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For K5, we add Grammar and Science to our K4 subjects of Bible, Phonics/Reading, Piano, Math, and Handwriting.
Bible is pretty much the same as the previous year. We do Bible together as a family. We read one lesson from either Leading Little Ones to God by Marion Schoolland or The Child’s Story Bible by Catherine F. Vos, and practice our catechism question for the week.
K5 is an exciting year for reading. What they are not able to do at the beginning of the year, they are magically able to do the second half of the year. During the first half of the year, we finish up our Phonics Pathways phonics book.
After we've completed the Phonics Pathways program, we work through the Veritas Press First Favorites Vol. 2 Reading Comprehension Guide.
I picked Volume two over Volume one for the sole reason that we already owned most of the books in Volume two. :-) The First Favorites Volume Two guide covers: Madeline, Nate the Great, Nate the Great and the Lost List, Miss Nelson is Missing!, The Biggest Bear, A New Coat for Anna, Stone Soup, Mr. Putter and Tabby Pour the Tea, Henry and Mudge, Little Bear, Little Bear's Friend, Amelia Bedelia, Peter Rabbit,and The Emperor's New Clothes. We cover one book a week.
For Piano, we continue lessons once a week with Miss Patti and continue on with the Music for Little Mozarts series.
We use Saxon 2 for math in K5. The accompanying Manipulative Kit is a *must* buy. It seems expensive, but considering we use it almost daily for three years (we use Saxon K for pre-school) it is not that bad.
 
Toward the end of the school year, we begin supplementing Saxon 2 with Singapore Primary 1A and 1B. We have two reasons for doing this. The first is that while we find Saxon Math to be an awesome program the first few years for getting basic math facts down cold, its approach gets a little tiresome towards the end of Saxon 2. For this reason, it is nice to break up the monotony by switching off with another program. But, more importantly than that, we find that while Saxon teaches rote problem solving, Singapore Math actually teaches our children to think mathematically. For further information on this, please see Susan Wise Bauer's Review of Singapore Math. Note: The review was written prior to the U.S. Edition becoming available.
For Handwriting, we use Rod and Staff's Penmanship for Christian Writing and the corresponding handwriting paper.
For Grammar, we add First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind.
This program technically is for first & second grade, but I don't know anyone in real life who uses it that way. This book is the *perfect* gentle introduction to many skills children will need in first grade --- grammar, spelling, poetry memorization, copywork, story narration, and picture narration. It is completely scripted and most of it is done orally and requires little to no reading or writing on the part of the student.
We do science very informally in K5 -- we read books, watch movies, take nature walks, plant and maintain our gardens, and, of course, our Butterfly activity. We *love* the Rod and Staff "God is Good" Series and the Christian Liberty Press Nature Readers.
 
And that's our K5!
Category: Homeschooling
Entry 347 of 465
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