Kindergarten Update
I will have to say that every time I have done Kindergarten it has been different.
Silas took of like Road-runner and then we had to stay in one spot for a while, but, still finished the complete A Beka curriculum in just over a half of a school year. I added a lot of extra readers and library books to the list as he loved to read.
Philip wanted me to hand him the papers and leave him alone. He would than come back and hand me them done correctly with very little help. He also finished in just over a half of a school year. I had thought he wasn't paying any attention when he sat next to me doing Kindergarten with Silas. He apparently gleamed a lot without me noticing.
Cecilia hit the ground running and loved "School". Ruth of course has to be there the whole time doing almost everything right along with Cecilia.
I soon remembered that doing cursive in Kindergarten can be a tad over whelming at the beginning. I hadn't planned on doing it with Silas, but, he saw, Kimberlee, his cousin doing it and wanted to do the same thing. I got him a book and we have done cursive in Kindergarten with Philip and Cecilia.
I have realized that handwriting takes quite a bit of fine motor skills. I always teach letters on blank paper so the child can make the letters any size they want and just work on getting the shape right. When you move to lined paper and they have to watch where they start, how big they make each part, and where they stop. It can make the most excited child want to stop doing school all together. Cecilia was no exception. She threw fits, whined, and cried for almost a week. Now Cecilia is a drama queen. She will cry and whine over the littlest thing, so some of the trauma I took in stride as her trying to exert her will over mine. Now I will say that I had a moment or two that made me think she just wasn't ready. I was going to give it one more try. We were doing school and I handed her her handwriting paper and reviewed the letters we would be practicing that day. None of them were new so I let her go and watched as she made her letters wonderfully. It was as if she had been doing that way all the time. I was grinning ear to ear when she looked up and I gushed over the paper. I got out stickers and made smiley faces and stars next to the ones that were my favorites. She then turned the paper over and did the next days page with no help or prodding.
I have noticed that her personality is that she doesn't like having to try something that doesn't just come naturally. New concepts usually come with many fits and whining.
Last week I sent her and Ruth to bed in the middle of school as they had both done nothing but whine and cry the whole time we had been at the table trying to do school. I thought we would have to put the Letters and Sounds book on hold as I couldn't get Cecilia to say a two letter blend.
That night I was looking through my phonics folder on my hard drive. I try to save things that I do for school or helpful hints I find online so I can use them again later. It was a tips on beginning phonics that went right along with were we were in our A Beka phonics. So I did the suggestion of writing the three letter words on the board with the center vowel in red. We followed the suggestions and in less than five minutes we were sounding out three letter words were the day before we wouldn't even try a two letter blend.
Cecilia saw a "Ah ah ah ah apple" book from Sing, Spell, Read and Write. I was given all but the consumable books for level 1 and we love the songs, games, and books. I use the first 6 in Kindergarten between the short vowel and long vowel books in my A Beka curriculum. I think kids need to be grounded in sounding out words and comfortable with it before you move on to long vowels and special sounds. Then we use the rest in first grade. I opened the book and discussed the sight words and got two blank pieces of paper to cover the pictures. Cecilia read almost 16 pages of the book. She so loved peeking under the paper to see the picture of what she just read. I knew she would get sidetracked by the pictures at first. I wanted to cry she just flew into the book and grinned ear from ear.
I am not a name dropper but if it works I am not ashamed to give it credit. We like A Beka Kindergarten. I love the color and pictures and it flows nicely. The only complain I have ever had is that they go from a few short readers (only about 7 pages) of short/one vowel words to 2 or more/long vowel words. I never found my kids ready that quickly. That is where I fell in love with the Sing, Spell, Read and Write books. I had already loved the games and songs in the kit. My girls will get out the alphabet chart and sing the sound songs without the music or my help.
We have also enjoyed the Leap Frog phonics DVDs. The Letter Factory, and Word Factory DVDs we watch a lot and the kids enjoy them every time. I find them very useful as with 4 in school each in a different grade and my wonderful diversion, AKA Elsie, a good education video can be a wonderful way of doing school with more than one kid...lol
We have been doing Kindergarten for 40 school days and have done 58 lessons. I work at Cecilia's pace with pressure as the afore mentioned attitude toward things that might be a little hard. As she realizes the wonders of what she is now able to do and mommy's smiles get bigger we can get lost in school fun. I have realized that we don't have as much time to just sit and do school for hours on end as the girls would like to do most days. I have started leaving extra practice pages out for the girls to use at any time. I caught Cecilia trying to sneak into the drawer with her school papers in it to do more school. She sat and did handwriting practice papers for over an hour a few days ago.
Ruth wants to do everything that Cecilia is doing. Some days I can tell she hasn't caught on as quickly as her older sister. I do have a feeling she will be like Philip and when her turn to be the Kindergarten star comes she will already know most of it..
I know that we will still have bad days, but, watching my baby girl learn and cross those milestones makes my heart happy. Oh the blessing from God. He is truly merciful in all He does.
