His Treasure Seekers

Last Friday marked the end of 36 weeks of school at our house, so while we’re continuing with a few reviews (and things like piano and math that I want to be sure we don’t lose ground on), we’re officially done with Ian’s Kindergarten year!  I’ve been assembling a portfolio of his work for our records and thought I’d take a little time to reflect on what we’ve accomplished this year.

Back in July I posted my plans for our year, and from July through December (with a few weeks off when Nicholas was born) we pretty much stuck with those plans.  (I was trying to tackle a long list of books I had created in as a sort of “Year 0.5” before we start Ambleside Year 1 for first grade.)  Over the holidays I decided I wanted to change things a bit, so we dropped most of those readings and only occasionally picked them up again.  Instead we spent a couple months working through some Five in a Row books and then enjoying some of the products we were reviewing for the Schoolhouse Review Crew.

I love planning (though I try to be open to changes as God leads us), and I find that things go so much smoother when I have a big picture in mind of where I want to go.   So I’ve started looking ahead to 1st grade, and I’ll be sharing more about that in the weeks to come.

Now that we’re done, here’s a look at what we actually did in Ian’s Kindergarten year:

Bible/Character

• Long Story Short weeks 37-69 (Wandering in the Desert – Jonah)
• We Light the Candles (Advent study)
• ABC Bible Verses (A-E)
• Proverbs (chapters 1-11)
• Memory Passages (1 Corinthians 13:4-8, Ephesians 6:10-11, Psalm 100:1-4, Isaiah 9:6)
• Storytime With the Millers, Wisdom and the Millers: Proverbs for Children
  (Ch. 1-15)

Literature/Language Arts:

Five in a Row units (with links to my posts about these units):

• A Pair of Red Clogs
• The Glorious Flight
• Paul Revere’s Ride
• All Those Secrets of the World
• The Duchess Bakes a Cake
• Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? (B4FIAR)
• Andy and the Lion
• Night of the Moonjellies
• Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
• Owl Moon
• Mr. Gumpy’s Motor Car
• Truman’s Aunt Farm
• When I Was Young in the Mountains

Classic Children’s Literature:

• unit on Little Red Riding Hood
• The Sandman: His Farm Stories by William J. Hopkins
• Japanese Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins
• Irish Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins
• Selected Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris
• Crimson Fairy Book (Ch.1-10) by Andrew Lang
• Among the Forest People (Ch. 1-6) by Clara Dillingham Pierson
• The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
• Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
• Frog and Toad Together by Arthur Lobel (Progeny Press Literature Study)

Poetry:

• A Child’s Own Book of Verse
• Book of Nursery and Mother Goose Rhymes by Marguerite de Angeli (p.1-153)

Phonics/Spelling:

• Spelling You See: Level B – Jack and Jill (through week 15)
• Completed Reading Eggs (120 lessons) [Edited to remove link because I no longer recommend this program. See “Good-bye, Reading Eggs.”]
• Various early readers, including Reading-Literature series by Harriette Taylor Treadwell (Primer and 1)

Math:

• Mathematics Enhancement Programme (MEP) (Lessons 14-126)
• CTCMath.com (completed Kindergarten, started 1^st grade)

History/Geography:

• Stories of Great Americans by Edward Eggleston
• The Seven Little Sisters Who Live on a Round Ball That Floats in the Air by Jane Andrews (Ch.1-6)
• In God’s Garden by Amy Steedman
• Boy on the Mayflower by Iris Vinton
• Stories of the Pilgrims by Margaret Pumphrey (selected chapters)
• Kate Waters and Russ Kendall’s Thanks giving books: On the Mayflower, Samuel Easton’s Day, Sarah Morton’s Day, Tapenum’s Day
• Columbus by D’Aulaire
• Imagination Station books 1-5

Science

• Exploring Creation With Astronomy (Ch. 1-5)
• Mother West Wind “Why” Stories by Thornton W. Burgess (Ch.1-11)
• Bill Nye the Science Guy videos: Earth’s crust, Gravity, atmosphere, Ocean Exploration, Ocean Life, Oceanography, Seasons, Climates, Energy, Friction
• Science4Us.com (various units)

Foreign Language

• Salsa Spanish videos w/ lesson plans(Episodes 1-10, 3 weeks on each episode)

Arts

• Hymns: “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”; “Onward, Christian Soldiers”; Take My Life and Let it Be”; “For the Beauty of the Earth”; “Joy to the World”
• Composers: Haydn, Tchaikovsky
• Piano: completed Yamaha Junior Music Course; Bastien Primer series
• Art: ARTistic Pursuits (some Preschool, K-3 Vol. 2 lessons 1-12)

No wonder I’m tired!  Seeing it all written out like that helps me see how much we have accomplished.  We didn’t finish everything we started out to do, but I have no regrets.  I’m looking forward to a nice break, and then we’ll probably get back to work in July, Lord willing.