a good solution for us.

[Beth in SW WA]

Thanks Rose!

[Homemama2]

Well, I have an almost 5 yr old (in Feb) and a six yr.old (7 in may).

For my youngest in pk:

He practices w/ letters each day. Just started blending letters together a little bit right before Christmas break, so we'll see if he remembers anything when we go back.

He's doing the Rod and Staff books C, D (finished), E, and F (still working on these). He can write his name but I'm not going to teach him the rest of the letters for a little while.

He has picked up a TON of math just from sitting in the room with his brother...so I might start him with either MUS primer or Rightstart soon (I have both)

 

DS6-(is in first grade) but last year for K he did:

MUS primer, then started RS level B...but most of the math I just taught him myself (K math isn't too hard to teach :001_smile:)

Phonic Pathways and ETC 1, 2, and 3 (although over the summer I didn't keep up with reading like I should have and he had to do alot of this over...I won't make that mistake again!!)

Handwriting

Science and History- I just made up my own little unit study type things and that was fun for K.

 

And we do TONS of readalouds.

 

Next year when my youngest is in K, we will be using FIAR and GTG, which I am excited about.

 

Kids are so different at this age. But they'll only be sweet lil' Ker's once, so enjoy! It's one of my favorite ages.

[4kidsandcounting]

This is the mantra I repeat to myself everyday:

 

READING, WRITING, ARITHMETIC, READING, WRITING, ARITHMETIC....

 

you get the picture.

 

My 5.5 year old boy does a page or two from MUS alpha, copies a few sentences, reads a couple bob books to me and does SWR (which we love) about 3 days a week. He is loving it! However, my 8 yr old was struggling sitting still and not throwing fits at this age. So, it will depend on your little ones personality:).

 

JEN

[TracyR]

Well it depends on my children as to what common mistakes you might see in a kindergardener.

I'll start with my current ker.

She is 5 and a half. We are using K12 and it seems to be working really well for her at the moment.

We spend less time on the subjects then what I'm supposed to do with them because well I have two other ones to teach too. But we spend usually around a half hour per subject sometimes ;>)

We work on reading , handwriting, math , history, science , music and art . With history and science a couple times a week.

Her main issue right now is mixing up lower case b and d. No matter what I've tried with her she just can't seem to get it. So I have to remind her which letter it is before she sounds out the word. I know she'll eventually get it. Other then that she isn't having to much of a problem with anything else.

 

My 2nd daughter for K I homeschooled her on my own and we worked on reading, handwriting and math. I used Christian liberty Hearts and Hands book , 100 Ez lessons and used Saxon math with her. Those combos seemed to work really well for her. By the time she was 4.5 she was reading at a 2nd grade level. Reading is her thing. Her common issues too were mixing up lower case b and d. and math only became an issue until I switched to a cyberschool and began using Calvert.

 

My oldest I homeschooled on my own first and we just worked on reading , writing and math. She started 100 Ez lessons at the age of 4 because she was more then ready for it. We somehow hit a wall at lesson 25 and after that it went all down hill. She just did not want to read even though she did perfectly fine while I was teaching her. Year after year I brought out the book and she would just cry. I tried other programs to only start and hit a wall and then she would just flat out refuse. It wasn't until I found 100 EZ lessons at our library that reading finally clicked for her. But it really wasn't until last year at the age of 9 that she actually began to progress better with her reading. We had her eyes checked by two different eye doctors and other then a slight weak muscle in her one eye her eye sight was perfect so that wasn't the issue. Now math , she understands math better then I do. All I have to do is show her once and she's got it.

So her common issues really was reading , period. And also handwriting. She did and still has some of the worst handwriting I've ever seen from a girl. No matter what I've used her handwriting is just consistantly , ugh. What I think it is she really just doesn't want to take the time. She is my one that is always in a hurry to get things done because she wants to go and play.

[sagira]

We do short lessons, 15-20 min. each.

 

Mon-Thu:

 

Calendar

Math

Poetry

Penmanship

 

Break

 

Phonics

Reading

Literature (read-alouds)

 

Wednesdays: Piano before Calendar

 

Fridays:

 

Calendar

Spanish or Papiamento read-aloud

Geography (20 min)

 

Break

 

Natural Science (20-30 min)

Spanish on the computer

 

Sundays: Art class

Edited January 7, 2009 by sagira

[ElizabethB]

This is the mantra I repeat to myself everyday:

 

READING, WRITING, ARITHMETIC, READING, WRITING, ARITHMETIC....

 

 

:iagree:

 

I have remediated so many students with poor reading, I wanted to make sure I made time for phonics everyday, and did it as the first thing after Bible reading.

 

For K (she was 5), we did phonics with Webster's Speller, 10 minutes a day, it went slow at first, but when she got the syllables down, her reading and spelling really took off. We did 1 to 3 pages of math a day with MUS Primer, then a bit of Alpha. We did 2nd grade science, A Beka. The first half of the year I read it to her, after her reading took off the 2nd half of the year, she read half and I read half. Some days we didn't do science. We did art projects from time to time.

 

She is very sensitive and a perfectionist, but hates empty praise, that's a hard line to walk! It also makes handwriting practice difficult, she wants to write much better than she has the physical ability to write.

 

She occasionally reversed letters, but we used all uppercase in K, that prevents most reversals. The transition to lowercase b and d is easier if they've learned uppercase B and D first. She often (still) reverses 2s, 5s, 6s, 7s, and 9s. HWT helps there, we're doing it more often now to help fix that.

 

This year, we're doing a bit more. We added Spanish just this week, and we go a bit longer this year than last, but still usually pretty short. I only work with her when she's focused, we get a lot done in a short amount of time. (After tutoring for years, I have this down to a science for phonics--still working on it with math and other subjects.)

 

Our main problem is math facts. She takes a while to learn them, and forgets them easily. We got a Flashmaster recently after seeing several people her recommend them, and it has helped a lot. We also switched to Singapore math, it is a better fit for her, she's good at math puzzles and especially likes the challenging problems in the Intensive Practice workbooks, it's made math a lot more fun for her.

 

She also likes Starfall and Read, Write, and Type. She doesn't realize that Read, Write, and Type is educational, she requests permission to "play" it like she would for a normal video game. (Unlike normal games, the answer is almost always "yes!")

 

We do non-chemistry science and history from books, mainly library books. We have a timeline that we'll start once my laminator arrives.

[momsquared]

Between vital Matchbox car races and plastic dinosaur expeditions, my recently turned-6yo ds listens to lots of picture books every day, traces 2-3 sentences, completes one page of MUS Primer and one page of ETC (often with help). He also colors as he listens to SOTW and sponges up some FLL from his big brother.

 

He does many of these things in full SpiderMan garb.

 

I love 6. Good times.

 

The image of that is great and totally like my DD. One day she might be princess schooling, the next day it might be The Incredibles. She often will wear her Halloween masks around when we are running errands. Definitely an eccentric child.