Preparing for MFW K

I've been wanting to write a "helpful" Kindergarten post for quite a while now but just haven't gotten around to it.  Shocking, I know.  ;)  But when I received a message from a fellow MFW'er looking for Kindergarten help the other day, it was just the kick in the pants I needed to get it done.

1.  How in the world are you supposed to organize everything you need for Kindergarten?
Melanie from Treasures Unseen wrote an excellent post explaining how she organized her Kindergarten materials that has helped many homeschooling moms.  You can read that post here.  I chose to organize my materials using the method suggested in the teacher's manual.  I just made 27 file folders (one for each unit, plus one for the introductory creation unit), and that worked well for me.  As I came across a book, poem, craft idea, puzzle, etc., that I wanted to use for a certain unit, I would just slip it into the corresponding file folder.  Also, if I stumbled upon a library book I thought would work well for a future unit, I would write the title down in the file folder itself.  Then when that unit finally rolled around, I pulled out my file folder and had all of my resources (or sometimes a list of resources to get from the library) ready and waiting.

2.  Music and the Cuisinaire Rod Alphabet Book aren't scheduled.  When am I supposed to do those?
If I could go back in time, the first thing I would do after recieving my teacher's manual in the mail is go through it and pencil in the music and cuisinaire rod lessons once a week.  (This is only for Deluxe package users).  It doesn't matter which day you do them.  Day 6 works well for a lot of people because it's already a light day, so that might be a good option.  But choose a day and pencil in the music and cuisinaire rod lessons so you don't get to the end of the year and say, "Aw, crud, I meant to do those!"  Hear the voice of experience there? ;)

3.  I can't figure out this stinkin' teacher's manual!  What's up with all the flipping back and forth?!
If only I had a quarter for every time I've heard or read that statement!  It's really, really, really not that bad once you get the hang of it.  Basically, the reading instructions are in one section of the teachers manual, the math instructions are in a second section, and the science and Bible are in a third section.  The math routine is the same every day (craft stick, hundred chart, calendar), and the reading routine is the same every week (Day 1 is always the same, Day 2 is always the same, etc.)  Believe it or not, you'll actually get in a groove and this will become second nature to you, so you won't be spending much time in those sections of your TM.  The part you'll spend the most time in every week is the science and Bible part because it's different every day.  I have heard of people putting a post-it note or a paper clip to mark each section of the teacher's manual.  This might be helpful if you find yourself flipping back and forth a lot.

4.  Where do you store your Picture Cards?
There are probably as many answers to this question as there are MFW Kindergarten users, but here's the system I used that worked well for me.  I spent $3.99 and bought a picture box from Hobby Lobby.  (Actually, that's not completely true.  I spent $7.98 and bought two because I also used one for the Number Cards.  But more about that in a minute.)   I also bought a box of invitation envelopes (4 3/4" x 6 1/2 ") from Office Depot, which I kept inside the picture box.  Every week, Millie would cut apart her picture cards.

When they were all cut apart, she would take a new envelope out of the box and tape the letter card to the front of it.

Then she would put the rest of the cards inside the envelope and put the envelope inside the box along with all the others.  This way the Picture Cards were always right there together when we needed to use them.

4.  Where do you store your Number Cards?

I put my Number Cards in a second picture box.  Now, about the Number Cards themselves ... the teacher's manual suggests writing the number of the week on an index card.  We tried that, but Millie started getting her 2 and 5 and her 6 and 9 confused because she couldn't tell if she was holding it upside down.  So I ended up making some printable Number Cards that have an outdoor background so it would be obvious if she was holding them upside down.  You can download those Number Cards here if you'd like to use them.  They're formatted for Avery 5388 printable index cards, but if you don't happen to have those handy, you can just grab some scissors and do it the old-fashioned way!  ;)

When we would do the Math Page, I would take the Number Cards out of the picture box and fan them out face down so she could draw one.

Then she would look at the number and draw that many objects on her paper.  (As our year progressed, we would sometimes stamp that many times or add that many stickers.  It starts getting a little monotonous when you try to draw 17 of something!)

