Apr 14, 2012

2012-13 Afterschooling Plan (Kindergarten Edition)

This week my kids started their kindergarten year, so it's time for me to get my plan in place for their afterschooling as well. I've done a 180 on this issue. I originally thought I'd just fly by the seat of my pants, but last year I read Learning to Read and Write In The Multilingual Family (US) and that convinced of how important it is to have a plan for afterschooling my kids.

My first plan was September to June, going along the Canadian school year.  I don't think that was working for us. First, I discounted summer, which I think will be prime learning time for us, as it was last year. Second I want to closely mirror what they learn in school so I can give them vocabulary and cultural cues about what they are learning in Japanese school. So I recently decided to change my year-long plan to April-March to match their own school year.

My main goal is to have my kids at grade level in Language Arts (ie, English) and social studies. I don't expect us to be moving back to Canada suddenly while they are in school, but I do think there is a good chance they might be in school in Canada eventually, even if it's for post-secondary, and I do not want them to be behind. But I also don't want this to take over our lives. Hopefully I will be able to achieve my goals with a maximum of 20 minutes of afterschool "classes" a day, plus book reading.

The main thing for me is that I found a fantastic guide in the British Columbia kindergarten curriculum which is posted online. In fact, they have curricula for kindergarten to grade 9 on their website, which is a fantastic resource, certainly the best in Canada. I wonder of there are other countries that post their curricula online? Please let me know if you know of any!

I have divided my plan into three sections; one for Domba (first year of preschool), one for Spinky (kindergarten), and one section for things they can do together.




Preschool I Afterschooling Plan
Literacy: Letter recognition including symbols and numbers, rhyming, song & dance, pre-writing skills, holding a writing utensil properly, finish the Big Preschool Workbook, and more


Social studies: Associate marks with countries/places (including but not limited to flags), understand that there are more languages than just Japanese/English, understand that there are countries called Japan and Canada, understand difference between rural/urban, identify areas in neighbourhood, and more


Kindergarten Afterschooling Plan


Literacy: Finish Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, story prediction & analysis, work on proper use of verb tenses, letter/postcard/email writing, understand difference between nonfiction and fiction, syllable counting, use oral language for different purposes (self-maintain, report, reason, predict, project, and imagine) and more


Social studies: Map skills, look for differences and similarities between cultures, memorize address and phone numbers, giving directions, and more

Both Preschool and Kindergarten Afterschooling Plan
Understand life cycle of plants, increase English vocabulary for those words covered in school, work on empathy, origami in English, play through "what if" scenarios,  emergency preparedness (location of fire extinguishers and meeting spot, and stop, drop, and roll), seasonal holidays, make a story together (kamishibai), role play, and more!



I think that most of these could be adapted to whatever one's minority language is, just with different materials.  This is my first full-year plan so it will need adjusting along the way as I figure out what the heck I am doing. But hopefully I will be back here next March with a report, using the prescribed learning outcomes and suggested achievement indicators of the BC kindergarten curriculum to evaluate how my kids are doing.

Are you afterschooling? Do you have a plan? Please share if you do (or don't)! I would welcome any comments on my plan, I am feeling a little overwhelmed and underqualified at the moment.


18 comments:

  1. Wow. I'm so impressed. I used to teach at a Saturday school for German (minority language), and I doubt any parents were as prepared or involved as you!! Our son is only 2.5, so we're not quite there yet. But if life keeps moving at its current pace, we'll be there before we know it! And I haven't given this a single thought. I know there are some local programs that I'd like to look into. But it would be great to do some things together at home, too. Good luck!! I look forward to reading about your progress!

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    1. Probably no one needed to be prepared because they had you! :)
      Time won't fly at its current pace, it will get faster. I feel like my daughter was just born and now she's in kindy. Oh I'm getting verklempt, talk amongst yourselves... ;)

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  2. Yeah- very inspirational! I think even if they never go to school in Canada it would be a waste not to teach them English at home. And having a plan is the best way to make sure it gets done.

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    1. You're right, even if they are always in Japan, English is a gift I can give them. If I actually follow through on my plan! That's the hard part.

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  3. Sounds like a great plan to me! Don´t know how you find time!!! Chloe is a bit young at the mo but I´d love to do something similar.I´d be preschooling as she´s going to nursery school in the afternoon as I work in the afternoon!What exactly is the difference between kindergarten and preschool...I thought they were the same thing!

