Addition, Reading, and Writing

Yesterday, we continued our addition lessons in math. The addition focuses on 1-5 storyproblems and is very repetitious in content, but keeps re-inventing it with new stories, new animals, and new manipulatives to use. We act out the story problem and then re-enact it with numbers (2+1=3). BJU has such a gentle way of presenting material that it hasn't felt tedious or forced at all. DD5 "gets" addition, but I'm plugging ahead with the daily addition lessons, because I suspect that BJU planned it that way, so that the math facts will gently make their way into memory. So far we've added pigs, beavers, squirrels, mice and string cheese blobs (LOL). Workbook pages have given us practice with adding animals, and now unifix blocks. Looks like next we will add pennies. Sometimes BJU has us set up rows of pennies and count them, and count them by tens. I like this, because it is gently introducing us to the concept of money value. It will feel natural when we get to the unit on money, because we've already counted pennies and understand the value of each penny = 1.

In Language Arts, we learned _uff words. DD5 has caught on to the idea that if 2 letters are the same, you only make that sound once. Also, possessives were introduced (Kim, hat, Kim's hat). That lesson seemed a little tricky, but I think she caught on by the end. DD5 is reading well - still very slow, but it isn't as painful. I really like BJU's workbook pages: they offer a good amount of reading practice, but not an overwhelming amount. There is handwriting practice, but again, not a huge amount. I've talked to one person that felt BJU didn't offer enough handwriting practice. I've wondered this too, at times. I purchased the separate writing workbook for kindergarten (it doesn't come with the core program), but haven't used it yet. I could use it and it would be plenty of practice, if I felt we needed it. I figure that we will do a lot more handwriting in 1st grade. A lot of handwriting gets tedious, so I'm glad that there isn't a large amount in BJU K5. Overall, I'm happy with the balance of handwriting, reading practice, and workbook exercises.

I keep trying to find a better curriculum for us next year. I always envisioned us as being like a Sonlight family, with very little workbook practice, no textbooks, and lots of living books. Every time I compare curriculums, I still feel that BJU is right for us. I didn't plan on being a school-at-home boxed textbook kind of mom. And I still have high hopes to break that mold next year for History and Science. But I really feel that for Math and Language Arts, BJU has what my dd needs. I'm not happy with the price of the program for next year, so I'm still curriculum shopping or trying to find a cheaper way to use BJU's program for 1st grade.

Literature: we are making another attempt to read Charlotte's Web. We've made 2 attempts already that just didn't work. It was too long of a chapter book. But DD5 expressed interest in reading it, and we read Chapter 1 at bedtime last night. So far, so good. If it doesn't work for us yet, then we will go back to reading smaller chapter books. Mr. Popper's Penguins and My Father's Dragon were perfect first chapter books. DD3 really likes Richard Scarry books right now. Both girls are enjoying them. I always thought the details were too tiny and some of the details too lengthy. In other words, I always thought Richard Scarry books were pretty dull and tedious, LOL. But the girls are enjoying them and I think such exercises in tedious book reading stretches their attention span. I know it is stretching MY attention span...LOL.