Kindergarten Curriculum and Week 1

Well, it's finally happened...Our first baby, who will always be my baby even though he's the oldest of 4, is old enough for kindergarten.  To celebrate, our church had a very special kinder box presentation and prayer over him and his 20+ classmates last Sunday.  At home, we prepared with a pre-school dinner of hot dogs and corn per his request.

All summer, we've been talking up doing kindergarten at home, and we've been counting down the days with a paper chain for the last week.  Initially, he was not excited but really warmed up to the idea once we decorated the room and started the countdown.

Here are my curriculum plans, though I'm already learning that things may need to change:

• Reading/Phonics: lots of library books, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, Starfall.com
• Math: a K workbook, followed by Saxon Math 1
• Bible: Grapevine Studies Stick Figuring through the Old Testament, weekly memory verses
• World Geography: Expedition Earth from confessionsofahomeschooler.com

The first couple of days were rough.  I was too focused on the academic side of things and didn't have enough "fun" planned in.  Reef was jealous that his brothers were playing while he was working.  The hardest part for him is the reading.  We were on lesson 67 of 100 EZ lessons but took a long break after Poppy was born.  I think it was just too long, and he's lost some confidence.  I am backing off for awhile.  Wed-Fri were better since I added in library books and lots of fun activities.  He really loves to use the dry erase markers and board!

Here's my big guy, hard at work on Day 1.  He loves math but says his pencil hurts his hand after a few minutes.  Hoping some pencil grippers help!

 The whole gang.  Jonas will sit at the table with us for about 10 minutes with a workbook I picked up at Borders.  He doesn't "do" the book, just traces with his finger.  After the first little bit, he and Lachlan are off to make messes with puzzles, dominoes, and memory cards. 

 Here's Reef with his "favorite things" board.  I thought it would be cute to look back on.  His favorites right now are: sandwiches, ice cream, Ethan, Smurfs, Cars 2, tigers, lions, and cheetahs.  His favorite part of school is crafts and computer time.

 Part of our fun time on Friday made use of our millions of cars.  We played this dice game and it was a huge hit.  They've asked for it a lot since then!

 One surprise with homeschooling is that Jonas, our very stubborn guy, has actually started to let me teach him how to hold a marker/crayon.  Progress!

 We also practiced sorting using our cars.  We have the most black and the least purple.

And this is what this cutie spends the school time doing, when she's not napping.



So far, I think homeschooling has gone really well.  There were bumps in the road last week and even some tears (from both Reef and me), but I think it's going to be great.  I love how much time I get to spend with him, seeing his face light up when he "gets" something, and that we get to control what he's learning.  I am nervous about the social side of things, though.  He has said that he misses his friends.  Hopefully seeing them at church and life group will help.  I am also constantly searching for social things to do with him and have some fun (hopefully) things in the works.