MA 2007-2008

Why do I have a list of current schoolwork for a 4-year-old who is technically only in Pre-K (and not a first-born, which would explain a complete curriculum for a 4yo)?

Two reasons:

1) She wants to do schoolwork. She is highly disappointed when it's not a school day. I would be denying one of her greatest pleasures if I did not give her schoolwork.

2) She's ready for it. Really. I'm not just saying that. All in all, I don't think 4yo's need to be doing schoolwork (and really, she doesn't do that much, even so). Just read to them. And play with them. And let them play. And give them jobs to do around the house. And involve them in what you're doing around the house.

But MA? Well, I realized with JW that he missed a lot of the fun, confidence-building learning-to-read books and activities, because I hadn't realized that he was learning to read. :-p

With MA, one day she wanted to play on the computer, so I thought I'd do starfall.com with her. I knew she knew all of her letter sounds (from LeapFrog DVD's), so I thought I'd poke around the beginning reading level with her and show her how words are put together to make sounds. Um, turns out she already had that down and was actually reading the words. Hm, check that off my to-do list (teach MA to read: done). So, I pulled out the Bob books and had ML take the Explode the Code 1 book to the copy shop and away we went.

So, here's her list for this year:

• Explode the Code 2 (and probably 3)
• Sonlight's FunTales boxed set of readers (completed)
• Bob Books and Now I'm Reading! boxed sets Level 1 (completed)
  
• Bob books and "Now I'm Reading!" boxed sets levels 2-3
• possibly get started on Sonlight's I Can Read It books
• Singapore Earlybird 1A&B (I started these too late with JW and had to rush him through because he was below his capability level, so I didn't want the same to happen with MA.)
• Usborne preschool workbooks (Opposites, Shapes, etc.)

She generally chooses what and how much she wants to do a day. Occasionally, I'll steer her towards a a book she hasn't done in a a while. This is anywhere from 2-4 days a week, depending on our schedule. She doesn't take schoolwork with her to meetings or visits, so this is just when we're actually at home for a school morning and I can sit down with her.