In Kai's Words...

Kai and I recently had a conversation that took me by surprise. I thought he was just being goofy, but when he explained his reasoning, he left me wondering, "where does he come up with this stuff?"

We were pulling out of the driveway, and there were two big turkey vultures sitting in the field nearby. This is what ensued...

Kai: Mom, do you have to have special powers to be a superhero?

Mom: Yes.

Kai: Well, what about Batman? He doesn't have any special powers. He's just cool and tries to help people.

Mom: You're right! I guess you don't really need a special power, then.

Kai: Did you know that vultures are superheroes?

Mom: No, I've never heard that. I thought they were just birds.

Kai: Well, they are birds, but they help people because when they eat decaying animals, they prevent disease from getting in our water supply.

Planning for First Grade: Curriculum

I have such fond memories of first grade. I had such a fabulous teacher. She taught me much more than how to read and subtract money. There I learned many skills that are still useful to me today, including brainstorming, critical thinking, and feeling confident in your work.





Thinking back on my own experiences only reminds me that I want to make first grade a special time for Kai, too. I think what he learns and how it is presented will play a large role in this endeavor, and with that, here is what we have selected for our first grade curriculum.




Bible:

• Leading Little Ones to God

This book is set up with short lessons in a devotional style. For each idea, there is a brief discussion, a song, a prayer, and corresponding verses. I think this will be good because it provides good explanations for several questions Kai has had, like, "why can't we see God?" and "How does God answer our prayers?" The brevity will also help keep Kai's attention and ensure that we get it done each day.

• My Father's World - First Grade

This curriculum is actually much more than just a Bible curriculum (we plan to use it for phonics and science, also), but I think the Bible portions will really help to add to Kai's understanding of the Bible. Part way through the year, the student begins to read from the beginning Bible reader, Bible stories written in kid language. There are also timeline figures to help kids see the order of Biblical events and people. Memory verses are all from Proverbs this year. We have actually already started, and Kai and I have been making up hand motions to help him remember them.

Language Arts:

The bulk of Kai's phonics instruction will come from MFW -1. The Bible reader is his main reader for the year, but I did also get Sonlight's Readers 1 to go along with that. In addition to those, here's what we'll be adding in.

• Spelling Workout A

This spelling program is also phonics based. We'll do this as our schedule allows, but I think we will really get into the meat of it half way through the year or so when MFW's phonics instruction ends.

• First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind - Level 1

This book looks like it will be great for us. The lessons are oral, which helps us so much with two other little ones roaming the school room, and also on the short side. I'm hoping to do this during our morning meeting time.

• Handwriting without Tears - 1

We are already half-way through with the first grade book, but instead of rushing into the second grade book I think we will take our time with the Proverbs copywork from MFW and add in a few days of Writing With Ease 1 a few days a week to equals a whole year of writing.

Arithmetic:

• Singapore 1A/1B

Choosing a math curriculum was definitely the hardest choice for me this year. After much deliberating, spreadsheeting, pro/con list making, and talking with Donald, I finally settled on Singapore. So far math has been something that comes easily to Kai, and I'm hoping that this program will help him develop that even further.

Another change for math this year is that I have decided to break up our math time into two different time blocks. Math lab will be in the morning with all the kids. It'll be a time primarily for math manipulatives and games. I'm hoping this will convince the kids that math can be fun and let them focus on the thought process. There will be nothing to turn in and nothing graded. The second time period, the math lesson, will be in the afternoon during the little ones' nap time. This is when we will do our Singapore work.

Here are the resources I got for our math lab:

• Miquon orange and red

These workbooks are meant to go along with Cuisenaire rods and are designed to be set up with problem solving and a lab environment in mind.

• Evan-Moor Daily Word Problems 1

I'll let Kai work these by himself (unless he asks for help) on the whiteboard.

• Living math books and manipulatives galore

History:

• Story of the World, Volume 1

We'll be finishing up the second half of this book this year. We have enjoyed what we have done so far, and I'm looking forward to learning about Ancient Greece and Rome with Kai. He really gets into the stories, and I am glad we started a year early with this, so that we could take two years to get to it. There are so many extras that add so much to this. I don't know what we'll do next year when we have to actually cram all of volume 2 into just one year!

Science:

We'll be doing science a la Well Trained Mind this year. For first grade that includes life science: animals, plants, and the human body.

What We've Been Up To...

Whew! It's been a long time since I have written anything. We've had a busy year filled with learning to read, potty training, practicing riding a two-wheeler, taking care of the new baby, and juggling so many different people's schedules. Summer was a welcome break to the full days during the school year, and we've done our share of camping, reading, movie watching, traveling, and visiting with some of our favorite people.

I have also been busy, busy around here working on our new schedule, re-organizing the school room, and preparing our work for the new school year, first grade for Kai. I am getting exciting to return to a real routine. I am excited to share all about our school plans for fall, but first, here are some highlights from our summer:

We had a little kindergarten graduation ceremony for Kai, complete with Pomp and Circumstance. He wore Mommy's cap & gown and Daddy's tassel, and he recited all of his memory work. He loved it!

He got all O's (Outstanding) on his report card.

We headed off to Florida with Grandma Rose.

Kael finished his tiny tots sports class. (He is so proud of his medal.)

Koen had his first trip to the beach.

Kai joined a cub scout den! Here he is at the bridging ceremony, where he received his Tiger Cub neckerchief and handbook.

He also participated in the cub scout pack's cubannapolis box car race.

The whole family helped out on his pit crew.

Koen learned to sit up, crawl, and stand up on his own. He is growing up soo fast!