Homeschooling Kindergarten

Homeschooling kindergarten is fun, almost as much fun as preschool. We started preschool because Miss Pear was begging to learn to read so she could read her Bible (still working on that, but making progress), and math so she could read recipes.

Definitely my girl.

We start the morning with Bible time at the breakfast table reading:

1. Everything a Child Should Know about God
   Excellent basic Bible doctrine
   
2. The New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes
   
3. A chapter of the Gospels. We are in Mark right now, when we get to the end of John we head back to the start of Matthew.
   

We then have reading time, picture books first and we always start with God Knows My Name and then read about 3-5 others, and then have chapter book reading time.

We then take a break, I tidy the kitchen and get some things like laundry started and it is time to start school.

Baby tags along with us, doing what she can, playing with brain food toys in her highchair and reading books, playing under the table at my feet, sitting in Daddy's chair and coloring, then running off to play.

Or Core, or official like type stuff is:

1. Saxon Math 1 (we did K for preschool, it is fun math toys that sneak in learning, and so far Miss Pear is handling this easily).
2. A Reason For Handwriting A (Yes, the grade 1 level, we did the K one for preschool).
   
3. Rod and Staff Reading and Phonics Grade 1 (first level offered, and Miss Pear is handling it easy and asking to do more than the day's lesson)

(Daddy and Miss Pear have a "reading meeting" in the evening after supper and are going through Alphaphonics).

If we sat down and just plowed through this we would be done in 1.5 - 2 hours. But no body would be having any fun, and it would quickly become drudgery. So if the Math lesson was longer than usual like yesterday's one where we made a pictograph then we take our first recess there, otherwise we do math and handwriting, have recess and come back for reading and phonics. So this ends up taking us almost until lunch, but we have fun, and the fact that we don't rush seems to help Miss Pear get it much easier.

Starting in September, on Tuesday mornings we will be doing Classical Conversations.

After this is done we can be done for the day if we want, and usually we are as far as formal learning goes. After this the rule is to feed the curiosity. So we explore science topics, social studies things, read about art, craft, and learn to do things around the house. Miss Pear wants to know how to do everything, so when I do laundry I show her how the washer works etc. She also wants to cook, so I am constantly on the hunt for things she can make. Today at lunch she made banana yogurt salad and mostly assembled the grilled cheese sandwiches herself (I grilled them). It is fun.

In a lot of ways we fall nicely into the classical model of education, but our love for reading also ends up placing us in the Charlotte Mason method, and our practice of feeding the curiosity puts us a little bit in the unschooling method. I don't really worry about what method we use, I just concentrate on what works for my family and how we learn.

All in all, I am having a GREAT time!