5.  What other resources are available?

My Father's World Message Board

The best resource I have found is the message board at the My Father's World web site.  If you're looking for encouragement or clarification on a project in the book, you can post a question on the General board.  If you're looking for additional ideas to enhance your unit, check out the Kindergarten Ideas archive. 

Printables from Mama Jenn

Mama Jenn made some great handwriting practice sheets to go along with each unit.  They have the Words to Remember along the top with handwriting guide lines at the bottom of the page.  The middle is left blank so your child can illustrate it however he chooses.  I love, love, love the idea of these practice sheets.  (Along with all of Mama Jenn's stuff!  If you're not familiar with her site, you really should be!)  But I don't think Millie is quite ready to do the handwriting on her own yet, so I made some similar pages with the letters in pale gray at the bottom so the students can trace them.  If your child is ready to write her letters on her own, stick with the ones Mama Jenn created.  But if she needs a little more guidance, here's a link to mine.

Badges for a Kindergarten Caterpillar

When we went through Kindergarten the first time, we had to create our own badges.  Now they're included with the student sheets.  We like the ones we made on the computer several years ago, though, because they're circle-shaped, and we put them together along the top of our bulletin board so they make a Kindergarten Caterpillar. It's a great way to review the Words to Remember every week. Millie has only completed one unit so far this year, but here's what her caterpillar looks like so far.

If you'd like to download our Kindergarten badges, click here. (The caterpillar face is on the last page of the document.)

And here's a picture of what the badge looks like as it's being worn. We took a short piece of grosgrain ribbon (around 2 1/2 to 3 inches) and folded it in half. Then we stapled it to the back of the badge, folded side up, so it hung over the edge and made a little tab that a safety pin could be attached to.



From Akebu to Zapotec and Bulletin Board Poster for Each Unit
Because Hannah is going through ECC this year, we're adding a book to Millie's Kindergarten that has an ECC feel to it.  It's called From Akebu to Zapotec:  A Book of Bibleless Peoples, and I can't recommend it highly enough! 

It goes through the alphabet and, one letter at a time, introduces us to 26 people groups that don't have the Bible in their language.  I made a poster (just a letter-size piece of paper) for each unit that has the Spanish word for the unit, the Words to Remember, and the name of a Bibleless people group that begins with the letter of the week.  The pictures on each week's poster are the same as those on the badges.  Here's the poster that's currently on our bulletin board for the S-s Sun unit.

Click here to download the weekly posters file.

The My Father's World Blog Roll
Lainie has done a great job of hosting the My Father's World Blog Roll for the past three years.  It's always fun to connect with families who are currently in the same year as you, as well as finding families who have already blogged the year you're working on.

I know there are a ton of other resources out there, but these are the ones I wanted to make sure to include.  Hopefully this post has helped someone out there.  :)  If you have any questions about any of my resources or just about the Kindergarten program in general, feel free to ask away.  I love making bloggy friends!  :)

My files are now at Google docs rather than 4shared, so hopefully downloading will go more smoothly.  However, if you are unable to download any of the files mentioned in this post but would like to use them, please leave me a comment with your email address and I will be happy to send them to you!  :)

Our 2011-2012 Curriculum

It's that time of year again!  Homeschool moms all across the nation have been thumbing through mountainous stacks of curriculum catalogs, reading blog after blog after endless blog, and downing one cup of coffee after another while memorizing the Well-Trained Mind message boards, all in the name of finding that one curriculum that will not only make their children smart enough for a full scholarship to the college of their choice but will also give them a heart for Jesus and sharing His love with everyone they meet.  If only it were that simple!  I haven't found a curriculum that will do all of that yet, but I have found what works for our family.  Here it is.  :)

Hannah—3rd grade

My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures

We've used My Father's World from the start, and it has been a great fit for our family.  This year we'll be using Exploring Countries and Cultures, which includes Bible, world geography, science, music, and art.  As we travel around the world in geography this year, we'll not only learn how to find our target countries on a map but we'll also get to know about their cultures—how people in those countries live, what they eat, what they wear, what kind of music they listen to, and most importantly, what they believe about God.  In science, we'll learn about the ecosystems of each of the continents—what the climate is like in the different regions and what kinds of plants and animals we could expect to find there.  In Bible, we'll study the book of Matthew throughout the year.  And as we travel to each new continent, we'll learn about the sin-scarred people who live there who desperately need to hear about our loving God and how He provided a way for fellowship with Him to be restored.  We'll also read a biography of a missionary who traveled there to tell those people the good news.  In music and art, we'll sing songs and make crafts that are related to the area we're studying. 

