Posted in Current News
We homeschool year round, mostly because learning is a lifelong process and summer breaks just don't happen "in real life." Actually, for our agrarian forefathers, summer wasn't a break at all, but the busiest time of the year.
Also, it seems a shame that field trips, science experiments, and the like can be considered school hours in the fall, winter, and spring, but when they are the easiest to do (in the summer....), they don't count. So, we school year round.
Our daughter is finishing kindergarten and it's been a huge learning curve for both of us. Milestones have included her first introduction to formal math (intially a disaster, later redeemed), learning to read, and copywork. My milestones included learning how to schedule our materials and creating my own lesson plans that work.
Some of the materials we've used include (the titles are clickable links):
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Galloping the Globe - we used this for our "spine" for kindergarten. Select countries from each continent are studied and resource materials are listed. We've had to branch-out a lot to use this as our library had many great resources that corresponded to our studies, but not a lot of the listed materials. It's been a great gallop!
- First Language Lessons - We're somewhere around lesson 40 in this book, having started in February. If your child is language oriented, you could certainly start this book in kindergarten. Copywork (with varying levels) begins about half-way through the first year (lesson 42 or so). My daughter will definitely have a better grounding in grammar than I ever had!
- Phonics Pathways - There are about as many ways to teach reading as there are ways to teach math. Somehow, this was an easy choice for us. This program follows a natural phonics progression, and focuses on word lists and review lists that reinforce the lessons. Though my daughter is a proficient reader, we are still working through this for the spelling assistance that it provides. Takes about 5-10 minutes a day.
- Math-U-See - This program was a God-send. We'd been using Horizons K, which I do not doubt is a good program, but it was a poor fit for my daughter. It's strengths are that it's hands-on concrete math and that it provides clear teacher guidance (via DVD) that teaches you how to teach the concept. I definitely felt I needed that. I understand math, but I don't have creative ways up my sleeve to teach an idea if my daughter doesn't understand. If you aren't familiar with MUS, order their free DVD that explains the program - I learned a few math things while watching it.
These are the primary programs that we are using. Supplemental items that I feel are worth mentioning include:
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Pfieffer House Music - Having had a strong musical upbringing, I wanted to be sure to cover music well with my daughter. I like this program and it's gentle, yet practical, approach to teaching musical skills. We didn't begin it until after the holidays and, in reviewing it, decided to start with Grade 1.
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Draw Write Now - I'm not artistically gifted in art, but I make-up for it by being into crafts. However, I wanted my daughter to learn to draw. I've got several books on teaching art to children, but this is what we pull out most often. More importantly, this is the set of books my daughter pulls out on her own to work with.
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Science options - We've had a fun year with science, but have used an eclectic mix of things. These have included Magic School Bus books and their activities, Sonlight Science K, and other fact books from the library.
While kindergarten will officially end May 31st, we're not finished Galloping the Globe yet. So, we'll be continuing with our primary materials until we finish them, probably around August.
