Favorite Konos Memories from Kindergarten and Preschool Year

Kaden was only four and a half, and Morgan only two and a half when we started Preschool and Kindergarten for them. I was using the Konos Volume 1 Curriculum book (having been given it on loan by a friend), and I did a very light version of the units, usually staying only one week or two on each subject, since they were so little. I was unaware that the kids could soak a lot more in than I had suspected. It wasn't until near the end of the year, when we met our friend Kelly, that we started to co-op (get together as a group to learn together and participate in activities, field trips, and events together). Kelly and I enjoyed planning and teaching better in our little co-op than we had separately as much as the kids enjoyed the social interaction. Morgan, although only three at the time, still has memories of our Indian Unit we did with Kelly's family. Homeschooling is wonderful in that it allows you to pick and choose the kids your children become friends with in the early formative years. There are so many really wonderful homeschool families that I have met. Kelly's family has been one of those - and we met because of Konos.

The list below just skims the surface of the vast idea-factory that pumps out creativity through the Konos Volumes. I think Jessica Hulcy and her helpers who wrote the books are some of the most creative people in the world! If I sat and listed all the activities we did for Konos, it would take forever. I am simplifying this list for the sake of the reader. I am sure we'll discuss this year's line-up (we are still using Konos) in much more detail as the year progresses, but for the mean time, in reviewing previous years, I will just highlight some of the most cherished memories for you.

Benefits that we enjoyed that span across Konos Units, regardless of topic:

• Participate in a co-op with other children (so fun!)
• Learn Vocabulary Words with units - lots of neat words
• Bible Memory and Character Building lessons woven into every topic
• Geography, History and Science comes alive in ways no textbook could dream of!
• Researching and planning was as much fun and informative to me as for the kids!
• Topic related field trip suggestions in every unit
• Wrap-Ups (parties at the end of larger units where you dramatize, dress up, cook, etc.)

Things we had fun doing... and the unit they were associated with:

Indian Unit:

• Make Maple Sugar Candy/Pemmican


• Paint Totem Pole (cardboard boxes)


• Indian Feast (artifacts, costumes, book reports, native foods)


• Do an Indian Rain Dance with Music CD


• Dance like the SW Indians with Snakes (plastic) in our mouths


• Make a map of the Indian Tribes and regions


• Make Indian necklaces, vests, and masks


• Build a Teepee and Paint it


• Shoot bows and arrows


• Sit on a fake deer-skin and pretend to be an Indian


• Make a turtle rattle shell


• Dramatize an Indian ambush


• Paint our faces with "war paint"


• Learn some Indian sign language


• Put daughter's hair in a squash-blossom hair-do and paint her part red


• Color Dover Stained Glass SW Indian designs and hang in window


• Make a sand-cast painting


• Grind hard corn in a Mexican Mojalete


• Paint a Navajo Rug


• Reenact sheep herding

Five Senses Unit:

• Draw the Five Senses


• Draw Road Signs


• Mystery Box game (guess by touch)


• Adjective Game (guess by adjective what it is)


• build the structures inside the ear with furniture and crawl through naming them as you go

Animal Classification Unit:

• Classify your plastic toy animals by: Mammal/Fish/Amphibian/Reptile/Bird


• Line up with your friends in order of tallest to shortest, most freckles to no freckles, longest hair to shortest hair, oldest to youngest


• Take an animal classification quiz on the internet


• Play animal charades


• Have an animal treasure hunt inside

Planet Classification Unit:

• Make planet mobile


• Make a rocket out of an appliance box (use dry ice for liftoff smoke)


• Listen to outer-space sounds on the internet


• Cut out large cardboard circles and paint the planets

Bird Unit:

• Dissect a duck


• Measure string to the distance of the largest bird's wingspan


• Sketch a bird


• Do a bird beak experiment picking up items with different tools for each beak type and different items to resemble bugs, worms, etc.


• Flap our arms like a bird to see where a duck might need muscles