k-math

I’m on my second kindergartener this year. For math I made a 36 week plan highlighting the skills she needs to learn. Foor example, one week might be skip counting by tens, another might be patterns. We get fun books at the library on whatever topic is for the week, and we have a box of manipulatives like beans, popsicle sticks, foam shapes, and counting charts we use. We built patterns with legos and went on a pattern hunt around the house. We found examples of different shapes in different rooms. If he does not know his numbers yet you could start with a *number of the week* type thing until he knows them all, working on counting objects and recognizing the numeral and also writing it when he is ready. My daughter also cooks with me, which has lots of math involved.

With my K’er she joins in our family time (which includes my 2nd grade son and my 3yo) which is Bible, singing, memorization, picture/composer/nature/poet study (alternating days), and Spanish. Then we all do copywork together, followed by our family read aloud, after which I send her older brother off to read and her younger sister to play while I do math and phonics with my K’er.

 That’s all she does. She does sometimes listen to her older brother’s books I read aloud. Sometimes her and her sister cloister themselves upstairs with dolls. 🙂

What I try to accomplish in the K year and before is fostering curiosity and imagination and a start in the basics. I want them to learn their numbers and be able to count and grasp number concepts, and start learning to read.

I provide lots of interesting books but there’s no set schedule or objectives in history or science.

Tara

One of my K’ers this year is doing Math Lessons for a Living Education, Book 1 by Angela O’Dell and published by Queen. My 2nd grader is doing Book 2 and I plan on keeping this up until we move to LoF down the road. This K’er LOVES MLFLE and I could not be happier with it (we’ve also tried Singapore and MFW in the past). It is just enough and when my girls need more review it is quite simple to add to the short, direct lessons as needed. The storyline is sweet and with Book 3 it is moves into topics of missions and such, so it grows with the child. (My other K’er has been here 5 months from Ethiopia or he’d also be doing the same work … he’s no where near ready for math though.) hth. 🙂

ETC is too workbook-y for my K’er Viola, though I’ve that it is a very good program. I never had to teach her to read, so that’s a little different for us. I do want her to go through phonics though so that she has exposure, which is why we use QLL (LLLO2 and LLLO3 review phonics). The nice thing about QLL for us is that it incorporates poetry, picture study, some narration, and the like which keeps her K studies fresh and a little more lovely than just ETC. If that makes sense. 🙂 My older daughter learned to read with MFW K and MFW 1, which were excellent programs, in my opinion (and I have a MEd in Reading and Literacy and was a Reading Specialist baaaaaaaaaaack in the day). Haha. So, I appreciate how different programs teach reading. If I were “teaching” a child to read I would certainly supplement QLL with something … OPGTR or MFW1 or maybe even ETC (I just can’t say since I never used that program) plus a TON of excellent living children’s literature. 

Sorry … Math Lessons for a Living Education, My Father’s World, and Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. 🙂

Oh, and other than basic reading, writing, and math, we just did a lot of read-alouds on various topics – history/geography of the USA, nature, poetry (she LOVES it) and literature. We also did some map work on the USA – learning the States. We did Scripture memory, Bible reading, and hymns as part of our family devotions as opposed to during our school time. That was about it. We spent around an hour or so a day most days.

Jen