In our state you have to be 5 years old by August 31st to enter kindergarten. Pete’s birthday is in November, which means he wouldn’t have been able to start kindergarten last fall if he were a public school student. Having tried to do a lot of sit-down work with him at the beginning of last year, I can see where that’s a good policy. His attention span and motor skills weren’t where they needed to be for him to do the work without major meltdowns from one or both of us, so we scaled back considerably for what we called his “Kindergarten 4” year. His attention span and motor skills have improved greatly since last fall, and I think both of us will enjoy his Kindergarten 5 year.

Here’s what he’ll be doing:

History

“Story of the World, Volume II: The Middle Ages”

I debated starting him with the first volume of SOTW this year, but I’ve decided it will be easier if he and Poppy are working on the same subject material. He listened to the stories and participated in some of the activities last year, but I didn’t ask him to do anything beyond that. This year he’ll be doing some of the work as well.

“A History of US”

The kids have really enjoyed this series. We’re still just going to be reading them without any additional activities, but I would like to put a presidential timeline up somewhere this year.

Geography

“Trail Guide to U.S. Geography”

This is a good curriculum that I’ve had for years. The trouble is, I have it all in PDF format, which I’ve learned means I’m less likely to use it. I need to either print it or order a hard copy version. I’m not sure which would cost less.

“Map Skills 1”

This is a series of workbooks that teach basic geography skills. My sister-in-law recommended it, and the first book was a hit with Poppy last year. I’m hoping Pete will like it just as much!

Math

“McRuffy Math”

Pete responds very well to hands-on studies, and McRuffy uses a lot of manipulatives and games to teach math. Pete’s going to be finishing the Kindergarten-level book this year, and he’ll move on to the first-grade book after that.

Language Arts

“McRuffy Spelling and Word Study”

Pete enjoyed McRuffy’s math program so much last year that he asked me if he could try out their spelling, too. I’ve been very happy with their math offerings, so I said yes.

“Bob books”

Pete has been working his way through the Set 2 of the Bob Books, and he was super-excited when I found kindergarten and a first-grade set at Sam’s Club. They both focus on sight words. He’s already looked through quite a few of them, so we may finish Set 2 and do the kindergarten sight words set simultaneously.

Science

“Nancy Larson Science 1“

We started this late into our last school year. We’ve been taking it pretty slow, but I think Pete’s retained quite a bit from it. It’s highly scripted, but I like having something to guide me through the science lesson. We ended last year with a chapter on spiders; we’ll be starting with trees this year.

Extracurricular

Art

Outsourcing art class didn’t work so well for Pete last year, and I’m not sure what we’ll be doing this year. I’m thinking about just getting some Ed Emberely books and drawing together.

“Song School Latin”

It’s Latin. With singing! And a monkey! I’ve never studied Latin, so this will be a learning experience for us all.

Lego Quest

Pete will be doing one challenge every week from the Lego Quest site.

Bible

We’ll be reading through “Egermeier’s Bible Story Book.”

Physical Education

Tae Kwon Do

July was very busy for us, so the kids haven’t been to a tae kwon do lesson since the end of June. In retrospect, I should’ve waited until August to sign them up.

Soccer

Rockford will be coaching Pete’s soccer team again in the fall. They’re both looking forward to it.

Family Time Fitness

I won a $50 credit to Family Time Fitness, and I used it to buy their Core 1 set. My plan is for us to do the lessons as a family. It calls for jump ropes, though, and my jump-roping skills are nil. So we’ll see about that.