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Ebenezer
Sep. 13, 2006
Good kind of problem
Alright, I need some advice. I'm not detailing things here to boast; I'm really not sure what to do.
My 4 1/4-year-old daughter is progressing very, very quickly academically.
She's been reading for almost a year. She reads herself the books in the Sonlight PK curriculum -- even the missionary stories; she has read parts of Beverly Cleary books aloud for us during evening family chapter book time. Last month I thought I should go through Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading with her to make sure there were no gaps in her phonics so she could sound out her own words and have a good grounding for spelling. This is apparently utterly redundant to her. I'm still insisting we do a lesson a day, which she does grudgingly, but I have noticed some minor issues with some letter combinations out of context.
With penmanship, her motor skills are such that she has very, very legible and often perfectly formed capital letters and numbers. We're halfway through Handwriting W/O Tears' Letters and Numbers For Me. She'll be doing lowercase letters next.
With math, the Singapore Earlybird 2 books are ... not challenging, but she likes to do them, so I let her.
Last year and this year, she listens to all the read-aloud stuff for DS8 from Sonlight 1+2 and now 3. She is able to answer comprehension questions. She participates in science experiments we do. Her vocabulary is enormous. She's absorbing some Latin. She knows her Bible. She asks amazing questions.
(Here's my favorite, which is from just before she turned 3: We hear religious chant music on the radio. Her: "This sounds like music from TV." Me: "Really? What did you see that had this kind of music?" Her: "That show with the king." Me: "You mean Mr. Rogers? King Friday?" Her: "No, that show with the king and all the people were coming to see him." Me, after a long pause to think of what she could possibly be referring to: "You mean when the pope died?" Her: "Yeah, that one." This was six weeks after the funeral.)
On the other hand, she's 4. A young 4. I don't want to go all pushy-mother on her. But I don't think she needs kindergarten. Of course, with homeschool it's a moot point, but I mean, I can't really use kindergarten curriculum. So how do I balance age-appropriate with ability-appropriate?
Here's what I'm thinking, for starting slowly once she's done with OPG and Earlybird:
* First Language Lessons
* Saxon 1 (I only want to deviate from Singapore here for the same reasons I'm going through OPG -- to close any gaps before moving on in Singapore. For example, I don't think Singapore covers things like calendars and clocks and "practical math" quite so much as Saxon does in this early stage. Advice?
* Copywork
* Readers of her choosing, mostly, guided by booklists in Veritas, SL, etc.
* Five In A Row, though she claims not to like this
* Spelling Power, maybe? Or wait?
* Continued Bible studies (we use Nancy Ganz commentaries in evening and son reads the assigned SL passage aloud in the morning, along with misc. other things and overall educational philosophy)
* Continued art and music appreciation, dance and swim class
I think this is enough quantity-wise; but I wonder if anyone has advice in the math and FLL areas, as well as whether I could go ahead and do Prima Latina with her.
Anyone?
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Posted by 
Sep. 15, 2006 - Our Amazing (young!) Daughters
I like your reasoning behind Saxon 1, we may try the same route...you can always shorten the lessons if they start to bog you down...we'll jump over to Singapore maybe mid-year (do them together), unless Saxon drives us crazy. I like Singapore, but it definitely doesn't focus on facts the way Saxon does.
Anyway, cheers to our little ones (and our big ones - I have an 8 year old Dd too, same age as your son!) -
Fun times, these, eh?
Penny