New to Homeschooling, curriculum choices for kinder/1st?

[Guest Annalynwalker]

Hi, we have decided to start homeschooling our oldest daughter (will be 5 in March) this coming school year. We will actually be starting in the summer, so we won't get behind, since my husband will be returning from deployment and we'll be visiting family for about a month in September.

 

She's kindergarten age for next year, but after looking at most of the kindergarten curriculums they all just seem so simple and she's already mastered a lot of what's covered - so I've been looking more at the first grade levels or a combination of kindergarten and first grade materials.

 

We've decided to do classical conversations and rod and staff math 1, but I'm having trouble deciding what to use for reading/writing. We've been using AAR pre-reading and it's gone really well and she enjoys it... But, I really like the looks/outcomes of rod and staff's reading 1 program too... The downside of AAR1 for me is that there is not writing involved. Would it be overkill or be too complicated by covering different aspects to do both? Any suggestions?

 

I also have another daughter (4 in September) who I'll be using the AAR pre-reading program with again next year. She's going through it with us now too, but I think it would be best to be reinforced and she's not ready to move farther yet. Any suggestions for that level and nailing in the letters and sounds would be appreciated as well.

 

Thank you!

[Ellie]

Welcome. :-)

 

My go-to recommendation for reading/spelling/penmanship/simple writing is Spalding. You could use it with both of your children. :-)

 

I am not a big fan of Rod and Staff's first grade Bible Nurture and Reader materials. There's way too much sight reading stuff going on, IMHO.

 

Of course, you realize that if there were 100 homeschoolers in a room, there would be 200 opinions about what to use for every subject, lol.

.
 

[My3girls]

I didn't start hsing until this year, but if I had it to do again and could have homeschooled earlier. I wouldn't use any curriculum, except maybe penmanship, until 1st grade. For K, there would be lots of read alouds, going over/ enforcing letters and sounds, counting and manipulatives, and nature walks. That's just me, though. Good luck in your adventure!

[~Victoria~]

My son turned 5 in August and here is what we have done

 

IEW's PAL reading program

MUS Alpha

Salsa online videos for Spanish

Working through a geography workbook

HWOT handwriting

WWE very gently introduced with read alouds

Adding AAS1 now as a review to what we have learned in PAL

 

If I could do over, I probably would have gotten PAL writing as well (it includes AAS1) and ditched HWOT.

[Irishmommy]

After all these years, I still LOVE Five in a Row! Love, love, love it!

[Syllieann]

I agree with spalding or pal for the 5 yo as the only language arts. Both do all the things you are missing. Spalding is streamlined and efficient. Pal has more decorations (lol, bad iew joke). I would let the younger do aar pre 1 since you already have it and it sounds like the older is ready to get on with it but the younger isn't.

[ondreeuh]

I have one of those kids who is a bit ahead of K level stuff, partly because he learns quickly and partly because I teach him as he is ready, so we started early and sometimes accelerate. PAL reading and writing is great! I used the reading part when my son was in preschool (k4) and he was able to finish it in 4 months. It does get them to an early 2nd grade level, so it works for a range of ages. I didn't get far in the writing. We used most of the handwriting part (which works beautifully with the reading, as the same "letter stories" are used in both parts). I will probably pick it up again when he is able to do more independent writing,

 

Another option is Language Lessons Through Literature and/or Reading Lessons Through Literature. They are both efficient, but the LA is definitely classical/CM with the focus on narrations and copywork. I am trying out the level 1 LA, but it is all review so we are just enjoying the stories right now. We have used McGraw-Hill's free LA downloadable workbook for 1st grade and it has been great. Takes just a few minutes to read the rule and do the five questions. We could easily accelerate but I already have it filed by week and we are doing enough other stuff, so I am not worrying about it.

 

If, like me, you are not diehard CM, you can look at the traditional style stuff from Evan-Moor. Their Building Spelling Skills books are easy to accelerate. Right now my son is learning the words in a day or two so we are moving quickly through the 1st grade and then will continue with 2nd. Their Daily Science is perfect for covering vocabulary and setting up "pegs" to hang new information on. I reordered Sonlight Science A to match the daily science topics, so we have the encyclopedia reading plus lots of other science books to flesh it out.

 

We do a combination of math programs. We use Math in Focus 1, which I love because it really focuses on place value and mental math. We do that 2-3 days a week and were able to finish 1A in the first semester of K. We also use Horizons K math, which is a bit advanced for K, but we use it for daily review. He will finish Horizons K soon, and then we will just move on to Horizons 1. It takes him less than 10 minutes to do a lesson so I plan to use it through the summer too. I cover up the number lines and he uses the strategies he learned in Singapore for adding and subtracting. I love that it weaves in geometry, graphing, time, and money throughout the year and not just a chapter here and there like in Singapore. The two programs are very complementary.

 

Anyway, those are just some ideas for bridging those K-1st skills. What we're doing is working very well for us. I like breaking apart the skills because it is so easy to adjust the pace that way.

[Amy M]

I don't know how you feel about traditional curricula, but I use ABeka for reading and handwriting, and it does a great job for both subjects. The handwriting is pretty, too-well-practiced (don't do seatwork, really!), and the reading books are good, solid stories that carefully practice the phonics components. The drilling/review parts might not be as fun as AAR, but it works. If you started in 1st grade, the first several lessons would review the concepts from kindergarten, so that might be ideal for your situation.

[Mergath]

My favorite phonics program is Phonics Pathways.  We didn't get to finish it because dd started reading fluently on her own, but it's a solid program. Dd didn't get bored with it, and it's easy to divide up into shorter chunks for younger kids.  AAR is really good, too.  We tried the pre-reading level for a couple weeks when dd was younger.  (Until dd learned all her letter sounds in about two days from Starfall, lol.)

 

For handwriting, we've been using LoE's Rhythm of Handwriting alongside copywork from our LA program.  (Which, I believe, is wrong in my sig- need to update that.)

 

We're also doing Real Science Odyssey level one life science, Little Passports, Lollipop Logic.

 

As I mentioned, dd learned her letter sounds from Starfall very quickly, so you could give that a try for your younger dd.

 

ETA:  There, updated my sig. :)