Kinder-pletion

Aubree "finished" kindergarten last week.  To say she was thrilled would be a tremendous understatement.  "Mom!!" she enthused, "You should make a shirt for me that says 'First Grader!'"

"Uh," I halted, "how about we make a sign?"

"Great!" she announced, "then you can take a picture and put it on your BLOG!" And she scooted off to grab paper and markers.  (The "5" is to indicate that she's 5 years old and is in first grade.  She thinks that's pretty neat.)

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Now is the time for some accountability; a chance to reflect back on the year and consider what worked and what didn't.  

Our primary curriculum was Five in a Row and it was perfect.  Just the right blend of structure and flexibility.  Both Aubree and I enjoyed doing the weekly lapbooks and now have a great record of all the books and topics we studied this past year.  

For math, I signed Aubree up for Dreambox Learning, a game-based internet program.  She usually played 3 times a week for 30 minutes a time.  With all the changes of the last 8 months, it was nice to have something she could do independently.  I think she learned a ton as well.  We quit doing Dreambox at the end of March because she'd finished the kindergarten and 1st grade levels and was getting bored of playing.  

For Handwriting we used the Handwriting without Tears kindergarten workbook.  Very simple and effective.  I've noticed significant improvements in her handwriting over the last year.  When we finished HWT, I found a Starfall journal that a friend gave Aubree.  The journal has fun and engaging writing prompts.  Aubree loved it.  She finished this book as well (anyone know where to find similar books?).

We did a lot of reading.  Aubree's a voracious reader, but we also found many great read-alouds (sometimes me, sometimes Mark, we even roped in Grandpa Winters when he came to visit).  Here were some of our favorites:

*My Father's Dragon (Gannett)

*The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Baum)- then watched the movie

*Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (Dahl) - then watched the movie

*The Ordinary Princess ( Kaye)

* Because of Winn-Dixie (deCamillo) - then watched the movie

*Mr. Popper's Penguins (Atwater)

*James and the Giant Peach (Dahl) 

*Tale of Desperaux (deCamillo) 

*Ramona and Beezus - then watched the movie. (This read-aloud was pure torture for Aubree.  She couldn't stand to wait for me to read.  She begged and begged, "please, please can I read it on my own?" We finally came to an agreement: If she would be patient and wait for me to read it to her, she could read the rest of the series on her own.  She loved the Ramona books.)

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So, those are the things that worked well.  What didn't pan out?  

Weekly cooking classes? - never even got started.
Drawing lessons? - another good idea that never made it past the idea stage. 

Starting each morning with circle time/devotional? - I still think it's a great idea, we just haven't gotten that organized yet.  

Involving Bryce? - Not as much as I would have liked.  Usually Aubree and I did school in the afternoons when both boys were napping.  Bryce is three now...it's time to include him more.  

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This post is getting long (and tomorrow is Thane's 1st birthday [!!!!!!!!] and I still have things I need to do to get ready), so I'll hold off writing about our plans for the summer and beyond until later this weekend.
In summary, though, it's been a great year.  I think homeschooling is wonderful.