So since my last Weekly Wrap Up post, we have been randomly sort of doing lots of preschool packs and trying to add in some phonics and a Catholic Catechism curriculum that I couldn’t like no matter how many times I tried to pick it back up. Add that to a February where I was effectively out of commission for 3 weeks with a hideous cold and we just did a lot of random, too easy workbooks.
Something needed to change. Lots of things did, actually. Our original (revised) plan was destined for the junk heap :). First, I decided that we needed to start the Kindergarten work. Yes, she’s only 4 yrs & 3 months. BUT. She’s so ready. She counts well and can do math in her head better than I. She knows most letter sounds but needs practical application — an isolated letter review was NOT working and she really wanted to do read. Our catechism program sucked and neither of us liked it.
I also had the return of fertility after nursing amenorrhea. Given my fertility, another baby will probably be coming in the next 12-18 mos. That being said, we also decided that we need to school year round because the 3rd month of pregnancy & 2 months after, I’m useless. There is our “summer break.”
We also finally came up with a time of day that works for us. We do the easy stuff while Itty Bitty is awake and the harder stuff while she’s asleep.
Here are the curriculum changes we made:
- Ditched the catechism curriculum & listed it on my Catholic Curriculum Swap Yahoo! Group.
- Decided to do a mix of Raising Rock Stars Preschool & Kindergarten since she loves it and it would be a good mix of harder & easier stuff so she isn’t discouraged.
- Gave up I Can Find Letter Sounds and I Can Find Numbers & Shapes — glorified (expensive!) coloring books.
- Made peace with giving up Little Saints: A Catholic Preschool Program — it is way too young for her. Maybe Itty bitty in the fall. We shall see.
- Stopped trying Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
and The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading
, Little Stories for Little Folks (for now), and You Can Read. Sight words & incremental phonics was useless for her.
- After seeing a review for Reading for All Learners Little Books from TOS Crew reviewers, I bought the red reader set. Absolutely perfect for our needs!
- I bought Road Trip USA and accompanying books. Since our road trip to FL winter & the map puzzle she got for Christmas, I opted for US geography before world geography.
- I also purchased World’s Greatest Composers & downloaded World’s Greatest Artists.
- We got First Language Lessons, too, and she seems to like that, too.
- I also gave up on Montessori for the most part. The hands on stuff that I have would have been fun 2 years ago, but now it’s just boring. I will try it with Itty Bitty in the fall. She would LOVE it, I think.
We only kept 2 things:
MCP Math: Level K
Little Folks Number Practice & Little Folks Letter Practice.
Our current schedule looks like this:
- Phonics/Reading
- Math
- RRSP/RRSK
- Road Trip USA
Plus on T/Th, we do First Language lessons & World’s Greatest Artists. On W/F, we do Little Saints Number & Letter Practice and World’s Greatest Composers.
It takes about 2-2.5 hours per day and there are PLENTY of interruptions! Sometimes she wants to do more & sometimes she gets silly and I know it’s time to stop. Since her maturity may not be up to her knowledge, I don’t push it when she’s done.
Since we officially started doing kindergarten work, we have gotten a lot done!
Reading– With the new readers, she is fluently reading books 1-4. She might want to do more, but we do 2 a day–a repeat & a new one. She’s so proud of herself!!
MCP Math – We got through lesson 1-5 this week with only a minor meltdown that had nothing to do with the math–it was that she didn’t write her name well enough :).
Raising Rock Stars (P/K) – We did half of the preschool activities & half of the kindergarten activities and she had it memorized in a snap!
Road Trip USA – We got through the whole section about the country and are ready to start the NE states next week.
First Language Lessons – We have gotten through lesson 5 and I was amazed that she had Catepillar memorized! I sure didn’t! And she’s been reciting it as she plays. A little sponge!
Little Saints Letter Practice & Number Practice – She did 2-3 lessons in each book (1 & 2 and A – C). The number two frustrated her and we had to come back to it the next day. We broke it down a little further and she made great progress.
World’s Greatest Artists – we got through the first several lessons on Picasso. I was impressed that she remembered who we were reading about. We added in a board book of Picasso art that we had.
World’s Greatest Composers – this week we got through Lessons 1 & 2. Lil’ Bit LOVED the notebooking portions. A little young to do it all on her own, but I let her do as much as she has patience for :). I think she liked the music, too.
We did some extra stuff, too. We have a ton of Weekly Readers we didn’t get to this year. This week we looked at the issues on transportation and wind. Wind was super interesting to her and we spent lots of time looking at pictures and movies of tornados & hurricanes.
We also did pieces from several Easter packs and some rainbow preschool pages, too.
Wow! Almost 1000 words to say that we had to change it all up and had a good week. What about you?
This post is linked to Weekly Wrap-Up @ Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Preschool (and 5K) Corner @ Homeschool Creations.
Kirsten @ Homeschool Discoveries
20 April 2012 at 9:20 PM (12 years ago)I told my recently turned five year old that he could “officially” be a Kindergartener this week if he really wanted to be. 🙂 Many friends have told me this is typical of a second child, but he is almost a year ahead of where my older daughter was at the same age! Even before I told him he could call himself a Kindergartener, he was already doing work that she was doing toward the end of K. Each child is unique, that’s for sure! Way to meet your child where she is at!
Kirsten @ Homeschool Discoveries´s last blog post ..Collage Friday: Now with added Kindergarten!
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jen Reply:
April 21st, 2012 at 10:10 PM
Thanks for stopping by! I’m really glad to hear your thoughts… I’ve really been battling (myself) with starting her too early even though she really wants to and likes doing the work!
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