Our Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum Choices

While I wanted to share this post closer to the beginning of our school year, we are now a few months away from the end of our school year. The good news about waiting until now is that we’ve had adequate time to use our curricula, making it easier to offer a review.

For reference, my son started out the school year five years old and is now six years old. His lessons are fairly quick in comparison to his older, middle-school brother, but we’ve found a rhythm that works for everyone. This is the last year of not needing to report for him and I’m trying to soak in these little years that pass by way too quickly.

Our Kindergarten Choices

Reading

All About Reading worked well for my oldest son and so far it’s been working well for my youngest son, too. The multisensory approach of this program makes it a fun and engaging way to teach reading. It incorporates games, fluency sheets, flashcards, other activities, and reading stories.

The colorful, playful, and hands-on rich activities have made this a perfect fit for my kindergartener. Since it’s not grade-level based there’s an ease that we can go at his own pace and not feel rushed. I occasionally pause from the lessons for a day or two to dive deeper into some additional practice before moving on.

My son is currently about one-third of the way through Level 1, so we will definitely be continuing on with this level as he moves into first grade. I also bought the optional file folder games that pair with a puppet named Ziggy the zebra. My son loves animals and he often asks for Ziggy to be a part of our reading time in general.

This curriculum comes with several materials, is a bit pricey (but well worth the cost), and can be parent intensive. For these reasons, it may not be the fit for every family, but I have found it to be an effective way to teach my kids to read. It is also accommodating for both struggling readers and strong readers.

I’ve seen steady progress in my son this year by using All About Reading, and it’s a program I can comfortably recommend!

Bible

Last school year I bought Apologia’s The Word in Motion Old Testament because it’s a K-8 curriculum that I had planned to use with both my boys. However, I ended up holding off on using it until this year because we already had enough Bible resources. I mentioned this curriculum in our 7th Grade Homeschool Choices, but I will mention that it’s not what I would choose for just a Kindergartener. Aspects of the program like the hand motions work well for young children, but some of the reading material is a bit meaty for younger children.

As the name implies, this curriculum uses hand motions paired with words to teach kids the order of Old Testament events. This is definitely the highlight of the program, but kids may find this to be a bit childish by the time they hit middle school (talking from experience). There is a combination of short video instruction, reading material, and also note-booking (but I’ve opted not to have my kids complete the work in the journal). There is also a New Testament version with the same format as this one.

Overall, it’s been a helpful resource and I’m glad we’ve gone through it together. We’ve learned all forty motions in the first half of the program and it’s been a great tool for me as well. I think I will forever have in my head, “Creation, Fall, Flood, Nations, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Passover…Wait, Christ.”

A program like this isn’t necessary to teach the Bible to kids, but it can help deepen understanding.

Math

Math With Confidence wasn’t available when my oldest son was starting out, but we did use the “Facts That Stick” series by Kate Snow. She eventually wrote Math With Confidence as well, which is a program that’s still being released through grade 6. We’re currently working through the Kindergarten level and it’s been obvious that Kate Snow has a solid math background. Between holding a degree from Harvard to having been both a classroom teacher and homeschool mom, she has done a beautiful job with this curriculum.

This is one of the more parent-friendly math curriculums I have seen, and it really does equip the parent with the confidence to teach math as well as instill math confidence in kids. It comes with both an Instructor’s Guide and a Student Workbook. At the Kindergarten level the lessons are very short and hands-on, so we only spend about 10-15 minutes a day on math. I do find a majority of the material to be fairly easy for my son, but I’d rather him have a solid foundation because I know it will get harder.

So far, I have nothing but positive things to say about this curriculum and we plan to keep using it for first grade.

Handwriting

A Reason for Handwriting is a very straightforward, Christian-based handwriting curriculum. At the Kindergarten level children practice tracing letters and writing letters independently. I also appreciate that at higher levels they practice writing Bible verses.

This one took my son a little time to warm-up to, but he has his little routine now and is doing great with practicing his letters. Each page has a tracing/practice side and then a coloring page on the back to correspond with the letter. Many of the pictures are of animals which has been a hit for my animal-loving son.

I’ve found that having him complete a sheet two days a week has been the right amount for now. We also practice writing in other ways, such as using chalkboards and dry-erase boards.

Science

We love unit studies in our homeschool and they’re how I’ve often approached science with my boys. Not always, but often. After doing My Father’s World with my youngest for the preschool years, I learned that he shares my love for unit studies. So when it came to pondering science for him this year, I knew I wanted to go with a unit study style curriculum.

I looked through several and ultimately chose to go with The Gentle + Classical Press. More specifically, my son is using Gentle + Classical Nature Volume 1: Inland Waterways & Forests. This volume covers several animals from freshwater birds to butterflies, as well as some plants. This curriculum combines Classical, Unit Studies, and Charlotte Mason methods.

It comes with a teacher’s guide, student notebook, nature collection notebook, and some printables like flashcards. While there is a suggested schedule, it leaves a lot of room to modify it for your family’s needs. We usually spend about two to three weeks on a unit.

Pros of G+C Nature:

  • beautiful pictures
  • incorporates foreign language with a choice of Spanish or French flashcards
  • includes a memory statement for each unit
  • offers flexibility to adapt as needed
  • not overwhelming

A Few Cons:

  • doesn’t specifically make the connection between God and nature in the student material
  • lacks adequate information to complement each unit
  • the full print version is pricey (is available in digital but would be costly to print everything)

For the cost of the curriculum, I was surprised that there wasn’t more information to actually teach the concepts in the units. The attainments do have facts pages, but they’re not really the core of the curriculum. I also prefer something that intertwines biblical content into science concepts, but I’ve been bringing that into our discussions as I see best. Since the author of this curriculum is a Christian and some of her other curriculum does incorporate biblical content, I expected that to come out more in this curriculum as well.

Even so, my son always looks forward to what animal(s) we will be learning about and nothing feels overwhelming, and those are some of the main reasons I chose this for him this year.

Morning Time Resources

We also use some resources during our morning time such as a Morning Menu and Kindergarten Journal by Arrows & Applesauce. We own many of her homeschool resources, so it’s safe to say I’m a fan of her materials! The Morning Menu covers your typical calendar material and I also sometimes add in other pages to keep it engaging for my son. The Kindergarten Journal offers some additional practice with concepts my son is already learning.

We are also working through the Character Education Cards by September & Co. These are simple yet good reminders of Godly characteristics to nurture in children.

I also want to mention the series, Little Pilgrim’s Big Journey by Lithos Kids. We read through all three books during morning time and my son absolutely cherished each book. It’s a kid-friendly version of the traditional Pilgrim’s Progress. Definitely a good one to add to morning time if you haven’t already!

Other

Aside from core subjects, my son spends a lot of time playing, exploring outdoors, engaging in sensory bins, creating art projects, and joining in with what his older brother is learning too. It’s been a fun year of seeing him flourish.

Feel Free to use the comments section if you have any questions about our curriculum picks!

Rejoicing in Hope,

I'm a Christian wife and homeschool mama of two miracle sons. A few of my favorites are hand-lettering pretty creations, running on peaceful trails, and homemaking. I'm passionate about helping moms rejoice in the hope found in Jesus through all seasons of motherhood.

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