Goals for a Four Year Old

Last month my son turned 4 years old.  If you've been around here for a while, you may remember that I like to evaluate my children every 6 months.  This is just reviewing the purpose statement I have written for them, looking at their strengths and weaknesses, seeing what they have accomplished over the past 6 months, then setting goals for them for the next 6 months.

This may sound intense, but I promise it is not =)   It is just a way to make sure that I am being purposeful in my parenting and it also provides a good record to look back on in the future!  I will share with you some of what I wrote down this time.  I'm going to leave out the part about his weaknesses, because he may be little, but he's a person too =)

First I went back and looked at the goals I had written down for him from last time....

Academic

• Be able to write all the letters of the alphabet (yes!)
• Be able to pronounce phonograms 1-45 in Writing Road to Reading (yes!)
• Be able to read and write all the words in sections A-G in Writing Road to Reading (yes!)
• Be able to count to 100 (yes!)
• Be able to skip count by 10's, 5's, and 2's (10's and 5's yes! I forgot to keep working on the 2's)
• Be able to read and write numbers up to 100 (yes!)
• Memorize 50 Bible verses (I didn't go back and count, but it was around there)
• Be able to add and subtract using manipulatives (yes!)

 

Life Skills

• Master using scissors (yes!)
• Participate in a sport (took two sessions of gymnastics)
• Be able to dress and undress himself (yes! with the exception of doing zippers, but I am confident that with the coming of jacket season that he will get that down in no time!)

 

Character

• Learn to consider others before himself
• Learn to not interrupt
• Learn to not take toys from Mackenzie
• We have made great strides in these things, but obviously these sort of character issues are lifelong =)

Then I start a new page for this year....

Trevor's Purpose Statement:

To become a man of God.  A strong, discerning, compassionate leader, equipped to be a husband, father, and provider.

Specific Goals (with the purpose statement in mind):

Academic -

• Be able to add and subtract numbers totaling up to ten
• Be able to skip count 2's
• Be able to tell time
• Learn to write all letters in cursive
• Be able to read and write all words in sections H and I in Writing Road to Reading
• Memorize the basic events on our timeline from Creation to Christ
• Memorize at least 50 new items for our memory box (Bible verses, poems, science facts, etc.

Life Skills -

• Master the use of a zipper
• Learn to tie shoes
• Learn to ride a bike without training wheels
• Learn to interact with adults more appropriately (eye contact, answering questions, not running in front of them, etc.)

Character -

• Learn to channel anger appropriately
• Learn to channel energy appropriately
• Consider others better than himself
• Be a diligent worker (don't be lazy or give up)

 

Trevor's Strengths:

• He is incredibaly smart and has very good mental capacity
• He is gaining interest and confidence  in reading without me asking him to
• He is getting much stronger (physically)
• He has great hand-eye coordination (like hitting a tennis ball)
• Most of the time he is very appreciative (of food, gifts, etc.)
• He is beginning to be a hard worker (notably with his chores)
• He desires to be a 'strong worker man' when he plays
• He is continuing to grow in his creative play

 

I (mom) Will:

• Remember to encourage him more specifically (like "your letter Y's are looking so good!)
• Give him lots of opportunities to release energy
• Have regular read-alone times
• Have him tackle 'man' jobs with daddy
• Give him regular opportunities to serve others

Now, I don't share this to suggest that every 4 year old should look like my son.  God gifts us each uniquely and we all have our own strengths and weaknesses.  I share this to give you ideas if you happen to be looking for some, and also to encourage you to take a moment to evaluate your child and set some goals for this coming year!  Even if your child did not recently have a birthday, this is a great time of year to do this because most people are just getting back into the swing of things with school.  This can give you specific areas to work on in the coming months and specific things to pray for your child about!

Do you keep written records of your child's growth, achievements, areas of struggle? 

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!

Today my baby girl turned 2 years old!  It really is a little bit of a shock because I definitely still consider her my baby.  I am excited because when Trevor turned two I started 'officially' doing school with him, so it's a little reminder that Mackenzie really is getting to be a big girl!

