Need help deciding on K curriculum

[melissad2]

I need help deciding on a K curriculum for DS for next year. I actually already purchased HOD but just don't love it. I feel it is too much bible for us. I do want to include bible study, I just don't want every single thing to be bible based. I am looking for a complete program as I am new to all of this and something that doesn't take all day to complete because I will have a 5yo, 2yo, and 3m old when we begin K next year.

 

Some info about my K'er...he is fidgety, has to be redirected all the time, loves to be creative and has his own way of doing things. He knows letter sounds and can count to at least 50. He can write his name, knows his address and phone number and family members full names. He is very bright and loves to learn although he can be stubborn and hard to focus.

 

Any input would be extremely helpful. :D

[kalphs]

Hindsight is 20/20 so they say, so here are my thoughts.

If we had to do it all over again, Dh and I would have followed Jessie and Susan's plan in the WTM for Kindergarten. (See page 215 of the WTM 2009 edition.)

Instead of following the WTM, we purchased a "pre-planned" curriculum.

While this particular curriculum works well for others, it did not work well for Dd. In the end we abandoned the pre-planned curriculum in favor of the WTM.

:)

[melissad2]

Thanks for the input....I really need to get a copy of WTM :001_smile:. I have read some of it from a copy I got at the library.

[boscopup]

I agree. It sounds like you'd do best with just picking phonics, math, and handwriting curricula, then doing about 10-15 minutes of each per day. Hit up the library for books about whatever topics your child is interested in.

 

Your son sounds like he might even do better to hold off a bit on formal work if he's still fidgety. He's clearly learning "K things" without doing formal school work (as my oldest also did). So don't feel like you have to do that much for K. He won't suffer. Just hit the library a lot and read, read, read!

 

I'm using MFW K for my middle son right now, but it's mostly to get me purposely doing more reading aloud and some basic crafty type things. He's the middle child, and I have an accelerated 2nd grader and a 2 year old. Very easy for the middle child to fall through the cracks in that scenario. I'm not using MFW K's phonics. I'm using Webster's Speller instead (free!) and really like it. I'm also using Singapore Essential Math K, and I enjoy that. For handwriting, I'm slowly using HWT, but we haven't worked on it as much. We've been doing "K" for a few weeks, since he asked to start because he was turning 5. :D I focus mostly on reading the books from the library. MFW K has a science theme, and several books associated with that theme, so we get all we can from the library. We've done sun, moon, and just started leaves. But again, I'm not really following the MFW schedule and such. I'm more using it as a jumping off point to give me ideas, not necessarily doing xyz on day 1, etc.

[missmoe]

20/20 Hindsight here as well.

 

Focus on reading skills and exposing your child to the world.

 

I needed a reading program for my first few as I didn't know how to teach reading. So you may want something to teach phonics.

 

Other than that--go for walks, cook and bake, read lots of books, explore your library and any preschool programs they might have, play outside (in your yard or at a park), practice math through games and everyday activities, muck about in crafts, ect.

 

Full time school comes soon enough--use that K year to engage your child in the wonder of our world.

Edited November 3, 2011 by missmoe

[morosophe]

I'd agree on getting phonics, math, and handwriting covered when you get to the point where you need handwriting. (I didn't really do handwriting until first--my son just didn't have the fine motor skills required.) Even math doesn't need to be much of anything--we used MUS's "Primer," which is a completely optional introduction to math concepts.

 

What I did use for the rest of my "curriculum" was Five in a Row, in which you take one book and read it for five days, covering Social Studies one day, Literature another, Math another, Science yet another, and Art last. We also used Homeschool Share's free lapbooking pages for FiaR. If you want to do something similar, don't feel like you have to buy that curriculum (although it does nicely lay everything out for you): make up your own using your favorite books or search the 'net for free unit study resources. Homeschool Share has a whole page, for example!

 

I wouldn't start a more formal study until first grade--he won't remember much of it anyhow, if you ask me. :p Make sure to have some fun!

[go_go_gadget]

I haven't used both and so can't make the statement I'm about to make with any authority, but I don't think that using a boxed curriculum will necessarily save you time. Time spent on lessons is more about teacher preparedness, how scripted the lessons are, whether or not manipulatives are used, and student cooperation. Most of our programs are scripted (OPGTR, FLL, WWE, RightStart Math, etc.), so the time spent on each lesson is dependent on us, not on the curriculum. For my K'ers, I focused on math, phonics, and penmanship, and filled the rest as time and maturity allowed.

