All About Sam

Sam turned five in April and is reading at a pretty advanced level. To be quite honest, I really don’t know what level he’s reading at. He can read the Bible, obviously getting stuck on some of the names and places, but most psalms would give him no problems. Does that help anyone out there try to give me an idea where he is on reading? And he puts an incredible amount of emotion into his reading, especially when there’s dialogue. It’s quite impressive, and I really don’t think I can take much of the credit for it. He’s just very good at it.

Anyway, I started him on first grade phonics and he’s breezing through it. (I should note that we’ve been working out of some of our books for a couple weeks now, even though I said that we’ve just officially started. I think most homeschoolers will know what I mean.) He can read the directions and do what they say. Once or twice he’s asked for help understanding the directions, and on those occasions I myself had to read them twice to make sure I understood them fully.

The math is also first grade level. So far it’s just reviewing stuff we already know, but learning things in a different way, as you’ll see when studying the RightStart program. I expect it to get more challenging in the weeks ahead.

With Sam being advanced for his age, it really takes a load off me worrying about the pressure of making sure he can read by the end of kindergarten. There are times where I wonder if I should push him farther and harder than I am, but I generally come back to the notion that “too much, too soon” could backfire. If our goals were more academic-driven and less heaven-driven, we would likely change our approach and make it more academically demanding.

Charlotte Mason didn’t like formal schooling for children under six, so starting Sam now might put me a year ahead by her standards. Here is what she had in mind (taken from Ambleside Online):

"A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six", a reprint of a curriculum
outline from a CM school in the 1890's. From Summer 93 Parents Review
pub by Karen Andreola

1. To recite, beautifully, 6 easy poems and hymns
2. To recite, perfectly and beautifully, a parable and a psalm
3. To add and subtract numbers up to 10, with dominoes or counters
4. To read--what and how much, will depend on what we are told of the child
5. To copy in print-hand from a book
6. To know the points of the compass with relation to their own home, where the sun rises and sets, and the way the wind blows
7. To describe the boundaries of their own home
8. To describe any lake, river, pond, island etc. within easy reach
9. To tell quite accurately (however shortly) 3 stories from Bible history, 3 from early English, and 3 from early Roman history (my note here, we may want to substitute early American for early English!)
10. To be able to describe 3 walks and 3 views
11. To mount in a scrap book a dozen common wildflowers, with leaves (one every week); to name these, describe them in their own words, and say where they found them.
12. To do the same with leaves and flowers of 6 forest trees
13. To know 6 birds by song, color and shape
14. To send in certain Kindergarten or other handiwork, as directed
15. To tell three stories about their own "pets"--rabbit, dog or cat.
16. To name 20 common objects in French, and say a dozen little sentences
17. To sing one hymn, one French song, and one English song
18. To keep a caterpillar and tell the life-story of a butterfly from his own observations.