Scope and Sequence

Excerpted from the World Book site, Kindergarten Curriculum. Bolded items are things we have not yet covered. Colwyn is solid on everything left un-bolded.

* Meanings of holidays, traditions, and customs
* Understanding and appreciating other cultures
* Individual's role in family, home, school, and community
* Relationship of the individual to the group
* Work and jobs
* Safety rules and symbols
* Basic human needs
* Self-respect and self-awareness
* Awareness of others
* Location of home and school
* Diagram of home and school

Science

* Observation of everyday, familiar things
* Common animals and plants
* Interrelationships of animals and plants
* Classification of living things
* Farm animals
* Care of pets
* Like and unlike plants
* Indoor plants
* The sun: our principal source of energy
* Weather and seasons
* Temperature
* Light
* Colors
* Senses
* Earth, moon, stars, planets
* Simple measurement
* Beginning experimentation

Language Arts

* Phonics
* Choral reading
* Listening to literature, music, poetry
* Nursery rhymes, fairy tales, fables
* Social listening
* Constructing visual images while listening
* Oral communication skills
* Role play
* Following and giving directions
* Paraphrasing and summarizing
* Organizing ideas
* Experience stories
* Relating events and experiences using complete sentences
* Listening for correct speech habits and word usage
* Beginning writing process
* Manuscript handwriting

Health and Safety

* Personal hygiene
* Good eating habits
* Good grooming
* Care of teeth
* Major body parts
* Physical fitness
* Safety to and from school

Mathematics

* Simple counting to 20
* One-to-one relationship
* Concepts of more, less than, same
* Sequence of events
* Correspondence of quantities
* Ordinal-cardinal relationship
* Number-numeral relationship
* Recognition of basic sets
* Meaning of addition and subtraction
* Introduction to number line
* Estimation
* Elementary geometry (shapes)
* Calendar and clock
* Denominations of money
* Basic problem-solving strategies
* Basic chart and graph concepts

So, two and a half months into the 'school year' and Colwyn's doing quite well. Not to mention that we've covered quite a lot that's not even on this list. Just out of curiosity, here's the first grade curriculum:

* Holidays, traditions, and customs
* Our American Heritage
* Different cultures at different times
* Family, school, neighborhood, community
* Farm and zoo
* Neighborhood helpers
* Jobs and careers
* Social skills and responsibilities
* Basic geography terms
* Making and reading a simple neighborhood map

Science

* Grouping and classification
* Living and nonliving things
* Animals
* Pets
* Farm animals
* Zoo and circus animals
* Woodland animals
* Common birds
* Plant and animal habitats
* Seeds, bulbs, plants, flowers
* Weather and seasons
* Day and night
* Solids, liquids, gases
* Air and water
* Magnets
* Fire and temperature
* Sun, moon, stars, planets
* Simple machines
* Beginning experimentation
* Scientific method and scientific inquiry

Language Arts

* Reading
- Phonetic analysis
- Structural analysis
- Establishing sight vocabulary
* Reading informally: names, labels, signs
* Simple pantomimes and dramatic play
* Creating stories and poems
* Telling favorite stories
* Organizing ideas and impressions
* Enunciation and pronunciation
* Presenting information orally, in sequence and with clarity
* Book reports and critiques
* Discussion skills: taking part in group discussion
* Beginning dictionary skills: alphabetizing
* Beginning spelling
* Beginning grammar: nouns, verbs, adjectives
* Introduction to punctuation and capitalization
* Manuscript handwriting
* Handling books
* Using table of contents
* Development of a class newspaper

Health and Safety

* Personal hygiene
* Dental health
* Good eating habits
* Exercise and rest
* Diseases
* Common cold
* Dressing for weather and activity
* Safety rules to and from school

Mathematics

* Counting and writing to 100
* Counting by 2's to 40
* Simple number patterns
* Beginning ordinal numbers
* Using 10 as a basic unit
* Simple properties of zero
* Simple properties of sets
* Beginning addition and subtraction facts
* Number-line use
* Place value and numeration
* Concepts of quantity and size
* Concepts of equality and inequality
* Concepts of ordinal and cardinal numbers
* Using 1/2 and 1/4 appropriately
* Estimation
* Geometric patterns and figures
* Basic customary and metric measurement
* Recognizing time: clock and calendar
* Value of penny, nickel, dime, quarter
* Solving simple word problems
* Basic probability and chance
* Basic chart and graph concepts

Not bad, I think.

Keeping Up with Preschoolers

Last March, I posted the World Book scope and sequence for preschool. Here is a list of the things Colwyn had yet to learn and ought to, and a summary of his progress:

*Understands long and short - check!

*Uses left-to-right progression - he's mostly good about this, but still gets mixed up sometimes.. mainly when he's creating words on his own

*Identifies own first name in manuscript - check!

*Prints own first name - he prints his own name if I help him with the ordering of letters

*Understands top, bottom, middle - check!

*Knows birthday - still don't know this

*Is able to hop - check!

*Able to button a garment - check!

*Able to zip a zipper - check!

*Cuts simple shapes - check!

*Handles scissors well - check!

