Free Math Curriculum

I’ve known about this curriculum for sometime now, and have just not used it because the kids were happy with what we had been using.  Now that we have Zion starting out fresh and new, I thought we’d give it a try.  It is called MEP Mathematics Enhancement Programme .  It is a math curriculum developed in Hungary, and from what I have looked at, has a lot of hands on activities. (at least at the Reception level which is roughly equivalent to Kindergarten here).  The directions do not recommend starting until age 5, so don’t be tempted to start too soon.

Zion is starting his lesson one part one which is free play.  He chose Legos.  He will also be looking at a picture of a family soon, using the people to count, identify colors/size, and what they are doing.  Afterwards, he will be drawing sticks to represent numbers 1 through 5.  I like that they are doing 1 stick for the number one, rather than just teaching how to write the number 1, so that he can see that “1” means one something, not just a figure on the paper. I have a feeling that Israel will be joining in on a lot of the math activites.

Kindergarten is Awesome

Zion loves kindergarten in every way, shape and form.  I am so glad.  A month or two ago he wouldn’t even sit to listen to a story or play quietly while I read to him and now he is asking to do his kindergarten work.  One morning after I laid Lincoln down for a nap he reminded me it was time for kindergarten and another day he asked to do more school work in the afternoon.  He loves using his alphabet flashcards.  He has a couple different sets and a chart showing the whole alphabet.  He isn’t too keen on listening to me tell him what each letter’s sound is, but he loves matching up the capital and lowercase letters and finding them on his chart.  He does really good until he gets to ‘L’ which comes out “elemenohpee” instead of pronouncing each letter individually.  We are still working on that.

Monday

We had a giant play group on Monday with our friends from the Omaha Area Homeschoolers group on Meetup.  It was crazy and chaotic and lots of fun.  It would have been a bit easier if the backyard wouldn’t have been so muddy.

Zion had a reading day for Kindergarten where we skipped phonics for the day and just spent some time cuddled up reading and coloring.  It was nice.

Tuesday

Daddy helped a lot with school work on Tuesday.  I sure appreciate when he is active with the kids education.  He even started a fun lesson on martial arts with the bigger kids.

Zion made a giant “days of creation” mural down the wall in the hallway.  Now he wants to cut and paste all his work to the wall.  He even added alphabet flash cards later in the week.  Thankfully I have 3 extra sets of those alphabet cards.

On the fifth day, God created all the bird and fish, so we had goldfish crackers.  The kids will be sad when our creation snacks end.

I found an old book of Mad Libs for the kids to play with.  Gabriel wasn’t too happy with the idea at first since it reeked of something educational, but after we read their first Mad Lib, he was hooked.  I even caught Promise playing alone with them later in the day.

Sometime during my internet travels, I came across a recipe for play-doh.  I decided on the Classic Play-Doh recipe since I had all the ingredients on hand.  I did do the baking soda substitution since I dont keep cream of tartar on hand.

Wednesday

Promise woke up sick this morning, so she got the day off school.  Jason read some of  “Sign of the Beaver” to the kids.  They must really like it since they asked him to keep reading when they were finished with today’s chapters.  Today was the day Zion asked to do more school work.  Makes a mama’s heart happy.

Thursday

Jacy and Promise have been making a series of funny fighting videos.  They film using my camera in slow motion and then replay the video using the fast forward button making their movie look like it’s going in normal speed.  The final result reminds me of those old silent videos since the speed isn’t quite right.  Leave it up to them to figure something like that out.  I had no idea my camera had a fast forward button.

I found some great  Preschool/Kindergarten activities for large and fine motor skills.  We will definitely be using some of the fine motor activities.  When a child’s hands are stronger, it makes learning to form letters easier

Zion working on his mural

Big boys using the new, homemade playdoh

Completed Creation Mural

Kindergarten! Why yes, I do wear my jammies for schooltime 😉

Jacy’s Reading List:

• The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Manga book

Gabriel’s Reading List:

• • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Manga book

Promise’s Reading List:

• The Amelia Bedelia Treasury  I am pretty sure we got this one from the thrift store for 20 cents.  Can’t beat children’s books 5 for $1.  Makes me want to take a trip just to see what they have today.

 

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