TwoToSchool Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 I have embarrassingly exceeded budget twice over for next school years materials. I really miscalculated for 3 kids materials opposed to two! I have quite a bit more to get for my upcoming kindy student. We still need science, some type of social studies/history and health. I really wanted to do Sonlight for science but it's just not economical right now. What else is available for a kindy student for these subjects that won't break the bank? Also, we don't make it to the library often (we do have a large home library though) so simply checking out books won't meet our needs. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KarenNC Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 When my daughter was that age, we spent a year doing a basic intro to US history and a basic survey of modern world cultures, as I wanted her to have that basis before starting SOTW. I used DK's book "A Child Like Me" as the spine for the world cultures, reading the two page spread on a child from a particular country, then looking at websites, reading books, maybe sampling food from that country. For US history, I hit the highlights: major holidays, figures like Washington, Lincoln, MLK, major symbols. There are lots of websites associated with historic sites which have plenty of information and activities for young children. For science, you can explore the websites of science museums and zoos for ideas and material. Just look under "Education" on their websites. Our local parks and rec department does a lot of very inexpensive hands-on classes and activities for children in that age range, as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aspasia Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 I am using Elemental Science for my k'er. It's $15 to download both the teacher's manual and the student notebooking pages. I'm also using their history curriculum, Adventures in America. Same price. I think these are perfect for the kindy crowd--simple overviews of their subjects, fun, easy to implement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaners Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 Is any of the material for your other students something the younger child could follow along on? I wouldn't call myself "relaxed" at all, but I'm not using a planned curriculum for those sorts of subjects with my kindergartner for the upcoming year. I can't imagine a health course for K that would go much beyond covering your mouth when you cough, brushing your teeth, and maybe fire safety. History should be easy to match to an older child, with a little time spent to find more age appropriate resources. I just moved away from a phenomenal library system, so I understand not being able to use that as a resource. Does your home library include this type of thing, or could you find material online for what your other children are covering? We are using K to continue exposure and familiarity with some names and places before beginning a more systemic study in 1st grade, and I don't think most programs for K cover more than George Washington and people in the community. I think science would be really easy to do at the K level with a set of encyclopedias and some online videos. Most zoos and museums have information on their exhibits available online. We learn a lot by writing down all of the questions my children come up with and then looking up the answers later, but most of the questions are biology or earth science related. I'm pretty sure you could cover all three subjects without buying anything, but it might take a little bit more time than you have available? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ondreeuh Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 Elemental science has 2 science programs that work for K - exploring science and intro to science. The download is $15 and books are pretty cheap. I think health would be covered in that science (hygiene, nutrition). For social studies, I would just include your k student with your older ones and look for websites and print out worksheets/activities. Scholastic ebooks will probably go on sale again before fall. Usborne has a "first book" series that has a history volume, or you cold do Time Traveler and Book of History. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoToSchool Posted May 5, 2012 Author Share Posted May 5, 2012 Is any of the material for your other students something the younger child could follow along on? I wouldn't call myself "relaxed" at all, but I'm not using a planned curriculum for those sorts of subjects with my kindergartner for the upcoming year. I can't imagine a health course for K that would go much beyond covering your mouth when you cough, brushing your teeth, and maybe fire safety. History should be easy to match to an older child, with a little time spent to find more age appropriate resources. I just moved away from a phenomenal library system, so I understand not being able to use that as a resource. Does your home library include this type of thing, or could you find material online for what your other children are covering? We are using K to continue exposure and familiarity with some names and places before beginning a more systemic study in 1st grade, and I don't think most programs for K cover more than George Washington and people in the community. I think science would be really easy to do at the K level with a set of encyclopedias and some online videos. Most zoos and museums have information on their exhibits available online. We learn a lot by writing down all of the questions my children come up with and then looking up the answers later, but most of the questions are biology or earth science related. I'm pretty sure you could cover all three subjects without buying anything, but it might take a little bit more time than you have available? Thanks for your reply! My older students will be in 3rd and 5th grade and unfortunately don't have much that could be shared or done in a group. I made the effort of finding more independent materials for them so that I could do a lot of 1 on 1 teaching with my new kindy student:) Our home library is really a great collection of story books (lots of Bernstein Bears and Fables and such) This is only our 2nd year home educating so I'm not completely secure in not following some type of 'timeline' or structured guide. As far as videos, I did consider purchasing the "Sid the Science Kid" series and then doing activities revolving around each subject. Ex: Ice Melting and we could do some studies on matter etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoToSchool Posted May 5, 2012 Author Share Posted May 5, 2012 Elemental science has 2 science programs that work for K - exploring science and intro to science. The download is $15 and books are pretty cheap. I think health would be covered in that science (hygiene, nutrition). For social studies, I would just include your k student with your older ones and look for websites and print out worksheets/activities. Scholastic ebooks will probably go on sale again before fall. Usborne has a "first book" series that has a history volume, or you cold do Time Traveler and Book of History. Thanks for the suggestion! I'll look into Elemental Science:) My older two are going to do a whole year study of US history and US gov. I really feel like they need a strong understanding of our history before we branch out into world history. I certainly do see the ability to include my 5 year old in some lessons with.....coloring pages and such? I admit to not being the most creative person when it comes to creating a curriculum. I am comfortable with piecing together language arts with a different history and science, but actually designing lessons to form a lesson plan is still a reach for me:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomatHWTK Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 (edited) Free K Science: http://msnucleus.org/membership/k-6.html Free history: http://www.americanheritage.org/elementary.html (I just found tihs one and have not previewed the content.) Also, create and account here- http://platform.learning.com/FrontDoor?ReturnUrl=%2fdefault.aspx For district, select "e-[YOURSTATENAME]" Then, go to the MarketPlace. Many of the curricula are free. For inexpensive offerings, check out the learning.com icon in the Marketplace for Aha!Science and Aha!Math. See PBSkids.org for free materials and Scholastic.com as well. Abcteach.com offers some freebies and also has an inexpensive membership via homeschoolbuyerscoop.com. I found this site as well, but haven't had a chance to look around yet: http://www.freeworldu.org/static/curriculum.aspx Edited May 5, 2012 by MomatHWTK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 Does your state require history/science/health for K? Those subjects were VERY minimal in my son's private school. Nothing like what a lot of homeschoolers tend to do for K or even 1st. They actually did no history, but learned about neighborhoods and community helpers... stuff that most kids with attentive parents already know about from reading or talking ("Look, there's a fire truck!"). What is your budget for the K'er? That might help us make suggestions. If you had a good library nearby, it'd certainly be easy to do cheap. I'm assuming you just don't have one nearby, and it's not an issue of just not going to one that is nearby, right? (I can give suggestions for the latter too) Do you have everything for the 3Rs for your K'er? If so, I'd not worry too much. Just read read read from your home library, and you should be ok. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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