Smarter Than a Five Year Old

Christian's birthday falls in August, putting him right before the cut-off date for school.  I have always heard and truly believe that boys do better if they are older in their grade.  If I started CK in kindergarten this year, he would been one of the youngest kids in his class.  Seeing as how this little boy really loves athletics, I don't want his size to hold him back... so I have held him back.  Therefore, he technically would not start school until next year. 

I also chose not to enroll him in preschool.  Instead, I have been homeschooling him (this will be our second year).  I have sort of hit a dilemma, though.  He has exceeded both the preschool and kindergarten curriculum.  So, my whole idea of holding him back has actually pushed him farther ahead.  I am hoping that one of the two schools we have picked for our kids will offer AP classes for the younger grades.  That is, luckily, not a concern right now.  Homeschool is going great and I will continue with it until it no longer works for our family. 

We don't do school every single day and when we do, its only for about 20 minute increments (always while Taylor Rose is napping).  The kids do watch Sesame Street during lunch just about every day, and they both love Barney and LeapFrog.  Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are pretty routine.  We occasionally do homework on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but a lot of times those tend to be Christian's nap days.  On my lazy days, I just hook him up to the computer with a phonics, math, or Spanish game.  Every adventure can be a time for learning, especially in the car.  Actually, Christian learned all of his sounds in the car.  We made up songs for all of the alphabet sounds and used things we saw to learn colors.  It is a whole lot of repetition and patience with some fun crafts and games thrown in along the way.

Both kids get "outside time", as we call it, every single day.  If it is raining, then I move my car so they can run around or ride scooters in the garage.  It helps me keep my sanity and burns off the kids' energy a bit.  Christian's absolute favorite part of the day, aside from when his daddy walks in the door, is when his friends get home so he can play and ride bikes with them. 

This puzzle was a Christmas present.  The box says it is for ages 5-8, but it took CK about 3 minutes to get it all together completely by himself.

CK wrote us this note yesterday before he went out to play with his friends.

"Di Not Loc  -Christian" (Do Not Lock  -Christian)

We have not yet gone over how "o" can make the "oo" sound yet, so I guess he just threw in an "i".  I think its a pretty good note!  We definitely got the message.

Speaking of the "oo" sound, we have been going over how letter combinations can make entirely different sounds.  I write the letter combination and CK puts letter stickers down in the appropriate blanks to make the word.  I always draw a picture at the top of the page to remind him of the sound. 

We called this set the "Pirate" words.

Here are the "Owww!" words (notice the bandaid at the top?).

 Today we worked on "Mad Dog Words"... they say "rrrrrrrr."

We have kindergarten flash cards with sight words on them.  He can read most of them, but not by memorization.  I like him to sound them out so he can potentially read any word.  He has had a lot of fun putting the words together to make sentences.  Aahhh, it's all coming together now!

Any ideas on a fun name for the "th" sound?  I was thinking of making it the sound that a sword makes as it cuts through the air.  It kinda sounds like a long "ththththth...", right?