I reviewed All About Reading Level 1(affiliate link) in this post a year and a half ago.  J-jo just wasn’t ready for it and he wasn’t ready for it for a long time.  Even when he started sounding out CVC words on his own, he just wasn’t ready to use a formal program.  Back in March, when he started asking for school, I reintroduced All About Reading.  We’ve been taking it really slowly, mixing it up with a bunch of other resources I have (namely reading Bob books every day), but our success with it has given him confidence to push through hurdles.

A recent challenge came when I introduced the “th” phonogram.  It has two sounds (think of the word “them” and the word “math”) and not only was J-jo having a hard time remembering them, but he couldn’t pronounce them! He lisps and so says, “vvvv” and “fff” for the two “th” sounds.  It makes it frustrating for him and was leading to a bunch of guessing.

He likes the Adventures in Reading with the Zig-Zag Zebra file folder games so we will  revisit these as well to add in extra practice.

When we first started the program, there was no way to entice him to do the fluency sheets.  Having him read Bob books was already stretching him.  We just skipped all the fluency sheets until now, 3 months later,  when his maturity and desire have improved to the point that he now reads easily and is willing to do these fluency sheets.

It is an expensive program, but we like it more and more as we use it.  The games make it fun, and this particular kid of mine likes when I add fun into the school equation.  I think the key is using it when your child is ready for it so there isn’t so much frustration on the part of both child and parent!

As I wrote in this blog post, I realized that J-jo knew plenty of basic kindergarten math skills and that I should probably start introducing money and time.

1. I started a nickel and dime jar and the kids receive 10 cents for certain chores.  Since the jar is full of nickels and dimes and they go get their own payment, J-jo has quickly learned the difference between nickels and dimes and that two nickels equal 10 cents.  They also get fined 10 cents for certain infractions like not putting their shoes away in the closet.

2. We have been playing the race to $1.00 game.  I used to play this with Bear when she was three.  It’s a game I played with my third graders, too, when I was a school teacher. It’s a great game to learn the value of coins.

We decided to start J-jo’s new work last week.  He LOVES Little Hearts for His Glory (LHFHG) so far.

Each day is separated into boxed categories.  I am such a visual person.  I love those boxes.

History:
We’ve read a couple pages each day from History for Little Pilgrims.  The selections are very short and then some days you read a Bible story that ties in with the history in Little Pilgrims.  J-jo asks lots of questions and the text has led to interesting discussions with him.  Bear is allowed to listen in but is not permitted to say anything during the reading or discussion time, as this is meant to be J-jo’s special time.

Rhyme:
Every week is a new rhyme that teaches something.  This week it was a rhyme to remember the continents.  I have been trying to get him to remember the continents for a year, to no avail.  Finally the song in this guide did the trick. We did the actions to the song over the Montessori world map and placed some Playmobil people on the continents as we sang.

Science:
We sat in the laundry room in the dark and shined a flashlight on different objects, taking turns describing them.  It seemed more a language activity than a science activity, but J-jo just wanted to keep doing that the rest of the day.

We placed a sun in the middle of the room and walked around it holding the earth to demonstrate how the earth revolves around the sun.  We sang happy birthday to the earth to reinforce that it takes the sun a whole year to go around the sun.

On another day we sorted land, air, and water animals.  I was thankful for all the plastic animals we had accumulated from our Montessori days.  We had some great discussions about animals that lived on land but near water sources (he wanted to put the bear on the water tray because they eat fish), and about how birds fly but need to spend time on land for food, nesting, etc.

The activities so far are a bit simple for my liking.  J-jo enjoys them, but I will be adding Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum for K-2 to HOD in August.

Fine Motor Skills:
The guide alternates Do it Carefully (Rod and Staff) and A Reason for Handwriting.  It’s 1 to 2 pages per day, but J-jo did double the pages every time this week, as well as lots of cutting from the I Can Cut book I reviewed in August when J-jo was barely 3.  He’s in the sensitive period for the cutting book now, whereas before it was way too hard for him.  It is so satisfying when you find that perfect amount of challenge and see your child excited about doing an activity. I bought him the next I Can Cut cutting book as a reward for doing so well.

Since he seems to really like the workbooks, we’ve added Explode the Code (he’s working through Primer A that I found unused at Goodwill, but I bought him ETC1 and 2 for when he has finished the Primer).

Art:
An abstract black, grey, and white drawing with a cross in the center to remind us that Jesus is in the center of history.  J-jo insisted on three crosses and gave his artwork to his Awana leader.

Math: 
He’s completed many Miquon addition pages this week and has done a few pages in Mathematical Reasoning.  He’s asking for so much school now that he isn’t leaving me enough time to work with Bear! What a change from 6 months ago!