Are you getting ready for kindergarten and wondering which homeschool curriculum to choose? As kindergarten is your child’s first official school year, keep in mind to make it as much fun and hands on as possible. It will make your days much easier and more enjoyable.
What Do Children Learn in Kindergarten?
In kindergarten, your child will continue to gain skills they started learning in preschool. For example:
- Social skills
- Listening and thinking skills
- Fine motor skills
- Gross motor skills
In addition to these, your kindergartener will also learn the following:
- Basic concepts of math: Understand numbers; less than and greater than; count up to 100; add and subtract single-digit numbers; shapes; time
- Basic reading skills: Match letters to sounds; recognize some sight words (some curricula will teach your child read by the end of the school year); understand the text read; answer questions about topics and events
- Write letters of the alphabet (both upper and lowercase)
- Directed art: Step-by-step drawing process
How to Choose the Best Kindergarten Curriculum?
In How to Choose the Best Homeschool Curriculum we describe the best practices for choosing a curriculum based on your state laws, your purposes and goals, how much time you want to spend teaching, etc. In addition to the basic points, there are three specifics to keep in mind when choosing the curriculum for your kindergartener:
- Is the curriculum engaging and taught in a clear and fun way?
- Does the curriculum include regular reviews in order to reinforce the material taught?
- Does the curriculum encourage problem-solving skills?
Our Kindergarten Curriculum Journey and What We Would Do Differently
When we first started kindergarten, I didn’t realize how much pleasure it would bring us to see the huge learning steps my son would take. It was pure joy! Following are the curricula that we used:
Reading:
Our main focus in kindergarten was on reading. I was determined to open up the world of books to my son as early as possible. If you would like to read about the many benefits of reading, please visit Why Read?. We used three main curricula:
- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons by Siegfried Engelmann: We dedicated twenty minutes a day to this textbook as instructed and my son was reading in 100 teaching days at the age of five. It is an easy-to-follow curriculum with no preparation needed by the teacher.
- First Steps, Preprimer by Pathway Readers: Because my son built such a good foundation with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and we still had plenty of time in the kindergarten school year, we set off to tackle the first of the first grade Pathway Readers. This curriculum was recommended to us for the wholesome stories and thorough phonics-based lessons. It became our primary reading curriculum for our elementary school years. We were very pleased with taking this path.
- We Learn About God by Rod & Staff Publishers (Grade 1 Reader, Units 1 & 2): As we were eager to continue reading but didn’t want to venture too much into the first grade, we switched into another recommended curriculum after finishing First Steps. We Learn About God is a completely Bible based reading program. We continued to use it in the following years as a Bible program.
Note: All these readers can be found for purchase on second-hand sites like Ebay or Thriftbooks for a fraction of its original cost.
Math:
Earlybird Kindergarten Mathematics, Standards Edition by Singapore Math: This curriculum is slightly different than other math curricula. To learn more about its benefits, please read a detailed description at Singapore vs. Saxon Math – Which Is Better?. I have to admit, that even though we were not very pleased with the kindergarten level of Singapore Math, we still continued in the same vein throughout the elementary and middle school years and reaped the amazing benefits of doing so. [You can read our journey in Singapore Math? Really?.]
Writing:
In the writing area we primarily focused on tracing lines and letters, basic letter writing, and drawing. We haven’t used any specific curriculum but printed free online worksheets as needed. Looking back, I would definitely include hands-on playdough letter activities as incorporated in our Handwriting Practice for Pre-K or Handwriting and Letter Recognition for Pre-K. As we learned later in my son’s elementary years, he struggled with dysgraphia and using the 3D playdough letters would have helped eliminate some of his difficulties much earlier in life.
Science:
Science has always been one of our favorite subjects. First of all, there is so much material available to make it intriguing, but also, there is really no limit to exploring the depth of creation. We didn’t follow any specific science curriculum in kindergarten, but made use of internet resources, library books and videos, and various programs in nature parks in our area. We also explored our back yard. Our favorite time was getting together with other children in the neighborhood and creating animal lapbooks like dolphins, pandas, and whales.
Bible:
We continued reading many picture Bibles that we purchased in earlier years. In addition to learning Bible stories, we also acquired various picture Bible study books to dig into the history of Biblical characters. While looking over the records of our curriculum, I was surprised to find out that even in kindergarten we not only read the King James Version of the Bible, but also a number of devotional books that were certainly not written for five year olds, for example Smith Wigglesworth Devotional. I am not sure how much my son understood these writings at the time, but I am confident it gave him a firm foundation both for his teenage and adult years.
No matter which curriculum you choose for your kindergartener, you will see them blossom right before your eyes. Spend time with them, explore together the world around you and teach them to love learning from their tender young age.
