Recommendations for Pre-K and Kindergarten
Introduction | Teaching K3 (3-year-olds) | Teaching K4 (4-year-olds) | Teaching K5 (5-year-olds)

Teaching K4 Students (4-year-olds)

Fours are delightful! Hearts are so tender toward the Lord at this age. In fact, it's common for many to receive Christ as Savior before they turn five. The spiritual perceptivity of a 4-year-old is marvelous to behold! Though lots of mothering is still in order, their minds are eager to learn "like the big kids." Fours commonly achieve a first grade level in phonics, reading, and math-some even higher. Singing "Noah's Vowel Song" and the "Christ-Centered Alphabet Song" as they learn the letter names/sounds for the alphabet adds spice to teaching times! Consider what the average child is capable of learning in phonics alone: short/long vowels, consonants, ending consonant blends, consonant digraphs, blends with two or three initial consonants and a vowel, plus naming and describing words. In addition, they can also recognize vowel digraphs, modified vowels, and diphthongs. The latter enables capable students to progress in reading without being accountable for that information in workbooks. In addition to learning sound/symbol relationships, spelling rules help build thinking skills. Printing abilities are usually much improved by the second semester.

In math, fours are also amazing. Counting by 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s to 100 is a breeze-and fun when you do a variety of physical activities as you count! So is recognizing and writing numbers to 100. Gaining a fairly good grasp of the concept of "how many" to 100 is not difficult either. Fours typically can accomplish 50 addition combinations through the 10 number family in just 1-3 minutes; 50 subtraction facts can be performed within 3-5 minutes.

If the Christ-Centered Phonics and Math programs have been taught properly at K4 and K5, students have traditionally scored a 3.02 median G.E., with a median Percentile of 98.8-as measured by the 1970 California Achievement Test (CAT) designed for first graders. And it has been proven that they consistently maintain above-grade-level performance thereafter.

If you are a first-time buyer of Christ-Centered Curriculum, the following elements are recommended for teaching 4-year-olds. All materials below are available individually, or with a 15% discount in the "Teaching K4s Package" (002) at Discounted Teaching Packages. To see representative samples of phonics and math, click on Samples.

NOTE: Some of the CCC materials overlap in their use at various ages. The bolded items above are included in the "Teaching K5s/B1st Package" (item 003) at Discounted Teaching Packages. When reordering next year, you will receive a $176.50 credit towards the purchase of that package. If ordering for multiple ages, begin with the package for the oldest child, then fill in missing elements as listed in the younger child's recommendation list.