Hi friends!
I’m excited to share what we are going to be using in our homeschool as my 5YO continues on into Kindergarten. To be honest, last year was sort of Kindergarten, too. But the way her birthday falls, we aren’t rushing her and still taking formal studies easy. So she is somewhere between K and 1st, but we’ll just be calling it K for the sake of this post. (I quickly found out that grade levels don’t matter too much for homeschoolers!)
If you have read about our homeschool style in the past, you know that we focus on reading, writing, and math first and then sprinkle in extras like nature/science, history/social studies/geography naturally through living books, unit studies, projects, or activities as we feel like it. Mainly interest-led. But for these early years, we mostly focus on the three Rs and everything else is a bonus.
Reading & Phonics
We will be continuing with All About Reading (which we absolutely LOVE). It is such a thorough and fun curriculum that is phonics-based. Willow is currently working through level 2. We simply do the next lesson and work at her pace.
Other than that, we do a whole lot of reading practice by simply reading. I read to her daily, we buddy read (she especially loves doing this with Elephant and Piggie books), and we keep a ton of early readers around the house (both our own and new ones from the library). Here are some of our favorite early readers. Also, some helpful resources we have used and will continue to.
Math
We are also still working through Kindergarten Math with Confidence by Kate Snow. We started it last year and absolutely love it. It provides such a strong foundation of number sense and real life application while being short, sweet, and fun. Again, we just do the next lesson and will move onto first grade if we finish sooner than later but I’m not rushing her through it.
If you are interested, here’s a look at how we organize this curriculum into a tote.
Handwriting
For handwriting, we are going to try Dash Into Handwriting. She didn’t enjoy Handwriting Without Tears in the past, so we have been using Dollar Tree books and self-directed ways of practicing (like writing letters to friends, writing menus when playing restaurant, labeling her artwork, gentle copywork, etc.) So we will see how this new book works out. She is very visual so I think the beauty of the illustrations will appeal to her, as well as the activities/games and coloring extras. It looks great for kids who love to doodle or be creative while handwriting (which my daughter frequently does!) I will keep you posted!
Extras
I pulled together this Mammals Unit Study because both of my kids are super into animals. I think it’ll be a fun way to get to know a wide variety of mammals (thinking one per week). It is super laid back and relaxed – mostly reading lots of books together and watching some documentaries.
Another thing I am intrigued by is Brave Writer’s Jot It Down program, particularly studying fairy tales and rewriting them in their own words. While I have not invested in this curriculum yet, we may pull some inspiration from it. My kids love fairytales, so this feels like an easy and fun extra… maybe in the winter when we are inside more.
How about my 4-YO?
My youngest will be going on 4 this year, so she is showing a lot of interest and readiness to get started, especially with reading. She loves sitting in on lessons and being a part of things. She also pretends to read the stories that her sister reads and has been asking to work on her letters more. While she won’t have any “official” curriculum, I think we will continue working on her letter sounds and allowing her to join in whenever she wants. She especially loves to trace and work on her handwriting like big sis. She will also be sitting in on all our read alouds (picture and chapter books), participating in on our mammal unit, doing arts/crafts, and playing. So really, just living life with us as usual! These early years are so much fun and so relaxed. Here are some of our favorite picture books for this age and a look at how we enjoy learning together.
If you want to hear more about how we homeschool, please check our this post sharing our lifestyle and priorities, as well as how I set up our home environment for enchanted learning. Thanks for being here. x
Interested in seeing a list of all our favorite homeschool resources? You can find it HERE.
