Kindergarten planning????

[DebB]

Just wondering what everyone's day looks like with a Kindergartner? What things you use? How you put together your curriculum? What are you favorite things for this age?

Thanks
Debbie

[CJ]

We do use workboxes. http://workboxsystem.com/
My youngest gets so excited every day using them, it cracks me up.
This is what is basically in his boxes:

1. Our daily text (scripture).
2. handwriting
3. a page of Kind. math (one page is front and back)
4. a 60 piece jigsaw puzzle (I have several from the dollar store)
5. A Dot-to-dot page
6. water painting, drawing, coloring, etc.
7. Funstastic Frogs with a page or card
8. a computer game or a simple science experiment
9. Explode the Code, a snack and a "take a 10 minute break after finishing this box" index card
10. His Five in a Row book
11. The corresponding FIAR activity for the day
12. a Bible story

I keep the 1st box and the 9th box the same, but move around the rest because he likes to be "surprised". I throw in others things as the year goes on. The basic academics for us are FIAR, math, handwriting, ETC. I keep it very simple until 3rd grade when I start to beef things up.

ETA: All our kids homeschool 4 days a week.

[Alice]

Last year was our K year. We had a loose routine that most days went like this..

Bible reading and Chapter Book read aloud over breakfast
Play-time for him for about 30 minutes (I found that he did better if he had a little time to play before school.)
Reading/Math/Handwriting- At the MOST 60 minutes. We use Ordinary Parents Guide to Reading for phonics, Beyond the Code and early readers for reading. Singapore Math for math and lots of math games. And Handwriting Without Tears for Handwriting. We never did all that on one day. A typical day might be 30 minutes of reading using OPGTR and an early reader followed by five minutees wiht HWT and then Math. Dh likes Math so sometimes we'd go long if playing a Math game.

We do FIAR in the afternoon typically. Either right after lunch when the 2 yr old is sleeping or sometimes later in the day as teatime, depending on what else we are doing that day.

[Melanie]

We are just getting started with K, but here is what we've been doing so far (we also use workboxes):

1. Bible Memory Verse
2. Explode the Code - currently working through primers
3. Happy Phonics game (or other phonics game)
4. Handwriting With Out Tears
5. Right Start Math
6. FIAR book and activity

I am trying to keep things as simple as possible. I occassionally try to throw in a fun craft or something. I also did the science in a bag exchange, so I will start to add those in too.

I will admit that I'm not 100% sure of my phonics choice. I think I wish I had something a bit more scripted (although we looked at 100 Easy Lessons and I did NOT like that!). Not sure what we will do here.

[Rachael]

I'm planning for my youngest's K year. I pushed way too hard with my older 2 when they were young. Right now we have a 4 day "book" week, with one day devoted to field trips, play dates, or appointments. Here's what I'm planning to do for my K-

-Five in a Row
-Phonics (using parts of the Hooked on Phonics curriculum and parts of Progressive Phonics)
-Math (using Family Math and lots of manipulatives)
-La Clase Divertida for Spanish
- Handwriting without Tears - I don't really like it, but his Occupational Therapist recommends it

He'll be participating in lots of stuff with his older siblings, but we're going to be really low key with him. As it is, he can already read short vowel words and count to 100, and we've done very minimal work with him. His handwriting is horrible, but he loves to write and for me to call out spelling words for him. We have a blend chart on the wall that he runs to to help him spell words.

He and I are both ridiculously excited about him starting K. I'm also sad because he's my last baby! I'm so excited about FIAR, because we only did one book with my older two before we realized we needed to move to Beyond. I really wish I had used FIAR with my older two. I'm so excited about getting to row all those books with my baby! My older two plan on listening in. I think they feel a bit deprived for missing out on FIAR.

[JulieH]

While we haven't officially started yet, this is the plan (loosely)....and most likely not all in one day either.

1. FIAR reading for day-introduce new vocab
2. FIAR activity (paint picture, find country on map, build city w/blocks)
3. Math (Bob Jones K series) haven't gotten my books in yet...maybe 2-3 pgs
4. Explode the Code (primer) 2-3 pgs (although ds looked at the book yesterday and breezed thru 2 pages in less than 5 minutes)
5. Math Bus puzzle or other fun activity
6. Sight Words
7. Sing Days of the Week song w/mom-review calendar
8. Playtime w/sister, snack
9. Go over some Sign Language
10. lapbook pages
11. Practice Dot letters
12. Character/Bible-Right Choices Book


Will be looking back to this thread for other ideas, thanks!

ETA: Forgot to add we will probably do some Reading Made Easy to supplement ETC, and also some computer time.

[MelissaSS]

I was pretty excited to see this thread! I've had planning on the brain lately :) This is our first year homeschooling. The biggest challenge I'm running into right now is that we still nap for 2 hours in the afternoon, and I have most of our mornings planned, so I'm afraid we won't have much "free" time, even with doing what I consider a fairly minimal amount. :unsure:

Wake up/dress/make bed, etc
Breakfast and clean up
Bible time (about 30 minutes)
Play outside (30 minutes)
FIAR book
FIAR activity/lesson (1 hr for both ?)
Snack
Sing, Spell, Read and Write (I've heard this can take about an hour?)
Educational toys or games for thirty minutes while I work on speech with her sister/ Math - we have some ceausinarre rods, and I think I will also be picking up a math workbook, but nothing too advanced
Lunch
Nap
I would really like to do tea time here, but only if my 4 yo starts sleeping less long in the afternoons... If we do tea time, our read will happen then, otherwise it will happen at bedtime.


