 Brittany and welcome back to my YouTube channel. You guys, in today's video, I will be giving you an update on my kindergarten and my preschooler. So if any of you guys are new here to my channel, again, my name is Brittany. I'm a homeschooling mom to three girls who are in the sixth kindergarten and pre-K, and I am in my fourth year of homeschool, you guys. So in today's video, I am going to be updating you on my kindergarten and on my pre-K-er and how school has been for them in our first six weeks. I really separated out my first homeschooling updates for you guys because a lot really has happened with all the kiddos and I really wanted to make these videos really, really condensed and short, but moving forward, I definitely know I will be able to keep all of my homeschooling updates in one video for all of the kiddos. So in starting off our homeschooling with my younger two, they started off a week behind my sixth grader. I really got my oldest established in her routine before adding back in my younger two. I will definitely say they really wasn't ready to start back school when I added them back in. However, when they got back into the flow and the rhythm of our schedule and routine, that was when we really began to make more progress within like our homeschool. So just a little recap for my Kenny Gartner. We are using all about reading level one with her and you guys, like I don't really know how to explain this or say this, but teaching a kid to read is a humbling experience. And I definitely will say that is my experience so far in teaching my middle daughter how to read. I definitely will say I know coming into phonics and phonics instructions with my middle daughter, I knew I had to take things slow because she is in speech therapy. She's still actually learning how to say certain sounds. So I know if she's still working on that enunciation of those individual isolated sounds and trying to blend together, I definitely know it's going to be more of a task for this particular kiddo versus someone who doesn't have any type of speech delay. So I knew coming into all about reading level one that this year my goal is really just to finish half of this curriculum. And to really be honest, you guys, I came to a point in starting off our first six weeks of homeschool because I really felt like I wasn't making as much progress as I would have liked to make. In this curriculum, I was thinking about switching and ditching all about reading, but I really had to come to and really realize that I don't think it's really about any particular curriculum for this kiddo. I think I'm just gonna have to be patient and know that she is going to read. She is going to get it. And we just have to continuously take small bite-sized chunks. You guys, I absolutely love all about reading. Again, we did the pre-reading program last year in her pre-K program. It really helped her with the syllables. It helped her with those individual isolated sounds. It helped her with the rhyming. So I know the effectiveness of this program. And I definitely know I just have to continuously take a little stair steps. So in our all about reading program, we are only working in it for about 15 minutes. And what I do every single day is I do all of the fun games with the letter sounds. I put the letter sounds out. I have my little fly spot and she swats the letter sounds. We go over the little green review, blending cards. One thing that I absolutely love that I added into the all about reading program is I finally, you guys, purchased the all about reading the letter towels because I was so tired of maneuvering all of those little teeny pieces. And my younger one, Alana kept on playing with them and they was just all over the place and it definitely wasn't working out for us. So I put away the letter towels for now and we're using the app and my middle daughter. She absolutely loves the app. And even sometimes throughout the day, like if it's lunchtime, because I put the app on my telephone, she asked me, mommy, can I do my letters? And it's really, really encouraging to know that a lot of times we were working on our blends two times a day, which when we were actually working on our blends more than once a day, I was finally able to see progress. So right now we are actually in all about reading lesson number four. We're gonna be starting that off when we start our next six week term. And did I wanna make more progress? Absolutely, but am I happy that we made it through the first three lexons? Absolutely. My daughter even read her first story in the all about reading book and she was very choppy, but we made it through the first story. And I was really proud when we finally hit like that little woo-ha moment of constantly opening up the book and her not really getting it, her forgetting some of her sounds and to finally at the end of our six week term, she read her first story out the all about reading program. So I definitely will say a lot of the all about reading success really is up to the kiddo. And I just have to continuously show up for my daughter. And I think that's what I'm gonna remember when it comes to her phonics instructions that it's not a direct indication of me as a teacher, but all I have to do is show up in her progress and her growth is all of her own. As long as I know in my heart, I'm doing my