My goal for this year is that my children will walk away understanding that the world is a much bigger place than what they see on a daily basis.  I want them to understand that God has created an amazingly diverse planet with all kinds of people, but those people all need to hear about Jesus.  I pray that they will be fascinated by the people that we study, that they will desire to pray for them, that their hearts will ache when they learn about some of the lies that people believe, that the Great Commission will come to life for them and they will understand the importance of supporting missions.  Lofty goals, I know, but that's my heart.

We'll also be reading aloud from Hillyer's A Child's Geography of the World and Missionary Stories with the Millers to supplement our studies.

Spelling

I thought long and hard about whether to stick with All About Spelling for another year or go ahead and switch to Spelling Power.  In the end, I decided that all of All About Spelling's rules and built-in review lays a good foundation that will help us when we do finally transition to Spelling Power.  One strike against All About Spelling is the tiles.  We can't stand the tiles!  So I made a pretty neat PowerPoint that accomplishes the same thing, only it does it more neatly and more quickly, both of which we like.  :)  We'll work our way through Levels 3 and 4 of All About Spelling this year.  If time allows, we'll do Level 5 as well, but we'll just have to play that one by ear.

Math

We're going to stick with Singapore Math again.  We're finishing up 2B right now, and hopefully we'll get through 3A and 3B this year, but again, we'll have to play it by ear.  We're also adding in some Life of Fred books (Did you know he now has an elementary series?!!) and the Singapore Intensive Practice books.  Hannah's not just real thrilled about the Intensive Practice books, but it really stretches her and makes her apply the math she's learning, and both Greg and I think that's a good thing.  Singapore is known for its mental math component, and I have to say ... it works!  However, Greg isn't quite as enamored with it as Hannah and I are.  As a high school math teacher, he wants to see the work so he can know where she's messing up when she misses a problem.  So he's requiring her to show a little more work than she would care to (and more than I would require), but I'm not complaining!  I love having his input since he's the resident expert in that field.  ;)

Grammar

This was one of Hannah's favorite subjects last year, so we're sticking with Rod & Staff.  I've heard this described as "rigorous," but I haven't found that to be true—at least not yet.  :)  It definitely gets the job done, but I would say it seems to be a good fit for the intended age.  We had a lot of success last year doing it orally, so we're going to do that again this year, with the exception of the worksheets, which she will complete and put in her notebook.

Writing

Ultimately, my goal is to use Institute for Excellence in Writing.  However, I have a child who hates the physical act of handwriting, so I want to kind of ease her into writing.  My friend Fawn showed me her daughter's Sonlight writing assignments (part of the Sonlight Language Arts program), and I knew it would be a great introduction to writing for Hannah.  The assignments are very fun and they allow the kids to use their imaginations, but they somehow manage to tackle some pretty hefty writing assignments.  By the time she's done, she will have written narrative essays, persuasive essays, poetry, and book reviews; and she will have covered topics that are normally covered in reading, such as alliteration, similes, metaphors, onomatopoeia, etc.  I'm really excited about adding this to our curriculum this year, but at the same time, I just don't know how she'll react to all the handwriting that goes along with creative writing.  Any prayer would be greatly appreciated!

Reading

There's a chance that we may possibly use CLE Reading this year, but I'm still not completely sure about this one.  I went ahead and purchased it, but once it came in, I began having second thoughts.  Between the reading we do for My Father's World and the language arts she's doing with Sonlight, it kind of felt like overkill.  It also seemed a little like busywork, which made me wonder if it would suck the love of reading right out from under her.  On the other hand, it has a fairly strong missions component to it (which kind of goes along with our theme for the year), it can only help her less-than-stellar handwriting and spelling to improve, and she just loves those good old-fashioned, wholesome stories.  I ended up showing her the materials and letting her decide, and she chose to do them.  So far she's enjoying it, but if it ends up becoming a chore, I think it will be an easy one to let go.

