Pre-K4 and Pre-K2 Preview

Last week was our "official" start of the new school year.  During the summer we continued with daily Calendar/Circle time and Big E worked through some Kumon books.  We were all pretty excited to start our new curriculum.

Below is the plan for this year for both Big and Lil' E.

Our school corner

Schedule: 
We don't start at a set time.  We usually start after breakfast has been eaten and cleaned up, children and Momma are dressed, and I've had a chance to maybe get one "house blessing" (read chore) done in the morning. That being said, start time is usually around 9 or 9:30.

Calendar Time: We start each day with Calendar time.  We discuss "today, tomorrow, yesterday", count the days of the month, make a note of the weather, and sing a few calendar songs.

Bible Time: We review our house rules as well as the memory verse and character trait of the week (from our curriculum).  We then either review all the memory verses learned to date (about 20 or so) or we continue to review and learn additional catechism questions (from "My First Book of Questions and Answers" by Carine MacKenzie).  Then we read a story from the Bible and sing a Bible song (again from our curriculum).

Workbox Time:  Next we move onto our workboxes/drawers.  Currently I have the children doing about 2 activities together and the rest separately.

Reading Time:  This is a big bulk of the curriculum we chose for Big E this year.  So far we are enjoying it.  We all go to the living room, snuggle into each other on the couch and read.

Montessori Skills: Usually after reading, we head back to the "school room" to work on the Montessori skill for the week.  I am using the book "Teach Me To Do It Myself" by Maja Pitamic as an activity/idea guide.  I'm not sure how long this will last but I hope we can keep it up throughout the school year.   

Field Trips:  Starting last April, when possible, we reserved Fridays for "Friday Fun Days".  We used those days to travel to fun "adventures" that might include a museum trip or a hike in the woods.  I'm not sure how many of these we will be able to do once our church activities resume, but I'm hoping for a trip a month.

Lil' E's Curriculum: 

We are starting a "Letter of the Week" program in workbox/drawer form as her introduction into homeschooling.  Each week I have 3-4 crafts, several books, animals, and snacks selected that coordinated with the letter of the week.  The bulk of our sit down "school" work comes from the  blog http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com under the section "Tot School Printables." Each day I also have a specific educational toy selected (and placed in her drawers) for us to work on together).

I made a spreadsheet for each letter which includes a list of all the ideas for each letter and a break down of which activities to use each day along with a supply list for each day.  This has really helped with planning and preparation the night (and week) before.  It has taken a fair amount of time to plan and prepare all the letters, but I think the system is working and making the setup simple and stress-free.  I currently have the letters A-T planned.  So, only 7 letters remaining to plan.  I'm not quite sure what we will do when we finish the 26 letters.  Maybe we will just repeat them all again.  

I will introduce the letters in the same order they are being introduced in Big E's curriculum, so we can be working on the same letter together each week.

Big E's Curriculum:  

We settled on using Sonlight's Pre-K4/5 with the K Readers.  I want to use this year as a "trial" for homeschooling next year.  Hopefully this will give us a taste of what "real" homeschooling will feel like and prepare him for whatever comes next year.

So far we are really happy with the program.  We have enjoyed the reading.  I appreciate the suggestions for memory verses, character qualities, and weekly Bible songs.  The K Reader program so far is very doable.  They are basically just introducing a letter a week along with some copy work.  The copy work is a bit difficult for him since he hasn't had much practice writing on lined paper yet, but we are working on it.  After week 10 I think he will start some basic reading skills.  We will see how it goes.

For handwriting I chose Handwriting Without Tears "Letters and Numbers For Me".  It is slightly non-traditional in its approach, but so far it is going very well.  (Though we are only 3 days in).  He is having fun with the material and I see the benefits of the program already.  For supplementals, I plan on using several Kumon Workbooks.  We have a lowercase, numbers, mazes, cutting, and coloring book we will rotate in every now and then.

This year Big E will be joining the children's choir at church.  I am looking forward to this.  It will be his first "formal" introduction to music.  As a (former) musician I haven't wanted to push him in this area too hard so I have been hesitant to do much yet.  Since he likes to sing a lot and frequently sings songs from church this little choir seems like the perfect opportunity for him.

So, that's the plan.  We will see how it goes!