Hey all! I was hoping for a little help choosing kindergarten supplies. My daughter can sit down with her School Zone books, when shes in the right mood, and do most of the pages herself. When we sit down together and try the same pages, do flash cards, or practice writing letters shes totally blank stare "mama I have no clue what is going on." How do I go about teaching her when she isn't intrested? Also, for when shes willing to sit down and teach herself a subject at a time (and trust me she does), can anyone recommend some good products? I'm not really looking for a boxed and formal curriculum just yet. Flash cards, books, games, software, projects, anything would be helpful. :love:
School Zone has some really good workbooks & flashcards. Sprectrum workbooks are good too. I used them all to teach all of my kids. We also used Jump Start software, but that was way before all of the online websites for kids. To let you know how long ago that was, my oldest son just finished up his freshman year of college with a cumulative 4.0 GPA. I started out with School Zone long before I had ever heard of homechooling. I homeschooled all of my kids all the way through high school. My suggestion for when your daughter isn't interested, don't push her. Give her a break. She will let you know when she is ready to learn.
If she's doing most of the pages herself, she IS interested in learning, she's just not interested in being taught. She may just be one of those kids who would thrive in an unschooling environment. Try looking at Charlotte Mason type education using lots of living books and a simple craft-type curriculum. As she gets older, you can try more "teaching". If I could go back and do it all over again, I'd have taken this approach with my kids from the beginning.
My Kindergarten favorites are: lapbooks which you can find for every subject and theme! Also I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Five in a Row, and Before Five in a Row, these are sort of curriculum, but mostly they are just unit studies based on children's picture books..really, really good picture books like the Story of Ping, or How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, or Papa Piccolo, or Ferdinand. The premise of FIAR is that you read the same book each day for 5 days, and each day you complete a fun activity related to the book that covers one aspect of learning (social studies, art, music, etc), you can even take it farther using the cookbook (optional) and preparing themed meals and there are places for you to add pictures to the cookbook, and add your thoughts and such making it a nice journal of your progress! Also, just read a lot together, not only is this bonding time, but she will learn to read from it, as well as learning about life and just millions of things from the books themselves.
The Rod & Staff ABC Readiness series, and now the GHI extension, are wonderful. See samples at www.rodandstaffbooks.com Kumon workbooks are really good. Brighter Child, Frank Schaffer, and Critical Thinking are good ones as well. So are the Spectrum that have already been mentioned. And the huge-book-for-$10 at WalMart isn't bad either for that age. Dover coloring books and paper dolls can be whole unit studies in themselves...
Sylvan, Scholastic, Brain Quest, and the Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills have some good workbooks too.
Thank you all for your input! I read a lot about unschooling but I couldnt get a clear idea of what exactly it meant other than providing the materials and letting the child learn things at their own pace rather than sitting down at the table and making it a "school-like" experience. I may have that backwards. I see that there are more here from Arkansas, but in my end of the country there are no other homeschool/unschoolers in my area or groups to be found. I currently feel a lot of pressure from my in-laws to place her in public school because homeschooling is "unnatural and odd" in their opinion. It just isn't a good fit for us. I am very glad I found this site. You have all been so very very helpful.
YOU and YOUR HUSBAND are in charge of the children's education, NOT your in-laws. Your husband MUST stand his ground and let them know that this is NOT an issue open to discussion, that they may NOT discuss it with your or the kids, and any problems need to be directed to him. PERIOD!!! Believe me, the quicker you lay dwn the ground rules, the better it will be!
Welcome & don't let your in-laws discourage you. I don't know alot about unschooling, but I would be happy to help in any way I can. Everyone here are very accepting and open to helping in any way.
Well I think you've gotten some great suggestions for kindy. If you're up for making homemade games/activities I love the stuff at confessions of a homeschooler, and most of the activities can be found free on her blog so you wouldn't necessarily have to buy her curriculum packages. When I need worksheets I just google what I'm looking for and almost always find something that fits the bill. As to your in laws about thinking that homeschooling is unnatural I think that's ludicrous. Teaching my own children has been the most natural thing I've ever done in my life. It starts at birth, we are teaching our children from the moment they are born why on earth should we stop just because they turn five and society dictates they should now be stuck in age segregated classrooms full of peers??
I am not discouraged but more confirmed in my choice. If anything their ramblings and comments only drive me in a positive way. I made this decision because I feel it's a great way to provide my dd with a top knotch education. My husband doesn't care much either way and doesn't pay much attention to anything they have to say on any given subject.
