Well, we now have one quarter of Kindergarten behind us, and already I feel like we are in a much different place than when the year began. Kai has already learned a lot, and a lot about our schedule and school routine has also changed. Here is a look at where we are in each subject.
Language Arts
Reading: Kai is already reading much better than he was when we started school in September. He is catching on to several sight words, and he is reading CVC more fluently without nearly as much pause to sound them out. He is about 3/4 of the way through his Primary Phonics 1 workbook, and I hope to start book 2 right around Christmas. I am starting to introduce CVCC and CCVC words too, as well as long vowel sounds through flashcards and Step 1 readers, since his workbook is not there yet. He is picking it up quickly. He has read through all of the set 1 BOB books, and is working his way through set 2.
Writing: Kai's handwriting has improved so much! Looking at samples from just a short while ago compared to now, it's hard to tell they were done by the same person. He is all done with the lower case letters in his Handwriting without Tears Kindergarten book. We have a few pages of sentences and poems to finish still. After he is done, we have another Kindergarten book that we will go through slowly over the year to reinforce his good handwriting habits. We will also add in some copy work, and start some very short journal writing next semester.
Literature: We are slowly working our way through the books in Five in a Row, volume 1. So far, we have done The Story About Ping, Who Owns the Sun?, Grandfather's Journey, Madeline, The Rag Coat, and How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. We have enjoyed several of the activities, particularly from Ping and Madeline. Kai also liked doing the food pyramid and planning a healthy meal activities from Sun. We also made the homeschoolshare lapbook for Grandfather's Journey. I will post about that later. We have also completed Henry Huggins as our read aloud. We still have Stuart Little to finish, and then we will begin, The Tarantula in My Purse.
Here is Kai reading his first step 1 book about Hot Wheels. It featured all of the color words he has been practicing.
Math
We are slowly plugging along in Saxon Math. We are around lesson 30 in the first grade book. Kai does very well with each lesson and worksheet. So far, he has picked up all of the ideas very quickly. He has memorized the double addition facts up to 10, and he is very proud of that. The reason we are not moving along more quickly is mainly because of me. I have found it difficult to read through the scripted lesson before we work on it and prep all of the materials the night before. I am still hoping to get better at this. We are still on track to be half way done by the end of the semester though, so I am happy about that. I have also been supplementing Saxon with addition books from Enchanted Learning and some Singapore math worksheets, so I feel like he is doing well in this subject.
Social Studies
We are about to begin chapter 5 in The Story of the World: Volume 1. We are working very slowly in this book on purpose to stretch it out over two years, study what he is interested in more in depth, and go at his own pace. Even though each section is only maybe 2 1/2 or 3 pages, I have a hard time keeping Kai's attention for the whole time. We have also been tweaking the way that he does his narrations, so that they are not as frustrating for him. I start by listening to his narration as is, then I ask the review questions for anything that he might have left out. Some things he remembers the answers to, and some he doesn't. I try to go over the answers in the reading to the ones that he didn't know, then we talk about them again later in the week.
Our favorite activities from this book so far have been an archaeology dig, making a cuneiform tablet that says "Kai," and reading through the supplemental Egypt books. We have also enjoyed a few shows about Ancient Egypt from the History Channel. We are currently working on an Egypt lapbook. I am hoping to finish that up this next week.
Here are a few pics from our archaeology dig we did to go along with the introduction, while we were learning how people learn about history. Kai found several things that Daddy hid that represented what a typical family from today might leave behind.
Science
We have been working our way through the Evan Moor Read and Understand Science series in addition to the science from our My Father's World Kindergarten curriculum. So far we have learned about the sun, moon, shadows, why we have day & night, and leaves in both programs. We have been going very slowly through MFW, partially because we've been busy, but it has also been nice to stay with the same topic in both of these.
These pictures show the progression from our sun experiment, how grapes turn into raisins. I did not take a photo everyday (we put them outside everyday for two weeks), but you can get a good idea of what they started like and how they ended up.
