Year 1 Term 1

We successfully completed our first week of school in the Taylor household!  This is a reason for celebration.  I have spent countless hours figuring out what to do with Nora for school.  The options that we were mulling over were 1. homeschool 2. mandarin immersion program at a local public school 3. vancouver home connection.

After much thought and prayer, we chose numbers 1 and 3.

Nora is enrolled at Vancouver Home Connection.  She attends kindergarten there Monday and Wednesday from 9-11 am.  The rest of the week I teach her at home.  We decided to enroll her in this school so she has an opportunity to have some learning time out of the house, have some special time that is hers, have a teacher (other than me) and have some time doing things with children her age.

At home we are following the Ambleside online program that is based on Charlotte Mason's philosophy.  Our homeschool is the primary source of her education, with VHC being a supplemental education.

Nora is old for her grade level and I started Year 0 with her last year before Blake was born.  I think she did amazingly well with it so I decided to jump into Year 1.  So far we are off to a good start.

Kindergarten Curriculum: September

1.  Habits Training: Daily
Cleanliness

2.  Outdoors: Twice a Week
To the park

3.   Read-Alouds: Two stories a Day
Whistle for Willie
The Little House
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel
Norman the Doorman

4.  Beginning Reading: M-F
100 Lessons

5.  Copywork: M/W/R
Uppercase Letters

6.  Math: M-F
Numbers 1-30 M, W, F
Shapes T, R

7.  Handicrafts/Life Skills: Daily
H: Chalk drawing, play dough, painting, drawing, coloring, stamps, cooking, baking, memory
LS: Clear table, put away clothes, make bed, brush teeth, comb hair

8.  Art
John James Audubon
Claude Monet
Mary Cassatt

9.  Music: Breakfast
Mozart

10.  Poetry: T, R
When We Were Very Young, A.A. Milne

11.  Religion: M-F
Book of Mormon Stories

12.  Memorization: M/W
Articles of faith 1-3

CM Habits

Choose one habit at a time.  Get the child's will with yours.

Decency and Propriety Habits

Cleanliness

Courtesy

Kindness

Manners

Modesty and Purity

Neatness

Order

Regularity

(Mentioned only)

Candor

Courage

Diligence

Fortitude

Generosity

Gentleness

Meekness

Patience

Respect

Temperance

Thrift

Mental Habits

Attention

Imagining

Meditation

Memorizing

Mental Effort

Observation

Perfect Execution

Reading for Instruction

Remembering

Thinking

(Mentioned only)

Accuracy

Concentration

Reflection

Thoroughness

Moral Habits

Integrity

(as shown in)

Priorities

Finishing

Use of Time

Borrowed Property

Obedience

Personal Initiative

Reverence

Self-Control

Sweet, Even Temper

Truthfulness

Usefulness

Physical Habits

Alertness to Seize Opportunities

Fortitude

Health

Managing One’s Own Body

Music

Outdoor Life

Quick Perception of Senses

Self-Control in Emergencies

Self-Discipline in Habits

Self-Restraint in Indulgences

Training the Ear and Voice

Religious Habits

Regularity in Devotions

Prayer

Reading the Bible

Praise

Reverent Attitude

Sunday-Keeping

Thanksgiving

Thought of God

1.  Your brief talk with your older child to discuss the benefits of the next habit you want to help him instill should be encouraging and fill him with hope.

2.  Your correctional hints that help your child initiate his own mental reminder and go down the right neuron route should convey positive expectation.

3.  The living examples you point out, who demonstrate the character trait that you and your child are working to cultivate, should be edifying.

4.  When administering natural consequences, you need to communicate that you are hopeful and expect that your child will continue to improve.

Early Years Guide

Subject	3 Years Old	4 Years Old	5 Years Old
Habits	Habits Training
Outdoors	Outdoor Free Play and Exploration
Read-Alouds	(See suggested list.)	(See suggested list.)	(See suggested list.)
Beginning Reading	Learn letter names and sounds	Practice identifying the beginning sound of words; learn vowels are a, e, i, o, u	Beginning Reading Lessons; NOTE: Lessons should be short; no longer than 10-15 minutes.
Copywork	Trace upper-case letters with finger in sand, rice, or air	Write upper- and lower-case letters with felt-tip marker on wall chart or poster board on wall	Write on lined or unlined paper, holding pencil or felt-tip marker correctly; Manuscript Copyworkdownloads
Math	Counting by rote	One-to-one correlation in counting	RightStart Level A or Math-U-See Primer; NOTE: Lessons should be short; no longer than 10-15 minutes.
Handicrafts	(Select from Handicrafts and Life Skills list.)
Art	Display large prints of great artists, one at a time. Tell artist’s name if child is interested. (Or can join with older siblings/students for picture study.)
Music	Play the works of great composers, one at a time, in the background during meals or driving. Tell composer’s name if child is interested. (Or can join with older siblings/students for music study.)
Poetry	Read poetry aloud together at least once a week. Some poetry books are listed in the Read-Alouds. (Or can listen while you read poetry to older siblings/students.)
Bible	Read aloud the great stories of the Bible. (Or can listen to and participate in older siblings/students’ Bible readings and Scripture Memory.)

Year 0 Books

Year 0 Books

Winnie the Pooh series by AA Milne and Ernest H. Shepard (Winnie-The-Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young, Now We Are Six). Accept no substitutes for the original stories!

