Children of The Church: Seton's Pre-Kindergarten Program

As I am wrapping up the days of our oldest son using Seton's Pre-Kindergarten curriculum I wanted to give a review of our awesome experience in hopes that others can gain insight, ask questions and be able to use these wonderful resources. Seton's Pre-Kindergarten Program includes Art, Early Literacy, Handwriting, Mathematics, Physical Education and Religion. First of all, let me start by saying I truly appreciated their enrollment and the lesson plans. The lesson plans have so many great ideas and really helped me organize our days and weeks.

Our son Ryan was 4 1/2 years old when we started the Pre-Kindergarten program this past July and he finished in November, just 4 months after he began. We took things much slower in the beginning but as he was showing more understanding and interest we increased the pace. Now we are going to take a nice break to slow down and enjoy Advent and Christmas and start Seton's Kindergarten program in January 2015.

Ryan on his first day of Pre-K in July 2014

Early Literacy:

When Ryan started Seton's Pre-K program he did not know all of his letters or their sounds. He knew the letters in his name, how to sing the alphabet and a few other random letters. Within weeks, probably 2-3 weeks of starting the program he knew all of his letters, every single one. Now, the program does not teach letters that quickly, but I think once he was interested in learning he simply picked them up very quickly. We also use and love the Leap Frog Letter Factory Video which has really helped all of our children learn their letters and letter sounds. The Early Literacy book has wonderful activities are laced with great Catholic fun! They make a letter binder with what different objects and people that start with different letters and also have letter pockets to help learn letters. Religion is laced throughout the program as they have activities to learn about the saints, God's creatures, go on nature walks, etc.

Math:

We loved Seton's Pre-K Math curriculum! The lesson plans suggest doing math 2 days a week, but very early on we learned that Math is one of Ryan's favorite subjects and he wants to do it every day! In the program they learn their numbers 1-10, how to write the numbers and then many more concepts like more/less, taller/shorter, half/whole, empty/full, etc. We added a few basic manipulative and we were set! By the end of this program Ryan fully understands numbers and can actually count and write to 100. He loves helping cook and measure in the kitchen, reciting the speed limit as we are driving down the road, and counting everything in sight!

Religion:

This program is truly beautiful. The lesson plans start off each week by helping guide you through the liturgical year with feast days to celebrate and ways to incorporate the faith into your daily home life. Ryan has learned so many of his basic prayers including: Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, Guardian Angel, and the Prayer Before and After Meals. We say a daily decade of the rosary usually using our Holy Hero's Rosary CD's. They explain the stories of the bible so perfectly for children at a young age. Talking about the miracle of the Wedding of Cana they talk about how the couple must have felt embarrassed for running out of wine at their wedding and ask how would you feel if you would run out of cake and ice cream at your birthday party. This comparison really helped Ryan understand the story, although now I think he secretly prays that Jesus will turn his dinner into ice cream! Ryan's growth in his faith simply amazes me. Just last week at daily mass he said to me "Look mom, the red candle is lit! That means Jesus is in the tabernacle!"

Having a Tea Party with our Guardian Angels on the Feast of Guardian Angels

Additions:

We have added our own things throughout the past months as well to enhance learning and fun. Some of the extra things we have done include:

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons:

Ryan LOVES this book. It is actually probably his favorite "school time" activity. He asks to work on it every day, even if we are not doing formalized school. We had bought the book last year and picked it up a few times, but started over this past July. He is now on lesson 51 and is reading multiple sentence stories. I was terrified to try to teach Ryan to read, knowing that it is such an important life skill, but it has been so much fun. We really enjoy this book!

Saint Mail

We signed up for Saint Mail last spring and have been truly enjoying it! Ryan loves getting mail and gets excited for it to come every month. I love that the lesson and materials for the activity are all sent together and I don't have to worry about getting anything together. We all have really been having fun learning about new saints!

Art Masterpieces: A Liturgical Collection

This is a simple collection of beautiful religious artwork (one for each month of the traditional school year) and a basic booklet which talks about the piece of art for each month and the history and significance behind it. We enjoy learning about the art and also enjoy it being a part of our school room at home!

Lots of Reading

We go to the library at least once a week if not more, and Ryan and I have read out loud story time for about 20-30 minutes each day. He loves non fiction books, especially about weather, spiders, snakes, bats and prairie dogs. We also recently have started reading The Boxcar Children series which he also enjoys.