Zeke's Kindergarten Year in Review (in pictures!)

It's wild to think that I'm bringing Zeke's kindergarten year to a close. We had such a fun year this year! We used My Father's World God's Creation from A to Z alongside Abeka Math and Rod and Staff workbooks (the ABCDEFG series). I'm not going to write reviews of the curriculum we used. The fact that we stuck with all of it and finished all of it speaks for itself! I just wanted to leave some pictures and a summary of some of the fun activities we did this year. 

Zeke is reading CVC words now and learning some sight words. He can also count to 100 by 1s, 5s, and 10s. He can write and read any number from 1-100. He can add and subtract in 10. I'm really proud of his skills and how much he learned this year!

The Purple Cow - he loved this poem

He used magnetic letters to make words on his blend ladder worksheet each week.

We still use his kangaroo pencil holder!

Sorting by farm animal and zoo animal

He was so proud of his penguin.

Puzzles were a big part of our school year.

We did a lot of hands-on math activities.

He loves pattern blocks, and we incorporated them quite a bit.

He packed shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.

More hands-on math with graphing.

He had a Mario birthday party for his 5th birthday.

Fingerprint insects - these were so cute!

Hands-on science lessons!

His handwriting keeps improving.

I made sure to have some fun fine-motor activities to round out his themes.

He loves to play with our magnet set!

He continued in speech therapy this year, and he loves all of their office decorations.

He enjoyed his math journal!

The worksheets from My Father's World are all great.

The Mailbox is a great source of worksheets, too.

He loved his crayon resist zebra.

He made a map of Africa with African animals.

His Rod and Staff workbooks were a favorite.

We also hatched butterflies from caterpillars, but I can't find that picture!

Lots of recess at the park.

Zeke had a fantastic kindergarten year. It's hard to capture everything he learned and experienced, but I tried! I've already received his first-grade curriculum in the mail, and I'll be sharing that soon!

2021-2022 Homeschool Curriclum Choices

 I know, I know...the 2020-2021 school year JUST ended. We have actually been finished since early May, and I already knew what curriculum I was going to be using. I wanted to go ahead and order it, get it in and organized, and get really familiar with it all. So, without further delay, here is our 2021-2022 curriculum choices!

Mercie - 8th grade

Mercie will be in 8th grade this year, which is a little mind-boggling. Time really does fly by! We chose her curriculum this year based on a few things:

1.) She is totally independent in her schoolwork, so she needed something with detailed instructions for each day and each subject.

2.) She loves to read so we wanted something with tons of great literature already planned in.

3.) She likes hands-on activities so that also needed to be written in to the plans.

We are going with Heart of Dakota's Missions to Modern Marvels this year. We went with the Deluxe program, including the President's study. There are so many great books she will be reading this year! The teacher's book has a daily 2-page spread with very detailed instructions for each subject. We printed out the first week sample and she really liked how it was written and the activities she would be doing. 

For math, she is going to continue with Principles of Mathematics Book 2 which was the recommended math in the curriculum. This worked out perfectly!

For grammar, she will be using Rod and Staff 7. She will also be using Write With The Best for composition.

If you'd like a complete look at the books she will be using, click Here!

Silas and Titus - 6th and 4th

Silas and Titus will be combined again this year into Heart of Dakota's Preparing Hearts for His Glory. This curriculum has a few independent activities but most of them are teacher-directed or semi-independent. I love the book choices here, and the detailed plans for me to follow! The poetry, art, music, Bible memory work, and nature study are already planned out for me so they won't be skipped.

We will have lots of great read alouds this year, and I am very excited about this! This is one area that gets overlooked or pushed to the back burner with the boys. I read aloud so much more to my older kids. I really am looking forward to this time with them.

Silas will also be using the Independent History section, and I may even let Titus take a crack at it. Here are the books for that.

For math, they will continue in Math Lessons for a Living Education 6 and 4. The suggested math was Singapore but we really like the math we're using. 

For grammar, they will be in Rod and Staff grammar 3 and 4. I'm considering putting them both in 3, but I'll have to get the books in to really look and decide about that.

To look more closely at the books we will be using, click Here!

All three of them will be using Heart of Dakota's Drawn into the Heart of Reading program. I did not order the book packages but will choose books from the included book list. I ordered the Superset Package because it contains the Teacher's Guide as well a one of each level of Student Books, which is exactly what I needed!

Zeke - Tot School

Zeke will be using Heart of Dakota's Little Hands to Heaven alongside extra resources and activities that I'm creating to supplement it. He will still have his daily tot trays and activities that will correspond with the daily lessons. I've used this program with my older kids, and it's such a fun and gentle program. We may do it two years in a row or take two weeks per week and stretch it out. 

I cannot wait to get the curriculum in! Have you decided what you'll be using for 2021-2022?