[Ritsumei]

If you go with individual curriculum (which is what we did), can I recommend Math Expressions and or Miquon? I find that both are hands-on enough to keep my wiggly boy happy. We've been using ME much longer, and it's flexible enough to adapt to a number of different manipulatives - we've often used whatever toy was the toy of the moment. Now that we've started with Miquan, we love the cuisenaire rods!

 

For phonics, we use a combination of Happy Phonics and OPGTR. OPGTR tells me what to teach, and then we either use a HP game, or a file folder game to do the actual practice, which is much more fun for a wiggly little guy, and the few times we've actually done something off the OPGTR page it's been very overwhelming to my son to see all that text, but with turning it into games that's not a problem.

 

If you add nature study (going outside to the more wild parks in our area and looking for "interesting things") and a few art projects, and some messing around with Mudpies to Magnets, you've basically got our K program. Most days we were done in 1 hour or less, unless we spent longer outside wandering around and playing with sticks and snow and whatnot for nature study.

[zenjenn]

Your son sounds like he might even do better to hold off a bit on formal work if he's still fidgety.

 

:iagree:

 

We did not use a formal curriculum for our Kindergartner last year, and it was a good choice. Please keep in mind the child below is a very accelerated learner which is why you are seeing some advanced work. She was not *pushed* and still emotionally a Kindergartner with the associated attention span. When you see advanced work, it was still nothing she couldn't complete in 20 mins or less. Every day she did:

 

- 1 math assignment (at the beginning it was just something from random Kinder math workbooks, counting, number-writing, dot-to-dots, etc, until she was ready for MM1)

 

- 1 writing assignment (at first just manuscript penmanship, and then an Evan-Moor writing book for Gr.1 )

 

- Reading - she did Click N Kids Phonics/Starfall and reading with me. Again, accelerated, but this was our routine throughout the year even once she was reading fluently. She was not emotionally ready for anything more time-consuming or demanding.

 

Beyond that, I kept her busy with things like:

 

- Cutting and cut-and-paste and coloring activities, many from Enchanted Learning.com. (This membership was well worth it for the Kindergarten year.) Cutting was a very satisfying use of her time, in her case. I found a couple "Scissor skills" books at the teacher store. She LOVED these.

 

- Things from the craft store like sticker mosaics, painting kits, etc.

 

- Leapster. I know some people will cringe, but I approved several educational Leapster games as acceptable to play during school time. Mostly these involved quizzing her on addition/subtraction facts or phonemes.

 

She is now in 1st grade and doing a full school day with highly accelerated work. Even though she was academically advanced taking a low-key approach to Kindergarten did not hold her back.

 

- Free reading, once she was able.

 

 

I also only required school until lunch, deliberately with a philosophy of half-day Kindergarten being appropriate. After lunch she was free to play with toys or go outside, etc.

[Blueridge]

The K programs I have used, and loved, are Weaver Interlock, SL, Hewitt Homeschool's Tell Me a Story, MFW, all sprinkled with Five In a Row for many years. :)

[zenjenn]

Your son sounds like he might even do better to hold off a bit on formal work if he's still fidgety.

 

:iagree:

 

We did not use a formal curriculum for our Kindergartner last year, and it was a good choice. Please keep in mind the child below is a very accelerated learner which is why you are seeing some advanced work. She was not *pushed* and still emotionally a Kindergartner with the associated attention span. When you see advanced work, it was still nothing she couldn't complete in 20 mins or less. Every day she did:

 

- 1 math assignment (at the beginning it was just something from random Kinder math workbooks, counting, number-writing, dot-to-dots, etc, until she was ready for MM1)

 

- 1 writing assignment (at first just manuscript penmanship, and then an Evan-Moor writing book for Gr.1 )

 

- Reading - she did Click N Kids Phonics/Starfall and reading with me. Again, accelerated, but this was our routine throughout the year even once she was reading fluently. She was not emotionally ready for anything more time-consuming or demanding.

 

Beyond that, I kept her busy with things like:

 

- Cutting and cut-and-paste and coloring activities, many from Enchanted Learning.com. (This membership was well worth it for the Kindergarten year.) Cutting was a very satisfying use of her time, in her case. I found a couple "Scissor skills" books at the teacher store. She LOVED these.

 

- Things from the craft store like sticker mosaics, painting kits, etc.