Cursive

For handwriting we'll be using Cheerful Cursive.  I was so excited when I found out about this book!  The lessons are short and fun, with various characters such as Bumps, Wags, and Loopy placing themselves on the letters to teach your child how to form them correctly.  The book includes practice for both print and cursive writing, as well as grammar reviews, and it also includes practice reading a variety of cursive handwriting styles since not everyone writes the same. 

Spanish

We're going to stick with The Learnables for Spanish this year.  I thought we'd end up switching to Rosetta Stone since they lowered the price to only an arm rather than an arm and a leg.  ;)  But The Learnables is working for us for now and Hannah enjoys it, so why fix it if it isn't broken, know what I mean?

Homemaking

And finally, I am determined to finish the Lessons in Responsibility book we started back in 1st grade!  (Anyone else have something like that that you just can't seem to get through for some reason?)  She seriously loves this book, so it shouldn't be hard to get through it, but for whatever reason we didn't make much progress last year.  Plus, I already own the Level 2 book, so I really need to get Level 1 finished!

Millie—Kindergarten

My Father's World Kindergarten

Millie will continue to use My Father's World Kindergarten this year.  She did the phonics and math portions of the program for Pre-K last year, but the Bible truths are so precious that I wanted her to be a little older so she would understand them more fully.  Marie Hazell (author of My Father's World) has done a masterful job of interweaving the Bible and science lessons and explaining them in a way that is perfect for young children to understand. 

We'll do the math portion of the program again this year to really reinforce our Base 10 system, counting to 100, and calendar skills.  The program also includes Bible, science, music, and art.  We've enjoyed all of our studies with My Father's World, but Kindergarten definitely has a soft spot in my heart.

Reading

We're going to continue using Hooked on Phonics for reading.  We started the Kindergarten level in Pre-K last year and have been working on it here and there throughout the summer.  We should definitely be able to get through the 1st grade level this year, but we'll have to see about the 2nd grade level.  It's amazing how much more relaxed you are with the second child!  ;)

Handwriting

We'll be using A Reason for Handwriting for Millie's handwriting.  We're not going to rearrange the order of the letters to match the My Father's World units because I love the way they're presented in a logical order based on the way the letters are formed. 

Bible

I picked up a copy of From Akebu to Zapotec when Hannah was in kindergarten, and it looks like it will be a perfect fit for our family this year.  In Millie's kindergarten, we focus on one letter every week.  This book contains 26 real stories of Bibleless peoples—one for each letter of the alphabet.  Millie will be tagging along with Hannah's Bible lessons anyway because we'll be doing them together as a family in the evenings, but it will be a great way for her to learn to pray for one group of people each week and still focus on her letter of the week.

So there you have it—the 2011-2012 curriculum line-up! 

This is the first year I'll have two "official" students, which makes me feel a little weak in the knees, to say the least. But I'm choosing to believe that my God is greater than my fears or my inadequacies, trusting completely that He doesn't call the equipped but equips the called.  To Him alone be the glory!

Show & Tell: Adventures Weeks 33 and 34

Oh, yeah!  I have a blog! 

Okay, okay ... so I really thought my next blog post would be Adventures Week 33 and only Week 33.  But then Week 34 happened, and Week 33 still wasn't blogged.  Then all of June happened, and Week 33 still wasn't blogged.  And then all of July, and then part of August ... you get the idea.  You might remember this same thing happened when we took off for Christmas vacation.  Apparently when vacation time rolls around, I'm good for absolutely nothing!  ;)

A normal person would just pick up where she is and start blogging again.  But I'm not normal.  I'm me.  :)  And because I have what can only be described as a severe case of OCD, I have to finish blogging Adventures before I can start blogging ECC.  Truly must.  So without further ado, here is my Show & Tell for Weeks 33 and 34 of Adventures in My Father's World.  Three months late, but done nonetheless.  :)

In science we learned about the effect air resistance has on objects as they move through the air.  Hannah took two identical pieces of paper (one crumbled and one flat) and released them at the same time to see which would fall to the ground first.  The crumbled piece fell first because it was a smaller object, so it had less air pushing against it.

