Okay, so looking at Kindergarten Curriculum - do not get overwhelmed with Kindergarten - it is JUST kindergarten. Cover the basics - learn to read, learn to count to 100, learn to do simple addition and subtraction starting with manipulatives (which can be as simple as blueberries or cheerios or as complex as counting bears and blocks) and move on to numbers. Lego's are also great for that sort of thing and are usually plentiful in my house. Add in some writing but don't expect your child's handwriting to be as beautiful as your own - especially if you have a boy - boys tend to be harder to teach to write for some strange reason. I've read articles on it, but still don't understand it. I have a 10 year old boy that is *still* learning to write and a 6 year old girl whose handwriting is prettier than the boy...
There are a lot of 'box curricula' to choose from. A lot of them are faith based which is not a problem unless you happen to be a secular homeschooler like myself. The science in these faith based curriculum, while fine for those who believe and wish to teach that way are not for my family, but may be for yours. I won't cover any of those, because I haven't used them and don't really know them all that well. Other than the fact that they are mostly young earth/creation based which just happens to be the opposite of what I believe. Don't judge me on this - I simply happen to be a creative evolutionist.
Okay, on to the stuff that I actually have used... Books you may want to pick up - Home Learning Year by Year; What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know; Story of the World (Audio CDs are the way to go - on your way too and from anywhere, the kids can get their history in with no work on your part). Some others - How to Homeschool Your Child for Free. And if you want to go with a Classical style of education look at The Well Trained Mind.
After you have read all those (or skimmed them) and are thoroughly freaked out that you can't do it, then take a deep breath and reassert that it is ONLY kindergarten. You CAN'T do any worse than most traditional schools and your kids will be with you, following your own schedule, maintaining their relationships (that sometimes fall away when kids begin school), and getting lots of social interaction in ways other than traditional school. You will have BAD days, but you will have GREAT days - and my kids get more learning in before noon on school days than most kids get done in a full day of traditional school.
Now the good stuff - K Curriculum: For Asher I used BOB Books for Reading, Singapore Math (though it took 3 other types of curriculum to get us to that point), Story of The World for History (on CD). We did some unit studies for Science - we did Body, Plants, Magnets, simple Chemistry (vinegar and baking soda, pickling cucumbers, jelly making, lots of food chemistry and cooking). We did some Handwriting without tears which made him cry at the time, but Evie has liked well enough... You can find most of these books on Amazon or at a local homeschooling store if you've got one (more on that later).
For Evie we started with Singapore's Early Bird Kindergarten for math and struggled up one side and down the other for reading. It was overwhelming and frustrating and she just wasn't learning very well at all. In January of last year, we found www.time4learning.com - this web site has been WONDERFUL. It starts out covering all subjects in Kindergarten with Math, Language Arts and a Playbox Theme Time that covers different things for each month of the year. By June, she had finished all of the kindergarten and was on to the first grade - by this January she was done with all of first grade and was on to second grade. Now she is doing some second grade, but mostly third grade.
Asher is also using this web site and it is wonderful. We still add in some hands-on fun history and science field trips and experiments. But for the 'book work' using our computer has been great!
Some other great resources is www.currclick.com - they have a new Free PDF download each week if you subscribe to their newsletter. They also have a lot of e-books that I have found wonderful for supplemental or extra practice. Mammoth Math is really good for math drills and I've downloaded several 'Lap Books' pretty neat. (I bought a LOAD of manila file folders for these, so if you are local, and use these, come get some from me instead of going out and buying a pack!!)
If you are in the Charlotte Area, my BEST resource over the past few years for information and knowledge has been Misty Spinelli and Growing Scholars Homeschooling stores (both the north and the south store staff are very knowledgeable and helpful!)
To get started - seriously just start teaching your child the sounds of his or her letters and the value of numbers. Watch a lot of Between The Lions on PBS, sing songs, tell stories, let your child tell stories (and write them down because you'll forget them!), and most importantly READ! Read everything you can... Dr. Seuss, classic children's tales like Chicken Little, Skippy John Jones... Find picture books that repeat words, rhymes, and rhythms. A great book by a local friend of mine is really helpful for the 2-4 year old crowd is called The Potty Train by Dar Draper. It's funny and you can sing it to your kids over and over and make them laugh...
The big question I had when I first started was this: How do I know I am getting in everything I need to get with the kid? I never got a good answer to this question and had to find it on my own. But I bought the 'What your Kindergartner Needs to Know' book and 'Home Learning Year by Year' and they were both very helpful. A couple years later, I found the North Carolina Standard Course of Study and that was a great resource for squashing my worries. By this point, Asher was ahead of the game on most counts and on time on all the others. The only other source I use for legal stuff is the North Carolina Department of Non-Public Education web site. It can tell you what you need to do to legally homeschool in the state of North Carolina.
So that's my 2 cents for the beginning homeschooling family... (Okay, maybe it's my $1.50)
3 comments:
Steph-
This is superb! I had to yank my kids out of public schools, and so had to "deschool" them. Basically, that amounts to doing no organized work that "feels" like school to the child for a rate of about 1 month/year of institutional schooling. That work very well for us.
Susan
Thanks Susan!
This is so helpful. I am so glad that you posted the link to your blog. I love it keep up the good work, it's much appreciated.
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