Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum
Kindergarten can be both exciting and scary as you realize that you will be the one who is primarily responsible for your child’s education. What should you teach your child in kindergarten?
No doubt, all moms want the best for their children. Check this list of the Best Homeschool Curriculum and list down what fits best for you and the family.
I think the focus of kindergarten should be learning to read, letter formation, and math. Anything else that you want to add is great but the focus should be getting your child to read, writing and math.
See my recommendations for the best kindergarten homeschool curriculum.
If your child can read, this will allow them to do everything else so much better. By learning to read and write, these skills will then be transferred to science or history later on. It doesn’t mean, you don’t do any science, you can of course do as you please, but I think the focus should be on the basics.
(updated July 11, 2019)
Whatever else you are able to do is great, but if for some reason you are not able to get to geography or science, it won’t be detrimental. There is plenty of time to incorporate all those other subjects.
Many homeschool curriculum programs for kindergarten come with an extensive craft kit and a selection of books. However, you have the option to create your own personalized secular homeschool curriculum with a variety of craft supplies and carefully chosen books.
This means that even if you’re on a budget and can’t afford the more costly kindergarten packages, you can still provide a comprehensive education using affordable supplies from your local dollar store and resources available with a library card.
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Recommended Homeschooling Books for Moms
Getting started or need some inspiration for your homeschool journey? Try one of these homeschool books to get ideas for successful homeschooling.
Are you new to homeschooling? Don’t worry, I’ve got you! Here are some of my favorite books that will equip and help you during your journey.
Homeschool Planning Guide for the Unorganized Mom: An easy-to-follow plan for successful homeschooling when you don’t even know where to startThe Brave Learner: Finding Everyday Magic in Homeschool, Learning, and LifeThe Read-Aloud Family: Making Meaningful and Lasting Connections with Your KidsThe Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at HomeA Charlotte Mason Companion: Personal Reflections on the Gentle Art of LearningThe Call of the Wild and Free: Reclaiming Wonder in Your Child’s Education
Because only you know your child, you need to determine how you want to teach reading and math by determining their learning styles as well as evaluating your own teaching style.
Once that’s been decided you can look for a great kindergarten program or create your own. Young children learn best when they are interested in the topic. If your child likes trains, read books about trains, color pictures, build with train sets, and visit a train station.
Don’t think that school learning has to take place only within workbooks. You’d be surprised at how much young children will retain once they are truly interested in a topic.
Take advantage of that and cater their learning to their interests. Introduce them to great books, fiction and non-fiction, you never know what will pique their interests.
Most importantly, let them enjoy the outdoors, playing and exploring, there’s a whole world of science waiting in your backyard. Children learn best by doing and what fun is it learning about ants, if you can’t see them in real life.
Make play a part of each day. Let them get active and get their sillies out. Get them tired so they’ll be ready to sit down and work, your sanity and patience will thank you.
Recommended Homeschool Schedule Organizers
Grab this Personalized Chalkboard Homeschool Schedule that you can hang on your kitchen or dining room wall so kids will always be aware of the things they need to complete.
If you want a smaller one, get this Printable Homeschool Schedule instead and feel free to edit and personalize it according to your homeschooling needs.
Homeschool Kindergarten Curriculum to try
- Five in a Row
- What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know: Preparing Your Child for a Lifetime of Learning
Kindergarten Reading Curriculum
I used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons to teach both my son and daughter to read. It’s a simple book and we had to stop and step back a couple lessons to review and take our time but after we finished this book, my son was reading.
My daughter took longer to move through the book and we actually started over once when I saw how hard it was for her to sound out the words and she was getting frustrated.
I wanted her to have a win with reading so allowing her to start where it was easy for her made it successful for her and didn’t discourage her.
My oldest learned to read in school while he was in kindergarten and his teacher used Jolly Phonics.
The other program that was always on my mind is The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading from Susan Wise Bauer, author of The Well Trained Mind.
Another reading curriculum to look into is All About Reading Level 1, my friend used this for her 4 kids and spoke very highly about it.
Kindergarten Phonics Curriculum
I’ve used Plaid Phonics with both boys and my daughter and I really like it, it’s printed in color and there are a variety of activities so it’s not repetitive. There’s also Explode the Code, I didn’t try this one but it’s also popular, only because of the number of books in the series.
Handwriting Books
Handwriting Without Tears is a popular choice, if you’d like a Christian resource, you can try A Reason for Handwriting.
For handwriting for my boys, I used blank writing paper. I purchased the big lined books when they were small and I’d pull passages from books we were reading.
This was important because they hated writing and if they knew where the sentence came from, they were happy to do it.
I recently found the handwriting books from Christian Light Education and they’re cheap and do the job. I’m working really hard on penmanship for my boys.
Kindergarten Math Curriculum
I’m currently using Singapore Math with my second grader, he loves it, they have an Earlybird Kindergarten program but we did a lot of counting and our own math that we just jumped into the first grade math at the end of Kindergarten.
There’s also Saxon Math, which is hugely popular, I used this with my oldest and the early grades really worked well for him. We only did one side of the worksheet.
I found the Kindergarten level to be super slow, I say go ahead and start your kindergarten child in Saxon Math 1 if you’ve already been working on counting and he knows his numbers.
I tried Math U See with my oldest and while he loved the hands-on approach, he didn’t love the repetition. I love the way that Steven Demme teaches math though and I’ve used some of his CDs to teach my kids in his manner.
Homeschool Science Curriculum
I don’t do a formal curriculum at this stage in the game, instead, I find experiment books and library books and read and create projects. I like to keep things interest led and my focus at this age are reading, writing and math.
I know others may disagree but this is what I do and it gives us time to explore topics my kids will love like dinosaurs, which seems to be hugely popular with my boys at this age. I spend a whole year on dinosaurs with my oldest.
We are a huge fan of lapbooks and notebooking, it’s how we do most of our history and science.
Fun Kindergarten Science Books
Be sure to read the other posts in my Ultimate List of Homeschooling Questions series.
More Homeschool Curriculum Ideas
Homeschool Curriculum for Grade 1
Best 2nd Grade Homeschool Curriculum
Best 3rd Grade Homeschool Curriculum
10 Best Secular Homeschool Curriculum Options by Love to Know