Month in Review-September 2012

Corn Maze Flashbacks and Present Day

Wiggles @ 2 and Wiggles @ 5 at the corn maze!

Artspace Field Trip

4H Cloverbud Fun

K12 Learning

The history for K12 kindergarten is really pretty neat.  The kids make a passport in one of the first few lessons and learn about travelling.  They then go on to make suitcases for the continents and “travel” to each country. 

Wiggles already knows how to read and write.  He is in the making creative writing stage and wanting to make words into sentences.  His birthday kept him from starting 1st this year even though he was ready for 1st grade work.  We are working hard to finish out the kindergarten work quickly.  Here he is doing his non-k12 work. He is practicing spelling these words.

He was practicing subtraction with the counters.  Just for fun, I threw in the picture of Wiggles Lorax.

2012-2013 Kindergarten Begins!

 

It is a K12 kind of year. 

Phonics

Language Skills

Handwriting Without Tears

Music

Art

History

Science

It is a K12 kind of year.

Week in Review Week 1&2

Reading About History

We learned that history is made up of true stories about many important people and events.  We learned our lives have a history and made a mini family tree.

science discovery

We learned about light and all of the different colors, textures, shapes, and sizes of things that we see.  We took a flashlight and beamed it around the room.  We described the objects with words like numbers, colors, textures, shapes and sizes.  We also discussed and described things that are outside in nature or in space. 

Later in the week, we took 2 pieces of construction paper side by side.  They were brown and blue.  One represented the land and the other represented water.  I called out different animals-both land and water animals.  Wiggles had to jump from one to the other depending on the animal.

artistic expression

fine motor skills/phonics

Wiggles enjoys his R&S Preschool books.  He is working on Do It Carefully right now.  He still needs to work on his fine motor skills a lot.  He is a young kindergartener (4.5 yrs old) and a boy.

His current phonics program is Reading Eggs.  I got our subscription through Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op and it was well worth it.  He is already through Map 1 and can read small sentences.  He read I am a cat after completing the above page.

I originally purchased A Reason for Handwriting K for him.  His older brother had used it and all of my other kiddos had learned traditional ball and stick manuscript.  However, his worksheets for Reading Eggs are more of a Getty & Dubay Italic style.  He gets handwriting practice with these worksheets.  I also feel it is easier for him.  I wish that I would have done this style with my older son who still has horrible manuscript. 

storytime

Wiggles is really enjoying Reddy Fox and his attention span is doing well with it so far.  Here is his warning to Reddy about being so bold.  He wanted to tell Reddy not to go in the sunlight to catch chickens.  The drawing on the top is Reddy Fox catching a chicken and a hen house and well I am not sure what else.  He enjoyed it though.

math exploration

Wiggles is using Singapore Essential Math Kindergarten A&B this year.  I chose this for several reasons. 

I plan to have Wiggles run through LHFHG over 2 years.  I did not want to start him in the Singapore Earlybird series as his fine motor skills are not ready for some of it.  This is a nice compromise and the B book is comparable to the Earlybird series.  The A book will get him some much needed coloring and writing practice.

I am not requiring him to write in pencil for anything.  If he chooses to do so that is fine.  He is mainly using very fat crayons.  This is really helping him. 

Wiggles also still switches back and forth for writing and coloring between his left and right hand.  I am not giving any sway in this at all.  I just help him with his grip and paper placement for whichever hand he chooses at the time.

Homeschool Group

We went to the corn maze and it was a blast.  We belong to a great homeschool group.  The kids all got to ride on the hayride to the pumpkin patch and pick out a pumpkin.  There was an animal show, pig races, zip line, and much more….

We have a super homeschool Dad at the co-op that takes our school pictures for our co-op yearbook!  Here are Wiggles pictures.  They turned out great.  My oldest dd, Spiritheart, is in the yearbook class this year and will help put the yearbook together.

This was our first Unit in LHFHG.  We are taking it slow and spread it out over 2 weeks.  It is a great start though and we are really enjoying it!

LHFHG Week 1

Wiggles first week with HOD LHFHG has been great.  He is doing really well listening and following directions.

I only have a few pictures of him doing his Hooked on Phonics on the laptop and in his workbook.

I will try to take more pics next week.

Long overdue update!

This past year has not been without it’s hurdles to overcome.  All of my plans for this year have ultimately changed for many different reasons.  Ultimately, life changed.

We pulled Aaron from day school suddenly when my Mom was diagnosed with Stage 3B Colorectal Cancer.  We spent from March through mid-June in Georgia.  The kids and I stayed through her surgery to remove the tumor as well as her recovery and beginning stages of chemo treatment.  My sister has been there for the chemo treatments.  With lots of prayers, my Mom is doing well and over halfway through her treatment.  Things are looking up and hopefully she will finish treatment in October and be cancer free.

During our time in Georgia, I tried to keep the kid’s lives as normal as possible.  We signed up for soccer.  They played outside often.  We tried to school some. 

When we returned home and I looked through Calvert’s preschool, it was too easy for Wiggles.  Abeka’s k-4 was too intense for my taste.  We settled on starting Wiggles as a young kindergartener with Heart of Dakota’s Little Hearts for His Glory.

I hope to keep up with the blog more this year.

Next Year’s Curriculum Decision

I have purchased both Calvert’s pre-k and Abeka’s k-4.  The plan is to start with Calvert and after it is completed to do Abeka’s k-4.  Then I will make a decision about which works better for us.  I may love Calvert so much that I will skip Abeka’s k-4.  I don’t know.

Wiggles is finishing up his year of day school.  He is enjoying it and it has gone well.  I am looking forward to him coming home next year though.

I will probably keep his schooling on this blog until he starts 1st grade.

It’s been a long while!

It has been a long while since I have blogged on Wiggle’s blog.  He is still in day school and still doing well.  He has had a chronic cough since about November and I took him in to the doctor and found out it is bronchitis.  He started antibiotics today and hopefully will be much better soon.

He will be staying home next year with the big kids.  I am debating what curriculum to use.  I do have a short list though and it is down to Abeka or Calvert.

or

Ultimately, I am ordering all from one place this year so my decision weighs heavily on how I like the older grades as well.