Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum!

Most of our curriculum

I cannot believe Caden is about to start kindergarten! We are counting down to his first official day!  We're planning on homeschooling year-round so we can take plenty of breaks when needed for holidays, vacations, or when the weather is nice. We'll probably still take most of the time off during the summer since our summers seem to be so busy with VBS and camps. Planning his kindergarten year has been a little challenging but fun as well. He's about done with My Father's World Kindergarten and I was about to throw it out the window because it seemed so simple. However, as simple as it seems it is very effective. He just turned 5 and is reading at a 2nd grade reading level. Granted, not everyone who finishes MFW K will be reading or reading at a 2nd grade level. But it just goes to show how much he really learned. With all of that being said, as much as I want to move on to 1st grade, I'm going to wait. I love My Father's World and will most likely return to it with time. I'm going to do the following and after the Fall semester is over, I might purchase My Father's World 1st grade and start when he's 5.5. Or we may start 1st grade when he's truly in 1st grade. Although I'm positive he would be capable of doing the work now, I want to keep things pretty light and fun for his first official year of school. Looking at everything and making my schedule it doesn't seem very light. Thankfully he loves learning and I'm praying we have a blast this year! The other company I really like is Sonlight. A lot of our read-alouds are from them as well as our science curriculum. In addition to our science coming from Sonlight, I've decided we're going to use Sonlight Core A for History, Geography, Bible, and Language Arts. Sometimes it's just hard to pick one company to go with. Originally I was going to use Sonlight's 1st grade LA program. However, there is a lot of copywork for 1st grade. Reading-wise, Caden is more at the 1st grade level, however, we're going to go through the Kindergarten LA and if things are too easy we'll skip them and move on. 

In addition to homeschooling at home, he will attend a part time school once a week for science, art, and Spanish. We are also involved in two co-op groups as well as he's involved in church activities and sports throughout the year. We stay plenty busy! He also enjoys playing with the kids in our neighborhood who attend both public school and private school.

I am super excited about this coming year!! I love that I'm able to pick out what we'll be learning about. Here's what we are doing by subject. I'll post our tentative daily schedule soon.

Bible/History: We're going to start out our day with Bible. We're going to have a weekly memory verse and learn about history from History for Little Pilgrims. We'll be doing some fun Bible activities from Little Hearts for His Glory from Heart of Dakota. Going through Devotions for the Children's Hour, and doing some character development using Five in a Row Christian Supplement. Caden will also be learning the books of the Bible as well as doing some scripture copy work. We're also going to be going through Sonlight Core A's Bible and History/Geography.

 

Math: There are so many awesome math programs to choose from! Originally I was going to go with Math U See. However, I decided to go with Singapore Math Kindergarten A & B. Singapore consistently ranks #2 in the world for mathematics right behind Shanghai-China. The math program is a little different but Caden so far is really loving it. He seems naturally good with numbers and can count to 1,000 and knows basic addition and subtraction. We're also going to start Life of Fred Apples. I'm so excited about the Life of Fred math series. I bought Cooking with Children from Mardel's yesterday and we'll of course learn about fractions and measurements as we cook things together as well. I call that living math.  

Science: Caden will be going to a science class once a week for two hours. However, since science is one of his favorite subjects, we're also going to be doing science at home. Our guide will be Sonlight's Science for Kindergarten. We'll be going through several books and using their student sheets along the way. Some of the books are: The Usborne Complete First Book of Nature, Finding Out About Everyday Things, The Usborne Internet Linked Children's Encyclopedia, Science Activities - Volume Two, and InquisiKids Discover & Do Level K. We also have some books about Weather and Isaac Newton's Laws of Motion we'll read through. Our curriculum includes one experiment a week. We can watch the experiment first on DVD or try it out first and then watch it done. We are going to do Sonlight's 4-day science program. However, I have read so many great things about the Internet Linked Children's Encyclopedia that I went ahead and bought it. I'm so glad I did! As much as I want to do science 5-days at home, he's attending a 2-hour science class once a week as it is that we can add extras in at home as we want without doing an over-kill. Also there are two experiments we'll be doing. I bought a hydroponics lab and a little make your own snow kid. I'm also considering doing the butterflies again and/or buying a tadpole to watch turn into a frog. We have an ant kit and when we sent off for the ants they never came. We will probably do that as well.

Language Arts: For language arts we are going to be doing Explode the Code 1 and 2. I bought Explode the Code 3 and if he rushes through 1 & 2, we'll go ahead and begin that one. We're also going to be using Language and Thinking for Young Children and I'll be using The Three R's by Ruth Beechick as a reference. Being an English major, language arts is very important to me. Being able to read and write well is the backbone for all other subjects. Which is partly why so much of our homeschool is based on good literature.

My big blue Sonlight Core A binder along with some other fun things for Bible, History, LA, and Geography

Handwriting/Art: Caden's handwriting has really taken off this year. He asks to spell different words and is doing a great job. However, I think it's still important to practice handwriting, especially in Kindergarten. Also he still writes big, which is right in line with his age. I bought A Reason for Handwriting K a while back and while it might be a little remedial, at least it will be easy. Along with that book we'll be doing some pages from Draw Write Now books 1 and 2.  For art he'll be practicing his handwriting with Draw Write Now as well as draw pictures and he can get ideas from What Should I Draw? He's also taking an art class once a week to have some more creative fun! He loves arts and crafts. There will also be plenty of free time for him to come up with his own creations.

 

Read-Alouds: These are just some of the stories we'll be reading this year. These are a little more advanced chapter books than the ones like Frog and Toad Are Friends that we've read through this year. These of course are not the only books we'll be reading. I have more in his room that we'll be reading and are reading currently, such as The Tales of Peter Rabbit and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Kids learn so much when they are read to.  I'll also be reading poems from Language and Thinking for Young Children and from the book, What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know. I'll share with you my reading list at the bottom of this post. We'll be adding and checking off books as we go along. If we start a book and it's not a good fit, we'll put it aside and move on to another one. I want to keep reading as enjoyable as possible!

 

Geography: This is Collin's area and he'll be teaching it when he can. When he can't, I'll teach him. He'll be going through Beginning Geography. Collin also bought him The Cat in the Hat book, There's a Map on My Lap!: All About Maps. We'll of course use our blow-up globe for references.

Foreign Language: Caden will be attending a Spanish class once a week. Collin and I will also read bi-lingual books to him and Collin will continue speaking to him in Spanish and German from time to time.

Music: Caden loves music and I really want him to learn to play the piano. However, I think I'm going to wait a little longer before signing him up for private lessons. Most likely I'll sign him up for KinderMusik or something fun like that.

Book List:

Chapter books
Dolphin Adventure: A True Story	Wayne Grover
The Story of Doctor Dolittle	Hugh Lofting
My Father's Dragon	Ruth Stiles Gannett
A Grain of Rice	Helena Clare Pittman
The Hundred Dresses	Eleanor Estes
Twenty and Ten	Claire Huchet Bishop
The House At Pooh Corner	Ernest H. Shepard
The Boxcar Children	Gertrude Chandler Warner
Little House in the Big Woods	Laura Ingalls Wilder
Stories from Africa	SIM missionaries
The Milly-Molly-Mandy                 Storybook	Joyce Lankester Brisley
Other books
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs	Judi Barrett
The Story About Ping	Marjorie Flack & Kurt Wiese

 Lots of books by Richard Scarry! Currently a BIG favorite around our house.