Some of what we're actually doing right now

In my last post, I wrote that we are only doing bare-bones of My Father's World kindergarten at this point, pulling in the literature, science topics/projects, arts & crafts, and Bible discussions.

This semester, we are doing:

All About Reading level 2 -- this phonics program has been wonderful for my son. I omit some of the activities, as they are overkill for him, but he does all of the fluency pages and stories in his readers. We don't use the magnet tiles, though I suspect I will use them when we start spelling. We also skip the activity pages. We did them for level 1, but J would rather just read the words instead of doing some sort of workbook page. The activities are fun, but eh. The goal is reading fluently. Workbook not necessary for that.

I did a quick online reading level assessment to see where his reading level might stack up. He placed between 4-6th grade reading level, depending on the test. Cool.

Today, he finished lesson #29/51. We'll wrap this level up at some point soon. I'm not putting the date on the calendar, in case we hit a wall or something. I own AAR level 3 already and I expect we'll just keep trotting along with that.

RightStart math level A -- we took a huge break with RightStart awhile back, and resumed in January. J has completed lesson 51/132ish. So. Hmm. I refuse to say that we are "behind." Behind WHAT? Nothin', that's what. We will keep moving at a comfortable pace, and we'll finish when we finish. I know that level B will cover a lot of the same concepts early in that level.

Handwriting -- Handwriting Without Tears K -- oh, handwriting. Somehow it is the subject of most resistance at the moment. We are still in capitals. Johnny enjoys writing on his own, but his letter formation is off, he doesn't do lowercase, and the sizing and spacing isn't so great. I know a lot of this will come with time and continued practice, plus other fine-motor activities to help those little hand muscles do their work.

I liked that I could sneak some handwriting practice in the other day, when they were signing Valentine's cards for their friends! We are going to a Valentine's Day party next week with some other homeschoolers. I'm bringing some books to read-aloud. So excited.

Bible -- we start our day off with something Bible. Sometimes I'll pull it from the MFWK materials, or I'll grab a devotional, or the Bible coloring book and accompanying storybook we have. It's nice.

My goal is to hit the 3Rs plus Bible at minimum for a school day. You might be surprised at how quickly we can accomplish it. It's focused work. Everything else, the frequency varies.

History -- I'm slowly starting some history. We've read the first 7 chapters of History for Little Pilgrims, which gives a very quick overview sweep of history. I have added some library books to go along, pulled from my All Through the Ages book guide. I'll probably stick with that approach for a few months. Perhaps I'll start adding titles from our TruthQuest History guide, or maybe I'll wait until the fall.

Poetry -- I love Charlotte Mason's ideas, and as part of "spreading a feast before my children," I want to add these elements to my children's education. I've read poetry to them before of course, but now I'm being more deliberate with the frequency. Even a few minutes of reading poetry can be beneficial. I am using "Favorite Poems of Childhood." So far, so good. After that, "Favorite Poems, Old and New."

Mason advocated sticking with one poet for a time, lingering with that poet. Read a biography about him or her, soak up the poems, maybe do some narration. (More on poetry the Simply Charlotte Mason way, which is a leeetle different than Charlotte Mason, I think).

Music -- We had a blast playing Christmas music from late November through oh, now, slowly tapering. An added bonus, the kids really learned a lot of songs. It helped that they were part of the Christmas program at church, but I think playing Christmas music on Pandora helped them know the songs. I would like to keep that going with hymns and other songs.

I have the composer study CDs from Simply Charlotte Mason (Bach, Beethoven and Chopin). Really cool series. I haven't read the bios to the kids yet. So far, I've just played a CD here and there and told them who the composer was and left it at that.

I would like to get a book/CD combo to help them learn and recognize the various instruments of the orchestra. Something like this book, perhaps. My library carries another title, and I'm going to borrow it to see how that goes over. This all may be a little beyond them right now, and that's fine. Just playing beautiful music is nice. It takes no extra effort to play something while they are coloring, Lego-ing, play-dohing, whatever.

Phys. Ed. -- Squee! J and V are participating in a class put on by the park's department of a nearby town. There's a preschool group and a homeschooler group, and they meet at the same time. The first part is in the gym where they were doing various running around activities. The preschool group even got out the awesome parachute. I hope the other group gets a chance with it at some point. Then, they were in the pool. J and V are in the same swimming group with 2 other kids. I'm cautiously optimistic. They are having an absolute blast so far. They need this outlet so much, especially in the cold winter.

Roughly, that's it. There are a few other things that might make an appearance in our day. I have a walk-in closet full of educational toys, games and manipulatives + craft supplies. We keep our library crate full of books and make regular visits. Some audio books thrown in (and I like to grab a paper version for Johnny to follow along with). Oh, and some Netflix. Heh. So nice, especially in winter.

We have days that go really, really well. I try to remember so many details about those days. We also have days where it's like everyone (me included) just is having a rotten day and nothing is going right. Total disasters. Just roll with it, I figure. The good outweighs the bad, and thankfully, by far.