First Week of Homeschool Preschool

This was our first week of official homeschool preschool.  It went as well as I could hope.  Lydia seems ready so far for all the resources I chose for her, which was my biggest fear.  I'm finding that I am really enjoying teaching her.

Math:
We started Singapore Essentials A a few weeks ago because I wanted to.  It's the only resource we started early, but Lydia loves it.  We do several pages most days and I usually have to cut her off.  So far she's done really well except with the same/different concept.  I'm pretty sure that is mostly a language issue, though, not a concept issue.  I will definitely keep working on it though.  She completely through page 60.  The other issue is that she is mostly not ready to start writing yet, so as a result, we are doing a lot of it orally.

Reading:
Since Lydia has known her letters and sounds since before her 2nd birthday, we skipped that part of Ordinary Parent's Guide and started with basic blending.  Yesterday, Lydia read her first word "at," and today she moved onto her first 3-letter words, "cat," "sat," and "bat."  We completed through Lesson 28.  She seemed very proud of herself as we did the lesson with her upside down on the couch because she was too hyper to sit still.

The first day I tried it, I used the book and she whined and was not interested at all.  So the next day we did reading, I got out the magnet letters and a cookie sheet and after pre-reading the lesson, taught it without the book.  This went over WAY better and I think I'll just keep doing that.

Read-Alouds:
I decided that the general theme I will have for this year's read-alouds is fairytales, myths, and legends.  It's not rigid, but it gives me a starting point.  To start off, we are reading the D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths.  We got through the creation story, the battle of the Titans, and we learned about Olympus.  We also read several picture books that the girls enjoy, and we continue to do family scripture study every evening, which mostly consists of reading The Book of Mormon out loud to the girls.

Memorization/Calendar Time:
Every day, we talked about the month, day, season, and year.  We also talked about the days of the week and listed them.  Afterwards, we worked on our first memorization selection, the 1st Article of Faith.  I think Lydia will have it memorized by the end of next week, plus or minus a few days.

ETA:  I was wrong!  She already has it memorized.  I took a video of her saying it all by herself (not very clearly and slowly, but it is there.)

Miscellaneous:
Lydia got through page 14 of Rod and Staff's About Three preschool workbook.  It is mostly a pre-writing, preschool skills book and she enjoys it.

That was our school week.  We enjoyed it very much and I'm excited to teach my little girl more!

Goals and Current Milestones

Our official first day of Pre-K is going to be August 6th.  Lydia will be 4 years old and I think I will be ready gathering materials, learning methods, and psyching myself up.  Currently, we're doing some unofficial activities, like playing with c-rods, letter magnets, coloring, counting things, etc.  At the end of August, she will also be starting soccer and dance.  We plan on doing "official" school at least 3 or 4 days a week.

For my own records, I though I'd list some of the things Lydia can do right now before school starts so I can tell what kind of progress she's made at the end of the year.

Reading/Spelling: Right now she knows and recognizes all the letters and their sounds.  She can occasionally tell me the first letter of a word when she hears it.  She can also spell her name using magnet letters without any help.

Math: She can currently count to 20 without help and recognize numbers 1-12 when written.  She can mostly count small numbers of objects (10 or less) and tell me how many of something there is, but sometimes double counts things or guesses.

My goals for this year are to have her reading at least cvc word on her own.  I want to complete Essential Math A and MEP Reception for math and be able to count to 50 or more on her own.  I'd also like for her to be able to write her own name.

I think these goals are attainable, but if not, that's ok.  If she completes these early, I'll write up new goals. 

Memorization Plans

I consider memorization to be incredibly important.  There are many reasons I want my children to memorize things, but I'm not going to get into them here.  This post is for my plans for this school year.  Like my other plans mentioned, I have no idea at all about how much Lydia will be able to memorize.  I went with a good estimate of what I think she is capable, but if she doesn't complete this list, that's ok.  And if she needs more, well, I'll just find more!

I've divided the types of memorization I want for my girls into three types.  The first is religious memorization: scriptures, lists, and quotes that are important.  The second is literature: poems, passages, great speeches, and other quotes.  The third is sort of a miscellaneous section, mostly reserved for lists of facts, timelines, and geography.

As Lydia will be turning 4 soon, I'm trying not to have her do anything to long or complicated.  The scriptures, poems, and lists I picked are fairly simple.  I will cross them out as we master them, but we will continue to review them several times a week.

Religion: 

• Article of Faith 1:We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
• Article of Faith 2: We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression.
• Article of Faith 3: We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
• Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
• Mosiah 2:17: And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.
• Amos 3:7: Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.
• John 14:15: If ye love me, keep my commandments.
• D&C 82:10: I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.
• Primary Program part: "Jesus Christ is the perfect example for me. My favorite story about Jesus is when he helped Peter walk on the water."
• John 7:17: If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.   