It seems like I am not doing much compared to others - phonics, FIAR, light math, and some read alouds, but it looks like my day is so busy :eek:

[Heather W]

I use FIAR with math and Reading Made Easy.

[April in PA]

I use FIAR with math and Reading Made Easy.

:yes: Me too!

[MarieD]

This last year my dd and I just went through our daily list (reading, FIAR, math, handwriting, Latin) in what ever order we felt like doing it each day. Sometimes, we sat down together and did it all in about an hour and a half, sometimes we did it in snippets throughout the day, sometimes we did half in the morning and the other half after lunch. The rest of the time it was play, play, play. ;)

We always do our read aloud titles before bedtime, so it isn't technically a part of our school day.

[BethInOK]

We're doing FIAR, 100EZ, Singapore and AWANAs. I think that pretty much covers everything! I'm printing off the handwriting worksheets from donnayoung.com that go with 100EZ. We'll also do BOB books and other easy readers to add to her I Can Read basket. I've got some different math games, and we'll also do some from Family Math.

[Alice R]

FIAR
A lot of outside activities (ballet, homeschool gym, church, choir etc)

I'm very laid back... :roflol:

[Kristina J]

I used workboxes last year with both of my kiddo's and so I am going to stick with that this year too.

1. Bible - read a story from the Children's Bible
2. FIAR - read aloud / activities
3. Math-U-See Alpha
4. HWT
5. Reading Made Easy

Then some fun learning pages thrown into the workboxes mixed with crafts and computer time.

But, now that I see FIAR over tea time, that is a great idea! I might try that out a time or two!

[Shauna in TX]

What we did (What worked, anyway. :crazy: It took some tweaking to find things that worked for us.):

FIAR
Right Start Math A
Phonics - ABeCeDarian and Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading
Handwriting Without Tears
La Clase Divertida
All About Spelling (didn't start this until May of this year)
Lollipop Logic (DD calls it her "fun book")
piano, dance, gymnastics and swimming lessons

[Holly S]

DS will be doing K work this year. He has a late b-day, so technically he's still preK. Here's our plan:

1. Get Ready for the Code series
2. Essential Math A and B from Singapore
3. lots of file folder games, preschool activities in a bag, etc.- I'm planning on using lots of these when the baby gets here!
4. Gymnastics lessons

He'll be doing the following with his big sis:
1. FIAR vol 1-3
2. Apologia Astronomy (2x week)
3. Science activities in a bag
4. Bible study, hymn study, read alouds, nature study, etc. (Charlotte Mason style)

It's much more than DD did for K, but I don't really require him to do any of it...he kind of comes and goes as he pleases for now. I have to log 5-6 hours of school each day for DD, :eek: so I plan quite a bit of activities.

[Kendra AU]

Our K level child this year is doing:

Five In A Row
Math
Phonics
Bible

Because all school topics are covered with FIAR we don't fuss with adding anything in. All our subjects are based on our unit study of the week. We also use the workbox system, so his stuff is laid out in boxes.. We sneak out crafts and other tidbits for him each week too (http://aussiepumpkinpatch.blogspot.com/2009/07/workbox-fun-more-space.html). ;)

Kendra

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

DD will be on a K/1st level this year and we'll be doing:

read FIAR book and do one or more activities
math (haven't decided what yet)
AAS (We'll finish level 1 and continue on to level 2. This is for spelling and phonics.)
Handwriting practice, then move on to copywork
Bible reading and narration/activities to go along with the litergical year
BFSU/Nature Study
Possibly grammar a la Montessori and/or FLL started later in the year (She's very language oriented.)


This will be our first official year. We've done some work before this, but mostly informal. I'll add things in slowly and stop adding if it gets to be too much.

[Stacy in OR]

Sing, Spell, Read and Write (reading, handwriting, language arts)
I used Saxon 1 for math in the past, but this year we switched to Horizons K.
We use FIAR and participate in a Keepers at Home Club (faith-based scout-type program where the girls can earn badges for academics, arts & crafts, Bible memory, homemaking skills, etc.)
That is the "core" of our school, but of course we do lots of other less formal studies like read alouds, field trips, holiday units, rabbit trails, etc.

[Jennifer in TX]

This is what's in my head:

Kindergarten Level
Reading Made Easy - 2 days/week
RightStart Level A - 2 days/week
Prewriting skills or A Reason for Writing
FIAR
Religion (Catholic Mosaic, bible stories, etc)
read alouds
lots of time outside

Marvelous Mondays
nature study
composer study (6/year)
artist study (6/year)
poetry memorization (IEW)

My 2nd graders and Ker will be combined whenever possible.

[ElizabethLinNC]

This last year my dd and I just went through our daily list (reading, FIAR, math, handwriting, Latin) in what ever order we felt like doing it each day. Sometimes, we sat down together and did it all in about an hour and a half, sometimes we did it in snippets throughout the day, sometimes we did half in the morning and the other half after lunch. The rest of the time it was play, play, play. ;)


This is really encouraging to me! :) Maybe we'll do the workboxes later, but I think that the flexible approach will be best for kindergarten for us. I am trying to gather neat stuff to pull out at various times though.

But my dd really wants to PLAY! and I'm inclined to let her given that once this age/time is done she won't have that luxury as much.