*Can be away from parents for 2-3 hours - yes, so long as he knows the adult well

*Is not afraid to go to school - still irrelevant

*Crosses residential street safely - again.. he would never be doing this own his own, but he knows to watch for cars, and when we're walking in our street, he runs to the sidewalk if he sees a car coming

*Asks to go to school - still irrelevant

*Knows home phone number - we're working on this.. he's doing pretty well

*Likes teachers - still irrelevant

*Meets visitors without shyness - sometimes he's quite shy, other times he isn't

So we've done pretty well.. not that any of this stuff is difficult to learn if you're just living your life. The only thing he has no clue about is his birthday, though he can accurately order everyone's birthdays (ie - he knows it's Daddy's birthday next, then Lachlann's, then Mommy's, then his). Everything else is pretty much set. Considering that he'd still be going to preschool in the fall rather than kindergarten.. I'm pretty confident that we can take it easy when the baby's born. :)

Scope and Sequence

I was looking up curriculum today, just for the hell of it, to see if any of it appealed to me (it hasn't in the past). I was struck by how.. unfun using a curriculum would be. What a way to take all the fun out of something. Then, for the hell of it, I looked up the science scope and sequence in Massachusetts for students in pre-k through second grade. Here is what children need to learn before they enter third grade, in its entirety:

1.Sort objects by observable properties such as size, shape, color, weight, and texture.
2.Identify objects and materials as solid, liquid, or gas. Recognize that solids have a definite shape and that liquids and gases take the shape of their container.
3.Describe the various ways that objects can move, such as in a straight line, zigzag, back-and-forth, round-and-round, fast and slow.
4.Demonstrate that the way to change the motion of an object is to apply a force (give it a push or a pull). The greater the force, the greater the change in the motion of the object.

Wow.. I hope I can manage all that by the time my child turns 8.

Preschool Course of Study

Here's a typical course of study for a preschooler, copied from the World Book site. Things that Colwyn can do already are crossed out. This is more for my benefit than anything else, so sorry if it's boring. :)

Size
* Understands big and little.
* Understands long and short. - not sure about this one
* Matches shapes or objects based on size.

Colors and Shapes
* Recognizes and names primary colors.
* Recognizes circles.
* Recognizes rectangles.
* Matches shapes or objects based on shape.
* Copies shapes.

Numbers
* Counts orally through 10.
* Counts objects in one-to-one correspondence.
* Understands empty and full.
* Understands more and less.

Reading Readiness
* Remembers objects from a given picture.
* Knows what a letter is.
* Has been read to frequently.
* Has been read to daily.
* Looks at books and magazines.
* Recognizes some nursery rhymes.
* Identifies parts of the body.
* Identifies objects that have a functional use.
* Knows common farm and zoo animals.
* Pronounces own first name.
* Pronounces own last name.
* Expresses self verbally.
* Identifies other children by name.
* Tells the meaning of simple words.
* Repeats a sentence of 6-8 words.
* Completes incomplete sentence with proper word.
* Has own books.
* Understands that print carries a message.
* Pretends to read.
* Uses left-to-right progression.
* Answers questions about a short story.
* Tells the meaning of words heard in story.
* Looks at pictures and tells a story.
* Identifies own first name in manuscript.
* Prints own first name.

Position and Direction
* Understands up and down.
* Understands in and out.
* Understands front and back.
* Understands over (on) and under.
* Understands top, bottom, middle. - not sure if he knows this
* Understands beside and next to.
* Understands hot and cold.
* Understands fast and slow.

Time
* Understands day and night.
* Knows age and birthday. - his birthdate has never come up, hmm

Listening and Sequencing
* Follows simple directions.
* Listens to a short story.
* Listens carefully.
* Recognizes common sounds.
* Repeats a sequence of sounds.
* Repeats a sequence of orally given numbers.
* Retells simple stories in sequence.

Motor Skills
* Is able to run.
* Is able to walk a straight line.
* Is able to jump.
* Is able to hop.
* Is able to alternate feet walking down stairs.
* Is able to march.
* Is able to stand on one foot for 5-10 seconds.
* Is able to walk backwards for five feet.
* Is able to throw a ball.
* Pastes objects.
* Claps hands.
* Matches simple objects.
* Touches fingers.
* Able to button a garment.
* Builds with blocks.
* Completes simple puzzles (5 pieces or less).
* Draws and colors beyond a simple scribble.
* Able to zip a zipper.
* Controls pencil and crayon well.
* Cuts simple shapes. - he might be able to do this, but hasn't done it yet
* Handles scissors well.
* Able to copy simple shapes.

Social-Emotional Development
* Can be away from parents or primary care givers for 2-3 hours without being upset. - luckily, we've always been able to use my parents as babysitters, but he'd probably do fine with Mary watching him
* Takes care of toilet needs independently.
* Feels good about self.
* Is not afraid to go to school. - yeah, irrelevant
* Cares for own belongings.
* Knows full name.
* Dresses self.
* Knows how to use handkerchief or tissue.
* Knows own sex.
* Brushes teeth.
* Crosses residential street safely. - why would a preschooler be crossing the street by himself?!
* Asks to go to school. - again, irrelevant
* Knows parents' names.
* Knows home address. - he knows the street and city, but is sometimes way off with the house number
* Knows home phone number.
* Enters into casual conversation.
* Carries a plate of food.
* Maintains self-control.
* Gets along well with other children.
* Plays with other children.
* Recognizes authority.
* Shares with others.
* Talks easily.
* Likes teachers. - once again, irrelevant
* Meets visitors without shyness. - he's shy for the first few minutes, but warms up
* Puts away toys.
* Able to stay on task.
* Able to work independently.
* Helps family with chores.

So, for 6 months into Colwyn's "preschool" career, I'd say he's doing pretty well.