I took some time today to start my evaluation/goal book for her like I have done for Trevor.  I thought about her strengths and weaknesses and some long and short term goals that I have for her.  I also looked back at some of the academic goals I had written for Trevor for his 2 year old year.  It is neat to see how much information she has soaked up from from being with Trevor and I when we do school.  I honestly have never sat down and tried to teach her any numbers or colors (using legos, or by reading books, etc.) like I did with Trevor when he was a toddler, but none the less she knows quite a bit!

I will share with you some of what I wrote down.  Please bear in mind that none of this is perfect, complete, or set in stone, it is simply what came to my mind today as I wrote.


Purpose Statement:

That Mackenzie would come to love and obey Christ and learn to live (and love!) a life of service to her family, church, and community.

Long Range Goals:

• Salvation (obviously this is not my doing, but we will teach her with this goal in mind!)
• Become one who loves to care for others
• Learn to keep a household

 Specific Academic Goals: (these are what I set for Trevor at age 2)

• count to ten (she can count to six now, so I'm sure this won't be a problem)
• count items up to ten
• sing the ABC song (she mumbles through it now, but it is not clear)
• recognize the 26 letters
• identify main colors (she knows many)
• identify shapes (she only knows circle =)

 Strengths:

•  Strong sense of compassion - (ex. she loves to be motherly to her baby dolls and is sensitive to their 'needs')
• Good attention span - (ex. she will sit and color for longer than Trevor will even now, she will sit on my lap while I read a chapter book, she sits through church fairly well)
• Determined, not easily discouraged - (ex. will sit and dump water between two cups or build a tower for an hour, she always wants to figure out how to do things herself)
• Does not need to be entertained - (ex. I will find her sitting in a room by herself playing...something Trevor still does not do)
• Diligent worker - (ex. she picks up toys thoroughly, loves to help me when I clean)

Weaknesses:

•  I don't want to air her dirty laundry, so I'm not doing to put what I wrote down here.  Suffice it to say that it is nothing uncommon to a two year old =)

General Observations:

• She has a very keen sense of smell
• She loves to sing and dance
• She puts together detailed sentances
• She likes pretty things and to be pretty and to complement pretty things
• She loves all things gymnastics...swinging, balancing, hand stands, back walk-overs off of the couch, etc. She seems quite strong for a little 'baby'
• She LOVES to rest/cuddle.  She still sucks her two fingers and is obsessed with her "ni-night" (blanket).  She is so adorable I hate to break it just yet!

So that's Mackenzie!  I love the girl like crazy and am SO thankful for her!

Happy Birthday Mackenzie!

3 Year Old Mid-Year Review

At the beginning of year I wrote down some goals that I wanted to accomplish with Trevor this year.  Most of these were academic, but a few were related to other aspects of life.  I also did this last year when Trevor turned two and when it was half way through the year I did a mid-year review to see how we were progressing on these goals.  I'm a little behind this year, but February would have been six months and I wanted to do another mid-year review to see how we are coming along on the goals for this year!  I'll copy below what the goals that I set were, and then note underneath how we are doing!

Goals for the 3 Year Old School Year:

• Be able to write all Uppercase and Lowercase letters
• This goal has been accomplished!  Of course they are not all as clear as they will eventually be, but they are getting better every day =)

•  Be able to read and spell words in sections A-G in The Writing Road to Reading
• We are a little more than a third of a way through this list, but he can really read many more words since we are also using the McGuffey Primer.  I'm using this list just to make sure that we hit all of the important words and that he learns why each of them is pronounced how it is.

• Be able to pronounce phonograms 1-45 in The Writing Road to Reading
• Got this done!

•  Be able to count to 100
• I was hoping to nail this at the beginning of the year, but Trevor really struggled with it, so I put it on the back burner for a while.  Just a few days ago he finally broke through and counted past 20 to 30.  So we will still be working on this one for the remainder of the year.

