A Beka Grade K Recap

I can officially say Lovely has finished her A Beka Kindergarten lessons for the year! YEAH! Now, let's give a recap of the pits and falls of the year of tears, turmoil, a few smiles, some giggles, and a whole lot of wishing I could just quit...

First, I admit, I started Lovely out a little early, given her birthday is in the fall. However, she seemed extremely advanced, knowing all her sounds/letters, etc. before starting school, and she wanted to do school. So, I purchased the materials, and in August we began the arduous trek of homeschool. Here is my year in review:

Phonics & Letters: Colorful worksheets with lots and lots of practice. Did I mention, lots of practice? They emphasize blends a bit too much in my opinion, so we worked on blends, but Lovely did better sounding things out with just a basic knowledge of blends. Otherwise, school dragged on and on for both her and me.

Math: You should know how I feel by now: I hate A Beka math with a passion so intense that I will forever remember the feeling of relief when the last worksheet was completed. Yes, my daughter knows numbers and knows how to add, but fill-in-the-blank problems without any pictures/counters is ridiculous! I bought my own counters which she used with every problem, and they were a life saver. However, she does not need to complete 20 math problems a day, so I frequently made her do half of the work. The sequence of problems is organized, but they really don't give much time to master a problem before moving on to the next concept, but after a while, they never shut up about all of the concepts learned...I'm just work-booked out.

Readiness Skills: What?! You've got to be kidding me. If my daughter can't handle that in Kindergarten, she certainly wouldn't be able to handle the rest of her work, so I'm not sure that it really measures 'readiness' to any extent. To me, this was often boring, and a waste of paper.

Social Studies: It was neat to learn a few things about a few countries, but my daughter could have handled a more in-depth look a people around the world, or in our country.

Science: My children wanted the entire book read to them in one sitting, which I pretty much did. I would have liked a little more do it in science.

Art: Fun, colorful, hands-on. My youngest daughter learned to cut because of her art projects, which was great. The only drawback: lots of paper crafts all over the house that secretly need to disappear...

In conclusion, I may stick with A Beka for phonics next year, but I'm going to thoroughly explore the possibilities.

How Many Days Left?

As I dropped off my two darlings at my mom's this morning, I almost felt excitement akin to the feeling I used to get as a teenager when I finished another class. I have been working a temp job this week, but since I don't go in until 10 a.m., I do schoolwork with Lovely first; well, I do some schoolwork. Anyhoo, before I left, I went over with my mother what was left for Lovely to complete. Her response:

"I thought you didn't do school everyday?"

Becoming a little defensive, I declared, "Yes, we do," and gave her a strange look to make her feel like her thought process must be off somehow. Cruel, I know, but don't homeschool moms become a little defensive when our methods are questioned?

"We are on lessons 156 and 157 today. That means there are only 8 lessons left," I stated triumphantly.

"Then the school year will be done?" My mother's mouth seemed to drop.

"Well, we'll be done with A Beka. Then, we'll work on art and reading and my other projects."

Did you grasp the gravity of that statement? Let the fun begin! We are almost done with all those worksheets that I have learned to despise, despite their colorful, cheery, all-too-happy animated characters. I remember loving worksheets as a child, but come on! Worksheets in each subject, sometimes multiple worksheets, is a bit--no, way--overboard in my opinion! I felt like I had to complete all of these worksheets (although I did finally begin crossing off sections and writing the word "SKIP" next to other sections--if Lovely could read the word, then she was allowed to skip that part) and by then I was drained for having any fun. In two weeks will be the Midwest Homeschool Convention and I'm hoping to find some great ideas for next year's curriculum. I'm planning on switching to BJ for math, but I'm not sure about anything else yet.

Highlight of the day: Realizing there are only EIGHT A Beka lessons left!