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For my older dd who is currently in first I just did reading, handwriting, Spanish, and math (and lots of library books). For my younger dd who will be in K next year, I will do reading, writing, math, and allow her to tag along with older dd in history and science. In retrospect, I would have skipped Spanish for older dd because the program (Song School) required too much writing that she wasn't ready for, so we didn't do it as intended and I could have easily pulled something together to accomplish the same goal without spending the money. 

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My second (of four) is currently in kindergarten.  He does far more than he strictly needs.  Many of his subjects are done along with his older (and often younger) brother(s). 
 

One-on-One Subjects

Phonics, handwriting, math, Spanish.

 

With his brothers:

History, science, art, literature (listening to read alouds).
 
 I certainly think he is getting valuable exposure to these subjects, but I doubt he would be doing them to the extend he is, or perhaps at all, if his older brother weren't.  If my oldest were in K, I doubt I would do any formal/organized history, science, Spanish or art.
 
Wendy
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I am in the middle of K with our oldest. I also have an almost 4 yo, 3 yo, and a NB. The only formal things we do are phonics/reading, maths, handwriting, and religion. Everything else is gravy. 

I am planning first grade to be that way too.

Basically, I have general topics for social studies and science I'd like to cover. I request a handful of library books about them each week. I also have a "mom's choice book box" which contains books we own that I want to get to. If we get to them, great. If not, life goes on.

Currently mom's choice book box has various fairy tale collections, Aesop's fables, The Children's Book of Virtues, some Childcraft encyclopedia volumes and some other things. I switch out the collections every few weeks to keep interest high.

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Phonics, penmanship, and math are all that's absolutely required in my homeschool.

 

My more advanced kiddos had more work, because they wanted and were itching for it, but they were still completing it in the same amount of time the more average kids completed the above.

 

My current 6yo also gets near daily history and geography. History because he found he really enjoys tagging along with 3rd grade sister's history, and geography because he's been all about maps and places around the world for as long as he was aware of them.

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Phonics, math, and handwriting for sure. My older two have used a spell-to-read program that includes handwriting. I also try to do something with music, art, science, and history/social studies. I consider interest-led, read-alouds, tag-along, or formal curricula to be valid ways to meet that goal for science and history.

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Phonics, math, and gentle handwriting practice.  Other than that, read aloud as much as possible!  You can cover science, history, poetry, literature, and art appreciation just by reading good quality picture books.  No need for output at that age!

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My current 5yo is doing maths, handwriting and phonics as more "formal" subjects.
She is also doing art and science, sometimes through her own free play and exploration but sometimes semi-directed.
We are also learning about Australia through picture books and read alouds.

Most of her learning over the day is through manipulatives and games

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We cover several topics:

  • Math: RightStart B
  • Reading: ETC / BTC. We used to do HWT, but figured ETC / BTC have enough writing in them. We're on ETC2 and it's pretty trivial for her other than spelling, so we kind of skip through and only do about half the pages, focusing on pages with reading comprehension and writing/spelling. 
  • Science: BFSU - I love BFSU. It's mostly conversational which seems to work really well for our daughter. Mom or I read the section to get a feel for the talking points and talk a little about it each day. We also do Mystery Science about once per week
  • Social Studies: We had gone through What your Kindergartner Should Know last year. Right now, we're just talking about an important person in American history every week and discuss topics related to that person (Lincoln, MLK Jr, Muhammad Ali, PT Barnum, Davy Crockett)

 

Actual sit down time (reading/math) usually takes 1-2 hours (closer to 1 most of the time). Then we talk about Science/Social studies. We try to bring up topics when relevant to the real world: Fractions or adding when cooking, science basically anytime (it's pretty easy to point out how topics we've learned are effecting themselves in the real world basically anytime), reading happens all the time outside of bedtime / school time. 

 

We do a lot more than most people do for a 4 year old, but it works for us and she likes it (most days).

Edited by Josh Blade
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