•  Be able to skip count by 10’s, 5’s, and 2’s
• He's got 10's down easy.  I say 5's around him a bit, but we haven't worked too much on that one, and not at all on the 2's.  So reading this is a good reminder to work on these!

• Be able to write numbers to 100
• He can write all of the digits (though not perfectly!), but I hadn't thought about oral exercises past about 13 (this is about how high we go for answers to our Ray's problems). Good reminder again!  I had been quizzing him using flashcards to identify numbers up to 100, but now I'll have to ask him to write the numbers that I say.

• Memorize 50 Bible verses (this sounds like a lot, but I'm thinking one a week)
• He's got about 25 actual verses memorized at this point, so we are right on track!  Using our memory box is a huge help in this...honestly I don't know how we would do it without it!  We usually have to give him the first word of the verse and then he is pretty good about getting the rest.

•  Improve fine motor skills through arts and crafts
• He is quite good with the scissors at this point.  He is finally coloring things in on purpose (as opposed to just scribbling around).  I'm not thinking of anything else specific to comment on here...

• Improve gross motor skills through play and possibly a ‘sport’
• We have Trevor in a 3 yr old boys gymnastics class once a week.  This has been great for coordination and balance.  We will stop for the summer since we love to spend time outside and he will get plenty of gross motor skill practice on jungle gyms and riding his bike!

•  Be able to dress and undress himself well (he's alright at this now, but still needs some work)
• He is completely capable at this point (though slow with buttons) with the exception of starting a zipper on a jacket.  He usually still asks for help in getting dressed, but I try to encourage him to give it a shot himself.  I guess I should be more purposeful about the zipper, or maybe I'll wait until it's actually jacket weather again =) Oh! Also, we've never talked about tying shoes.

•  Learn to think of others before himself (not interrupting, not taking toys from Mackenzie, etc.)
• This is a continuous learning process, but there has been improvement.  We had him memorize a Bible verse that talks about "considering others better than yourself" and we talk about that all day, every day =)

• Begin understanding the concept of addition and subtraction through manipulatives
• He does perfectly using manipulatives to solve his math problems in Ray's Arithmetic.  We are going to finish going through the book using manipulatives and then start the book over again to see if he's ready to start doing some problems mentally (I don't think this will be any time soon.)

• Understand concepts: vowel, consonant, syllable
• Vowel - check, consonant - check, syllable - sorta  =)

Through the encouragement of my pastor's wife, I'm going to start making goals that are more spiritual now too.  It's not something where he has to check the boxes off by a certain date (because it can only be God who works in each of our hearts!), but it's more of a way for me to purposefully take time to look at my child and see where he excels (ex: he is loving, likes to help others, etc.) and where he is struggling (ex: lies to not get in trouble, doesn't obey consistently, etc.)  I made those examples up, but I can then look at the list and see where I purposely need to be shepherding his heart and where I can be an encouragement to him!  I'm not going to share his specific strengths and weaknesses and the goals I set for him in those areas because for his sake it's getting a little personal =)  I will probably find that the things I discover now (the heart related things) will be things he struggles with (or excels at!) for the rest of this life.

So where are you at now that it's more than half way through school?  Have you taken a moment to look at your children and see how far they have progressed since the beginning of the school year?  Have you found some things that they are not excelling at either because you just forgot to teach it, or maybe because they need a new way of looking at?  If you haven't done this, I encourage you to give it a shot!

Happy Teaching!

End of the Year Evaluation - 2 yr old school year

It's August now, and that means that a brand new year of school is about to begin.  I love to have clean notebooks and sharpened pencils and of course a new planner for the year, but before I get too far ahead of myself, I want to take a moment and look back to see if we accomplished what I hoped to this year.  A few months ago, I did a mid-year review evaluating where we were in the goals I had set for Trevor at the beginning of the year and at that time I amended some of my goals.  Now that the year is over, I'd like to check in again to see where we are at.

