You may remember that I wasn't actually planning on schooling Isaac this year. He joins us for our memory work, Bible and history, and I thought that was enough until he began reading. But whenever Ella sat at the table with her schoolwork, he wanted some work to do, too. I had printed out some letter-practice worksheets for the boys, as well as some fun "find the items hidden in this picture"-type worksheets, but it became immediately apparent to me that he needed something more challenging. And like I said: he wanted to do school, and I wasn't about to to deny him that, so I had to do a bit of scrambling to get some ideas together for him.
The first thing we worked on was an All About Me book (thank you, Kimmie for the idea!) Isaac thought this was the greatest thing EVER, and I know it will be a treasure to look back on. Here are the pages we did, for anyone who is interested:
(Front cover)
(1) My name is...
(2) This is a picture of me:
(3) My daddy works at the ___________. This is what he looks like when he's working:
(4) We live at________________ in_________________. This is what my house looks like:
(5) My favorite things to play are:
(6) My birthday is:
(7) My favorite books are:
(8) My favorite movie is:
(9) When I grow up...
(10) My favorite thing to do with mommy is...
(11) These are some things I do well:
(Back cover)
Here are a couple of those pages:
[I just have to interject, here, to tell you that I LOVE this self-portrait of Isaac. He often wears a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball cap, and he has drawn that, here. And that shirt is his rendition of the Spiderman t-shirt he wears, with a big web on the front of it. I think it's so cute that he drew himself with these typical-Isaac clothes on.]
I also purchased Nancy Hall's Explode the Code, and I am so glad I did. It is perfect for where Isaac is at: he knows all of the letters by sight and many by sound, but he is not yet reading.
The format of this book just makes good sense. It is very straightforward and simple, and repetitive enough that it immediately built confidence in him. Here's an example of one of the pages (click page for larger view):
I have just ordered Rod and Staff's Grade 1 Math for him, too. We can tell he is really good with numbers and we thought it would be a fun addition to plug Math into his Kindergarten work. Here are some other Kindergartenish things we have done:
*Leap Frog- Letter Factory DVDs
*pattern blocks
*puzzles
*cuisenaire rods for making words
Oh, and many of you stepped up with some great Kindergarten ideas in the comments of this post, so don't forget to peruse that if you're looking for some ideas!
Next up: Math
I love the idea of the "All About Me" book!! My little ones are really into art projects and will love this project. Can't wait to try it! :)
ReplyDelete* On another note- I love the name Audra! Our baby is Audrey :)
God Bless!
Kara
Dear Stacy,
ReplyDeleteYou probably won't remember me but I used to frequent your blog along time ago. We have 2 adopted from Guatemala. I used to have a blog called homekeeper4him on the homeschool blogger site. Anyway, I switched computers and lost your website, etc. I was glad to come across your website again as I seen your comment on "leading little hearts home". I look forwarding to catching up with you via looking through your blog posts. I see you have added on to your family since I last was on here. Congratulations!! We are striving to financially make this the year we can adopt again. We are hoping to adopt a sibling group this time....which country we are not sure yet. :) Right now we are looking at the Phillipines and Jamaica.
I have 2 blogs. www.evanspatch.wordpress.com which I haven't updated in forever and we are working on doing a new one so it has no posts on it yet. www.trinityhomestead.blogspot.com
In Christ,
Tracy
Stacy,
ReplyDeleteI also LOVE the "All About Me" book! What a great idea. I think I'll use that with Jeremiah. He's my one and only quiet child and I am always looking for ways to see what's going on in his little head.
Have you used other versions (I'm not sure if that the right term) of Explode the Code? Sonlight (the main curriculum that we are using this year) recommends it as a supplement for 2nd grade English/Reading, but I don't know anyone who has used it to know if it’s worthwhile for Carlos
Tracy~
ReplyDeleteI DO remember you. I tried to track you down when your blog disappeared but wasn't ever able to. Thanks for commenting! Glad to hear an update on how you're doing.
Sarah~
That's a GREAT idea for your Jeremiah. Cutie.
This is the first time I've used Explode the Code. If I were you I would check Amazon's reviews of the other versions.
Blessings to you!