Kindergarten Fun

Many people who don't homeschool their children have been asking me- "Exactly WHAT does your little guy do all day for Kindergarten?" Well, after I thought about it a bit, I decided to write a little post regarding this subject.

I do Kindergarten with him before moving on to my girls' school work because he really needs that one on one attention from me. We start out with "calendar time". He counts all the numbers on the calendar and then tells me what the date is today, as well as what color the number should be, based on the pattern already in place. We discuss what day of the week it was yesterday, what day it is today, what day it will be tomorrow, etc... We sing the "Days of the Week" song and "What's the Weather?" song. He gives me a weather report every morning.

Then we move onto his Starfall work. Starfall is a complete Kindergarten curriculum- very thorough and I really love how many different activities they provide for you and your child each day! My little guy has been using his Starfall Writing Journal for most of his writing topics, but every so often, I like to do it a bit differently. The picture above is of a little story he wrote in his journal, which I copied onto chart paper. I then prompted him to do another drawing and then tell me more!

He was able to add two more sentences at the bottom of the chart. I am very encouraged by his writing and have seen progress as the year moves forward!

After writing, I usually give him a little break and he goes off to play one of his Kindergarten computer games such as Reader Rabbit or Starfall.

One of the best things I have incorporated into his day is his "Reading Club". I picked up this cute little bin at Target and made a little tag for the outside which says "Little guy's Reading Club Books". I select specific books each day for his basket- books that he can read all on his own, books that are very familiar to him but that he can't read alone yet, and books for him to just look at and try to find words he knows. In his reading club bin, there is also a timer and a "phonics phone". When it is time for his "Reading Club", he goes and gets his bin and sets the timer. He then sits alone and reads! At the beginning of the year, it was hard for him to sit for 5 minutes and read to himself. Now, he is up to 15 minutes! I am very happy with his reading progress and he seems to enjoy this time. He gets a sticker for each book and then when he reads a specific amount of books, he gets to go to the store and pick something small out.

My little guy has fun with Tub Time Tuesday each week. He enjoys all the different sensory tubs and especially loves the water or dirt play ones!

Well, this is just a small peek into my little guy's day. I will post more regarding his Kindergarten activities another time. In closing, I thought I would share something funny I overheard him talking about with one of his sisters. One of his sisters said to him that she wished she could climb to the top of a mountain, but that we don't have any mountains near us. He paused for a minute, and then said "well there's a HUGE mountain in mommy and daddy's room!" This is what he was referring to:

Yes folks, he was referring to my lovely mountain of laundry that just never seems to disappear! Aren't little ones just precious???