What did everyone do for kindergarten? I can't decide whether I want to buy a curriculum or just try to piece something together. I really just want to cover the basics, and hopefully have my dd reading and writing by the year's end. She has a solid understanding of preschool level material, and knows some site words and beginning phonics skills. Thanks!
I have a 5yo, 3yo and 5 month old. I used free stuff off of the web and the workbooks you can pick up anywhere. I have also bought some bob books, and 100 easy lessons to teach your child to read I used a mix of those things i purchased and the things off of the web. I got a few list of what your child should know in Kindy and first grade. Here is one of them I used the texas state, and ca state standards as well. http://www.worldbook.com/wb/Students?curriculum/preschool Then I picked what I thought was important out of those ( like my 5 yo does not show fear of going to school LOL) and made my own list. Once a month or so I would read through my list and check off things he had mastered, and make a mental note or sometimes a print out of things we needed to work on next. Then I gather the info needed to work on that. Usually I look at what is next in the math workbook, and reading stuff to make sure it is heading in the right direction. We are spending the summer sureing up the basics in math just to make sure he knows them forward and backwards. He is on the first grade level for most everything. I would reccomend that you use this time to figure out how your child learns best, and how you can teach. Try a unit study, try the workbooks, try lapbooks, etc. You can do it now and hopefully save some heartache (and money) later on. Find out what your library has, mine has story of the world, and a whole bunch of other circ. that I can check out to see if we like it. Like I have learned that my son doesn't do well with some types of workbooks, he also doesn't do well with to many distractions or side notes. He hates lapbooks, and artys stuff. So I am very glad that I didn't go out and buy BFIAR which we would have ended up not using since it drives my son crazy.
Hi! i am using Heart of Dakota Little Hearts For His Glory this year for kindergarten and i think it will do well to cover the basics, yet provide an overview of history and science, etc. it is very Bible based, not sure if you are looking for that or not, but it is supposed to be great for small kids and looks very user friendly!
Kindergarten. Kindergarten. Let's see...I've used a lot of stuff in the past (with my oldest and middle). I have found what works the absolute best is RELAXED method! LOL I used www.starfall.com to teach phonics and reading. I read A LOT to my kids. I did use Five in a Row with my oldest. It's not expensive, and there's a website with lots of information/lapbooks/etc you can do. www.homeschoolshare.com . Math was just free worksheets I got off the internet. Did I mention we read a lot???
I'm big on piecing it together for Kindergarten, and also for First to some extent. I did for my youngest, and then the other two just followed along with whatever I was doing with the older one. I did do an "official" math program after my first one (Horizons), and I tried "Language Lessons for the Very Young" for my youngest. But I'm rather eclectic on most things!
I did Bob Jones K5. It amounted to 3 workbooks and some reading books [which I really liked in terms of how they built steadily from pre-reading to reading together with their parents]. They had math [cute farm theme], phonics, and a language arts book [mostly more phonics but with themes like community helpers and such].
Thanks for the input, it has given me some new programs to look into. They all just look so good online..I can't decide, lol.
My son used Hooked on Phonics Learn to Read Deluxe (includes K-2nd gr), Explode the Code workbooks, Horizons Math K (my all time fave) and A Reason for Handwriting K. He joined his sisters a bit for science
I now have to add my program since I jumped in and out with out saying anything useful. I mostly piece it together. My must haves are CLP phonics and the Usborne science and history or encyclopedias. The pictures in these are fantastic. I use a lot of free worksheets off of the internet and the cheap workbooks from kmart or walmart, wherever I find them. And LOTS of library books.
i also use Heart of Dakota and i love it! it is bible-based, like previously said. it covers basically everything you would need for kindergarten and then you still have time for areas that interest your child ,to dig deeper. just check out their webpage and message board. it is awesome!
We've just finished the 4th week of our new school year. Ds is in Kinder this year. Here's what we're doing: Language Arts - Explode the Code, Beyond the Code, Starfall.com 30min 3 days a week, plus the printables from Starfall, we also have Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons which we use only when he wants, plus a lot of reading together Math - Mastering Mathematics, it's a program for 1st - 6th grade Math (ds is a bit advanced in Math), Beginning Math at home is an easy to use program for Kinder (ds used it last year), it covers shapes; greater than & less than; bigger & smaller; shorter & longer; counting; basic addition & subtraction Social Studies - I'm still pulling stuff together for this subject - stuff I find online, materials I'm creating, library books, and activities; Community Helpers, Holidays, All About Me, the Continents, the Ice Age, Fire prevention & safety, and if we have time we'll start Ancient Civilizations Science - again, I'm still pulling stuff together for this; the 5 Senses, Animals & Habitats, Food Chains, the Seasons, Life Cycles, Water Cycle Art - he'll do projects with dd when she does her work for art Music - learn the names of instruments, listen to various genres & musicians We're also using Lollipop Logic, 2 days a week In addition to Starfall 3 days a week, we also go on PBS Kids 2 days a week, PBS Island 2 days a week, and PBS Kids Go, Funschool, & IKnowThat.com 1 day a week each. He does 2 sites each day, 30 min each site.
I used 3 programs for kindy - we crammed two grades into one that year! First we started with Starfall - it was free and that is good. We used that to learn to read. He flew through that in like a month though, so I got My Father's World. Now, normally I hate "Lesson plans" that make you go get library books and hunt down stuff - but we actaully did have a good time with it. He likes the phonics. We finished that after Christmas and then I got Pathway Readers First Grade. If I were to do it again - I'd start with Pathways first - it is cheap, fun, and gets the job done. They all have their good points - like MFW is fun, Starfall is free, and Pathway is a no brainer to use. We also used History Pockets for ancient Egypt and Wrap Ups for math.
