Kindergarten Graduation

Yay! JD is done with kindergarten!

Seems like a good time to review what fun we have had this year. He is an amazing young man, and it is a joy to spend time learning with him. He has an incredibly logical mind, always curious and questioning. I may have learned more than he has this year, as he is always teaching me to look at things in a new way.

Though it has been a lot of fun, it has not been easy this year. There is a great deal of chaos and interruptions in our house full of wonderful children. I have tried to keep the lessons short with JD and use opportunities throughout the day - with varying degrees of success. We’ve also taken several breaks throughout the year. Though just because formal school isn’t happening, he is always questioning and exploring and learning – and sometimes that’s even better.

Reading

We loosely used the kindergarten language arts curriculum from Sonlight. We started using the more simple readers in the back of this picture. This helped build JD’s confidence in reading with simple words and some picture clues. We tired of those a couple months ago and moved on to pulling regular books off our shelves to read. He’s doing really well. Some of the longer ones, like One Fish Two Fish, we buddy read (he reads a page, I read a page) but most of them he only needs help with a few words. He’s slowly reading through The Cat in the Hat now.

Writing

We did very informal things when it came to writing this year, like writing in the dirt, making letters with play-dough, and playing with capital letter pieces (from Handwriting Without Tears curriculum, purchased from Sonlight). It was only very recently that I’ve been having him do more actual handwriting. In the picture, the top line is the one I wrote for him to copy – though that’s probably obvious!

Arithmetic

These are the math things that I purchased for us to use (Singapore earlybird kindergarten and some supplements, also purchased from Sonlight). We did use them occasionally, but mainly we talked about math whenever it came up in real life. He would make patterns with his colored magnets. He would count anything and everything. He would sort his toys into categories. He would discuss mathematical concepts with his Dad that are way beyond kindergarten level. (My goal was for him to recognize and count to 100. Lane challenged him to go to 500. Last I heard he was at 429.) Math is all around us and we help him see that (and often he helps us).

Animal Habitats

We used a curriculum called Animals and Their Worlds from WinterPromise. Again I used it loosely. We spent time learning about the animals in each habitat, did a few animal crafts and other hands-on activities, and also read stories about animals (below). It was really fun. I know I learned a lot!

Read Alouds

You can see that I’m a bit obsessed about books – JD shares that obsession or I wouldn’t have read so many! (and that’s not including the ones we’ve read from the library) Many of these are from the animals curriculum but we added more only because we enjoy reading together. A lot of the picture books and shorter chapter books were for reading with Matt, when he wanted, though JD and sometimes Moriah enjoyed them too. (though we never did get around to reading the Grizzly Bear one) Also I’ve recently been reading poetry while the kids finish eating breakfast, which has been way more fun than I thought it would be. I was doing Bible stories during breakfast, as well, but it’s been moved to bedtime with Dad most days.

Science

This is really just for fun. JD loves science. I tried to convince him that studying animals and habitats is science, but he wanted something he could mix up and play with. Since we love The Magic School Bus videos, we decided to try their experiment kits (and he prayed every night for them until they arrived). They’ve been fun. We only finished the human body one (a favorite for Matt) so the others ones will probably be finished over the summer or next year.

Other Stuff
We also did many other various activities (not everyday or even every week, but occasionally) like playing musical instruments, learning songs together, stories on the flannel board and taking field trips to zoos, aquariums and children’s museums. We also use outdoors not only for exercise and play but also to study bugs and plants and birds and all sorts of amazing things that God has created.

Whew! It has been a full and fun year!

*Edited 5/17/08 to add: JD did use an internet program called Time4Learning for a short time, when I was feeling worried that he wasn't getting all he needed from me. It was useful and he enjoyed it, but after a few weeks we started doing more and more together and less and less on the computer so we canceled it.