part. I'm reading over the lesson. I'm getting everything prepared. I'm following the script. I mean, that's all I really can do. And so far, so good. I definitely will update you guys on reading when it comes to my struggling reader. Well, I really don't know if I should say struggling reader. I should just say teaching reading with a kiddo with a speech delay. So that is our reading. Now, as far as our other curriculas that we've been using, we've been using kindergarten math with confidence. We are going to be starting week 11 when we start our second six week term. And I love this curriculum. It's been so much fun. I really have been enjoying the picture books and the enrichment exercises the most. I like the warmup exercises. This has really been fun and hands on, especially for my busy body, Kenny Gartner. Leia, she's not wanna sit still. And I love having these curriculas where I can just put the pieces on the floor. We don't actually have to sit at our table right here. We can use our little nugget. We're really able to do school free flowing to really suit her particular learning style. And this definitely is very hands on. It's so much fun. So I did a library pickup recently and I have the next books for the kindergarten math with confidence. I'm gonna share them with you guys. So the next book we're gonna be reading is actual size. I have Albert keeps score. I also have 10 flashing fireflies and a bird song is the next books that I'm going to be using with the kindergarten math with confidence. And when we do the picture books, my daughter likes for us to read the picture books all week long, which is so much fun. And it really ensures that I am getting in like that read aloud time with the kiddos because I'm gonna be completely honest. Doing read aloud with the little ones, I am really struggling with trying to be consistent with that and finding the right time to do the read alouds. But the math picture books have been ensuring that right before Leia leaves when I do like her time in our homeschool room together, I absolutely read at least two picture books, one math book and then the other one will be something fun or something that she's interested in off of our shelf. So that's ensuring at least before she leaves, we do have someone on one reading time, even if we don't get to like some read aloud time together with her and my youngest daughter. So that is pretty much Leia's flow. And these are the main two pieces of curricula we've been using. Of course we are still using, what is this? A Matthew C. Primer. She loves the blocks you guys. And this is really a fun supplement. I absolutely love both of these math curriculas. We are actually on week 12 of Matthew C. Primer. So we're just trucking along you guys in our curricula and I'm just trying my best just to be consistent with these kiddos and to continuously show up for them. Now for my youngest daughter, Alana, I made a few little pivots with her. First things first you guys, we actually started off our homeschooling year with Gentle and Classical Preschool with Alana. And I did Gentle and Classical Preschool last year with Leia. So you guys, when I turned on like all of like the scripture memory verses and the Bible songs and things like that with Alana, I just thought that she didn't remember all of those since we just did it last year. But you guys, like both of the girls, they remember all of the memory verses, all of like the little catechisms in the scriptures. And I kind of felt like very dumbfounded. So I'm like, why am I trying to repeat a program over again that we just completed and thinking that it was gonna be something new? I definitely will say they love listening to the memory verses and the scripture reading and they still love that book, Big Thoughts for Tiny People or Big Thoughts for Little People book. They still love me reading that devotion to them every day. So I kind of ditched that program because I felt like it wasn't doing any of us justice to repeat it. So what I ended up doing for Alana and set my youngest one, we are just continuing with preschool math at home with her. And you guys, I love this program. She does too. It's so cute seeing her do like the little fast fingers that she's learning and she's learning how to count to 10 and identify objects to 10. And we play tea party. It's so many fun little gains in here. And Alana really loves when she switches off with Leia and it's her time to come inside of the homeschool room with me. Another thing that I've been enjoying using with Alana has been get ready for the code. And these are just some stickers that I use you guys when I'm doing get ready for the code with them because Alana is only three. She's not really writing when we're doing like each of the letter sounds. I just have her put a sticker on top of each one of the letters we're going over and she really, really loves that. And she really is getting better as far as like her hand grip when it comes to like coloring in the lines. And it's been so much fun doing just these two simple programs with Leia, I mean, not with Leia, with Alana, my three year old and she's really been enjoying just doing these two simple things. And I really had to simplify things for them just to hit to the core. But I definitely will say since we're not doing gentle and classical preschool I really have