Next we put to good use this new understanding of air resistance and some of my scrapbooking paper.  (And that's a good thing because apparently back when scrapbooking was all the rage, I bought out the entire section at Hobby Lobby.  Any guesses as to how much of it I've used over the past 8 years?  Suffice it to say my my oldest hasn't even made it home from the hospital in her baby scrapbook!)  Anyway, we took a square peice of scrapbook paper and folded it into a pyramid shape.

Then we released it to see how it would land.  (Watch Hannah's face at the end of the second video.  I love how it "clicked" for her all of the sudden!)

We also cut up a couple of Wal-Mart bags and made a pair of homemade parachutes.  Our goal was to see the effect weight has on air resistance.  Hannah chose two dolls—a light one and a heavy one—to attach to the parachutes.  Then she launched them from the top of her swing set to see how they fared.  Here are the two victims subjects:

And here's a video showing how it all went down.  (Get it?  "How it all went down?"  Oh, I really need to get a life!)

We also read about The Wright Brothers, which led to some flight activities.  We made paper airplanes with rudders and flaps in the wings which were supposed to help us see how planes can turn, climb, and dive.  We tried several different times, but we never had much luck steering the planes.

We did, however, have success with the activity that explained how planes fly.  Hannah held a sheet of paper just below her mouth and blew.  We expected her breath to blow the paper down, but it actually went up instead because the air coming out of her mouth was moving so quickly across the top of the paper that the slower-moving air beneath it pushed back harder.

And finally, we learned about electricity and did a couple of static electricity activities.  Hannah rubbed a balloon on her sweater and was impressed when static electricity made it stick to the kitchen wall.

But that wasn't nearly as fascinating as our next hair-raising activity!

In fact, this one was so good it required several minutes of staring into the mirror.  Girls!

In history, we learned about the last six states added to our country:  Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Alaska, and Hawaii.  When we learned about New Mexico, one of our activities was to make Navajo Fry Bread.  Hannah's Sunday school class made some a couple of years ago, and it apparently made quite an impression because she couldn't wait to get in the kitchen and start cooking!  :)

Our taste buds loved it.  Our arteries?  Probably not so much!  ;)

The girls chose to have theirs plain ...

... but I drizzled mine with honey.  Delicious!

 

 Hannah finished off her year by writing a letter to the President.  This took many a pep talk on mama's part.  I'm not exactly what you would call an Obama fan, and I found myself on more than one occasion thinking, "If only she was three years older, her 2nd grade year would have fallen during Dubbya's presidency, and she would be writing to him."  So I just put her on the computer and told her to write something.  Anything.

My husband dared me to put this picture on my blog without commenting about the mess on the desk, and I can't do it!  Yes, this is what my desk looks like at the end of the year!

This is the rough draft Hannah came up with on her own.  We worked together to edit it a little bit, which was mostly just reorganizing her sentences so they flowed a little better, but she also ended up adding a few other thoughts.



The finished product.



She was very proud of this letter!  (Click to enlarge and read.)

She even illustrated it!  :)



She added a stamp ...

 

... addressed it ...

 

... and put it in the mailbox.  (Just pretend like the bird bird poop isn't there.  We do!)

She asked if President Obama would write back to her, and I told her I didn't know what would happen.  So imagine our surprise when we opened the mailbox a few weeks later and found this in it!

What'd'ya know?  President Obama did something that put a smile on my face!  It's a miracle!!  ;)

Millie's Pre-K continued to go really well—much better than I ever expected!  She especially loved those days when she got to read a new Hooked on Phonics book, and I got excited right along with her.  I thought teaching her would present lots and lots of challenges, but she really did great!

We took two months off from Pre-K in February and March (oops!), so she only made it through Lesson 17 out of 26.  But that's okay because we'll be doing them again this year on a Kindergarten level.  (We'll focus on the science and Bible portion of each lesson, and she'll use A Reason for Handwriting and Hooked on Phonics for language arts.)  So far she loves her school—especially the games and songs.  Here she is singing her short vowel song.

So there you have it ... our last weekly report for what was truly a wonderful year with Adventures in My Father's World!  Now I can blog ECC in peace!  ;) 

I hope you guys have all had a wonderful summer!  I've missed staying connected via the blogosphere.  It feels good to be back!  :)