Life has been an absolute whirlwind lately (because I had baby #3), and I am WAAAAAY behind posting about our 2019-2020 Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum. So today I’m fixing that!
First of all, this was a whole thing trying to decide whether or not to even begin Kindergarten with Mr. Five this year. He turned five late in the summer, so he’s a young Kindergartener. If we were sending our kids to public school, he wouldn’t have started this year (just because we felt like it would be too much for a very active, wiggly little boy who loves exploring and moving to be constrained to a classroom all day).
However, since we’re homeschooling, we decided to go ahead and begin Kindergarten knowing that we can move at his pace and that school doesn’t have to take up that much of the day (so the rest is all for playing, moving, and discovering).
Once we decided to begin Kindergarten this year, then we had to figure out which curriculum we were going to use.
Y’all, the options are endless and it can be super overwhelming to figure out which ones will fit best with your homeschooling goals, your educational philosophy, and your child’s learning style. I had been in research mode since last year, so I had it pretty much narrowed down. After doing preschool with Mr. Five last year, I had a better idea of how he learns best, and was able to then choose our curricula based on that.
So here are our 2019-2020 Kindergarten homeschool curriculum picks!
Reading | All About Reading – Pre-Reading & Level 1
This was a big one for us, because even though I was a public school teacher for almost a decade, I’ve never actually taught anyone to read. I taught at the secondary level, so my students came to me already reading. I wanted a curriculum that is not only comprehensive, but that also helps kiddos make sense of the English language.
Because let’s face it, English is a tricky language to master.
After reading a book called Uncovering the Logic of English, I knew I wanted to use the Orton-Gillingham approach to teaching reading (because it actually teaches ALL of the rules, not just a handful). There are only a few curricula on the market that are built upon this approach, and for us it came down to a choice between the All About Reading program and a couple of other popular programs.
In the end, I settled on All About Reading* for the following reasons…
- AAR’s approach is a bit more gentle. Since we’re homeschooling, we don’t have to move at the break-neck speeds they do in brick and mortar schools.
- AAR separates their reading and spelling programs, so if, for example, a child struggles in spelling but not reading, they can keep moving along in reading while slowing down in spelling.
- The AAR system felt easier to understand, purchase, and implement. I’m never confident that a curriculum is going to be easy to use if the website makes the ordering process complicated. Am I right??
- Both the Pre-reading and Level 1 utilize a puppet named Ziggy, and to me, it just seemed like a super fun, engaging way to teach reading (and Mr. Five agrees)!
- It’s such a highly recommended program from fellow (and more seasoned) homeschooling mamas I trust. When moms tell me that their only regret about teaching reading was that they didn’t use AAR the first time around, I don’t want to make the same mistake!
Want to learn more about AAR’s Pre-Reading program? Click below* to learn more!
Math | Math Lessons for a Living Education – Level 1
I’ve had this math curriculum on my list for a couple of years. The very first time I heard of it (from homeschooling friends), I knew I wanted to use it. It’s a gentle, story-based approach to teaching math that is full of engaging tales and hands-on activities to drive the objectives home.
Though MasterBooks released a Kindergarten level of Math Lessons for a Living Education* this fall, we opted to begin with Level 1. Mr. Five already knew the material covered in the K version, and I did not want him to be bored. So far, Level 1 has been the perfect challenge!
I LOVE the way it teaches place value, and I especially love the copywork so Mr. Five gets plenty of practice identifying and writing his numbers!
Writing | Handwriting Without Tears
We follow a Charlotte Mason approach to home education, so I wasn’t sure that I wanted to buy a curriculum for handwriting instead of simply implementing copywork. However, in the end, I felt like if a curriculum would help me plan one less thing, I was in!
Now, Mr. Five really enjoys his handwriting lessons (so that’s a win!), but I’ve honestly struggled to make sure we actually do it each day. There are several supplies that we have to get out and some days it’s just a bit too much. However, we’re making progress and enjoying it on the days we fit it in!
Fine Arts & Science | Gentle + Classical Press
We didn’t start the year with the G+C curriculum. In fact, after Nora was born, we were kind of in survival mode and only hitting the core subjects each day. But that’s not at all what I want school to be like for us. I want it to be rich with nature and art and music, too.
After taking a huge step back to reassess our needs and our vision, I decided to fully implement Gentle + Classical Level 2 and Nature Study. It’s been an absolute game-changer for our whole family!
I’ll be writing more about it, why we chose it, and how it has enriched our entire days. Suffice it to say that we absolutely LOVE it!
Bible | Stick Figuring through the Bible
I forgot to include this in the photo shoot, but this year we’re trying out Grapevine’s Stick Figuring through the Bible. So far, we’re really enjoying it! It was important to me that in addition to reading bible stories in a kids’ bible, we also read the actual words of Scripture straight from the bible. This breaks it down into small, manageable chunks, and then we draw simple stick figures for each passage. It has been amazing seeing how well that helps Mr. Five commit the passages to memory!
A Year of Playing Skillfully
Just like last year, we’re continuing to play skillfully again this year. This year, we have so much else going on that we only add activities as we’re able. What’s really wonderful about AYOPS is that each month is basically a menu of activities, and you can just pick and choose the ones that fit your goals, interests, time, etc. Last year we completed almost all of them each month, but we’ve been way more laid back about it this year. But the boys both remember and love the ones we’ve repeated, and I’m excited to implement the full-fledged curriculum again next year for Mr. Three’s preschool year!
So there you have it! Those are our Kindergarten homeschool curriculum choices for the 2019-2020 school year!
I’ll follow up with a post about our daily rhythm soon, because I always love taking a peek inside how other people’s homeschool days look. 🙂
Questions about any or all of the above choices? Drop them in a comment below and I’d love to answer them!
