The Learning Umbrella

Carbon turns 5 next month, and we are “officially” starting Kindergarten after his birthday.  As year-round schoolers, we don’t see a need to wait until Fall.

So I get to make plans!  The schedule is going to be a short “pull out” for Carbon 2 days a week, and then gradually moving up to 4 days a week.  He’ll still get the “school time” with the daycare preschoolers, and then this Kindergarten time will be something special just for him. 

The “3 R’s” 

Because handwriting is just worksheets, he’ll keep doing that during preschool time. 

He’ll also have worksheets for math during that time.  The rest of math will most likely be the Miquon Math Lab with cuisenaire rods.  The emphasis for us is on truly understanding the number line and being able to count, skip count, backwards count, etc.  Then we will start a very small amount of addition, always using real physical objects and NEVER counting on our fingers.

Reading continues to be his least favorite subject, and he has very little interest in learning to read.  Staying true to my belief in biological brain growth and timetables, I’m not going to push.  We’ll keep doing the write-to-read books that we’ve been making, and he’s getting very good at rhyming and loves to write those.  We’ll also keep reading to him, and modeling a love of reading.  Then I’m going to introduce a very small amount of sight-word flashcards and phonics instruction.

The basics will be covered.  Now I get to plan the fun stuff.