A friend of mine is going to be homeschooling her Kindergarten son and would like to know of some good curricula to use. Suggestions on both Christian-based and secular would be fine. Website suggestions are great too! I am going to look in the archives but would love to hear what some of you are using right now. Thanks! Sheila
My favorite things for kindergarten are a mix of things. This is in no particular order and there will be more than one choice for subjects b/c I have 4 kids and sometimes what I loved for one just did not work for the other. 1. MCP Plaid Phonics series (the one with the koala bear) 2. Handwriting without Tears Learn to Print K book 3. A Reason For Handwriting K 3. Scott Foresman Math K (very colorful-has dalmation on the cover) or Singapore Earlybird Kindergarten US edition 2a/2b (out of print so hard to find) with lots and lots of manipulatives! 4. Abeka K5 (worked great with my girls, but did not work with my son) 5. Rod & Staff preschool A-G series (R&S doesn't do K so their preschool is K then they go to 1st) 6. Hooked on Phonics K 7. The Reading Lesson I bought boxed sets but always wound up dropping some and picking up other stuff sometimes that I liked better. For boxed sets that are a good mix of things I did like Heart of Dakota Little Hearts for His Glory which used a good mix of the things above. I have also heard good things about Calvert for secular kindergarten.
We used Bob Jones K5. My kids both liked the colorful farm theme for math, and I liked the layout of the language arts/phonics books.
My son really likes the Get Ready For the Code books. I wasn't sure about them but they are a hit with him. I will find out in about a month if my newest Ker will like them. I have a big book about nature study and been using that but it's for everyone.
My son is in kindergarten and used sing spell read and write at the beginning of the year and enjoyed it alot. We are now using cle learning to read and math 101 and he is making wonderful progress with that as well.
We've really enjoyed Five in a Row. We've also been using Sing Spell Read and Write, and the kids have enjoyed it, although I think I may have liked Handwriting Without Tears.
We used Five in a Row, tons of things that were free online, www.starfall.com, www.learningpages.com, www.abcteach.com, www.edhelper.com (last two have a lot of free stuff but also have more features if you belong to them - not expensive at all).
My dgs will be K next school year, and I'm planning on using some of the K stuff from Christian Liberty Press - the Liberty Math, Phonics A, preK/K readers, the K science reader (read aloud) - and some CLE stuff - the Learning to Read - and the R&S ABC Readiness Series which includes Bible stories to read and color - and some more coloring pages from the Calvary Chapel Sunday School stuff online - and some science and social studies units I've made myself from coloring books, free online resources, and library books. It sounds like a lot, but we're going to sort of rotate through stuff, not do it all in one day! LOL He's going to be 5 in April, so he'll be a mature 5 by the fall when school starts. Right now we're starting Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons - we're only up to lesson 5 right now, so we will break for the summer (I think) and take up with a review of it all in the fall with the other stuff.
I like Horizons for both Math and Phonics. Starfall is also a great website to use. You could take a look at Sonlight's k program. I think it is a bit much for k but it would give a good selection of books that can be used. I also like A Reason For Handwritting.
