WWYD for Kinder if you only had 30 minutes...

[ABQmom]

.... a day four days a week? My dd will be a K'er in the fall, and she is my last child, so I want this to be fun for both of us. She loves books and she loves crafts, but with three older dc, I need it to be short and sweet. I will be doing OPGTR with her too, but that doesn't have to be included in the 30 minutes I spend with her.

[Mandy in TN]

.... a day four days a week? My dd will be a K'er in the fall, and she is my last child, so I want this to be fun for both of us. She loves books and she loves crafts, but with three older dc, I need it to be short and sweet. I will be doing OPGTR with her too, but that doesn't have to be included in the 30 minutes I spend with her.

Whoa! That's not much time. My oldest could have spent over 30min coloring one coloring page of the number 1. :001_huh:

FIAR may would work if you didn't do any rabbit trails or too many crafty projects. It would give you a little bit of many topics and cover all the bases so to speak.

I would add more math, but to stay inside your thirty minutes I may would consider just doing addition and subtraction flashcards with manipulatives.

HTH-
Mandy

[Sara in WA]

Read, read, read. I really like MFW's K program. I also like Games for Books by Peggy Kaye. Lots of great activities to go with read alouds.

[joannqn]

I'd do some kind of workbook based phonics and math (quick and easy...page a day) and include them in read aloud time with the older kids.

[LaurieinCA]

We loved Sing, Spell, Read and Write for Kindergarten. Add a page of Singapore Math, and you are set... except for lots of reading :001_smile: I miss those days!

[Reya]

.... a day four days a week? My dd will be a K'er in the fall, and she is my last child, so I want this to be fun for both of us. She loves books and she loves crafts, but with three older dc, I need it to be short and sweet. I will be doing OPGTR with her too, but that doesn't have to be included in the 30 minutes I spend with her.

20 min phonics
10 min math

Then some activity/coloring/etc she can do on her own if she likes it.

[Jennefer@SSA]

20 min phonics
10 min math

Then some activity/coloring/etc she can do on her own if she likes it.

I would do the same except sub reading good quality books to her since you mentioned already doing OPGTR another time. I love Ambleside's Year 0 reading list (http://amblesideonline.org/00.shtml)!

Also lots of good audio books, maybe a good quality educational computer game for her age and a few educational videos (thinking Leapfrog or something along those lines). I would allow educational media once a day for 30 minutes. It's amazing how much my ds 4 has picked up from just that little media time each day!

[Aurelia]

FIAR is short and sweet, it rarely takes us over 30 minutes a day. You could also let her do some of the Funtastic Frogs or Kumon math workbooks to get her started with extra math.

[chiguirre]

FIAR never took us that long as a sit-down thing. Maybe 20 minutes to read the book and talk a bit. I used videos a lot to see the countries and explore the science topics in more depth. We watched them together later in the day, but you could have her watch them by herself or let everyone watch too. OTOH, you could just include her in whatever history and science everyone else is doing. Just get a picture book on the topic and call it good. Singapore EB is short and sweet, one page a day with a short manipulative based activitiy on most days.

Enjoy!

[SheWillFly]

We are essentially doing K right now.
A normal shcool time for us looks like this.
OPG
Reading a book or a chapter from a book.
Talking about the book.
Two math pages from MathUSee Primer
Craft

We do the craft at the end so she has time to do it at her speed and I can move on to the needs of the house and other members of the family.

We work on handwriting and a science reader once a week on the days when we have more time.

We listen to music during the craft and switch between classical and instrumental folk. The part that needs me rarely takes longer than 30 minutes.

[deeinfl]

5-10 minute phonics/reading lesson
10 read aloud in which I would begin to ask what her favorite part of the story was/beginning narrations
10 minute fun math-counting, shapes, skip counting, basic math addition facts, basic math subtraction facts, or math games

This is very doable with a little one.

You could also alternate between the phonics lessons and read alouds.

HTH,

Dee

[Narrow Gate Academy]

I would do math part of the time and read some good picture books together. Next year, my Ker and I are going to work through any book on the 1000 Good Books List (http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html) at the 1-3 level that we haven't covered yet.

[kokotg]

I don't spend more than 30 minutes exclusively on my K'er right now. The only things we do that are just his are Explode the Code, Singapore math, HWT, and then he reads aloud to me from a beginning reader. But I also have a 7 year old and a 3 year old, so he does a lot of stuff together with one or both of them, too. If I were doing a straight 30 minutes with just him, I'd round it out with read alouds and maybe some critical thinking stuff (from Critical Thinking Co or somewhere).

[lovelearnandlive]

I would:
1) Read a book together (15 min)
2) Do a quick math page (10 min)
3) Do 5-10 min of handwriting practice.

I would also get a workbook with things she can do on her own: mazes, connect-the-dots, color by number, etc. These will give her extra practice with handwriting skills and math. Some cutting/pasting that she could do independently might be nice too. We've used and enjoyed the Kumon workbooks. :001_smile:

My dd also enjoys those book/cd combos where the book is read aloud on the cd and she can follow along in her book. We have some fairy tales in this format that have gotten a lot of use! It gives her a little extra read-aloud time.

