I can’t believe it, but my little LuLu is going to be starting kindergarten! Three kids officially “in school” this coming year. Send help. Send prayers. Send coffee. I know you’re here for our kindergarten curriculum choices so I will just jump right into it. I don’t like to be a long-winded blogger. Ain’t nobody got time for all that!
Mathematics
We’ve really had great success with using Math-U-See Primer Level for our kindergarten math introduction. It’s gentle, mastery based, and super easy to facilitate. The week starts out with a lesson taught by Mr. Demme via the DVD included in the set. They are generally no more than 5 minutes. He introduces the concept the child will be learning for the week and gives several examples. You can expound upon his lesson with the teacher’s manual, but I don’t know that I really used the teacher’s manual with the Primer Level. There are 7 lesson pages (A-G) for each concept taught, and the child can generally do 1-2 of those a day depending. The last one for each week is more of a “fun” page using the concept they worked on for that week.
The universal set comes with the teacher’s manual, DVD, student pages and manipulative set. It’s $142, but you can use everything but the student pages for however many kids you want, so it becomes economical that way if you plan to use it with more. Then when you purchase the next level, you just get the Level Up set ($68 for student book, DVD, and teacher’s manual). If you just need the student book for another student to do the same level, then that’s only $38. I’ve actually been able to purchase a used teacher’s manual and DVD for other levels. So definitely look into that if you need to. Check ThriftBooks, AbeBooks, Homeschool Classifieds, and Facebook Marketplace. I’m all about that budget, girl!
Reading
We will be using the same reading programs we used for my older two children. They are both excellent readers for their ages, and I feel like it’s mainly because of the methods we’ve used (and maybe I’m just that awesome of a teacher). I LOVE All About Reading and cannot say enough good things about it. It’s truly open and go, which I desperately need at this point in homeschooling. Like our math we use, it’s also pricey up front at about $150 for each level (Levels 1-4), but I have purchased Levels 1-3 only one time and have (and will) use them for all four children. I even save and reuse the student pages. So in my mind it is worth it. I was even able to get the letter tiles (not included in the $150) for free from someone local who just gifted them to me! (There are new color versions of this curriculum, so you could probably find the original B&W editions used fairly easily.) It’s laid out in such a way that you can realistically accomplish one lesson a day. In general, the student will learn a new concept in one lesson and then in the next lesson they will read a story from one of the readers utilizing that concept. There are review sheets (words, phrases, and sentences), phonics and word flash cards, readers (with engaging stories), and fun activities that go along with each lesson. My older two have really enjoyed this program, so I’m excited to start it with my rising kindergartener when I feel she is ready to dive in.
Now, having said that… my current rising 2nd grader wasn’t ready to start All About Reading the first day of her kindergarten year. So I kept things fun and engaging using the Dash Into Reading program! You can read more details about this program on the company’s website, but we love it around here. The BOB Books were bleh, and then I stumbled upon Amelia’s products a few years ago. I fell in love. I was able to get all 3 sets one at a time when they were on sale (there are also some affiliates out there on Instagram with codes!), and I made sure to also purchase the PDF activity sets to go along with them. Gorgeous illustrations aside, this reading program is solid and would work well as your stand alone reading curriculum. We have chosen to use it as a fun supplement to All About Reading and it keeps the kids engaged and excited with all the beautiful stories in the sets. Each set advances with the student reader, and my kids have really enjoyed all of them so much! If you are interested in Dash Into Learning resources, you can get 15% off with the code thewhisperingglen15!
Handwriting
Speaking of Dash Into Learning… we will also be using her fairly new Dash Into Handwriting Book 1 for handwriting practice. She has already learned most letters, but as most kids do at her age, she writes a lot of letters in the uppercase and she needs to develop her motor skills more. This will be our first time using this handwriting program, so I will have more to say once we’ve gone through a bit of it. Spoiler: I got one for my rising 2nd grader as well because I knew she’d want one too.
Phonics Supplement
Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention a phonics curriculum that we love around here. Explode the Code is beloved by my older three children (my rising kindergartener has been working through the primer books A-C). We use it to reiterate concepts they have learned in our reading curriculum and it’s something they can do fairly independently (yay!) alongside of that. My kids ask me to do their phonics… so you know it’s good! I know some homeschoolers don’t bother with the teacher’s instruction manuals, but I have always (with the exception of the primer books) bought them (one per every two student books) and used it to teach portions of the weekly lessons at the start of the week before they begin a new concept. There are even half books, like Book 1 1/2, for additional practice if your student isn’t quite ready to move to the next book. I believe most students can accomplish about a lesson per week, which amounts to two to three pages per day depending.
Wrapping Up
That’s it! She will be doing science, social studies, and any beauty subjects (Bible, art, music, nature study, etc.) with her siblings and I will address that in another post very soon. I try to keep language arts and math pretty straight forward. I need open and go with three school-aged kids, especially when they are younger (and with a toddler running around) and I am required to be present and actually teaching in these areas. Thankfully my older two are becoming even more independent (again…thank God for reading!) in these subjects so that I can focus on getting their little sis up to speed!
As always, please let me know if you have any questions! Happy homeschooling, friends!