I survived my first year homeschooling

A friend posted a kindergarten analysis on her blog, and I thought, "what a great idea." So, here goes.

I thoroughly enjoyed homeschooling this year, even though I ended up completely ditching my original plans. This was our first year homeschooling, and it was an experiment. At the beginning of the year, we didn't even know if we'd continue past kindergarten.

Last summer, I had everything planned out. For English, we'd finish "The Reading Lesson" and then move to "Spell to Write and Read." For math, we'd do RightStart Math. Then we'd snuggle up with a book and do "Five in a Row" for social studies, science, and art. Short and simple. Sounds good, right?

The first part of the plan to go was "Five in a Row" (FIAR). It didn't even make it to the official start of school. I had tried doing a couple of books in the summer before school started. Sparkle loved listening to the picture books, but didn't want any part of the discussions. I also didn't want to put in the effort for the extras that make FIAR fun (extra books, crafts, activities). So I put all the FIAR manuals and books on a shelf for later and decided that it would be okay to skip those subjects for kindergarten.

We finished "The Reading Lesson," but "Spell to Write and Read" (SWR) only lasted about halfway through the year. Both of us hated SWR's lengthy process of dictating new words. I never used any of SWR's enrichments. Even though (or possibly because) Sparkle is a natural speller, I had trouble tracking and reviewing misspelled words. I also learned about studied dictation. I ended up switching to a homegrown spelling program of word analysis, copywork, and dictation. That program has since expanded into a language arts program.

"RightStart Math" lasted the longest. We're still using it, although I am looking for something else. We finished Level A in mid year and then continued to Level B. I still struggle with not knowing what we're doing for math until I open the book. Math is one of Sparkle's weakest subjects.

Throughout the year, I picked up and dropped several other curriculum and activities. Some lasted a few days, others lasted weeks or months, but I ultimately dropped all of them in mid stream. Drawing with Children, Mark Kistler's Draw Squad, Charlotte Mason picture study, Chinese for Children, Sonlight Kindergarten Core, McGuffey's Second Eclectic Reader, What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know, index card timeline, geography coloring sheets, me writing down Sparkle's dictations, drawn narrations.

The school year ended very differently from how it started:

Journal. Every day Sparkle draws a picture and writes a few words in her journal. I'm not involved at all, except to admire the results.

Daily worksheets. I got math drill worksheets from the internet and math word problems from "The Math Lesson". The McCall Harby book provides reading comprehension. We'll move on to the McCall Crabbs book when McCall Harby is done. We finished the Kumon tracing and maze books developed fine motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination. I threw in some critical thinking worksheets for good measure. Sparkle does her worksheets (mostly) independently, and then I go over any corrections with her.

Memory Work. I went through half a dozen different memory work systems. They all were too cumbersome until I found Anki. I connect the computer to the TV and just go through the deck. Once setup, Anki is really easy to use and maintain. Anki is so easy that I've moved everything that involves memorization or review to it: spelling phonograms and rules, musical notes, social studies and science terminology, telling time, prapers, and Chinese vocabulary. Going forward, as we cover science and social studies topics, if any of them are in "A Dictionary of Cultural Literacy," I'll add those topics to memory work and not worry about the rest. Anki rocks!

Homegrown Spelling / Language Arts. I love my new spelling and language arts program. Spelling isn't Sparkle's favorite subject, but it is her best. Every day we do dictation, copywork, word analysis, and writing original sentences. Each day, Sparkle fills up one page of wide ruled paper, writing on every other line. Going forward, I'm looking to expand the language arts program by incorporating aspects of KISS Grammar.

Math. We're still with RightStart Math, but I'm starting to shop around for a different math curriculum. RightStart Math is working, but it doesn't feel "right" either.

Artistic Extras. For drawing, we've been slowly, slowly, slowly using "I Can Do All Things." For piano, we've been working slowly, slowly, slowly through a mix of Pianimals and songs from some other beginner books. If we did these subjects daily, Sparkle would probably learn more, but I'm lazy. Sparkle does plenty of drawing practice on her own time. She doesn't practice piano on her own, but might if we get to some songs she likes.

Chinese. I was working through Chinese for Children, but it wasn't working for us. Listening to the same lesson over and over got too boring. But we couldn't move on until the old stuff was mastered. I'm waiting for a new breakthrough in what to do. In the meantime we're just treading water by reviewing vocabulary in Anki. If I can easily incorporate audio in Anki, I think we'll be good to go.

History. We've been on again, off again going through Story of the World 1 (Ancients). History is Sparkle's favorite subject, even though we don't do anything but look at books. She reads the selection from SOTW. I read the corresponding part in the Usborne Ancient World book while Sparkle looks at the pictures. We look at the maps in the activity guide. I get library books from the lists in the activity guide, and Sparkle reads any that catch her interest. We might look at our pre-printed timeline.

Daily Enrichments: "Morning Music" is me playing something from my iPod or a music CD from the library during breakfast. We've listened to several of the Classical Kids CDs and I've started Themes to Remember. "Lunchtime Listening" is an audio book, usually from LibriVox during lunch. "Bedtime Book" is me reading a chapter book on the nights I put the girls down. Sparkle gives spontaneous narrations for Lunchtime Listening and Bedtime Book. If there is a CD in the boom box, she'll occassionally play it during the day.

Weekly Enrichments. Monday is the trip to the library, followed by a nature walk in the adjourning gardens. Tuesday is poetry teatime, a la BraveWriter. Wednesday is ballet. Over the summer, ballet will be on Monday, so our library trip and nature walk will be on Friday. In the fall, ballet will be on Thursday and we'll have homeschool group activities on Fridays, so the library & nature trip will change days again.

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There is no way that we could have started the school year doing even half of what we did at the end. Sparkle has really grown academically over the year, both in terms of what she can do and in the ability to focus on a task.

Sparkle started out reading above grade level, and she continues to be a strong reader. She is on the verge of making the transition to chapter books. One thing holding her back is her inability to use a bookmark.

Sparkle no longer needs to think about how to form the letters when writing. She is working on spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and most importantly, holding a thought in her head long enough to write it down.

Sparkle has moved away from needing physical objects to represent small numbers (under 20). She understands place value if she thinks about it. She can mentally add numbers within 20 and subtract within ten. On the abacus, she can add numbers up to four digits long, including trading.
Sparkle's drawings now include more than one object, and she sometimes colors them in. Arms and legs now have width, instead of being sticks. She also draws a greater range of objects - houses, mummies, and animals, although her favorite subject is still the family standing in a row.

Sparkle's narrations show greater understanding of the subject matter. Instead of parroting back whatever words she remembers, she is starting to pick out main ideas. She is also starting to be able to recall events in order - instead of telling about the end of the story and moving backward, she now starts at the beginning of the story and moves forward.

Other areas. Sparkle can read and play the notes in shared middle C position. She can read about 30 words in simplified Chinese characters, and make simple sentences of her own. She is learning to swim. As she is tall enough to stand up in the pool, she no longer needs flotation. She performed in her first ballet. She can make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by herself.

I've been blessed with such a wonderful child to parent and teach. Amazingly enough, most of her day is filled with playing with her sister.