Beatrix Potter series (Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, etc,)

The Little House by Virginia Burton

The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack

The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper

Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey

Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey

Ferdinand by Munro Leaf

Ox-Cart Man by Barbara Cooney

Stone Soup and other folk tale retellings by Marcia Brown

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney (CM idea of duty in bringing beauty to the world)

The Story of Little Babaji by Helen Bannerman or other retelling of the Sambo story with more appropriate illustrations

Brer Rabbit books by Joel Chandler Harris, read the online etext

Poems and Prayers for the Very Young by Martha Alexander

A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson (illustrated by Eulalie, Jessie Wilcox Smith, or Alice and Martin Provenson)

The Little Red Hen, The Gingerbread Man, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Billy Goats Gruff. (Joseph Jacob's versions online here and here)

A good collection of Aesop's Fables, such as the one illustrated by Milo Winter

A nice Mother Goose collection, such as The Real Mother Goose illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright 

Mama Goose, a collection by Edelen Wille, or versions such as those by Rojankovsky, Marguerite De Angeli or Tasha Tudor, or Lavender's Blue, a collection of nursery rhymes compiled by Kathleen Lines, illustrated by Harold Jones

Illustrated classic poetry such as Poems for Young Children compiled by Caroline Royds

A good collection of classic children's poetry such as A Child's Book of Poems by Gyo Fujikawa; 

The Golden Books Family Treasury of Poetry selected by Louis Untermeyer; 

The Oxford Book of Children's Verse edited by Peter Opie

If space/cost is an issue, there are also story collections online:
Nursery Tales Told to Children by Amy Steedman includes classics such as The Three Bears and Sleeping Beauty
For the Children's Hour by Carolyn S. Bailey "A choice collection of stories for the preschool child, carefully selected, adapted, and arranged by two veteran kindergarten teachers."
Children's Nursey An online library of classic 19th century illustrated children's books, including Lang's fairy books, Beatrix Potter, Peter Pan, The Water Babies...

The Rosetta Project: An online site with lots of illustrated vintage picture books

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Advisory Favorites

The Church Mice and others in this series by Graham Oakley. These are delightful.
Hiawatha by Longfellow, illustrated by Susan Jeffers
Paul Revere's Ride by Longfellow, illustrated by Ted Rand
My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Ted Rand
Picture books depicting Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, such as The Elephant's Child
Roxaboxen by Barbara Cooney
The Tale of Three Trees illustrated by Angela Elwell Hunt
Wynken, Blynken and Nod illustrated by either Susan Jeffers or Barbara Cooney

Board Books for Toddlers

Books illustrated by Beatrix Potter (Meet Peter Rabbit and others)
My Little Book About God illustrated by Eloise Wilkin
Prayer for a Child by Rachel Field, illustrated by Elizabeth Orton Jones
The Big Red Barn by Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated by Felicia Bond
Mother Goose for Kids illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith
Poems to Read to the Very Young pictures by Eloise Wilkin
single-poem books illustrated by Dianne O'Quinn Burke, such as Wee Willie Winkie
Mother Goose illustrated by Eloise Wilkin
A Child's Garden of Verses compiled by Cooper Edens with a Jessie Willcox Smith picture on the cover
Any other books on this page that become available in board editions :-)
My First Bible in Pictures by Kenneth Taylor, with reverent, non-cartoonish color drawings by Richard and Francis Hook

Beginning First Readers

most children will be beginning to read in Year 1, but these are included here for children who start earlier

Frog and Toad readers by Arnold Lobel
Little Bear readers by Else Holmelund Minarek
George and Martha series by James Marshall
Frances books by Russell Hoban
Henry and Mudge series by Cynthia Rylant
Free online beginning readers by Harriette Taylor Treadwell

Are you curious to have a look at which children's books are on the shelves of some of the Advisory members that didn't make it to the "official" AO booklist? See a list of Advisory favorites.

Mister Rogers Neighborhood isn't on in most cities anymore, but you can watch 26 videos online at PBS's Mister Rogers webpage. There are a few more on PBS's video page, which has other PBS kids shows; you have to look for Mister Rogers in the box on the right.

CM Kindergarten Philosophy

Resume of Six Points already considered.––

(a) That the knowledge most valuable to the child is that which he gets with his own eyes and ears and fingers (under direction) in the open air.

(b) That the claims of the schoolroom should not be allowed to encroach on the child's right to long hours daily for exercise and investigation.

(c) That the child should be taken daily, if possible, to scenes––moor or meadow, park, common, or shore––where he may find new things to examine, and so add to his store of real knowledge. That the child's observation should be directed to flower or boulder, bird or tree; that, in fact, he should be employed in gathering the common information which is the basis of scientific knowledge.

(d) That play, vigorous healthful play, is, in its turn, fully as important as lessons, as regards both bodily health and brain-power.

vol 1 pg 178

(e) That the child, though under supervision, should be left much to himself––both that he may go to work in his own way on the ideas that he receives, and also that he may be the more open to natural influences.

(f) That the happiness of the child is the condition of his progress; that his lessons should be joyous, and that occasions of friction in the schoolroom are greatly to be deprecated.

Premising so much, let us now consider––What the child should learn, and how they should be taught.

And It Begins!

I feel a little behind.

People always ask if Nora will be going into kindergarten this year, and with relief I say, "no, she won't be old enough, her birthday is in November."  That relief is because she misses the school system's "cutoff" for kindergarten by age.  So for quite some time I've felt that it's okay that I'm not on top of my preparations for homeschool because she still has a whole year before she would officially enter kindergarten anyway.

I don't know why I haven't realized that it doesn't matter that Nora wouldn't be starting kindergarten in public schools this year.  I can still teach her "kindergarten" at home, and not wait until next year.  WOW.  She is so ready for it as well.

So I've been all over the place researching and reading through an endless amount of homeschool information.  This is so hard!

Our Plan:
School begins September 6th.

My goals for this week:
Determine what reading materials we will be covering this first year.
Determine what subjects we will be studying.
Research developing good habits.
Learn about nature study that is appropriate for kindergarten age.
Feel more prepared!