Kindergarten
Here we go! That bustling preschooler is asking more and more questions (and actually retaining more detailed information). They can follow more instructions. They are more inclined to sit for longer than 0.3 seconds.
Let the races begin!!
If you haven't done any formal education prior (and that's fine!!), now is the time to start with a focus. Does this mean a lot of seatwork? NO!!!
This age is still prime for mostly hands-on learning, but many children are ready to start approaching more formal learning methods like workbooks.
In Kindergarten, if you have taught the focus of preschool, you can now begin to focus primarily on the alphabet. There will still be review needed of everything covered the year before, but the focus now shifts to preparing for learning to read. I have kept the focus solely on the alphabet, its letters, and their sounds, for my children before first grade. My son has done extremely well with this. Some parents feel the need to begin teaching to read. If you feel your child is ready, by all means, begin now! =)
I would, however, encourage a slow start to teaching reading, and a firm foundation in phonics, which requires a solid knowledge of the alphabet.
If you would like to go with my approach, or at least review it,
here are my suggestions:
If you've bought the preschool workbook for last year, you will continue to use it for Kindergarten. This round you will use the alphabet pages that were skipped over in preschool. Here is the link again through Amazon*. Although, it is cheaper bought off the shelf at Walmart by a good bit!
Let the races begin!!
If you haven't done any formal education prior (and that's fine!!), now is the time to start with a focus. Does this mean a lot of seatwork? NO!!!
This age is still prime for mostly hands-on learning, but many children are ready to start approaching more formal learning methods like workbooks.
In Kindergarten, if you have taught the focus of preschool, you can now begin to focus primarily on the alphabet. There will still be review needed of everything covered the year before, but the focus now shifts to preparing for learning to read. I have kept the focus solely on the alphabet, its letters, and their sounds, for my children before first grade. My son has done extremely well with this. Some parents feel the need to begin teaching to read. If you feel your child is ready, by all means, begin now! =)
I would, however, encourage a slow start to teaching reading, and a firm foundation in phonics, which requires a solid knowledge of the alphabet.
If you would like to go with my approach, or at least review it,
here are my suggestions:
If you've bought the preschool workbook for last year, you will continue to use it for Kindergarten. This round you will use the alphabet pages that were skipped over in preschool. Here is the link again through Amazon*. Although, it is cheaper bought off the shelf at Walmart by a good bit!
Along with that workbook I have used the workbooks from the $1 bin at Target, this time focusing on the alphabet ones.
The letter magnets become much more used this year, as your child will now be able to recognize the letters. It's also a good time to use the animal magnets more for beginning sounds, too!
The letter magnets become much more used this year, as your child will now be able to recognize the letters. It's also a good time to use the animal magnets more for beginning sounds, too!
This year brings more focus on learning to write, as well. Activities can include anything from writing with a finger in sand or salt, to writing in shaving cream on the table or a pan (my son loved that one!!). Some use of a pencil is good, too, although not altogether mandatory at this age until towards the end of the year. Practice with a finger to draw the letters is very good training for little hands.
I have never followed a set curriculum in Kindergarten, but my second child is coming up into it this year, and, with her watching her older brother, she really wants a school program. We've gone very light on it in Preschool, and will take it up just a notch for Kindergarten. My plan is to learn a letter a week After that, working on hearing the sounds in the beginning or end of words. A website called 3 Dinosaurs has an unbelievably cute set called the "Romping and Roaring ABCs." This will likely be the core of my curriculum, with hints taken from This Reading Mama's "Reading the Alphabet."
I'll link to their sites below so that you can take a look. 3 Dinosaurs has a paid pack for the ABCs that includes a good number of extras not offered for free. You may want to look into it! This Reading Mama also has a paid pack for Reading the Alphabet that includes extras, too! =)
I have never followed a set curriculum in Kindergarten, but my second child is coming up into it this year, and, with her watching her older brother, she really wants a school program. We've gone very light on it in Preschool, and will take it up just a notch for Kindergarten. My plan is to learn a letter a week After that, working on hearing the sounds in the beginning or end of words. A website called 3 Dinosaurs has an unbelievably cute set called the "Romping and Roaring ABCs." This will likely be the core of my curriculum, with hints taken from This Reading Mama's "Reading the Alphabet."
