Kindergarten week 1 pictures and curriculum

Sunshine Girl has been so excited to begin Kindergarten this year.  This girl loves to learn.  We were originally scheduled to start school on August 15.  Seven days before that, Sunshine Girl started counting down the days until the beginning of school.  Every morning, she would run to us with her little fingers showing the number of days and exclaim, “Only six {five, four…} days until school starts!” 

Imagine how upset she was when the big day finally arrived and she woke up sick!  I really thought her first day of school would not really be enjoyable with a fever and a cough so I postponed the first day of school.  She tried her best to persuade me to go ahead with the school plans but by mid-day, she was feeling worse so it all worked out for the best.

A week later we finally got to have Sunshine’s first day of Kindergarten.  She was thrilled!  Little Brother, who is three, sits in on his sister’s lessons just like he has for the last three years.  I was actually surprised on the first day of school how much he all ready knew.  I’m not pushing him at all.  If he shows interest in what we are doing then he is more than welcome to join us and learn with us.  Today he became bored with an alphabet game we were playing so he went on to play something else. 

We are loving our activity bags from the swap we participate in during July.  The two little ones sit on a blanket during the older kids’ Bible and memory work time and work on the activity bags. 

Sometimes I need to keep the little ones occupied while I teach the older kids.  I wrote here about some of the activities that I keep on hand in plastic shoe boxes that I can easily grab and distribute.  Also listed in that post are links to sites that offer wonderful printables and activities that I keep on hand for fun extra practice. 

Our Kindergarten Curriculum for 2011 – 2012

My Father’s World Kindergarten

Abeka’s Letters and Sounds (phonics)*

Essential Math (Singapore)**

Language Lessons for Little Ones

In Kindergarten, we mainly focus on learning to read, write, and do basic math.  And we read a lot of books!  The little ones also listen in on the lessons of the older kids.  Today the little ones could almost repeat the entire list of pronouns that the older children were memorizing!  I am amazed at what they pick up! 

In addition to the above, Sunshine Girl will also be participating in:

Nature Study, Artist and Composer Studies, Learning to read music, Children’s Choir, Running Club, and Field Trips.

(Possibly piano lessons too if we can figure out how to get the piano that my Mom has given us to our house.)

Notes about the curriculum:

* Both My Father’s World and Abeka’s Letters and Sounds teaches children how to read.  After looking at My Father’s World, I realized that it may move a little too slowly for Sunshine Girl.  She is so ready to read.  I decided to supplement with Abeka’s reading.  I’m not quite sure how I’m going to meld both of them together but I just love MFW (My Father’s World) so I’m going to do both…unless it proves to be too much.  I’ll keep you posted on that.  I am also adding in sight words to her reading lessons that I get from 1+1+1=1. 

** MFW has math integrated into it but Sunshine wanted a math book so badly.  I almost went with Horizons having used it before with one of my older boys but I decided to go with Singapore’s Essential Math.  We haven’t received it yet but Sunshine Girl talks everyday about getting that math book.  She can’t wait! 

So far our Kindergarten is off to a great start.  We are just beginning week 2 and all ready, Sunshine Girl is learning so much.  She is so much fun to teach because she really, really wants to learn to read!  It is so exciting.  {smile}