[gardening momma]

I second (or third) the idea of Kumon workbooks. After brief instructions, she can do a cutting or folding page on her own while you work with another child.

[1GirlTwinBoys]

I think you can accomplish a lot in 30 mins since you said it did not have to include phonics instruction. I have been homeschooling a DD 5 and 4 year old twin boy's this year. What about trying the following activities.

Calendar wall & review days of the week & ordinal #'s
Learn recognizing & writing #'s 1-30
Counting objects
Practice upper & lowercase letter formation

I keep lot's of craft supplies~scissors, markers, crayons etc... out for them to use anytime they like.

If you are not opposed to computer time, she could do Starfall or Time4learning while you are with the older children.

Read alouds at bedtime. :)

[Calming Tea]

I think a simple but complete workbook math program would be good...the ones at Mott Media she can do on her own. They are sold alongside Mrs. Silver's Phonics and don't even need to be done every day.

The other thing I would do is just enjoy beautiful picture books from the library. I would get a volume of FIAR but not plan on doing a unit every week. I would circle about 6 units for the whole year and really have a good time with those, and the rest of the time just pick out beautiful picture books.

I get on my soapbox all the time about how wonderful and educational well chosen picture books are. You can enjoy gorgeous oil paintings, watercolors, pastels, line drawings, ink drawings, colored pencil art, mosaic art, ...I could go on. There are simple, beautiful picture books about different kids from different cultures meeting, about poor children overcoming obstacles, about minority children learning to accept who they are, about disabled children fighting through their disability and viewing it as a blessing, about every imaginable science topic you can think of, about new babies being born, grandparents dying, helping elderly neighbors, learning from mistakes, saving money for many years for a simple bicycle, running the family farm, ...I could just go on and on and on.

I think filling up an entire suitcase with beautiful picture books will be a wonderful reward for your little one!!!

[coffeefreak]

We do a page out of Phonics Pathways, FIAR, and MUS primer. She LOVES to watch Steve:001_smile:. I also have extra workbooks laying around for those days she HAS to be included:001_rolleyes:. The one thing that has been a HUGE hit is A Beka's K5 Art projects. They're simple cut, paste, paint, color type projects. I never have to worry about buying extra supplies because they use things you have around the house (cotton balls, paper bags). They have projects for the holidays, mother's day and father's day which my dd loves.

HTH!
Dorinda

[Handmaiden]

Another vote for FIAR!!

[OhioM]

I would alternate read aloud days with math/phonics/handwriting days.

[kalanamak]

[quote=Reya;831837]20 min phonics
10 min math
/quote]

:iagree:

We enjoyed EarlyBird and ETC alternating with Plaid Phonics, but kiddo was handy with pencil at that age. I'd do a verbal phonics thing if your child is not. Don't waste the time stuggling with writing. HTH.

[ABQmom]

I think a simple but complete workbook math program would be good...the ones at Mott Media she can do on her own. They are sold alongside Mrs. Silver's Phonics and don't even need to be done every day.

The other thing I would do is just enjoy beautiful picture books from the library. I would get a volume of FIAR but not plan on doing a unit every week. I would circle about 6 units for the whole year and really have a good time with those, and the rest of the time just pick out beautiful picture books.

I get on my soapbox all the time about how wonderful and educational well chosen picture books are. You can enjoy gorgeous oil paintings, watercolors, pastels, line drawings, ink drawings, colored pencil art, mosaic art, ...I could go on. There are simple, beautiful picture books about different kids from different cultures meeting, about poor children overcoming obstacles, about minority children learning to accept who they are, about disabled children fighting through their disability and viewing it as a blessing, about every imaginable science topic you can think of, about new babies being born, grandparents dying, helping elderly neighbors, learning from mistakes, saving money for many years for a simple bicycle, running the family farm, ...I could just go on and on and on.

I think filling up an entire suitcase with beautiful picture books will be a wonderful reward for your little one!!!

I love this answer, Calming Tea! I like the idea of lots of picture books. Thanks to everyone for your replies.

[ElizabethB]

You might want to try the OPG on a whiteboard instead of from the book, that worked much better for my daughter at that age. (We did Webster's Speller, but whiteboard works for any method.)

Also, here's a fun game to try:

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html

I never spent more than 30 minutes a day for K, and we got an amazing amount covered in that time. (I only worked when she was focused and took a break between each subject. I generally did 5 to 10 minutes of Bible reading, 10 minutes of phonics and 10 minutes of math, 5 to 10 minutes of science, she learned a lot in that time.)

[keptwoman]

20 min phonics
10 min math

Then some activity/coloring/etc she can do on her own if she likes it.
That's pretty much what we are doing. She also listens to the family read alouds and I have one of those preschool activity boxes which she likes to choose things out of.
I'm finding it's plenty for her. We have plenty of years ahead for the more formal stuff.