Family

Family

Saturday, July 31, 2010

What I Am Using to Teach My Soon-to-Be Six Year Old

How is that for a title?  I refuse to put a grade level on my children and they have refused to fit into any one grade level anyway, so I just go by their ages.   Jackson is my sixth child and most of his "academics" has happened by the trickle-down effect.  We haven't spent a whole lot of time doing the typical kindergarten stuff. Please, don't ask him to identify his letters or ask him to count to 20.  You might embarrass him and we don't want to do that!   He knows lots about early American history, a good bit of science via Moody Science dvd's. knows how to cut down a tree, knows how to drive a nail straight, can identify lots of tools his daddy uses around the house, gets read to a lot, has been riding a two-wheeler for two years and has watched more BBC movies based on great English literature (Dickens and Austin) than any almost 6 year old should watch!

He is also "writing" notes and letters to people and copying from the Bible and other books.  Something tells me he is now a little bit more ready for a little more formal learning.  So what will we be doing?

-Bible-In addition to our morning and evening Bible times, I am reading through The Child's Story Bible by Catherine F. Vos with Jackson and having him narrate back to me.

-Math U See Primer--we have done Singapore's first book for kindergarten and we are on lesson 10 now in MUS

-Phonics-Go for the Code book C and Explode the Code books 1 and 1 1/2

-more reading and language skills-Learning Language Arts through Literature Blue Book

-speech therapy-Super Star Speech--Jackson has a few speech delays.  I had him tested and he was on the verge of needing therapy.  The therapist suggested I work with him at home ; ).  A few months later I found this curriculum written by a homeschool mom who just happens to be a speech therapist.  We have used this every day this week and he really is enjoying the games so far.

-even more reading-we are reading character stories from A Hive of Busy Bees and Another Hive of Busy Bees.  We have two sets of books that contain short stories and poems that I am reading to Jackson and Caedmon when he will sit still.  One set is an old series of books with wonderfully old stories and poems.   Collier's Junior Classics:  The Young Folks Shelf of Books is a set of ten books that I purchased from our library bookstore for 10 dollars a few  years ago.  I never really looked them through until this year and what a treasure trove!!  The first section of the first book has lots of nursery rhymes, the second section contains wonderful stories like Henny Penny, Mr. and Mrs. Vinegar and The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  No PC stories in here! There is much more poetry and more wonderful stories by Slobodkin, Petersham, Flack, Anderson, Lear, Margaret Wise Brown and many others.  Favorite authors from years gone by!  We are really enjoying this time together and I can see lots of material for copywork and memorization as he gets proficient in writing.

-geography -yes, we are doing geography!  Trickle down, remember.  We got bogged down in sicknesses last semester and dropped our study of Africa.  Well, my brother is now there in the Congo and we really need to know our African history and geography.  As the older children study Africa, Jackson will be creating an ABC book of Africa using Cindy Rushton's ABC Book forms. Kaelan made one when she was five and it is a treasure!!  We will also be doing KONOS activities relating to Africa two days a week.  Lots of crafts and cooking!!  And more reading together as well.

-history-We are continuing in our American history studies.  Currently we are finishing up the Revolutionary War by reading out loud, watching Drive Thru History and other movies  and doing coloring sheets related to the war.

-science-Jackson will do some physical science topics this year again trickling down from the older ones studies.  We will mainly focus on weather and simple machines using KONOS.

-art--as time permits we will be using Barry Stebbing's Baby Lamb's book

Did I leave anything out?  I looks like a tremendous amount, but his one-on-one time with me only lasts about 1 1/2-2 hours and we will divide that up into two segments.

2 comments:

Celee said...

Thanks for informing me about super star speech. My brilliant 9 yr old daughter has trouble with her "s"es. It doesn't bother me, but my husband is concerned and wants me to take her to speech therapy. I would love to try it at home first. Thanks again!

Celee

Renee M said...

Hope you and Jackson enjoy all that you will be learning together this year. It's such a fun age when they are soaking up so much!

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