Choosing a curriculum/resources

[Angelina]

I am new to homeschooling, with a son entering K (as well as a 2 year-old and 1-year old). I am trying to choose a curriculum and need some help! Here's what I'm looking for:

 

-I am not a scripted-lesson kind of person. I taught school for 3 years and I generally like to take lesson ideas, use some, toss others, and invent some myself.

 

-I really want a good resource list. I do not have the time or desire to go searching all over the internet and library for ideas and resources for each lesson. I don't want to purchase a kit with everything at-the-ready; but a list of book titles for various topics, for instance, that I can get at the library would be great.

 

-I am neither a traditional schooler, nor an unschooler. I like a good mix of manipulatives, real-world experiences, projects, and pencil-paper stuff.

 

-I prefer "real" books to textbooks.

 

 

Any suggestions on curriculum (free or for purchase) that would give me what I'm looking for without all the excess (like purchasing books/materials I could borrow instead, or scripts and rigid lesson plans I wouldn't follow)?

 

THANK YOU!!  :)

[3 ladybugs]

I think it would help if you were to list what subjects you want to teach. What I would teach in K may be completely different then what you would. 

[vonfirmath]

You might check out Ambleside Online: http://amblesideonline.org/

[birchbark]

We love Wee Folk Art for K. We were able to get most of the books through the library.

 

 

 

[Farrar]

You might enjoy Five in a Row.

 

I like Miquon Orange and the activities on Education Unboxed for math at that age.

 

There are tons of resource books and games and so forth out there. You might give us a sense of what you'd like your kindy day to look like. Some people start formal history and do a science program and so forth at that age. Others do almost nothing, just read books and play. Also, what your child is like. Some kids enter kindy already reading a little, already doing a little math and counting. Others aren't ready for a long time.

[barnwife]

Well, our oldest is in K this year. And we also have a 4 yo, almost 3 yo, and will have a baby by the end of the year.

My K plans include Webster's Speller for phonics, with Progressive Phonics thrown in to keep things interesting. For math we will use CSMP and Miquon (I let him choose each day). Handwriting is DIY sheets.

Everything else is books and life. I vaguely plan to focus on animals, plants, the human body, and weather for science. But...those aren't written in stone. It just gives me a place to start looking for interesting books at the library. Social Studies/history is a "read around the world" type thing. Again, if it never happens, that's fine. But that gives me a place to start. Plus, I got a book with that planned out at a garage sale for maybe 50 cents. We also have SOTW if he is interested.

I do have a morning time (we call it mom's choice) box of books. It currently has various fairy tales collections, Aesop's fables, some Childcraft encyclopedia volumes, and things. 

[2_girls_mommy]

If you are on this site, I assume you have read The Well Trained Mind are interested in it? I love it for 1st and up for all that you have described: Book lists, scope and sequence, topics to cover, how to cover them on your own without purchasing anything, and lists of curriculum that are good for subjects that need them or that you may find you want it for.

 

But in K there isn't much listed, just phonics and math and do it yourself for everything else.  With my last two Kers (my middle child and a dn) I used the Rod and Staff ABC workbooks to cover a bit of everything alongside math and phonics and they just learned what they learned on everything else. If it was Christmas we picked up tons of Christmas books at the library and did activities and crafts and went to plays and things.  If the zoo was having a monarch learning day, we went to that and maybe read more on them later at home, etc.

 

Then I started the WTM cycles in 1st. Don't know if this is helpful or not.  But I did find the workbooks to be simple enough and to cover a bit of social studies and science and Bible and colors and whatnot that I felt ok if that was it for the day after reading and math.  And my kids liked them. If they did their workbook page in the morning, had some read aloud time with me before nap, did a reading lesson a couple of times a week, did some puzzles and playdough and other hands on stuff, went to some library storytimes and park dates and museums or somewhere once or twice a week, did some math each day, I felt we were good for the week. All could read (at varying levels) by the end of K.

 

One of my kids did Letter of The Week, a free blog, for preK, and it had ideas for weekly themed units around the ABCs.  We enjoyed that.  I think there is an older kids version of it as well.  But that has been 7 yrs ago that I did that. So my memory could be wrong.  But it had book lists, activity ideas, links to color pages, poems, scripture, PE ideas, sign language sheets to go with the letter, etc. If there was something older, that's another free place to look.

[Ausmumof3]

Well you could use build your library or sonlight 4/5 or something similar. Although they have an instructor guide you don't have to stick with all the suggested activities you can just use them as a book list. Or you can follow Wtm.

 

I think whatever you use you end up adapting to suit your family anyway

[Rachel]

You may want to find the kindergarten thread on the pre-k/k board. It was very helpful for me when I was starting out.

 

The WTM very helpful in determining what I want to teach my kids from year to year.

 

I've done K with two kids so far. We focus on learning to read, handwriting, and basic math skills along with tons of reading aloud.