Homeschooling Kindergarten

Chris and I knew we planned--life's twists and turns aside--to homeschool our children before we even met each other. I've been attending homeschool conferences since our first child was about four months old and accumulating homeschool resources for all these years. Now, five and a half years after John was born, we are finally embarking on officially homeschooling Kindergarten!

My plan is to start in the first week of August, which allows us to take a more year-round approach: two weeks off for the last week of Advent and Christmas, four weeks off when the baby is born, two weeks off for Holy Week and Easter, and four weeks off for summer.

I have all the enthusiasm and naive high hopes proper to a first-time homeschooling parent. Any dark days of difficulty and self-doubt lie ahead, so I plan to enjoy the nearly pure enthusiasm while I can.

We've designed our own curriculum, which I would love to share. I know in future with more kids in multiple grades, I likely won't share these details on the blog again.

I think Mary will sit in with John for Bible stories, Literature, Poetry, and Nature. I will do some phonics work with her since she has observed John working and taken off writing her letters and knowing some letter sounds already. Then I think John and I will try to do focused school together, particularly for Math and Phonics, in the afternoon when the baby is napping. I'm sure that the pragmatics of how to get schooling completed will come with a serious learning curve for me!

RELIGION

We hope to read two stories per week from The Golden Children's Bible. The idea is to read the story to the child, review it, then the child will illustrate the story. We will assemble the illustrations into John's own Bible.

Catechism lessons will be from Chats with God's Little Ones during the first half of the year. If we need another catechism for the second half of the year, we will probably use the New St. Joseph First Communion Catechism.

MATHEMATICS

We are using Right Start Math Level A.

PHONICS

John had made it through more than half the lessons in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons before I realized that, for example, the Mother of Divine Grace curriculum has Kindergarteners proceed through only one-third of the book. Easy Lessons itself says that if the child finishes the book, he is reading at a "solid second grade level." I discovered this only weeks before Kindergarten was to begin, so I remain a bit flummoxed about how to proceed so as not to go too slow, but not push him beyond his ability (thinking I'm teaching Kindergarten material that turns out to be first grade or beyond).

We also purchased All About Reading Level 1 and All About Spelling Level 1, with the plan to do AAR first (decoding), then AAS (encoding). The first step in these programs is to ascertain which phonemes the child already knows, and then set about learning the ones he does not know, so the program can proceed at any rate appropriate to the child.

LITERATURE

We're hope to read a zillion books, particularly classic ones.

HANDWRITING

We plan to use Zaner-Bloser Handwriting for Kindergarten, but it seems like a rather slim book, so I'm guessing we will have to proceed to copying edifying sentences later in the year.

POETRY

John will be memorizing poetry, mostly for the training it gives the brain in memorization, secondarily because poetry is edifying and knowing it creates a better writer. One resource for poems is The Harp and Laurel Wreath. The Mother of Divine Grace curriculum suggests that the child take about two weeks to memorize a poem, have the parent copy it down, then the child illustrates it, and save it in his Poetry Book.

Nature and Science

This year we plan mostly to read nature stories and go on field trips, not to begin a formal study of science. Books we plan to read from are: Christian Liberty Nature Reader Book 2, The Stories Mother Nature Told Her Children, Outdoor Secrets, The Burgess Books (Animal, Bird), and Old Mother West Wind.

ART, MUSIC, and FOREIGN LANGUAGE, and OTHERS

We plan to learn songs from Alan Jemison's 36 Traditional Roman Catholic Hymns. I have a lot of other ideas for small unit studies we might do. John will probably still participate in our parish's homeschool co-op on Friday afternoons, taking Art or Chess and being in the Lego Club, and then enjoying free play in the gymnasium after classes.

CATHOLIC SCHOOLHOUSE

One morning per week, John will be attending Catholic Schoolhouse, which is not quite a co-op for homeschoolers (the teachers are hired, not volunteering mothers, which is why it is not a co-op). Each week, the students (age 4 through high-school, broken into age groups) will be learning the same material at age-appropriate levels. If I am really on top of things, I will briefly introduce the material on Mondays and Tuesdays, John will be in class on Wednesdays, and we will review the material on Thursdays and Fridays, which will help him absorb it a lot more than if he sees it merely one morning per week. As an example, in Week 1, the children will learn about:

Saint: St. Cecilia

Latin: how to conjugate "voco"

Fine Arts: bass clef, treble clef, grand staff; Echo Song with B (they will be playing the recorder this year); Featured Art: Minoan Fresco; Concept: Line; Project: Animal Cave Art


History: Ancient Egypt, Creation, Noah's Ark, Sodom and Gomorrah, Fertile Crescent--Cradle of Civilization, First Farming--Sumerian Civilization


Science: Botany

Geography: The continents and oceans

Religion: John 6:47-51

Language Arts: The eight parts of speech

Math: Skip counting

Can you tell that I am excited?

And let me give a huge THANK YOU in advance to Chris who makes it all possible that I can be at home embarking on this educational endeavor.