Home School Kindergarten:
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If you are thinking about choosing a home school kindergarten curriculum, you have come to the right place to find lots of practical advice on how to choose what will be best for your family. Naturally, when you start thinking about home schooling for kindergarten, you want to start off right and help your child love to learn and become comfortable with some basic concepts of reading and math.
So, where do you begin?
First, let me encourage you with your young child not to rush into buying loads of curriculum. Honestly, at the age five or so, most children do a lot of learning just by interacting with you in the kitchen, playing board games or listening to stories. So, even if you don’t have a lot of money to spend on home school kindergarten curriculum, don’t worry. Your child will still be learning lots just through daily life.
| If You Want a Little Structure |
Though many people do just fine home schooling kindergarten without a specific curriculum, you may feel more comfortable having a little bit more structure to help you guide those precious learning opportunities early on. That’s fine too.
There are a lot of resources out there, but one I have really enjoyed with our own children is Sonlight's kindergarten program. One thing I appreciate about it is that it really opens the world up to young minds in an exciting way – yet at a very low-key pace. I found almost all the book selections were ones that my children really enjoyed and learned from, though some I skipped until they were a bit older.
One aspect of Sonlight’s program that I liked was that it was a stand-alone program that we could easily do it together. I didn’t need to coordinate it with any of the schoolwork my other children were doing. With my youngest daughter, we did the read-alouds at night or in the morning as she was waking up, and the schedule was flexible enough that I didn’t feel pressure to do more than we could handle. At this age, I didn’t want more stress on me from my home school kindergarten curriculum! You can see Sonlight's several home school kindergarten options here.
| Combining With Older Children |
If you have older children and want to combine your home school kindergarten curriculum with what your older children are using, there are several options to consider. One is to combine several levels of Sonlight together. Another options is to use something like Tapestry of Grace, a Classical home school curriculum which focuses all the children’s studies around history in a four-year cycle. So all of your children will be studying Napoleon or the Civil War at the same time. You can check out their fascinating Go To Egypt free 3-week sample and see for yourself how you can integrate even your kindergartener into your historical unit studies. It is a very well-done program.
These are a few specific options to consider. Let me encourage you as you look ahead to this exciting journey of home schooling to think through a few basic issues to help you gain confidence even now even in choosing what home school curriculum you may buy. You may only be looking for a home school kindergarten curriculum, but it isn’t too early to think about more broad-ranging questions like
- How do you want your faith to play a part in your home school?
- What are your core values about education?
- Who will actually teach your child (it may not be who you think!)
- How will you evaluate what your child is learning?
You will be much more likely to successfully tailor whatever home school curriculum you buy to your child’s learning style and needs learning style and needs if you feel comfortable and confident with your basic curriculum choice. That comfort level and confidence comes in a large part from knowing that the home school kindergarten curriculum (or whatever level you buy) suits your needs and your child’s needs. That is why I am writing this site and encouraging other home schoolers to take a good look at all the numerous articles listed on our site map to help you in this process. Bookmark this site and come back again as new questions and circumstances arise.
I hope this information on how to choose a home school kindergarten curriculum has been helpful. Please let me know if you have any comments or questions through my Contact Us page.
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