I'll link to their sites below so that you can take a look. 3 Dinosaurs has a paid pack for the ABCs that includes a good number of extras not offered for free. You may want to look into it! This Reading Mama also has a paid pack for Reading the Alphabet that includes extras, too! =)
Since I prefer to teach the alphabet in order, I will be leaning more heavily on the Romping and Roaring pack. The Reading the Alphabet pack teaches the letters in a more easy-to-write order (per the author). Reading the Alphabet also includes emergent readers and sight words. Since I focus on teaching reading in first grade, I will likely not use a good bit of that side of things. What I do plan to use, however, are a good many of the really cute printables that work with the letters (tracing a turtle for Tt), rhyming pages, and pages that work with syllables. It's worth looking into, for sure! =)
Update as of June, 2014:
I recently found the book, Five in a Row, by Jane C. Lambert, at a used book sale. I had heard many great things about it, but had been hesitant to buy the book for $35 from the publisher, as I could not actually look through it. At $18 and being able to flip through it, I took the chance! After doing some looking through and looking at the books used, I have decided to add this to Monkey's Kindergarten, for extra depth and dimension. The basic concept is to spend a week studying a single book, looking at a different aspect and way to learn from it each day. This includes social studies, art, science, and more! I do very much like the ideas presented, and the amount of suggestions in the book for each suggested title. I have now bought 18 of the 19 titles, since we already owned the last one. =)
I will keep you updated on how things go with it!
Update as of June, 2014:
I recently found the book, Five in a Row, by Jane C. Lambert, at a used book sale. I had heard many great things about it, but had been hesitant to buy the book for $35 from the publisher, as I could not actually look through it. At $18 and being able to flip through it, I took the chance! After doing some looking through and looking at the books used, I have decided to add this to Monkey's Kindergarten, for extra depth and dimension. The basic concept is to spend a week studying a single book, looking at a different aspect and way to learn from it each day. This includes social studies, art, science, and more! I do very much like the ideas presented, and the amount of suggestions in the book for each suggested title. I have now bought 18 of the 19 titles, since we already owned the last one. =)
I will keep you updated on how things go with it!
Here we go, updating again in August 2014!!
We've now completed 2 weeks of lessons, and halfway through the first week we started a new program from The Character Corner called "Little Lads and Ladies of Virtue." I was asked to do a review on the program, and we loved it from the start!!!! So, that has now been added to our daily routine. I think all of the munchkins will benefit from it, and I plan on using it again as Scoot and the new baby come up to this age!
In addition to that add-in, I've decided to begin my own Kinder curriculum as well, at least for a base. It will go along with the First Grade curriculum I've been working on. I do still plan to (and have already begun to) use parts of 3 Dinosaur's Romping and Roaring packs, and some of This Reading Mama's Reading the Alphabet program. We have also pulled from those $1 books from Target, and we will still refer to the Preschool Workbook from Walmart. However, I want the illustrations that I use as my base to go along with the ones that will be reviewed in the first part of the First Grade curriculum to give continuity. So, we've begun that process, and it will continue to grow as the year progresses! =)
You can watch for blog posts through the year to see what all we get into and learn, and I'll try to get some sneak peaks of my curriculum, as well!
We've now completed 2 weeks of lessons, and halfway through the first week we started a new program from The Character Corner called "Little Lads and Ladies of Virtue." I was asked to do a review on the program, and we loved it from the start!!!! So, that has now been added to our daily routine. I think all of the munchkins will benefit from it, and I plan on using it again as Scoot and the new baby come up to this age!
In addition to that add-in, I've decided to begin my own Kinder curriculum as well, at least for a base. It will go along with the First Grade curriculum I've been working on. I do still plan to (and have already begun to) use parts of 3 Dinosaur's Romping and Roaring packs, and some of This Reading Mama's Reading the Alphabet program. We have also pulled from those $1 books from Target, and we will still refer to the Preschool Workbook from Walmart. However, I want the illustrations that I use as my base to go along with the ones that will be reviewed in the first part of the First Grade curriculum to give continuity. So, we've begun that process, and it will continue to grow as the year progresses! =)
You can watch for blog posts through the year to see what all we get into and learn, and I'll try to get some sneak peaks of my curriculum, as well!
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