Silas took of like Road-runner and then we had to stay in one spot for a while, but, still finished the complete A Beka curriculum in just over a half of a school year. I added a lot of extra readers and library books to the list as he loved to read.
Philip wanted me to hand him the papers and leave him alone. He would than come back and hand me them done correctly with very little help. He also finished in just over a half of a school year. I had thought he wasn't paying any attention when he sat next to me doing Kindergarten with Silas. He apparently gleamed a lot without me noticing.
Cecilia hit the ground running and loved "School". Ruth of course has to be there the whole time doing almost everything right along with Cecilia.
I soon remembered that doing cursive in Kindergarten can be a tad over whelming at the beginning. I hadn't planned on doing it with Silas, but, he saw, Kimberlee, his cousin doing it and wanted to do the same thing. I got him a book and we have done cursive in Kindergarten with Philip and Cecilia.
I have realized that handwriting takes quite a bit of fine motor skills. I always teach letters on blank paper so the child can make the letters any size they want and just work on getting the shape right. When you move to lined paper and they have to watch where they start, how big they make each part, and where they stop. It can make the most excited child want to stop doing school all together. Cecilia was no exception. She threw fits, whined, and cried for almost a week. Now Cecilia is a drama queen. She will cry and whine over the littlest thing, so some of the trauma I took in stride as her trying to exert her will over mine. Now I will say that I had a moment or two that made me think she just wasn't ready. I was going to give it one more try. We were doing school and I handed her her handwriting paper and reviewed the letters we would be practicing that day. None of them were new so I let her go and watched as she made her letters wonderfully. It was as if she had been doing that way all the time. I was grinning ear to ear when she looked up and I gushed over the paper. I got out stickers and made smiley faces and stars next to the ones that were my favorites. She then turned the paper over and did the next days page with no help or prodding.
I have noticed that her personality is that she doesn't like having to try something that doesn't just come naturally. New concepts usually come with many fits and whining.
Last week I sent her and Ruth to bed in the middle of school as they had both done nothing but whine and cry the whole time we had been at the table trying to do school. I thought we would have to put the Letters and Sounds book on hold as I couldn't get Cecilia to say a two letter blend.
That night I was looking through my phonics folder on my hard drive. I try to save things that I do for school or helpful hints I find online so I can use them again later. It was a tips on beginning phonics that went right along with were we were in our A Beka phonics. So I did the suggestion of writing the three letter words on the board with the center vowel in red. We followed the suggestions and in less than five minutes we were sounding out three letter words were the day before we wouldn't even try a two letter blend.
Cecilia saw a "Ah ah ah ah apple" book from Sing, Spell, Read and Write. I was given all but the consumable books for level 1 and we love the songs, games, and books. I use the first 6 in Kindergarten between the short vowel and long vowel books in my A Beka curriculum. I think kids need to be grounded in sounding out words and comfortable with it before you move on to long vowels and special sounds. Then we use the rest in first grade. I opened the book and discussed the sight words and got two blank pieces of paper to cover the pictures. Cecilia read almost 16 pages of the book. She so loved peeking under the paper to see the picture of what she just read. I knew she would get sidetracked by the pictures at first. I wanted to cry she just flew into the book and grinned ear from ear.
I am not a name dropper but if it works I am not ashamed to give it credit. We like A Beka Kindergarten. I love the color and pictures and it flows nicely. The only complain I have ever had is that they go from a few short readers (only about 7 pages) of short/one vowel words to 2 or more/long vowel words. I never found my kids ready that quickly. That is where I fell in love with the Sing, Spell, Read and Write books. I had already loved the games and songs in the kit. My girls will get out the alphabet chart and sing the sound songs without the music or my help.
We have also enjoyed the Leap Frog phonics DVDs. The Letter Factory, and Word Factory DVDs we watch a lot and the kids enjoy them every time. I find them very useful as with 4 in school each in a different grade and my wonderful diversion, AKA Elsie, a good education video can be a wonderful way of doing school with more than one kid...lol
We have been doing Kindergarten for 40 school days and have done 58 lessons. I work at Cecilia's pace with pressure as the afore mentioned attitude toward things that might be a little hard. As she realizes the wonders of what she is now able to do and mommy's smiles get bigger we can get lost in school fun. I have realized that we don't have as much time to just sit and do school for hours on end as the girls would like to do most days. I have started leaving extra practice pages out for the girls to use at any time. I caught Cecilia trying to sneak into the drawer with her school papers in it to do more school. She sat and did handwriting practice papers for over an hour a few days ago.
Ruth wants to do everything that Cecilia is doing. Some days I can tell she hasn't caught on as quickly as her older sister. I do have a feeling she will be like Philip and when her turn to be the Kindergarten star comes she will already know most of it..
I know that we will still have bad days, but, watching my baby girl learn and cross those milestones makes my heart happy. Oh the blessing from God. He is truly merciful in all He does.
posted by Bobbie C (wife and mommy) @ 8:14 PM
1 Comments