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    1. I don't know how I'll find time either. :)

      Technically the school my kids go to is a 3-year kindergarten, but that doesn't really match up to Canadian grades so I've called my daughter's grade level preschool. It's just a name thing though, no substantial differences!

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  4. My oldest is 4, and other than bringing out some Kumon workbooks on occasion and "reading" (naming letters) environmental print together, we're not doing anything explicitly educational at home. Even though she is very keen to learn to read. And theoretically I am planning on afterschooling. But that's about where the plan ends...I want to get a learn to read workbook (like 100 lessons) or a language arts curriculum for K-1 or so, but didn't manage to find anything appropriate when I had the chance. So, um, as much detail as you choose to share on your kindergarten plans will be welcome! :)

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    1. That sounds like a lot you are doing though! Most of what I plan to do is reading appropriate picture books, I hope to mention when I review books whether or not they hit any of my goals for their school year. I will try to go into some detail but don't want to bore you!

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  5. Your objectives sound important but manageable--a lot can happen in those 20 minutes, but it shouldn't take you hours to prepare (which would be impossible to keep up for a year). I like how you dovetail it with what they learn in school so that you're reinforcing and elaborating on the vocabulary and ideas and culture. And what a good idea that you're planning some educational activities for them both to do together despite the age difference!

    Good luck--sounds like you (and they) will have fun. I'm looking forward to following their progress (and stealing some of your ideas, no doubt!).

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    1. I don't know how many ideas will be good enough to steal I'm afraid! But yes, I hope to keep it manageable and well, to just keep it up!

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    2. Wow, seriously. This is the kind of stuff I think about and wish I did but never seem to get around to. I find it tricky. If I exclude thinking about Spanish and just focus on English and French - then French still feels like the minority language to me even though P is now in a French school. She is finishing up petite-section. Not sure how that meshes up with the US/Canadian system. She just turned 4 this May. Part of me things I should reinforce English BUT, english is the language my husband and I speak and still her dominant language so then I think I should keep reinforcing the french. (Head starts to hurt at this point). Finally she really seems to want to start reading and I don't know if I should approach in French or English. Also I am worried as I heard from a number of French friends that they changed their system some years ago away from phonetics and it hasn't been successful but is still the way the schools are teaching it. @Sarah, if you ever see this late reply, I wonder if you have any thoughts on this one. Anyway I take my hat off to you Jenn and will definitely check out the Canadian link. (I've always dreamt of moving there.)

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  6. I love your blog and am enjoying reading your book reviews. Regarding your after-schooling program you sound well-informed and all set to go. Having a year-long plan in place is really a good start. I too am CAD living in semi-rural Japan with similar goals of raising my 2 daughters [9 and 11y] to be bilingual and biliterate and it is a great challenge and requires tremendous commitment. The 'experts' advise developing a good grasp of the mother tongue BEFORE the kids go off to elementary school and reading is an excellent way to do this.
    You are going to have SUCCESS.

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    1. A tremendous commitment indeed! I was such a naive little thing before kids, thinking they'll just pick it up. Ooops!

      I really appreciate the support M!

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  7. Wow! That certainly is an impressive plan. I admire your commitment!

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  8. We do have after school plans for the kids on a daily basis. They do include practicing both English and Mandarin and being expose to other languages like Cantonese, Korean and Japanese through songs and other cultural activities available.

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    1. Wow! I am always so impressed at how many languages you do, Dominique!

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  9. I afterschool my two boys who are in a Spanish immersion program in school so we afterschool everything in English. We do summer intensive afterschooling, which is 8am - 12noon. However we do about a little over an hour a day on the basics during the school year. 20 minutes each of reading, phonics/spelling, math, and history. Keep in mind that my boys are 7.5 and 9 years old so they have longer attention spans than your little ones. And this is our first year of formal afterschooling and the first year we are using dedicated curriculums. All About Spelling for spelling/phonics...The Story of the World for history...Math Mammoth for math...and we go to the library to pick out books to read. I look forward to following your little ones and their afterschooling journey.

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    1. What fantastic resources, thanks so much for sharing. I am going to check those out!

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