Week 1: A Pair of Red Clogs

This week we read A Pair of Red Clogs for our Five in a Row book, so we took the opportunity to learn a bit about Japan. We did lots of fun activities to go along with the book:
1. We found Japan on the world map
2. We colored the Japanese flag and added it to our flags of the world banner
3. We read about Japanese culture
4. We learned to count to 10 in Japanese
5. We read Haiku poetry
6. We did some origami
7. We read about sumo wrestling and had our own sumo wrestling match
8. We ate at a Japanese steak house and visited with Japanese people and saw real kimonos
9. We visited Uncle Loren who showed us his bonsai trees
10. We listened to Japanese music

Here is a photo of what G and Grandma made during origami time:

For Bible time this week, we read the story of creation and our memory verse was Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

In science, we did a couple of nature walks in different areas and found plant life like blackberry vines, huckleberry bushes and ivy. We also saw animal life such as birds, a snake, grasshoppers, squirrels and rabbits. A walk by a local lake turned up lots of empty snail shells.

We also worked with phonics, history, Spanish, math, and handwriting, and we had a fun day at the park with our homeschool group too! We had a fun first week of kindergarten!!

1st Day of Kindergarten

Our first day of Kindergarten was a good one! I was up at the crack of dawn (better known as 8AM), exercised, ate, showered, dressed and was ready to go. I had to finally wake G up at 10AM, LOL! Hmmmm...I wonder where he gets that! I got his breakfast of Cookie Crisp and Froot Loops mixed together ready (he got to choose anything he wanted for his first day). Surprisingly, he ate it. I thought he'd take a bite and discover it was gross, and want a re-do.

We did calendar time, then G was so excited to get out his new colored pencils that he drew while I read him the story of creation. Then he drew a picture for his pen pal, labeled it and got it ready to send.

Next we took a nature walk. We saw all kinds of plants including blackberry vines, and huckleberry bushes (the most exciting plants were, of course, bearing food). We also saw a tiny tree frog, a grasshopper and a little snake. Very exciting!

We played readingeggs.com for phonics, checked out livemocha.com for Spanish (which I realized probably won't work for us at this time since it didn't keep his attention), and did our Five in a Row.

We did a bit of grouping for math, then we went to the racquetball court to play. Our school day took almost exactly 2 hours, not counting the nature walk or racquetball. G had fun, so I guess that means we had a successful day.

Kindergarten Resources and Ideas

Unit Study:
Unit studies will generally be a week long each. If G shows extra interest in a unit, we always have the flexibility of extending the unit for as long as we like. Some units will have seasonal/holiday themes, some will be a result of following G's interest at the time (if he shows interest in insects or space, for example), and some will be based on children's books.

When we do units based on children's books, we will use the Five in a Row curriculum and the activities suggested in the Five in a Row manuals. We will also utilize the resources found at http://www.homeschoolshare.com/ .

Phonics:
I plan to use Bob Books for phonics, especially at the beginning of the year. G has been through the first set, so we'll do a bit of review on those, then move on to the 2nd set and move up from there. I also plan to do some word family work and maybe a more formal teaching tool like The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading.

Bible:
I plan to model our Bible study after the Five in a Row curriculum, taking one Bible story each week (starting in Genesis and working our way through), and reading it each day. We will also do crafts relating to the story and have a memory verse to go along with it. I found this site for children's Bible lessons.

Math:
We will have calendar time each day for math where he will learn to read a calendar, use ordinal numbers, learn about even and odd numbers and learn about time in general (yesterday, today, tomorrow, next week, days of the week, months of the year, how long is a month, etc.). We will also be doing fun activities with maniulatives (we're most excited about using M&Ms as manipulatives), and possibly start using the Math-U-See curriculum.

Handwriting:
Handwriting will be practiced with short Bible verses or sentences pertaining to each week's theme/unit. He will also have the opportunity to practice handwriting as he writes to his pen pals.

History:
We'll use History for Little Pilgrims as our introduction to history.

Spanish:
First 100 Words in Spanish, First 1000 Words in Spanish, and http://www.livemocha.com/ are what I plan to use this year.

Science:
Again, I plan to work science like the Five in a Row as well, reading the same book every day for a week. I'll be reading from the Let's-Read-And-Find-Out Science series, which we love. I'll also be using Science Play! and More Mudpies to Magnets for project ideas.

Kindergarten Schedule 2008/2009

I think this blog will be mainly for me...to keep track of where we're going and where we've been. I'm thinking of listing the link on our family website though so that any of our friends or family can take a peek at what we're up to with homeschool. I'm sure there will be several who are curious. I know I'm always curious about other homeschool families and what they are doing, what is working for them, and what ideas they can share. Here is a look at our tentative kindergarten schedule:

Monday:

-Unit Study

-Phonics

-Bible

-Math

-Handwriting

-History

-Science

Tuesday:

-Unit Study

-Phonics

-Bible

-Math

-Spanish

-Science

Wednesday:

-Unit Study

-Phonics

-Bible

-Math

-Handwriting

-Geography

-Science

Thursday:

-Unit Study

-Phonics

-Bible

-Math

-Spanish

-Science

Friday:

-Unit Study

-Phonics

-Bible

-Math

-Handwriting

-History

More Multiplication

Yesterday while driving to a friend's house, G piped up from the backseat..."Mom, four fives...you know, four of five...four fives is twenty."

"That's right! How did you know that?", I asked.

"I just counted it.", was his reply.

I guess he's getting an understanding of math. We are both excited to do M&M math when we start kindergarten. We'll use the M&Ms as manipulatives...and rewards. :-)

Ooh, a fun reading game site!

Someone on one of my yahoogroups shared this site for learning to read. It has interactive lessons that build on each other. My son seems to like it. It's at www.readingeggs.com .

What? Multiplication?

We were playing outside yesterday and G was gathering rocks when he asked me, "Mom, are two fours eight?" We have hardly worked on any math at all, and that was only counting. I just about jumped up like a cheerleader when he did this, demonstrating a beginning understanding of multiplication. Daddy was ecstatic when I told him about it, of course, since one of his biggest goals for G is for him to KNOW his times tables. It was a pretty exciting surprise.