Literature:

"Who Has Seen the Wind" by Christina Rossetti

Who has seen the wind?

Neither I nor you.

But when the leaves hang trembling,

The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?

Neither you nor I.

But when the trees bow down their heads,

The wind is passing by.

"The Falling Star" by Sara Teasdale  

I saw a star slide down the sky,
Blinding the north as it went by,
Too burning and too quick to hold,
Too lovely to be bought or sold,
Good only to make wishes on
And then forever to be gone.

"At the Seaside" by Robert Louis Stevenson
When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
To dig the sandy shore.

My holes were empty like a cup.
In every hole the sea came up,
Till it could come no more.

"Happy Thought" by Robert Louis Stevenson
The world is so full of a number of things,
I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.

"The Rainbow" by Walter de la Mare
I saw the lovely arch
Of Rainbow span the sky,
The gold sun burning
As the rain swept by.

In bright-ringed solitude
The showery foliage shone
One lovely moment—
And the Bow was gone.

"A dragon-fly" by Eleanor Farjeon
When the heat of the summer
Made drowsy the land,
A dragon-fly came
And sat on my hand

With blue jointed body,
And wings like spun glass,
It lit on my fingers
As though it were grass.

"Sweet and Low" by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Sweet and low, sweet and low,
Wind of the western sea,
Low, low, breathe and blow,
Wind of the western sea!
Over the rolling waters go,
Come from the dying moon, and blow,
Blow him again to me;
While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps.

Sleep and rest, sleep and rest,
Father will come to thee soon;
Rest, rest, on mother's breast,
Father will come to thee soon;
Father will come to his babe in the best,
Silver sails all out of the west,
Under the silver moon:
Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep. 


Facts and Lists:

• Names of the Continents (and places on a map)
• Names of the Oceans (and places on a map)
• The 8 planets
• The 4 points of a compass
• Colors in a rainbow
• Her own full name as well as parents' names
• Mom's phone number

Math Plans

The other main area that I want to focus this year is the beginnings of math understanding.  Lydia can count to 20 and can count objects as well.  This year I'm hoping to instill a little more understanding like bigger/smaller, greater than/less than, equal numbers of things, and the beginnings of arithmetic.  I have no idea if this is too large of an order for her this year, but those are my goals.  I have a few math programs that I want to work through slowly with her, and just like reading, I have several supplementary math programs as well.

Miquon is one of the weirder math programs out there.  It is from the 70s and is sort of abstract, for lack of a better term.  It makes great use of Cuisenaire rods.  It is a program meant to be used through 3rd grade and is supposed to be especially good at understanding the why of math.  I've read tons about it and it sounds very promising, but I'm not sure how its unique approach will go over with Lydia.  It's something I'm going to have to wait and see.

Speaking of Cuisenaire rods, I recently acquired this book, Idea Book for Cuisenaire Rods. I plan on using it in conjunction with Miquon Math.  It has a bunch of games and activities to use to teach math concepts using the rods.

A more traditional, but still not quite traditional math program that I'm planning on using is Singapore Essentials Math A (and B too, when we get there).  I plan on making Singapore Primary Math our spine when Lydia starts grade school math, and I liked the look of these workbooks.  It looks like they will definitely help me in my goal of helping her cement the pre-math concepts she'll need later on.

Finally, the last main resource I plan on using for math is Mathematics Enhancement Programme, also known as MEP.  It's a completely free program written for schools and put out by the British government.  It's a little more concept-centric than a standard math program as well.  I plan to focus on the Reception (Kindergarten/Preschool) level.  This one is great because I can do it almost completely on Lydia's new iPad because it is all in PDF.

As with reading, I have several supplementary resources to use.  One of these is Kitchen Table Math.  This is less of a curriculum and more of a guide on how to teach math concepts. There are several websites (too many to list) that have worksheets you can print for different math concepts.  I also have been acquiring many math manipulatives (counters, Cuisenaire rods, pattern plocks, etc.), and more recently, I've been exploring the world of iPad apps to teach math.  It's too soon to tell if I'll use any of them.

So that's it for math.  I don't have a particular timeline that I feel she needs to learn any of these things yet, and I have I have a feeling she will probably get stuck several times, but hopefully we can make some progress this year!

Reading Plans

Lydia has known her letters and basic letter sounds since before she could really even talk (thanks Leap Frog Letter Factory!)  I have planned for a long time to take her through a thorough phonics program.  The phonics program I've chosen to be my spine is The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.  It's the first homeschooling book I bought after The Well-Trained Mind.