 

- Leapster. I know some people will cringe, but I approved several educational Leapster games as acceptable to play during school time. Mostly these involved quizzing her on addition/subtraction facts or phonemes.

 

- Free reading, once she was able.

 

The above choices were only the required options for use of extra time until lunch, deliberately with a philosophy of half-day Kindergarten being appropriate. After lunch she was free to play with toys or go outside, etc.

 

I can also say that she is now in 1st grade doing a full day of quite accelerated work. Even as an academically advanced child, a low-key approach to Kindergarten did not hold her back.

[Once Again]

Had I the chance to do kindergarten over again with my children, I'd just purchase Saxon Phonics K and Saxon Math K and call it good.

[kristinannie]

This is what we are doing for kindergarten and it has worked really well for us so far (we have tweaked several times and ended up here):

 

Math---McRuffy Color Math K and Miquon. We also play with manipulatives and play Right Start math games (highly recommended). We do McRuffy every day and then do Miquon 2-3 times a week. We play the Right Start games after dinner. Math takes about 20 minutes with everything combined (unless they are just playing with manipulatives...then I let them go as long as they want!)

 

Phonics---I use the games from Struggling Reader and love them. We also do some phonics games I bought from Rainbow Resource. I can make recommendations if you are interested. Wizizzle is a family favorite!!! We do MCP Plaid Phonics when we are reviewing a concept or sometimes to just give him extra practice. I tried OPGTTR and it caused daily tears, but I do look through it to make sure we have hit different phenomes, etc and go over those on a whiteboard with magnetic letters.

 

Reading---MCP Readers. These are recommended in WTM and they are wonderful. They are pricey, but I bought the whole set from Lamplighter and it was cheaper that way. We also read easier books from the library now that we are moving along.

 

Handwriting---I use Memoria Press' First Start Reading. I bought it mostly for phonics, but it covers only CVC words which we already knew. However, it is great review of that! I love that it teaches a letter and then you start using the letters meaningfully. It uses ZB handwriting which is recommended by WTM and is wonderful. We started off with ball and stick and it also caused daily tears.

 

I bought a lot of the books used on here for SL P3/4 and P4/5. They are wonderful books!!!! We do lots of read alouds.

 

We just started doing unit studies as well. I have found that these are amazing for this age. The first one we did was North America. We are actually going to cover all 7 continents and take a trip around the world for the next couple of years. I can give you book recommendations for that if you want. We are learning about people, cultures, geography, animals, languages, music, food, crafts, etc. We took a little time off from that and this month we are studying the planets in our Solar System. I am going to do South America next and then probably do something about the human body since DS5 is really interested in that right now!

 

Basically, we finish our book work in about 30-60 minutes. We spend about 30-60 minutes on our unit study (depending on if we are doing a craft or an experiment). We spend about 30 minutes a day reading aloud (sometimes more). We have music class 2-3 times a week (we sing and dance for about 20 minutes). We also do art a couple of times a week (painting or a craft). Other than that, I let my kids do lots of free play. They learn so much at this age just by playing and they need lots of time to explore on their own. They explore outside or they play inside. I have lots of craft supplies for them to use if they want to (which they often do). They will also play with math manipulatives. I just want them to be kids and to love learning.

 

I hope that helps! Sorry to write a novel!!!!!!

[Aurelia]

If I were to do kindergarten over again, I'd use Right Start Math A, The Writing Road to Reading and Five in a Row. It's not all in one, but most of the curricula are "do the next thing" so it isn't hard to keep up with. It also would allow me to accomodate a child that doesn't make steady progress in every area, so I can accelerate or slow down a subject as needed.

 

If you're dead-set on using an all-in-one, there's My Father's World, Winterpromise, and Sonlight which are Christian; Calvert, K12, and Oak Meadow which are secular.

[JessReplanted]

I'm using HOD's Little Hearts for my PreK & K'er. I think the beauty of it is that you don't have to do everything. Honestly, if you already bought it, I'd suggest giving it a try. IMO, K is about covering the basics anyway (reading/writing/math), and everything else is an added bonus. ;)

[ByGrace3]

For K we focused on Bible, phonics, math and handwriting. We did a history/ missionary/geography study once a week and just read books. Going back I would have done more time on reading aloud and less time on math . . . and added in a SL core for read alouds (just to have the list and accountability for me!) I think the basics with lots of books makes for a great K year. :)

[FairProspects]

.

