I have no idea where to start!

[karly1]

Hi everyone!

This will be my first year doing hs, and I would love some suggestions. My ds will be 5 on Sunday. Up to this point, everything we've done has been through play. I have absolutely no idea where to start...there are so many choices that I feel I'm in danger of overdoing it!

For math, I was thinking either Horizons or Singapore, maybe using both? Ds can count past 100 (he's stopped at 330 for now), can read and write his numbers at least to 100, knows basic addition and subtraction, and has sone grasp of multiplying...he informed me one day that three 3's was nine, I explained that that was called multiplying, and he's done a few more on his own. He asks me to write math problems for him to solve for fun, so I think he's ready for some sort of math program.

For reading, I have no idea what to do. He learned his letters and sounds with his fridge phonics set, and he loves starfall. I know he can read most cvc words, and then he knows lots of other words...colors, one day he told me that my washing machine had a button that says "controls locked"...it does. I have no idea how he's figured the harder words out. I know there are some phonemes that he doesn't know and he's reluctant to sound things out, so I feel like maybe he can read more than I know, but I have no idea on what level. I like the idea of SWR, but would that be too much? I try have no idea where to start with reading...do I bother to formally teach phonics??

I thought we'd work some on his writing this year too. He needs to learn to hold his pencil correctly...I've shown him, but after doing it for a few minutes, he says he doesn't like doing it that way, and goes back to holding it the way he always has. Again, he can write all of his letters, so I don't really know where to start. I never showed him how to make any letters, he learned by looking at them on something already written and copying them. I was thinking of Handwriting Without Tears or Zaner Bloser...I'm just not sure.

As for other stuff, I don't want to overdo it, but do want to do as much as he's ready for...any good resources for history or science?

Technically, this would be his K year, and he's only just 5, so part of me feels like I shouldn't push too much, but another part of me feels like he's accelerated (maybe gifted on some level?) so I want to make sure he's challenged and not bored.

I feel so overwhelmed!! Thanks for reading this long post, and I would be so greatful for any suggestions! :-)

Karly

[Mommy2BeautifulGirls]

I am in the same boat with my oldest. However, this will be our 3rd "formal" year of schooling. We started Calvert K when she was 3-1/2, but then she was bored half way through. Last year we called her a 1st grader, but we are calling her a 1st grader again this year, since we're still on the 1st book of Story of the World for history and we're redoing life science, but with hands-on stuff this time. However, her math is 2nd-grade Math Mammoth and her reading is... well, I'm not sure what level she can read at. She reads Magic School Bus books, which are roughly 3rd-grade material.

If you son does not know certain sounds, you might want to work on some simple phonics with him to see if he needs to practice them repeatedly or if he just needs to be told once or twice before he gets it down. My daughter usually has to be told a word once, unless it's a really long one like "cretaceous," and then she has to be told a few times. Unfortunately, I have to catch her reading that stuff out loud because if she doesn't know it, she just sounds it out and goes with it, even if it's not right.

For math, if you're interested in Singapore, also look into Math Mammoth. I have heard that they are very similar.

We had handwriting sheets with our McRuffy Phonics and Reading, but my daughter really will not do them often. However, she likes writing things on her own, so she gets lots of practice. This year I am going to make sure she does her copywork neatly and count that as handwriting.

Just keep reminding yourself when you make choices for your child that you want to let him kind of lead the way. Just like you said, don't push, but don't hold him back either. I have to always keep that in the forefront of my mind. Some days my daughter just gets physically tired of writing, but is still mentally able to do the work. So, on those days, since she's only 5 still, I will let her tell me the answers and I will write them down for her or I will simply make a note on the side that we did a page orally. This really helps keep her from whining on some days. And if you purchase something and realize he's not ready for it yet, you can always dust it off in 6 months. ;)

Good luck!

