K4 Archives - Growing In Grace

Up Hill Battles

March 20, 2013Tracy

We’ve been struggling through long vowels with Middlest over the last several weeks. It’s a battle I remember having with Oldest, too, the mental struggle to separate short vowel words from long vowel words. Except Oldest was extremely motivated to learn to read, and Middlest? Middlest likes to play and to be fast.

After several teary lessons, I drew her a picture on our whiteboard, a colorful picture of a little girl at the bottom of a big hill. I explained, as I was drawing, that sometimes in life and in learning we have to go up big hills, like the hill in front of our house. It’s hard work. And sometimes, we have to take breaks. Sometimes, we have to look for other ways to get up the hill. We might have to get off our bicycle and push our way up the hill. But one thing we never do is give up and decide not to go up the hill at all.

Then, I went “back to the drawing board” (or rather, Google and pinterest) to look for new and different ways to teach her this concept. I also called my mom, who is an ever-present wealth of homeschool know-how. We pooled ideas, and I had an inkling of what I needed for Middlest.

I made up a few worksheets from the words in her reader that were giving her trouble. I also made up a few games from resources I’d found on the internet.

Long Vowel practice

Marking and reading her words (without pictures, so she can't guess) — Marking and reading her words (without pictures, so she can’t guess)

By the end of the week, she was making some progress. And by the next week, she was reading her story to Daddy and clipping along through her game, even after I added new cards. But I knew that we really had made some significant progress, when I saw a picture she was drawing at the end of that week.

Look who made it to the top of the hill!

It brought me to tears, folks. Those up-hill battles are totally worth it.

Core Tour: Keeping K4 Busy

February 20, 2013Tracy

This is post 2 of my short tour through our core subjects, what I’m using for phonics, reading, and math for my first grader and my preschooler.

Most of this year has been, in a way, free for Middlest. She has been using a great deal of Oldest’s left over pages from both K4 and the beginning review in K5. But she has absolutely flown through the material, which left me in a bit of a straight. Should I purchase new material and move her into kindergarten or push through this year with free pages I could find and print off the internet? We chose the free option.

So, my two primary sources of free work pages has been here and here. I’ve also made a few of my own when we’ve needed them and scoured both pinterest and the internet for other resources. Phew! It’s a lot of work and a lot of time, but it can be done. K4 has been virtually free of charge!

For phonics she worked through left-over pages in A Beka’s ABC-123 book and Letters and Sounds K5 (review pages). Now, she is working whatever I can find from the internet. Right now, we are working on long vowels in two-vowel words, silent e and silent second letters. I’ve googled both long vowels and silent e for activities and found quite a few resources. We’ve also used the little A Beka K4 readers.

For math, she used the left-over ABC-123 pages for this, too. Then whatever I could scour off the internet. I either look up kindergarten math (much of which she is ready for) or will search for particular concepts (time, pennies, beginning addition). For our time together, we count to 100, sing skip-counting songs that I’ve downloaded on iTunes, go through some flashcards, and maybe review a concept or two with clocks or money, etc.

Her day is not long at all. I probably keep her busy with handwriting (again, left-overs from K5 and even 1st grade manuscript books) and other worksheets for about 30 min. Then, we spend another 30 minutes together (15 min. for phonics and reading, 15 min. for math). She is my flighty little butterfly, and it’s really all she needs and all she is ready for right now. The rest of the time, she plays while I work with Oldest. She uses the ZooWhiz subscription that we got for free as a review product, or she plays at one of the activities I have pre-approved for her. She listens in on Oldest’s stories and lessons; she cuddles up for our Tapestry reading; and she memorizes our Scripture as well as quite a few of the history and science facts right along with Oldest.

Now, I’m really desperate to know—how do you keep your kindergarten-ready preschooler busy? Where do you go for free resources?

Finding the windows

December 21, 2012Tracy

There is a very old Christian song I used to sing, “When God closes a door, look for a window.” I’m learning that the same could be said for teaching; when a door closes, you have to look for the open windows.

I actually love that part of teaching. I love the challenge of making something clear to a learner. And one of the things I love best about getting to teach my children is that moment of overcoming with them.

My daughter is a daily challenge. She is extremely independent, and even though she’s only four, I do try to allow her to be as independent as possible with her work. And of course, as with any area of parenting, what worked with one child rarely works with the next. So even though I’ve just been down this road with her brother not much more than a year ago, I’m still teaching it as if for the first time.

For example, I remember my son struggled with some sight words, including the word “the.” To help him, I wrote the word on a post-it-note and hid it in his pockets each day until he finally recognized it. Middlest, however, just couldn’t recognize the word at all. She’d try to sound it out, recognize the “th” sound, and guess “this” every. single. time. I admit that I would get extremely frustrated, and so would Miss Do-It-Herself.

Finally, I started looking for a window.

She wants to sound out the word, so why not give her the tools to sound it out? I gave her two rules: th says th in this; and e says e in me. She immediately read it all by herself—pronouncing it as thee). I figured that eventually she will naturally make the transition to the other pronunciation once she starts recognizing it. But for now, we’ve made it over that hurdle.