been missing like that fun aspect in our homeschool that we did last year. So you guys, I pulled out my old faithful and we're gonna do a few units in here and I'm gonna see how it goes. But we are going to be adding back in playing preschool. So for Alana instead of gentle and classical preschool we're gonna be doing playing preschool. I miss all of these fun activities you guys that we did. Last year we did about, I think six or seven units. I sprinkled them in throughout our homeschooling year. And this upcoming homeschool year what I'm going to do is I'm gonna finish off the units that we didn't finish in playing preschool this semester. And if I really enjoy it next semester what I'll do is we will do playing preschool year two with Alana as well. Because it still has like a lot of fun concepts and preschooling type of things that I definitely know she will enjoy for the years to come. So we are going to start off in September with our community helpers unit. And I thought that that would be a fun one to start off especially since September Labor Day it's like right before we hit into that fall season and doing all the fall activities and pumpkin units and apples and all that type of stuff I definitely want to do another unit before getting into those type of units with my younger too. So I have all of my books right here from my library. I'm gonna share them with you that we're gonna be using in the playing preschool for our community helpers unit. We're gonna be reading helpers in your neighborhood. We're gonna be reading the helpers in your neighborhood. This is a Daniel Tiger one. I have the ABCs of what I can be. This sounds like a cute one you guys. I have Tinyville Town. I have Jabari Tries. Now this is not one of the books in the playing preschool but since it's about a construction worker or Jabari trying out like construction and things like that I wanted to pick this one up because I couldn't find any like particular books about construction workers. So I figured this will be a fun one especially talking about like community helpers. I have, I want to be a vet. I have whose hat is it? This one looks like a definitely cute one I think they will love. And I have a whole bunch of these like Let's Meet. These are clover leaf books. So it's Let's Meet a doctor. Let's Meet a police officer. Let's Meet a teacher. Let's Meet a dentist. Let's Meet a firefighter. And Let's Meet a librarian. So I have all of my books you guys ready to go for our community helpers unit. And of course, Leia is going to join in with this unit. And I definitely think they'll have a whole bunch of fun. I love all the activities and the playing preschool that we're gonna get up to. So that is like my plan of attack for my next six week term. All of the curricula that I showed you is all of the curricula that both of my younger ones are gonna be doing. And I'm really keeping things simple. We do do like our calendar time still where I use our morning folder for and I use my Melissa and Duck calendar. But other than that, this is, these are the pieces of curricula I'm using. I really had to simplify and pare things down in our home, in our home school. I'm really finding that the simpler I am going with our pieces of curricula, the deeper that we are going and the more free time that the kiddos still have to do like that messy fun play. I definitely will say I did an awful job this quarter in like our messy art. I really was working with my younger two in establishing our routine and schedule and our rhythm. And I definitely need to like move forward when it comes to like really all like that fun arts and crafts and things like that. And I definitely know the playing preschool will help me ensure that I do get like that messy fun art because that was like the most fun we had in our home school last year when I really made it a priority to incorporate like that messy art even though you guys I really don't like it but it's so beneficial to them. I don't like the cleanup I should say but I do like the artwork and all the aftermath and things like that. So, yeah. So you guys really this is my update for my kindergarten and my preschooler. We're just going to continuously make small stair steps and strides when it comes to Leia and her reading. We are going to continue with her speech therapy and we're just going to do our best or I'm going to do my best I should say and I'm going to do my best to show up and have a positive attitude especially when it comes to Leia. I don't want like my anxieties when it comes to like her reading instruction to like spill over on her. I want her to know we're going to come to our homeschooling time. We're going to show up and we're going to have fun and we're just going to make little steady stair steps like progress and things like that. So you guys this is my kindergarten and my pre-k update. I look forward to our next quarter and all the things that I have planned. And you guys let me know down below what are you getting up to with your smaller ones with your kindergarteners? Are they in the schedule just yet? Do you still have them playing around until you get your older ones settled up in your homeschool? Let me know in a comment section down below. As always you guys thank you so much for watching today's video and I look forward to seeing everybody in my next one. Bye.