[MyFourSons]

I would save your money for next year and do what others have suggested- choose a phonics program, a math program, and a handwriting program. Add in plenty of good books from the library.

 

The booklist for Memoria Press Kindergarten is great, it is on their site. AmblesideOnline has a year 0 booklist for Kindergarten that is great. If you want something planned out for you, Five in A Row is a great program.

 

If you feel like your son needs more, I also used Elemental Science Intro to Science for fun hands on activities and Nature Study, as my son is very into nature. It uses More Mudpies and Magnets as a spine along with other books I found at my library.

 

Here are some recommendations for individual subjects:

 

PHONICS:

Ordinary Parent's Guide to Reading, Spell to Write and Read, and Blend Phonics are great programs.

You can also use www.starfall.com which is free

 

MATH:

MEP math is free online and a great program, I also love Singapore Math which is a bit more expensive for K than the rest of the years.

 

HANDWRITING:

You could use the free handwriting pages from donnayoung.org, I also love Handwriting Without Tears, and I also like the handwriting program from Memoria Press. There are also plenty of free handwriting worksheets online for Zaner Bloser, just google it

 

HTH!

[boscopup]

While I get what people are saying about waiting with a figety youngster, if I had waited to start school work with ds 1 until he could sit still, I would STILL be waiting and he's nearly 7.5. That might work for some Better Late than Earliers, but it won't fly with most state regulations or many people's comfort zones.

 

I don't mean to wait until they can sit still necessarily. Goodness, some boys NEVER sit still! :lol:

 

But it's not unusual for a boy to not be ready for formal sit-down work at 5, yet they're perfectly ready for it at 6. I personally wouldn't wait any longer than that. I'm NOT a Better Late Than Early person. ;)

 

Some boys do better if they're redshirted a year, and I doubt there are very many (if any?) states that wouldn't allow that.

[Five More Minutes]

Five in a Row was a great experience for my K-ers. (Still is, for that matter.) I would just say that, while lapbooks are wonderful and can be a treasure, they are not an integral component of FIAR. Most FIAR activities work just as well done orally.

 

I've loved Miquon Math and Singapore Essentials for my math-hungry K-er.

[BrookValley.]

Basically, we've taken FIAR, added on and tweaked, and called it kindergarten. My son was asking for more structured "school," but I thought he was too young (he recently turned 4). However, what we've been doing is working really, really well so far. Maybe I should listen to him more often. :D I really like FIAR in some ways, and in other ways I'm pretty "meh" about it. I do love most of the social studies, language arts, and art in FIAR; I skip the math and pick and choose the science. I added OPGTR for phonics and Right Start A for math, and I am very, very slowly implementing BFSU for science when not doing something from FIAR. DS is working on the Bob books, and of course we do plenty of read-alouds. He also really enjoys Starfall.com and doing pages from Lollipop Logic. Lots of time outside and time just talking/learning/reading about what interests him goes without saying. We're going through our cobbled-together curriculum at a fairly relaxed pace because, like I said, he's young. While what we're doing isn't child-led because I have chosen what (i.e., the curriculum) we are learning, it's still somewhat child-led because I very closely follow his lead as to how much we are doing.

 

We aren't Christian, so everything I mentioned above is secular. FIAR does have bible study as an add-on option. It hasn't cost me too much to implement everything--I really didn't want to jump in and spend a fortune when we didn't really need to be doing school yet--the only thing I spent a lot (to me) of money on was the Right Start starter kit, but I'm glad I did. We really like it! I also have the Miquon math First Grade Diary and have been reading and digesting it as I like, and I may add in some Miquon sometime in the future. But for now, we have plenty!

[kalphs]

Thanks for the input....I really need to get a copy of WTM :001_smile:. I have read some of it from a copy I got at the library.

You are welcome!

:)

[kalphs]

20/20 Hindsight here as well.

 

Focus on reading skills and exposing your child to the world.

 

I needed a reading program for my first few as I didn't know how to teach reading. So you may want something to teach phonics.

 

Other than that--go for walks, cook and bake, read lots of books, explore your library and any preschool programs they might have, play outside (in your yard or at a park), practice math through games and everyday activities, muck about in crafts, ect.

 

Full time school comes soon enough--use that K year to engage your child in the wonder of our world.

:iagree:

[Guest]

Memoria Press Kinder has been perfect here.