For those who don't know, a "spine" is the main book in a curriculum plan.  You use it as a guide or sometimes the only resource and then supplement in a child's weak areas as needed.  I'm not sure how well Lydia will do with a straight phonics approach or if she'll need more help.  OPGTR is a mostly no-nonsense approach.  If Lydia doesn't respond to it, I plan on at least using it as reference to make sure we've covered everything.

Another major resource I plan on utilizing if needed is Phonics Pathways.  This is another very thorough reading program, but it approaches reading a little more visually than OPGTR.  Either would work as a spine, I just like OPGTR better.

I have numerous supplements and readers and back-up spines that would all be fine to use if I end up needing them.  Progressive Phonics and Funnix are both complete reading curricula in their own right.  Progressive Phonics uses a series of readers that the parent and child do together to develop skills.  Funnix is a computer-based program with many lessons and worksheets that work together to teach the basics of reading.

BOB books, I See Sam readers, Reading Eggs, and Starfall are all a bit more supplementary.  BOB books are a series of readers that start very simply and get more complex.  They are great because children can start reading books early, giving them a sense of accomplishment fairly early on.  The I See Sam readers are similar.  Reading Eggs and Starfall are online websites with games that teach phonics skills.

Finally, we recently ordered Lydia an iPad, and I've found several apps that may help us.  I haven't had a chance to look at them yet, so I can't say if they are any good or not.

Like I said in my earlier post, I don't plan on using all of these unless I have to.  Lydia may pick up reading with very little difficulty or we could be at it for the next several years.  It is just hard to tell, but I do have a direction and a place to start!

Starting Up Again

Since my last post, we've had numerous changes with our family.  We've added a member (Adelaide), we moved, Lydia started and stopped preschool, and we finally received a diagnoses for her that should help us understand her more.

Now that we're starting to get settled in our new house, I've been thinking ahead.  Lydia turns 4 in a few months and I'd really like to begin to help her learn to read and work on math skills.  I have already begun to compile many resources to help with that and will be making posts in the future about my plans.

One of the challenges with Lydia is that I have no idea how fast she'll be able to progress and what types of resources will work for her.  As a result, I've been researching and acquiring many more programs and resources than I could ever use.  We'll take what works from them and leave what doesn't, but know that I have no intention of completing every program I talk about.

I look forward to blogging about our plans, our successes, and our flops!

Well, Hello There!

It has been several months since I wrote anything for this blog, and I'm sorry about that!  It has been a very busy few months.  What with the new pregnancy, a few weddings across the country, Christmas, and Lydia's almost daily therapy appointments, I've been pretty swamped.  I am, however, looking to start getting back into a routine before the baby comes (in April!).

I've been a little bit of a slacker when it comes to read alouds lately.  We read  The Invention of Hugo Cabret.  Lydia thoroughly enjoyed this.  I think it was partially because it had a large number of pictures for such a long book.  She also seemed to enjoy the moon theme throughout as well.  This book only took us a few days to read, but I thought it was charming.

Based on my husband's recommendation, we're currently reading The Phantom Tollbooth.  I've never read it before, but so far it is good.  Like most of our read alouds at this point, I'm pretty sure it is going over Lydia's head, but she still really enjoys sitting and reading a chapter or two with me most of the time.  I got this one from the library on my Kindle, which is very handy!

Tyler continues to read picture books to the girls every night.  Lydia's current favorite picture book is Joseph had a Little Overcoat, which she refers to as "The Button Book."  I really like this one and enjoy the illustrations.  The other books they read on a regular basis include Where the Wild Things Are, Fox in Sox, Green Eggs and Ham, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

We've shelved most other preschooly things over the last few months.  As I mentioned, Lydia is in therapy 4 times a week and I've been working on her therapists' suggestions.  I'm interested to see where she is in the fall, because she turns 4 and could possibly start some "real" preschool activities, but I'm not sure if she'll be ready or not.  In the meantime, we'll continue to play outside, do read alouds, and put together puzzles.  Lydia is really good at all the 24-piece puzzles she has.  I'm looking to step her up a notch here soon (48 pieces maybe?).

Lydia has really taken to Vivaldi.  You might remember our Vivaldi "music study" we did probably a year ago?  It was basically just a playlist we played every day.  Well, for the last several months, she asks to "listen Valdi" every morning.  I have to say I'm getting quite bored of the Four Seasons.  She liked the Mozart playlist I made her ok, and will usually ask for it later in the day.  I've made a new playlist of Mendelssohn, based on the Ambleside Online recommendations.  Here's a link to it on Grooveshark.  I think she'll enjoy it once she gets used to it.