Mid-Year Review for Kindergarten

The beginning of this school year found me at a tough point.  I had no funds with which to purchase the type of homeschooling supplies I had used the previous couple of years, but I had added a student.  I had allowed other people to influence my curriculum and methods choices because I thought I had no choice.  I had no clue how I was going to homeschool three children from Kindergarten thru High School. 

Now that we are nearly halfway through our school year, I can give an honest assessment on how things are going, what is working and what isn't, what should be changed and what we will stick with.

For Megan, my Kindergartener, things are going well.  She has flown through the workbooks that I purchased for her, both the secular ones from Barnes and Noble and the Christian ones from Christian Light Education.  She has only a few pages left from her ABC Readiness Series, and is working steadily through the GHI Series.  I've discussed before how wonderful these little workbooks from CLE are at developing essential skills.

Megan is also using Hooked on Phonics with some added Explode the Code.  I threw in the first couple of Ace's Word Building for first Grade to see how she did with them.  The Hooked on Phonics and Explode the Code are wonderful.  They complement each other so far, both working on short vowel sounds.  The Ace Word Building isn't as complementary.  I never used the ACE Learning to Read program, so the ACE Word Building might be put away until Megan's skills grow.

For math, Megan has been using the math included in the ABC Series of the CLE workbooks.  I also have used Essential Math from Singaporemath. The combination of these two have been wonderful at building Megan's counting skills.  We will begin book B of Essential math in a couple of weeks.  I began using ACE Math, 1st Grade level, and Megan has done well with it.  However, I really like the added activities that Essential Math has on the bottom of their worksheets.  I don't do them all, but sometimes it is great to do the activities so that Megan truly understands the lessons.

Though Megan and I started out the year doing lots of read alouds, we haven't been as consistent as I would like.  We have stayed on track with Bible Stories, Science,and History.  We did well with library books at first.  Megan fell in love with Curious George as we read through all the ones our library had in stock. 

My plans for the rest of the year is to slow down on the workbooks, with the exception of math, and to add more activities and read alouds.  Megan is progressing at a steady pace.  We'll continue with Hooked on Phonics and Explode the Code.  My plan is to merge her into a concrete program for next year, instead of this thrown together compilation I've been using.

I also plan to pray with my Meggy more.  We pray before bedtime every night.  We pray as part of one of her lesson times every other day.  I plan to go back to using that plan daily, and praying with her daily over the various subjects and things she will encounter.  My desire is to grow her heart for the Lord now, while she is still young.  She loves Jesus, and it is a pure joy to see that shine forth!