To review, here were the amended goals I set when I did a mid-year review:

• Be able to count to 25
• Be able to count items up to 25
• Be able to recognize and say the sound(s) of all uppercase and lowercase letters
• Continue learning new colors and shapes
• I may start having him trace lines for early writing work
• I may start having him "build" letters out of cut out lines and curves

End of the year check -up

• He can count easily to 20, and with help to 30
• He can count items as high as he can count and with help a little higher
• He knows all his letters (uppercase and lowercase) visually and knows what sounds they make 
• We did not specifically focus any more teaching on colors or shapes, but talk about new ones if they come up
• He practices building letters and tracing lines used for writing letters
• He can write the letters A, C, E, H, I, L, O, Q, and T (of course, not perfectly or beautifully!)
• We have also started other types of things like Bible memory, listening to chapter books, music time, etc.

First, let me admit that I did not follow through on the curriculum we started the year with.  I was just board with what we were doing.  The curriculum was good at the beginning of the year, but  it was just too simple by the end of the year.  A few weeks ago, in this post, I explained what we have been doing this summer.

In the next few days I hope to post what my goals are for his 3 yr old school year.  So far I've never been accurate to what we actually accomplish (he usually blows me away with how much more he is able to learn!), but I like having benchmarks to base my lesson plans on and also to be able to look back on to see where we've been.

To my homeschooling friends, how did you like what you did last year?  Did you accomplish what you set out to teach?  Do you have any particular books or plans that you loved and can recommend?

Happy Learning!

Preschool: Mid-year review

Part of why I originally started this blog was to be held accountable for what I am teaching Trevor (another is to have good reference for when I start teaching Mackenzie).  I thought that even if no one read this, the thought that someone might be is great motivation!

When we started the year, I had a plan that would take us through the end of the year, but being that I’ve never had a two year old before, I didn’t quite realize how quickly he would grow and learn.  He is two and a half now, and I took some time to reevaluate the goals I had set for him at the beginning of the year.  I honestly didn’t know what a “normal” two year old should know, so I just guessed based on what he knew when he turned two.

I would love to hear what you are doing with your 2 year old, too!  Feel free to leave a comment at the bottom.

Goals I set when Trevor turned two to be achieved by his third birthday:

• Be able to count to ten
• Be able to count items up to ten
• Be able to sing the alphabet song
• Be able to recognize some letters
• Be able to recognize more colors
• Be able to recognize more shapes

Two and a half year check-up:

• Can count to 20 (as long as he is focusing)
• Can count items up to 10
• Can sing the alphabet song great, he can even jumble through the Spanish version! (Thanks LeapFrog Learning Table!)
• Recognizes all of the capital letters, most of the lowercase letters, and knows the sounds for all but a couple of them.  When he looks at a word, he is starting to say the sounds of the letters instead of just reading the name of the letter, like he is trying to sound it out.
• We haven't pushed any funny colors, but he knows all the basic ones
• He knows the standard shapes, plus octogon

Modified goals for the rest of the year:

• Be able to count to 25
• Be able to count items up to 25
• Be able to recognize and say the sound(s) of all uppercase and lowercase letters
• Continue learning new colors and shapes
• I may start having him trace lines for early writing work
• I may start having him "build" letters out of cut out lines and curves

Our current "curriculum" should make it possible for him to learn all of this by his third birthday, as long as I stay faithful in teaching him!

I am already getting excited about what we are going to learn next year, but because I don’t want to push too hard or fast (and because I really have a hard time changing my plans!) I’m not planning on adding anything additional to our school schedule for the rest of the year.  Next week I plan on writing some of my ideas for next year and some items on my wish list for three year old preschool!

Do you have any favorite school related things that you do or did with your preschooler?  I’d love to get some tried and true suggestions!

Happy Learning!

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Looking for more preschool information?  Click on the picture below to find a list of all the preschool posts here at Living and Learning at Home, plus some of my favorite preschool resources!