Homeschool Curriculum Choices for Preschool & Kindergarten 2019-2020 School Year


Kindergarten. Our first official year of homeschooling starts in just over a month and we are super excited to jump in. My daughter will be in Kindergarten and my little guy, who is 3, will be starting his first year of preschool. Choosing kindergarten homeschool curriculum was not something I took lightly and after much prayer and thought, we have settled on some amazing curriculum that I am excited to share with you below.


Homeschool Kindergarten Curriculum Choices

How we are only one month away from Kindergarten when my sweet girl was just born yesterday is beyond me. My how quickly time goes. While my heart aches with how quick little ones grow, I am truly looking forward to all of the new adventures we get to embark on in the coming years as we start school and the kids get older and able to do more things.

This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. Please read our full disclosure here

Over the past 3 years we have been doing homeschool totschool and preschool. We have had an absolute blast and my sweet girl has learned so much. She would do "school" all day every day if I let her. She loves to learn. A girl after this teacher mama's heart.

One of the many things that I have learned in our unofficial homeschool adventures so far is that "less is more." There are many times that I have become so overwhelmed trying to do all the things that I failed miserably and we ended up not doing anything at all. I want our time doing school together to be happy and peaceful and if mama is stressed out everyone will suffer. I have been working to cultivate simplicity in my life and home over the last few months and I wanted to keep that consistent in all areas of our life, including our curriculum choices.

So after much thought and TONS of prayer, I am so excited with the choices we have made and cannot wait to jump in at the end of August.

HOMESCHOOL PRESCHOOL CURRICULUM CHOICES

Mr. 3 will be starting our Let's Play.Learn.Grow Preschool curriculum this year. He played and learned alongside big sister last year as she worked through the curriculum. This year he gets to do it all by himself and he is looking forward to his very own special time with mommy.

In addition to the curriculum, he will be doing all of our morning basket activities, Bible time, and science inquiries. He has never enjoyed doing his own developmentally appropriate activities while big sister did something else, so he will join us for those things in the morning, will play while Miss 5 and I do language arts and math, and then while Miss 5 is having quiet time after lunch, we will do his preschool activities and he will then have his quiet time afterwards.

HOMESCHOOL KINDERGARTEN CURRICULUM CHOICES

The following choices are all of the CORE things we will be using for each of the subjects. This is not an exhaustive list of all of the extras that we have on our learning cart, or things we may find and fill in the gaps throughout the year.

BIBLE
STORY ALIVE & FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT: For the last year, we have been using The Littles & Me Story Alive and Fruit of the Spirit Curriculum and will continue using them throughout this year alongside our Jesus Storybook Bible and our Indescribable Devotional Bible, which we will also be using for some science integration. We absolutely LOVE everything that Ashley makes. She has a heart for leading little ones to Jesus and has an amazing eye for design.

Kindergarten Curriculum Choices



LANGUAGE ARTS
THE GOOD AND THE BEAUTIFUL LEVEL K: In January, we briefly began working through The Good & the Beautiful Kindergarten Language Arts curriculum and absolutely LOVED it. While we only did it here and there, I knew that we would definitely be continuing with it come fall and our official start of Kindergarten. It's a beautiful, well laid out curriculum and I can see us using The Good & The Beautiful for years to come. My copy is one I got for free many years ago from the website and bound myself. They do not currently offer the Kindergarten set for free as a pdf download, but you can purchase the bound version which has been recently updated and looks absolutely AMAZING. They do offer the 1st-6th grade curriculum for free as pdfs on their website which is amazing, or you can purchase a bound set directly from the site as well. I also chose to purchase the pdf version of the kindergarten level reader to go along with the lessons. I bound it myself, but upon getting it all formatted and put together, I will be purchasing the prebound copy in the future as it will save me time, hold up better, and be put together correctly (I may or may not have assembled it upside down and out of order a time or two haha)

EXPLODE THE CODE LEVEL 1 While I am not a huge fan of worksheets, my little lady LOVES sitting down to do them here and there. I have heard amazing things about the Explode the Code books and decided to grab one to have on hand as extra practice for skills we are working on. I grabbed level 2 when I purchased because I foresee her flying through level one as it will be more of a review of skills she has already mastered.

Kindergarten Curriculum Choices



MATH:
MATH FOR A LIVING EDUCATION LEVEL 1: When I first heard about this curriculum, I was immediately drawn to it and really felt like it would be something that would fit my little family and would be perfect for Miss 5 and her love of stories and learning. Choosing a math curriculum was what I fretted the most over. I truly didn't know if MFALE would be enough as I have heard mixed reviews on it not having enough "meat". I really felt in my heart that this living math was what I wanted to use, but couldn't shake all the negative reviews I had heard and read. I shed tears over this choice friends. Many, many tears. I only want what is best for my sweet girl and our homeschool journey. After lots of prayer, and God making it very clear to me that this is what HE wanted us to use, I purchased it and I couldn't be happier. The first night I got it, I spent the entire evening reading through it and wanted to jump into right then and there. The first 6 weeks we will be doing as a review and will go through them quickly as they are things Miss 5 already knows well. We will then be working through the rest of the course and will move on as needed. If we need additional practice with a particular skill I will pull out centers and activities I already have of my own or others that I have prepped and we will use those as supplements.

Kindergarten Curriculum Choices


SCIENCE/SOCIAL STUDIES: For science and social studies we will be using a variety of thematic units from my shop, as well as following an inquiry based learning style. They ask many questions a day that I don't always have the answer to so together we will be asking and answering questions based on the things they want to learn more about. We will begin the year with a unit bald eagles, or bog-geagles as both kids call them. It's one of my favorite things to hear them say and I will be sad when they learn to say it correctly. They are OBSESSED with bald eagles and it will be so much fun learning about them together.

ART: We will be using a variety of different things for this. I purchased the Draw, Write, Now book and love how it incorporates writing and drawing together. We will also be exploring different art techniques using the Usborne Art Skills book and will probably incorporate Art For Kids Hub on Youtube into our days.

GEOGRAPHY: Geography will be one of the subjects that we incorporate here and there throughout the year. It will not be a core subject, but I definitely want to introduce her to some basic geography concepts. I purchased the DK Publishing Level K workbook to use as a guide and will incorporate different books and things we have and find at the library into our geography learning.

Kindergarten Curriculum Choices


I am looking forward to starting our year at the end of August and will definitely be reporting back on how we feel about everything we have chosen. 

JOIN OUR HOMESCHOOL COMMUNITY

Homeschooling can feel daunting at first. Being in community with others during this season is a must. Join me over in my Homeschool Facebook Group where you can ask questions, share ideas, and be inspired by others walking this homeschool journey with you.




I hope you all have a fantastic school year!!!

Homeschool Kindergarten Curriculum Choices

2 comments

  1. I just stumbled here and I am glad I did. I went with the same math and also bought the Phonics with it. But now I am looking at your choice and it seems I may like that. CHOICES

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are so many amazing choices out there it truly is hard to pick. I am excited for all of our choices and can't wait to get started in two weeks. I hope you have a wonderful school year :)

      Delete