[JennW in SoCal]

Hi Karly,

I'm at the other end of the homeschooling journey but remember quite fondly the early years. There are hundreds of new reading and phonics programs out there since I last had a 5 year old in the house, so I can't give you any help there, but what I wanted to share all the things I did do and am so happy we did.

We spent very little time on formal schooling until my kids were probably 9 years old. Sure, we did the 3Rs, but only for about an hour each day. Everything else came just through play, trips to museums and the zoo, to concerts for kids, and walking around the neighborhood with binoculars or magnifying glasses and studying the world around us. They also learned through many hours of me reading aloud. I read Greek myths and Harry Potter, Winnie the Pooh and all the other wonderful children's books out there. I also read lots of non-fiction books, following the interests of my kids whether it was about animals, dinosaurs, or airplanes or whatever. We talked about everything, too, which was a sort of informal introduction to narrations as we'd talk about favorite parts of books or interesting tidbits from science books.

I had a huge supply of construction paper, scotch tape, markers and scissors and my kids would make up their own crafts. They designed their own Pokemon cards, made up their own board games, made up and illustrated their own stories often dictating them for me to write. They started making videos featuring their stuffed animals. And of course we had, and still have, a huge collection of Legos that have been put to good use for many years!

I liked using manipulative based math programs such as Miquon, though my younger son wanted just to do the workbooks so we did Singapore. Extra math came through games and library books, and puzzle books such as the math puzzle books that Highlights publishes. We also had a bucket of pattern blocks and several workbooks to go with those as well as tangrams. It helps form some spatial understanding that serves them well in advanced math.

We used handwriting workbooks and my kids did a bit of copy work from favorite and silly books like Cat in the Hat. To foster a correct pencil grip I used those rubber pencil grip aids that fit on pencils -- some are shaped like triangles, some are more rounded, that you can find at teacher supply stores.

This is a good time for you to start thinking ahead to what you want from homeschooling. What kind of 18 year old do you want to set free into the world? Read the Well Trained Mind, read some unschooling books, such as John Holt's Learning All the Time, and start to define your own educational philosophy.

Enjoy these early years as they are very special and don't last long. Start building skills, but instill that love of learning by following their interests and by playing and learning together. Don't worry about grade level -- just go as fast or as deep as your child wants. As long as progress is being made, as long as he is engaged, quality learning is happening.

And welcome to the journey!

[ElizabethB]

You do need to do some formal phonics, but you can teach spelling at the same time. I really like Webster's Speller, the syllables allowed my daughter to read almost anything by the time we finished it at the end of K.

If you need explicit instructions, I have some on my how to tutor page (http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/howtotutor.html), it uses Blend Phonics as a lead in to the syllables of Webster.

I also like Singapore, the challenging problems in the IP books especially have been good for my daughter. She's not naturally good at math, but she's good at puzzles, and the puzzle type math problems have been good for her. Singapore has also helped her think more mathematically.

I supplement with the RS math games for math facts, they are fun and well worth the money. We also have a flashmaster for fact drill that I use from time to time, it's not as fun as the RS games but it's very efficient and gives you quick feedback as to what facts they're currently having problems with.

I would nip the handwriting problem in the bud. My daughter was doing fine, but then I quit doing handwriting for a while and she developed a terrible grip that has been hard to break. Pencil grips help, you can start having them do just a bit of drawing with one that works good to get their little fingers in the right position, then gradually build up to writing with it. I got the set of 7 from Peterson handwriting (Twice! I got the full set and then lost most of them over a move, then ordered another set. The grip that worked in K was not the same grip that worked for 1st grade.)

HWT has good suggestions and exercises for breaking bad pencil grips.

Here's the pencil grips:

http://www.peterson-handwriting.com/pencilgr.htm#allfive

Games are also good for that age. I like the RS games for math, and I have a fun phonics concentration game linked from my how to teach a beginner to read page as well as ideas for playing games with magnetic letters:

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/newstudents.html

Good Luck! There are a lot of products out there, it is hard to choose sometimes.

