Kindergarten

Well it's time for another school year to start next week.  It's hard to believe that this summer has flown by as quick as it did.  Before we start a new year I wanted to recap Kindergarten.  

First Day!

I'm so, so proud of Madeline and her finishing Kindergarten so well!  I was surprised by all the material we covered in a year and how quick and eager (most days) to learn.  There were days of course that were harder than others and that she would rather be playing with Rivers and Gloria. We both grew in learning to be patient with each other, her with me especially through the first trimester and end of Jack Housley's pregnancy.  I grew in learning to show strength and grace at the same time.  It's so funny how "like"me she is.  She shares many of my strengths, but to my regret, my weaknesses as well, but we finished well and strong and we are both better for it, I believe!

Our focus this year was mainly on reading and math.  To my surprise, she enjoyed and most days wanted to do math first thing.  Over the year she learned to count and write numbers up to 200, addition through 7 and subtraction through 6.  She also learned the value of pennies, nickels, and dimes, to count by 2's, 5's and 10's.  She learned place value, to tell time, and how to 1/2 things.  We did addition and subtraction word problems and things like greater and lesser numbers, adding three numbers, and number order.  Whew!

She could blend most 3 letter word before starting Kindergarten and continued to grow in reading.  By the end of the year she could read most 4 to 5 letter words, had started learning long vowel words and was reading stories and short books by herself daily.  We also focused on handwriting and memorizing a weekly recitation of facts that came with the curriculum so that by the end of the year she could spout of things like all the continents, the oceans, months, days of the week, etc.

If you ask her though, her favorite subject in school are art and music. Each week there was a classical piece of art and music as part of our curriculum and no matter how busy we were I didn't skip it since it was something we both looked forward to each week.  There was also great literature we read every week and poetry.  I was so pleased with our curriculum that there was no second thoughts about continuing it for first grade!

Last Day of Kindergarten

I'm excited to start 1st grade on Monday.  We were going to wait after Labor Day to start but it looks like we will be making a trip to Mississippi that week.  So instead we are going to get a couple of weeks under way, and I'm looking forward to the more "regular" schedule our school year brings. I pray she continues to grow in her love for learning and for the God who has made this incredible world for her to learn about.  I pray that God continues to grow me in my love for Him, for my children, and gives me the faithfulness to mother and homeschool well!