Ready for Kindergarten

We finally decided on our curriculum for Alli's Kindergarten year of school. I've been working with her a good portion of the last 6 months on a computer based curriculum for Math and Reading called Funnix. Alli is already able to count to 50 and do simple addition and subtraction. Her reading was also coming along but this has been more of a struggle for her. We had considered going with a LDS based curriculum but they did not have a formal kindergarten curriculum. This had made us consider skipping kindergarten all together (since I had already been working with her for 1 1/2 years).In all honesty she had already learned at least half of the concepts usually covered in kindergarten and might have done well in a 1st grade level math and reading but I felt like it was unfair to rush her and make her first year anything but fun. I want learning to be a joy for her. So I researched some curriculum and here's what we are going to try for our first year

We chose Horizons for both Math and Phonics/Reading. The Phonics/Reading came with 4 workbooks and 4 readers. The math came with 2 workbooks. Comments on this program were mixed. The negative comments were due to concerns that the program moved too quickly but said if your child was advanced in this subject that they would do well. I felt like this was a good fit for Alli especially in math, since we were further ahead in this area. The other thing I like about these two programs is that the lesson plans are already completed for me. I didn't want to have to spend hours as a teacher every night planning a lesson for the next day. I want to be able to enjoy this process or it just isn't worth it.

We chose this workbook from Abeka to help supplement our discussions about community, community helpers, intro to our country and other countries and cultures around the world.

Also from Abeka, this is a book full of art projects that will help when we discuss holidays, seasons and cultures.

Again from Abeka, this book helps develop early skills through mazes, directed art pages, graphs, sequencing, and other activities for writing skills, eye-hand coordination, visual perception, listening and thinking skills, and good character.

This is my favorite part of the curriculum. Alli's Science was purchased through Sonlight. I WISH we had liked the whole program because I like how they set up their courses. One of the big things Sonlight likes to do is teach students through literature instead of just one big textbook. This was great for science but I didn't like how they applied it for the teaching of phonics, reading and history. They taught history through historical fiction reader books and books that followed missionaries through different countries. This just wasn't the route I wanted to go. So we decided to buy the science core separate I love it.

The manual has the lessons sectioned by week and the lesson plans are already laid out for me. The lesson is never overwhelming for parent or child and the lesson is supplemented by the books below. Alli already loves to sit and look through the books. There are also weekly experiments with supplies that were provided with the class.

We moved this bookcase out of Ethan's old room and turned it into our homeschool area. It holds all of our Magic Tree house, My Baby Can Read and LeapFrog reader books on the bottom. Alli's school books and supplies on the top shelf and a basket full of flash cards and learning games that I have collected over the years on top.