Kindergarten Choices 2023

It’s hard to believe that my fourth child will be in kindergarten this year, and I will be homeschooling kindergarten for the third time. (My oldest went to public school for kindergarten.) I will be using some of the same programs I have used in the past and changing them up for others.

It is important to evaluate curriculum options each year based on what worked and did not work in the past and on the individual student.

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Reading

We found All About Learning Press years ago when we struggled with spelling, and it has been an excellent fit for all my children. My kindergartener will use All About Reading Pre-Reading level to learn all his letters and letter sounds this year. I love the phonetic approach and the fun touches included in this program.

We will be supplementing this with some great programs from Schoolhouse Teachers. They have a fantastic series with a short video for each letter to reinforce what we are learning in AAR. We are also getting some incredible coloring and letter tracing sheets from Schoolhouse Teachers.

Finally, lots and lots of read-alouds and audiobooks to keep the love of books and reading. I can not over-emphasize the importance of continuing to read to children even as they learn to read on their own.

Math

Math for a Living Education is a math series from Masterbooks. I have used this for several years, but this will be my first time using their kindergarten level. We love how they weave a story through the book to show real-life examples of math skills. I also find that there is enough practice without being overwhelming or feeling like busy work. (If you have a child that needs extra practice, they offer a separate book with additional reinforcement.)

In addition, we will be using some calendar math from Schoolhouse Teachers to reinforce essential math concepts as well as days of the week, months of the year, etc.

Science

My fourth grader is doing Apologia’s Land Animals this year, so my kindergartner will join the fun! I love Apologia for science because it is so easy to integrate with multiple ages. For my kindergartner, he will listen to the text and draw a picture of what he is learning. We will discuss it and then do the experiments together.

I will also include some coloring pages for him to color while he listens to help him focus.

In addition, we will be doing nature study at least weekly (we often do it more when the weather is comfortable.) Sometimes our nature study is as simple as going outside and observing, but we also love to use our subscription to Homeschool Nature Study to take things a little further and help me find some great activities and ideas.

Finally, we have been working through a really fun Stepping into Science experiment kit from Timberdoodle! I will be posting a full review of the kit in a couple weeks, but have been enjoying it and plan to finish using the kit over the first few months of the school year.

History

Our family typically uses Story of the World for history, and then we take a break between cycles to do US History. However, because of a big trip our family has coming up in the spring that will take us to several national historic sites, we will go ahead and do US History this year.

We will use volume one of the new Tuttle Twins history series. I have both the hardback text and the audiobook so that when things are busy, I can have the boys listen to the audio while I work on other things (like making lunch or tending to the baby).

This will be a new program for us, but we have loved the other materials we have used from the Tuttle Twins and are excited to go through this book.

Geography

I do not always do geography in kindergarten, but because of our big family trip, my son has been asking many questions about maps and places and trying to understand those concepts better. So, we will go through the Kindergarten Evan-Moor Geography book together.

Then when we go on our trip, I will have him help me track our progress on a map.

Art/Music

Nana would probably cringe if she heard me say it, but I am not an artist, so I love having an art program that will help my children in my area of weakness. We have been using You Are An Artist Chalk Pastel lessons for several years with my older children, and we love them. My kindergartener has even done some lessons alongside his siblings. However, this year I will be more intentional about ensuring he gets a chance weekly to do one of their simpler lessons.

Music is another area where I like to call in help teaching, and we use Practice Monkeys for music lessons. We have been with them since 2018, and I cannot say enough good things. My kindergartner started his violin lessons with them last year and will continue those this year. They offer Zoom Suzuki violin, cello, guitar, and piano lessons at a super affordable rate for families.

Handwriting

I am still debating on handwriting, and my plans might change. However, I think our plan is to work through some good fine motor skills activities that work on letters for at least the first half of the year. I may then switch to handwriting without tears, or I may wait and do that in first grade, depending on how he handles everything.

Morning Time

In addition, we will do family Bible, Tuttle Twins, hymn study, fine arts, and World Watch during our morning time each day. In a few weeks, I will share a post about the resources we use for morning time and how we make it work for our family, but it is my favorite part of our homeschool day!

A Typical Day

This list might sound like a lot for a kindergarten student, but we do not do all the subjects daily. We will do morning time, math, and reading almost every day. In addition, we will do history or science and one other elective most days. Aside from his afternoon violin lessons, my son should be able to finish his school day before lunchtime most days.

I would love to know what your favorite resources are for kindergarten! Also, if you have any questions, please ask them in the comments.

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