Goal for Kindergarten August 2010 - 2011

Although I still need to work out the details of exactly what lessons will be taught, I wanted to post a general outline of the things I want the Princess to learn this year.

For starters, the subject areas I want to cover include:

• Reading
• Handwriting
• Math
• Science
• Social Studies
• Art
• Music
• Health
• Foreign Language
• Bible

I'm going to break it down now by subject what I would like to cover through the year.

Reading:

• Learn vowels vs. consonants and the sounds they make
• Read CVC words
• Read sight words (for Kindergarten level)
• Be able to retell a story in detail
• Put events of a story in order
• Write simple sentences using sight words and phonics skills

Handwriting:

• Continue to improve manuscript with focus on lower-case letters
• Introduce script?
• Write own last name

Math:

• Recognize and Write numbers to 100
• Count orally by ones, fives and tens to 100
• Name ordinal numbers first through tenth
• Add and subtract using manipulatives
• Compare quantities by estimating, weighing, and measuring
• Use graphs to gather information
• Tell time to the nearest hour
• Count coins
• Recite the days of the week and months of the year

Science:

• Understand the five senses
• Weather
• Animal Habitats
• Plants and Farming
• Recycling

Social Studies:

• Identify major religious and civic holidays
• Identify major Historical figures
• Understand our community
• Understand different roles in community (Community Helpers)

Art & Music

• Experiment with different materials and methods
• Learn how to draw some simple pictures
• Learn about music notes (different notes and what they mean)
• Learn the notes of a piano

Health

• Learn essecntials of nutrition
• Learn basic functions of the body
• Importance of personal hygiene
• Learn why our bodies are special and are to be kept private
• Safety in public places
• Proper manners in different situations

Foreign Language: (Spanish)

• Learn to count orally to ten
• Basic colors
• Common items in the home
• Animal names

Bible

• Going to follow an age appropriate Lesson Book for bible instruction

What is Your Child's Learning Style?

This year we will begin our first official year of homeschooling! I am very excited...and a bit nervous.  I am trying to do some research now and get a basic outline of what I would like to cover throughout the year.  Throughout my searching I came across this site that had a "test" to determine your child's learning style.  Knowing your childs learning style is a great starting point for new homeschoolers.  After all, what is the point of trying to teach in a way that your child will not grasp?

The Child Learning Style Quiz is a short 15 questions.  I took the test in a matter of minutes.  My dd's results were;

The results of this assessment show that (your child's) learning style is 15% visual, 38% auditory, and 46% kinesthetic.

I think that sounds about right for her! Time to look into some hands-on activities togo with our lessons!

I think this is a great tool and I am glad I tried it out!

But that is just one mom's opinion.

Have you taken the learning style quiz for your child?
Did you feel the result was accurate?
Let me know your thoughts!

Beginning Our Kindergarten Adventure!

In about one week, we will begin Kindergarten here at our little school.  This will be our first "official" year of homeschooling. 

I am excited and nervous. 

I hope this adventure turns out to be one of our greatest yet!

Welcome to Adventum Academy

Welcome to the Adventum Academy blog! I am a thirty year old stay at home mom of two children.  My oldest (who will be know here as Princess or Peanut) turned five this year and after completing a year of Pre-Kiindergarten at a private Montessori school,  is ready to enter Kindergarten.  My youngest (who will be know as Pumpkin or little man) is 21 months old.

There are as many different reasons to homeschool as there are families that do so.  Ours is no exception.  I will share with you the main reasons though.  Let me give you a little background information.

In our state, all children who turn 4 before September are permitted to attend Pre-Kindergarten at the school of their choice for free.  This is a wonderful program that our state offers. We were initially going to forgo PreK altogether, but since our daughter had recently been diagnosed as having ADHD, decided that the social experience would be beneficial to her.  However, the school would have to be understanding of our daughter's situation. We finally chose a Montessori school.  I had already know about Montessori teachings and in fact, had been doing Montessori type activities with my daughter since she was two. Montessori is generally very child-led and almost completely hands-on activities, which is great for our daughter. We thought this would be a great compromise; the work would be familiar to her but she would still be in a classroom setting.

Well, unfortunately at the end of the year, our daughter knew nothing more academically than she had at the start of the year.  Socially she had not blossomed; in fact she had withdrawn a bit as a result of being put into time-out so often.  For being a Montessori school, the directors did not give children the freedom that Maria Montessori had envisioned.  My daughter had been in time-out multiple times throughout the year for many things including picking flowers on the playground, pretending to "cook" by mixing dirt and leaves with a stick, not sitting still during circle time etc.  Things that, to me, do not warrant isolation from peers in time-out.

As we began thinking about Kindergarten, we decided  that I could teach Princess more at home and in a way that did not dampen her individuality or creativity.  We want to gently tame her spirit, not break it.  I would hate for my daughter to lose all that makes her, her. 

Although our days are often difficult because of inattentiveness, temper tantrums and hyperactivity, I wouldn't trade my little girl for anyone in the world!  She is passionate, creative, loving,  imaginative and intelligent.  I look forward to the opportunity to see her flourish and bloom right before my very eyes!

Adventum Academy is the name we have chosen for our homeschool.  We do not NEED to give our homeschool name, but it is something we wanted to do. Princess chose the colors, I designed the logo.

So why Adventum Academy?  Well, I wanted a name that could grow with our children.  Something that sounded mature yet had great meaning for our philosophy on education.  We believe that learning is an adventure.  Every day you can learn something new if you are open and willing to go out and discover what the world has to teach!  That is why we chose Adventum, the Latin word for Adventure.


I hope you enjoy reading about this fantastic journey!