I cheated a little and already read one book on our Kindergarten list during the summer.  That would be the Boxcar Children, which we both liked and I have already requested the next two in the series from our library.

This week I am starting very slowly. Samuel has been having some anxiety issues, for lack of a better word.  Or temper tanturms, however you want to look at it.  I think he is just overwhelmed with turning 5.  He's very upset at moving to the elementary class at church which is upstairs from the nursery and preschool classes he is used to.  He's upset at having to wear a uniform to school beginning in September, tucking in his shirt, wearing a belt, and shoes that don't have characters or light up. He doesn't want to do the chores I added to his days now that he is 5.  And the list goes on and on.  I have had several serious emotional and hopefully encouraging conversations with him.

So, we're starting slowly.  One book I found that is turning out to be great is "Pordy's Prickly Problems" which is in Janette Oke's Animal Friends series.  I didn't even know she wrote children's books and this one is turning out to be a perfect lesson book wrapped in an entertaining story.  Pordy is a young porcupine who is afraid to climb a tree where porcupines can be safe from predators and find the food they like to eat.  Sound familiar?

History/Geography - We started Holling C Holling's "Paddle-to-the-Sea".  The plan is to read a chapter every night or two.  I have also ordered the first couple of books for the history portion.

Literature -  This may not count exactly as "literature", but this book did provide an exercise in creative "writing".  The book in question is "Fortunately" by Remy Charlip.  The story starts with a young boy receiving an invitation to a party.  When you turn the page, "unfortunately the party is in Florida and he is in New York."  Each page alternates between a forutnate event and an unfortunate event.  We read this three times and then "wrote" our own story as a family, going around a circle alternating who came up with the fortunately and who came up with the unfortunately.  This would be a great game for long car trips.  The story ended when Hubby got tired and came up with an ending on his turn.  We didn't write this down, but I can see this being a good writing assignment for an older child to write his own story in this style.

Reading - Level 1 Readers from the library.  No particular one stands out as being great, but they are all OK.

Math - I am just doing everyday word problem math and he often blurts out something while he's playing, like "Mommy, does 6 and 6 make 12?".  I don't know exactly where the questions come from, but they do tell me he is working things out.  Since he's only 5, I'm forgoing formal math, but I am thinking of looking for some games we can play that will work on skip counting.  He has a CD from Discovery Toys that has a counting by 10's song, so he knows how to do that (if he sings!) and living books taught him 2's to 10.  He will get "formal" math in his Kindergarten class (which meets 2 days a week beginning in September), so I can just do the fun math at home.

Nature Study - we made it to the park for our Outdoor Hour, but we only made it through our picnic by the creek and time on the playground before it was time to leave.  Next time, I will build in more time to play so we can still do our nature walk.  I did order the caterpillars for the butterfly treehouse he got for his birthday.