Sorry I've been MIA.. we just relocated to Va from NC.. but we're finally all settled and working on getting steps to get us started in homeschooling up here. Just curious of others opinions. Do you think it's necessary to work on science and social studies with a kindergartener? I was thinking of just focusing on Math with Math U See Primer and Language Arts with Explode the Code: Explore the Code. What did you do with your Kindergartener? We will also be working on telling time.. and to pull my 3 yr old and 19 month old into the mix, we're doing music time, story time and Letter of the week, color of the week and I'm looking at doing a bible verse but I haven't found anything to use. On days we don't have somewhere to go such as the zoo, childrens museum or something along those lines we'll work on a craft. Am I missing anything? I have to do a notice of Intent to the superintendent to let them know we are homeschooling. We have to include a description of curriculum.. and I guess not having to do this before, I'm worried they may not think it's good enough and they won't approve it.
With Kindergarten, we play a lot, work on counting and number recognition (basic adding and subtracting if they're ready for it), letter recognition and basic phonic skills, teaching color words and other "high incident" reading words. Oh, and LOTS of reading aloud!!!
Thanks. I think he is ready for math.. he can count, read and write to 100.. he knows his ABC's.. he has since he was 2.. he knows each letters sound and is starting to read. He knows his colors and can read most of the words, and knows his shapes.. The letter and color of the week are more for the little ones.. my dd is 3 and I want to include her and my youngest DS as much as possible.. the other stuff like math and explode the code we will work on when the other 2 are napping so we can have more one on one time with no distractions.
I think the read-alouds can cover science and social studies sufficiently well. You might want to incorporate certain children's educational programming on television or videos, too.
Then go with his interests. If he's interested in it, get books out on it, do art projects related to it, maybe a lap book on it....
I guess I'm just not sure if science and social studies were a big requirement for kindgarten. I just don't want to give the superintendent any reason to want to not approve our notice of intent.
Science for a Kindergartener can simply be nature walks, watching a caterpillar turn into a butterfly, watching a tadpole turn into a frog, etc. No books or curriculum are necessary.
Thanks! We will be making many trips to various places such as the zoo, aquarium, living museum, childrens museum and botanical gardens.. he absolutely loves these places..
Those fields trips would certainly cover your science. It may not be officially a curriculum, but I believe it is better than a book curriculum. While you are on the field trips you can talk about the different jobs that people do. That would be your social studies. IMHO.
A superintendent does not APPROVE your notice of intent. You are NOT asking for approval, you are TELLING him what you ARE going to do. You are NOTIFYING him. He CANNOT tell you no unless there's something glaringly wrong, such as you not having whatever artificial qualifications your state has set upon you. So DO NOT WORRY about it! You can add topics for science that you think your child will enjoy...DINOSAURS, BUGS, or someone posted an awesome free unit using LEGOS.
Thanks Jackie! I am so new to all of this so I was assuming they coud not approve it if they wanted to. All I have to do is send in a copy of my high school diploma with the notice of intent and a description of what our curriculum is. We just moved here about 3 weeks ago and I have to get it turned in by the 15th (which is a sunday) so I'm a big stressed about it.. lol.
