The school year is just beginning and Tanner is starting his very informal kindergarden at home. I figure we can get through K-garden goals through play and start a formal first grade next September. Here are a few goals but for those of you with recently graduated kindergardeners, I would appreciate your input.
1. Know all his letters and their sounds (Done)
2. Be able to write all his letters
3. Be able to read and spell at least three letter words
4. Count to 100
5. Know all his colors (done)
6. Basic Math (single column addition and subtraction)
If we can get through those 6 goals through play before starting first grade, I think we’ll be in good shape.
I am a member of a preemie forum and I read a recommendation on there a couple of weeks ago about Leap Frog’s Letter Factory DVD. I decided to purchase it and it worked WONDERS! Tanner has wanted to watch it everyday and within 3 days TANNER KNEW THE SOUNDS OF EVERY LETTER! Jim and I couldn’t believe it when we quizzed him last night and he knew them all. While I am typing this he is saying “Mommy you know what letter starts with pink…pppppp….and also popcorn”. Ty knows the phonetic sounds of at least 4 letters as well and most of his alphabet.
We had been sitting down going through some phonic sounds using flash cards but this DVD accomplished my work exponentially faster:). Thought you might like to invest in that! I’ll be off to buy more DVD’s in this series soon.
9 responses to “Tanner and Phonics”
We love Leap Frog DVD’s……they have worked awesome for all of my kids also. We own several of them, and the kids do love watching them over and over again. Good Luck w/ Tanner and Kdg…..boy you are one brave mama….I could never homeschool. ~Shayla
Doni, The Letter Factory is a great great video! We also have the Math Circus and I’m getting ready to buy the Word one but not sure what’s it’s called.
Didn’t you say once that Tanner liked lining cars up? That’s how we taught Eric to count to 100. No kidding. He loved it. In fact I think I blogged about it. There is a website that I used to for my daycare kids and letters. It has some good pictures for the alphabet. It’s http://www.first-school.ws/theme/alphabet.htm
I can’t believe our guys are K-Gardeners! 😉 🙁
i have been on the verge of buying them for seth numerous times! i’m so glad to have the recommendation! thank you.
Hey Doni another great website that I use for my little kids (including Kourtney on my lap) is called starfall.com my mother-in-law is a kdg teacher and she loves this site for her kids. It is very kid-friendly have them click on a letter and then always click on the stars that follow. Look around the sight yourself 1st to understand how it works and then show them once and they will get it quick, I love my kids on this site.
Sounds like a great start for Tanner. My twins have learned almost everything they know from videos like that. I would love to take credit for their knowledge but the videos are great for their Autistic minds.
I also thought it very nice that Ty is learning too. Luke who is only 16 months old can sometimes be heard saying the alphabet in his own garbled way and when he gets to color I always think it sounds like he is saying letters as he writes. But with alphabet obsessed brothers it isn’t any wonder. I think it’s a great way for the younger ones to learn as well.
I love the leap frog dvd’s. We bought the Letter Factory for Nate over a month ago. His doctors are all amaed that he knew all his ABC’s and thier letter sounds before his 2nd birthday! I just bought the word one and he can already recognize the word CAT, and a couple of other ones… so we are going to start Sight Words with him.
Starfall is a great site! We go there with him alot.
http://www.starfall.com/
Nathan has trouble using the mouse and stuff for the computer though so we are thinking about buying some kid friendly computer accessories from here:
http://www.kid-computers.com/
Doni,
Carter received that video as a gift when he was 1. I put it in every now and again and he loves it. He has learned to recognize many letters and their sounds. The other great Leap Frog item that helps w/ the letter recognition and sounds is the magnet set that goes on the fridge (if you don’t have stainless steal). Both of my kids love it . . .it sings the same song as on The Letter Factory . . .
Courtney
This is wonderful. Never heard of that DVD before. I’m thinking of getting it for Jordan since he wasn’t able to start kinder this year because he is a little behind. He’s in a different program…
Ashley had to also (along with the things you had listed)
tie her shoes
write her name
Those are the only 2 things that I recommend. Here in Texas they gave each child a set of site words, (they do this for every grade level) and they have to know them by the end of the year. The first half they get quizzed on in the middle of the year then the second at the end. There were a lot of 3 letter words and also all the color words, and a lot of action words. She had to know over 120 words. I know a little insane, hugh?
Good luck to you, and Tanner!
I love teh Leap Frog videos too. We have the letter one and the math circus. Clarisse can write all her letters now and I think her numbers up to 1-10 from watching them and lots of practice. It is so neat to see her writing her name too. I am shocked that she is able to to do so well! Have fun with Tanner! For Kindergarten I had planned on doing stuff from home, but then I heard of http://www.K-12.com and I decided to go that route after all for my homeschooling. They will keep me on task and provide all the curriculm for free. I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I figured I would some how not be able to keep on task (I have my hands in a bunch of other things in life too that keep me very occupied) so I was thankful for some accountabilty. In any case, I can’t wait until all the curriculum arrives and we get started in Sept. Blessings to you!