First Addition Lessons

September 27, 2012Tracy

Middlest loves math. She loves counting and numbers and, believe it or not, addition! And after all the drilling she overheard with Oldest last year, she’s a lap or two ahead in this race.

So, knowing how much she loves everything math, I pulled a few of the flashcards that are no issue for Oldest and gave them to Middlest. We’ve been playing some fun games, too.

We LOVE counting bears. On the first day, I had her count out the number of bears from her flashcard, and we worked through the combination using the side of the flashcard that showed the answer. On day two, we did the same activity, but I had her work through the combination without the answer.

Then, we pulled out the chalk board and her Fisher Price duplo blocks (similar to legos). She linked the right number together, we’d read through her flashcard, then we’d write it on the board.

This picture says it all! She is extremely hands-on, so it really is no wonder that she loves math. And I love that addition is coming so easily for her.

Activity Stix: a pinterest inspiration

September 20, 2012Tracy1 Comment

I’ve been perusing Pinterest lately, and collecting some really great ideas. These activity sticks were one fantastic idea from Keep Calm and Teach On.

Source: keepcalmandteachon.blogspot.com via Tracy on Pinterest

To make my own, I made a list of all the activities that I had for Middlest to do—play do, lacing cards, threading beads, scissor skills, even playing with Littlest. Then, I pulled out my colorful popsicle sticks and my sharpie. I wrote the activities on each popsicle stick. Then, I took three plain sticks (in other words, the original kind without all the bright color) and wrote “activity stix” on them. (I know, I’m confusing the child’s spelling. But she can’t read yet, and it looked so much more exciting!) I’ll use the plain ones for her workbox pockets.

The idea is that she can trade in her plain stick for an activity, up to three each day. She’ll hand the colored stick to me, and at the end of the week, I’ll add them all back into the jar. That way, she won’t be repeating the activities throughout the week.

It’s a fantastic idea to add an element of surprise to the day without a lot of extra effort on my part.

Want to see more ideas I’ve been collecting? Follow me on Pinterest!

Lessons in Chalk

July 3, 2012Tracy

There are two items in our homeschool that are always the envy of our school room: the wipeboard and the chalkboard. I’m not sure what it is, but any lesson done on one of these boards is suddenly spectacular. Knowing this, I take advantage of it whenever I can, skipping the worksheets and bringing out the chalk (or dry erase markers).

When the oldest had a language lesson on compound words, we brought out the chalkboard and colored chalk. I wrote a few examples on the board, did a couple together, then had him divide the word into its two parts on his own.

But then, if he gets a chalkboard lesson, Middlest is begging to use the chalkboard, too.

Middlest is beginning to sound out short vowel words. Because she has been singing her blends for nearly a year now, ever since her older brother started, she’s learning blends super fast. I’ve got her on a relaxed pace of one new blend each week, but she is usually reading that blend (without having to sound it out) by the second day. To add a little bit of a challenge, I’m starting to give her short vowel words to work on. Sometimes we do these lessons on our felt board; other times, I bring out the chalk.

Typically, I’ll write the blend first and have her read it or sound it out. Then, I’ll had a final letter to make a word. For instance, be then bed; to then tot; da then dad; li then lip; etc. She loves this game.

I love that they both love learning; and one of these beautiful days, I’m going to take our chalk lessons outside to the sidewalk. If compound words on a chalkboard is fun, how much more fun to work on them with sidewalk chalk in the driveway!

What items add excitement to your homeschool lessons?

Blending Fun

May 10, 2012Tracy

Middle-est has begun her blends this past week, starting with “ta, te, ti, to, tu.” She’s already a couple of steps ahead of the game, since she has been singing blend ladders from the time her brother began his blends. (Blends are sung to “Skip to My Lou” tune.) Nevertheless, she is absolutely thrilled to be officially beginning these reading lessons: her own flashcards, her own blend worksheets—it’s big girl school, and she is very ready for it.

We have a little system for the lessons, a few different ways I introduce each blend family. First, we use a laminated train to help her connect the two sounds. T (or whatever consonant we are on) is written on the engine; then each vowel is written on a different car. We say “T,T,T—a,a,a—T—a—Ta,” and she pushes the car up to the engine. Then, we repeat with the next vowel.

Next, we sing the blend ladder, as I mentioned above. I also have blend flashcards for her to read through. A couple of other fun activities that we’ve enjoyed include having her make the blends on our felt board, and playing with the dry erase board.

The dry erase board was a new idea this time around, combining some handwriting with our blend work. On the top line, I had 5 T’s written with plenty of space after each letter. On the second line, I had written the five vowels, with ample space before each letter. Her job was to fill in the missing letters and say the blend she made. Not only did it have her practicing writing several letters, but it also helped her to connect the sounds once more.

We’ve been working through these different activities about a week, and have recently started our second blend family, “la, le, li, lo, lu.” She’s catching on quickly, enjoying all the variety (her middle name is “variety”), and feeling like quite the big girl.