EDIT: I started writing this the summer before our first homeschool year officially began. Hitting publish apparently was too much because I forgot to do it until I realized that I wanted to add what I changed, liked, didn’t like, yada yada yada. So – here we go. The following links may be affiliate links. It doesn’t cost you anything extra and our family thanks you for the support. We’ve changed some things and I’ll be sharing them with you soon.
This last year, I attempted to make my own curriculum to see how it went. At this age, learning through play is still so important and I wanted to be sure it was fun for the kids. It didn’t go so well {it didn’t go so bad, either}. I would do great, then get busy, forget to shop for supplies or who knows what. We wouldn’t have any activities planned and just wing it here and there. Now, I know that is fine. It was her preschool year and I know she isn’t behind so I wasn’t worried. It turns out that, despite my hope to create it all myself, our best option is going to be a curriculum of some sort. However, I was already going against the grain a bit and John wasn’t on board with homeschool, so I wanted some sort of curriculum so he would feel more comfortable with the idea. After thinking about these things, I finally decided what we wanted to use for kindergarten curriculum for our first homeschooler.
For math we are using Singapore Math Earlybird Kindergarten Book B. I am debating on moving to Mathematical Reasoning from Timberdoodle. I haven’t decided yet. We have already begun math and she likes it most days, wanting to do 4 or 5 lessons at a time. I just think the Mathematical Reasoning is a more fun, everyday approach to learning math concepts.
For reading, we are beginning All About Reading Level 1. I love the mastery approach to this program that gets them reading quickly so they can see small successes and find more joy in it. We started lesson 1 but we have had some sickness going through our house and she has been extra tired so it didn’t go great for us. She wasn’t a fan and I wanted a chance to find out if it was just the illness or we needed to find a new program. I cannot wait for us to all feel better so we can jump back into it.
For our bible work, we are doing Grapevine Studies. You draw stick figures through the bible. We started with beginning resurrection since it is approaching Easter. I ordered the teacher’s manual, the student workbook and the tracer student notebook. We have finished the first two lessons and the kids are really having fun with it. I decided to print out the memory verse for each lesson and have Charlie trace it and Maggie copy it. I was blown away, Charlie was so excited about it and traced the entire thing. He has never had any interest in that sort of thing before so it was very exciting for us all. I like that you can customize the lessons so much. It gives you the verse and the conversation starter. You can decide how much you want to talk about. The option of a tracer book or non tracer book is great for different ages. Charlie does great with the tracer options and Maggie likes to copy my drawings. At the end of each lesson, there are follow up questions.
For everything else, we are going to be using Moving Beyond the Page. I ordered the reading books used and saved a ton of money. I just ordered it all last night so we haven’t used it yet. I like it because it is themed units. Each unit has a variety of concepts, social studies, science, language arts, sometimes incorporating more math. It’s kind of spendy so I was unsure but as I looked around, this was my favorite. It also says it requires a few hours a day of work, so I am not sure if it will be too much for us or not but I will let you know once we receive it and get started. I love that it also gives you book topics for other books to include. I am obsessed with books and we own so many, yet all I want is more! No joke, we could have our own library and since I’m an Usborne Books consultant, we kind of do have our own library.
We will supplement with other activities, field trips, workbooks and life. I also ordered Beginning Geography and Logik Street from Timberdoodle as supplements because they looked like fun. I hope I’m right. I like them because they encourage creative thinking, critical thinking and problem solving. Things I think are so important for kids to learn. We could open our own library already, so we will definitely be supplementing with reading. Maggie has also been working through a BrainQuest kindergarten book that she received for Christmas and loves to work on.
That is what we are using for her kindergarten curriculum, at least to get started. We are easing into it with math now just to get a sort of routine going without throwing too much at her at once. We are adding in reading a few days a week and will incorporate the rest over the next few months. We are both excited and Charlie wants to join in. The baby just wants to throw everything off of the table while we work. Also, he is 16 months so not a baby at all anymore {boo-hoo}.
