Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum
You may know that I had the privilege of teaching two students in my home last year. We did a nice combo of PreK, and Kindergarten and I am thrilled to be continuing with this special family for the 2021-2022 school year also. This year will be their “official” Kindergarten year, they just got ahead last year! Their parents homeschooled last year due to Covid, not knowing what they would choose this year. I am thrilled that they will be homeschooling indefinitely and it is working beautifully for their family {after some work/schedule adjustments}. They also homeschool their older daughter who is in 2nd grade. I will only have their younger two children {age 5 & 6} in my home one day a week, but I have helped their parents plan and choose Kindergarten homeschool curriculum for the year. In this post I will share what we chose for them and how we will work together this year!
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What is the best Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum?
I don’t believe there is a “best” out there but I have seen and used several. Having experience as a classroom teacher helps me make decisions and I hope my experience can help you too. You will see our choices below, but please know these are not the only great options, there are many out there!
When choosing curriculum, many parents ask questions about the homeschool laws in their state. HSLDA is an excellent resource online that you can access for free to answer those questions you may have, especially as a new homeschool parent.
OUR Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum Choices
- All About Reading Level 1
- Supplemental Reading Activities
- You Can Read Sight Words Version 2.0
- Phonological Awareness
- Monthly Calendar Notebook
- Theme Based Learning
- Math – The Good & the Beautiful
- Handwriting – The Good & the Beautiful
All About Reading & Supplements
We started with All About Reading Level Pre-reading last fall, which they soared through. We began level 1 in January 2021 and will be picking up at lesson 24 in September after a few weeks of review. We are in NO rush and will take things slowly, as needed. The overall plan is to complete level 1 by this school year and help both kids become confident readers.
Because we are in no rush, I have created a wide variety of supplemental activities to go along with the concepts taught in AAR level 1. I created a website, Learning to Read at Home, which will host the files so you can use them too. As we approach a topic, we will move along when they are confident, using supplemental activities in between to build that confidence! I have created printable activities as well as Boom Cards to supplement!
You Can Read Sight Words Version 2.0
I worked for several months on this and am so excited about it! It’s been quite the journey of learning for me and I share it all in the FAQ on the You Can Read Sight Words 2.0 webpage here. The new lists and words are organized in an entirely new way, featuring the heart-word method that identifies phonograms that make the expected sounds and helps kids identify and memorize the tricky parts of the word by heart.
Phonological Awareness
If you want to learn more about this, click here. Over the summer I read the book Equipped for Reading Success by David Kilpatrick. I completed the PAST assessments for my students and we will be doing the oral activities from this book. I will also be doing activities from Heggerty, as well as my own activities. You will find samples of these types of activities in my most recent kindergarten printable packs.
Themes
I love using themes and recommend theme-based learning in the early years. I choose to use our theme-based learning as a cyclical review, which brings concepts taught earlier back around for a fun review all year long through different themes. We will start with a Back-to-School theme and I created a printable pack featuring activities they are ready to review from last year! I also created a fun Boom Learning Deck for them too! After this theme we will move on to a fun Apple theme!
Monthly Calendar Notebook
Our monthly calendar notebook is such a simple way to review key skills all year long. They loved the reusable version so we will be using that. They each have their own notebook. So many Kindergarten goals are reviewed during calendar time. I highly recommend using a calendar notebook like this or regular calendar activities.
Math & Handwriting
They will be using The Good & the Beautiful for both subjects and doing these completely at home with their parents. The math they do with me this year will be continuous review through fun games, themes, and more. Their main math curriculum will be done at home. They chose this math because they were already using TGTB with their older daughter and wanted to keep things consistent. The other math we strongly considered is called Kindergarten Math with Confidence.
Want to Keep up with us this year?
I will be sharing our weekly plans and more via social media this year. I will be blogging about our journey some, but not every week. If you’d like to keep up with us I have created a new email list just for those of you who want to see the lesson plans and resources I am using each week. Sign up for that here! You will also see me share a lot on Instagram, mostly in my stories.