Doodle's School, and Hot Wheels Phonics

Doodle is 5, and would barely have made the cutoff if we were sending him to public school (by only a couple of weeks) So truthfully if I were sending him to public school I wouldn't have sent him to Kindergarten this year. We are just going along with school, and at some point in the future I'll decide whether to call this Kindergarten or not. He's reading well, and doing great with Math and such- but maturity-wise he definately woudn't be ready for Kindergarten. So here's what we use for school-

First off- our main cirriculum is Five in a Row- This is simply the BEST unit study out there for early elementary years. We read great classic picture books, and study them each week.

Monday is Social Studies (history, geography, relationships, lots of things fit in this category) We study where the story takes place, any historical aspects of the story and lots more.

Tuesday is Language Arts- we talk about the way the author wrote the story, did they use repetition? Rhyming? Alliteration? Make lists, and other simple writing assignments.

Wednesday is Art- what better way to study art than to look at great illustrations and immitate them? We've used pastels, watercolors, and studied such fun things as pointillism, perspective and shading.- I am truly amazed, because I am so not an artist, but I learn things through the stories to where I can now identify the mediums used in the books and such.

Thursday is applied Math- counting objects in the story, days of the week, story problems using the book, counting money, telling time and other fun things.

Friday is Science- science projects, expirements and topics to study that relate back to our story. It's neat the way it all ties together.

Here's some other resources we use:

Singapore Early Bird 2 a and b for Math (he's only got 5 pages left, then I suppose we'll start on Singapore 1- first grade math and go slowly)

Handwriting without tears- Such a great handwriting program- I can't say enough for this one. It's cheap, easy, and teaches them their letters. Another day I'll write about what Bug uses for school- but he also uses Handwriting without tears- their Cursive program.

We just started the last book- Starfall.com (an AWESOME site for pre-k through 2nd grade reading) had some free workbooks a few years ago- and I ordered one. Doodle is just now beginning it. Simple short, yet good handwriting, and phonics practice.

Ok- so I've got it all covered except phonics. Phonics is kinda haphazard and relaxed around here. We of course play starfall and other computer games. I don't use a set "program" though I do have lots of resources. Mostly we just play games. That sounds so simple, like it's not enough- but it's worked so far, and if it ain't broke.....

One resource I like is Happy Phonics from Lovetolearn.net- Mine is an older version- so I think this new version has more games than ours. It's simple basic phonics games on cardstock. Nothing fancy- but fun. Probably something you could make on your own if you had the time and ambition.

Doodle's Favorite Phonics game is one we played today- called "Hot wheels phonics" The rules are- Spread out the rug, and grab a car (he prefers motorcycles- but couldn't find one today- so he went with a 4-wheeler with a trailer) Mom spreads out word cards all over the roads. Sometimes I use sight words, other times words he can sound out- sometimes a mix of both. If he needs extra work on "silent e" words, or consonant blends- I just make sure and throw down some cards that will help him work on those things. The cards and just index cards that I write words on that I want him to read. Then I set the timer and he drives the car around to pick up all the words. He has to read the word, then he can pick it up. If he beats the clock, he gets some small reward, piece of candy or prize.

Reading a word

The 4 wheeler with the words he's read

Going to get more words