[alexfam]

Handwriting without Tears is a great program for boys. It doesn't overwhelm them. Singapore is good but doesn't work for all children. My ds really like the Abeka math program. It is a workbook program and the pages are really colorful. I would go ahead and put him on the level that his academic dictates be it his age grade level or above.

[Truscifi]

I am in my 2nd year of homeschooling ds5. He was in a Montessori program previously where they let him set the pace and ran with it, so he was already doing 1st grade work at 3-4 when they closed the school to retire. So I have tried to follow their example and let ds set the pace. We are doing a regular 2nd grade curriculum this year.

I like Singapore for math, it is fun, and easy to break into short lessons approrpiate for this age. I also started early on handwriting as ds has good fine motor skills and I wanted him to learn to do it right from the beginning. I just printed out worksheets from various places on line to practice letters, then used copywork as handwriting practice also. Again the trick is to do short lessons, because at this age they tire quickly. Ds did so well last year we decided to learn italic style print and cursive this year, because it is prettier. So far he seems to like it.

For grammar we use First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind, for history Story of the World II, for science REAL Science Odyssey Earth and Space. We also take about 15 minutes to play (wiggle worm break) between each lesson. I encourage him to get up and run around on the break so he can get it out of his system. We do school 2-3 hours a day, and we don't do every subject every day. I have weekly goals, and I let ds look at the list and pick what we work on (although I make him save science for last since he would just do that and then quit :tongue_smilie:).

I hope I haven't gone on too much, but looking at examples of what others were doing helped me decide what to try myself last year.

[Karin]

At five, here's what I'd do.

Singapore Math is a great math. Love it. Get the HiG. There is also a book at Rainbow Resource Center that teaches about how to do SM. The heuristics are great. I'd add something like MEP or MUS or Miquon something to jazz it up and to get a broader, better scope in math teaching. Also, CWP (but that's perhaps for an older age). I don't do a lot of games for math. Hardly any, so I may be too boring for some, but it worked for us. I found Right Start too teacher intensive for our needs and learning styles (or, in the case of ds, my teaching style). MEP does have games as part of it's program. MEP 1 is the same as SM 1 as far as learning level.

I wouldn't do more than handwriting for writing unless your 5 yo wants to write. Each of my dc was different in this, and one just didn't have the fine motor development ready. I second (or is it third) the suggestion for HWT (Handwriting Without Tears.) Love it, and wish we'd had it all along, although my dd's were fine with another method. My ds did far better with it than with anything else.

FLL (First Language Lessons) is great for an auditory, oral learner. My ds did very well with this, but it would have bombed for my middle dd who is very visual spatial & kinesthetic.

At five, science should be all fun. Reading, experimenting, things like that. We do good tradebooks at that age. If you really want a curriculum, perhaps Real Science for Kids (the level before 1, or, if you think it would work, Level 1). We went quite deep into certain science subjects of interest rather than worrying about getting it all in at that age.

We used Phonics Pathways and overall it was very successful for us. It was visually overwhelming for my visual spatial dd, so we covered half a page at a time. Of course, she couldn't read anything with pictures at that age until she had studied all the pictures (ds couldn't see the pictures until he'd read or he'd tell the story in the pictures rather than read) and she couldn't focus on colourful math pages either since it was too distracting.

To be honest, I didn't do a lot of school at 5 if they didn't want it, because I grew up with the dinosaurs when K was all about playing, painting, etc. Reading wasn't taught at 5 then. However, if you have a dc who already wants to read or reads (my girls could read at 5, but ds wasn't ready until 5.5, and even then it turned out he had a weaker eye that caused him trouble until we patched the stronger one--the results were quick and dramatic.)

Not one of the gifted boys in my family were interested in reading at five--that includes my nephews, db, etc. I did test my ds for dyslexia, though, just to be sure that wasn't a problem, and it wasn't.