We've had a fantastic vacation visiting our family in Utah.  The boys are so excited about the kindergarten science plans I have.  We'll use the MythBusters Science Fair books and pick out activities that look great to us. While riding on the airplane the boys flipped through the books and marked anything that was appealing.  We have also been working on our TouchMath PreK unit 1.  CJ is struggling with the written form of larger numbers (most numbers with a ten and a one).  I love that one of the pages was a dot to dot to make a picture.  CJ wasn't in to coloring it but enjoyed the dot to dot part.  It's the type of page that I wish I had laminated though so he could do it over and over again.  It's a fun way to get in repetitive practice of numerals in order. On our trip we enjoyed being outside, exploring the aviary and jumping lots on the tramp!

Reading A-Z

I use the Amazing Action Alphabet to teach my kids the basics of reading.  We do the preschool program through 2x and then they're ready for something more challenging.  We've started using Reading A-Z and RazKids.com to read appropriately leveled books.  I love the books and the interactive elements that are provided for each text. CJ can read books on his level or he can listen to books that are too difficult for him to read alone.  He can access the books on the computer or the iPad, making a whole book library very transportable!

TouchMath Kinder - Getting Started

We've gotten the TouchMath Homeschooling Kindergarten curriculum to try out for the year.  CJ used the TouchMath PreK curriculum for the past 2 years and I felt that it was one of the most comprehensive PreK curriculums out there.  Check out my review of it here. Were were excited to get the Kindergarten curriculum in our hands and start putting it to work.  We took it along with us on vacation as a little extra brain work during down time.

I like that the TouchMath Kinder pulls in many different science mini lessons into the math lessons.  They talk about a nautilus shell and penguins being birds for example.  The Kinder starts simple enough, starting with tracing the numbers and doing dot-to-dot type activities.  CJ is still struggling with the tens (like 30, 40, 50, etc) and asks what comes next for almost all tens.  Upon being told the tens he can count to 100 by 1's. I'm looking forward to using the TouchMath Kinder and hope that it addresses his misunderstandings in depth rather than just glossing over the concept.  Time will tell!