Kindergarten 2022-2023
Kindergarten: Age 5-6
Scriptures: This year we’re studying The Old Testament and I have a lot of details on that on this post. We will be switching to The New Testament in January, but right now, my son is really enjoying his Red Headed Hostess book, materials from the subscription, and the bible scripture stickers from Line Upon Line. He also does really well with the Latter-day Kids videos on YouTube.
Language Arts: We’ll be using a combination of a few different things so stick with me here. We’ve already started with Explode the Code and just added the Dash Into Learning's Early Phonetic Reading Program. (We went with the full bundle and I have a discount code for 15% off below.) My Kindergartner can blend but he is still working on mastering letter sounds and it sounds like we want to get these really solid before he begins The Good and The Beautiful’s new Level K course. This prerequisite was really stressed before beginning the course - if you have this course, make sure to pre-read it and watch the video that is recommended in advance to beginning the course so you know what to expect. My little guy is so close so we’ll get in some extra practice this summer and keep working through Explode the Code and Dash’s program and when he is ready we’ll start working on TGTB Level K.
I want to throw in a little disclaimer here for new homeschoolers or parents who are first time to teaching Kindergarten. It is VERY normal not to have letter sounds mastered at this age. If this is your child and you want to use TGTB, don’t panic! Just start working on those prerequisites. For us, we’re using some of those supplemental resources above to help out.
This is along the lines of LA, but also a bit of social studies here, but when I was looking into Dash’s reading program, I decided to add the Emotional Resilience Curriculum. I actually had another one picked out for this year, but changed my mind at the last minute and once I received them and went through the teacher’s guides, I am so glad we did! I can tell they’ll be a really good fit for our family. The EQ guide has a fabulous breakdown of the psychosocial stages of development which I think are so so important for parents to have a really good understanding of. In fact, if you don’t understand these very well, I’d buy these just for the teacher’s guide, because it’s so helpful. I am just really happy that these books and curriculum are founded on the knowledge of developmental appropriateness. So we’re really excited to integrate them into our routines.
I’ve used a few different EQ materials before, but what I like about Dash’s curriculum is it uses fairytales and folktales. Children learn about their emotions and socially appropriate behaviors through stories which children really connect to better than a lecture. You can learn all about it here. I decided to get the full bundle with the activity packs so there are some hands-on items — games, coloring pages, recipes, puppets, and discussion questions.
Finally, we’ve also been using TGTB handwriting since the Doodles books and he’s about half way through Level K handwriting right now. We’ve been really happy with these books, so we will keep going with them.
Math: We started using TGTB Simply Math K last year, but he didn’t get too far into it. He passed the course readiness assessment at age 4, but, honestly, he just doesn’t love sitting down and going through books, but we will finish it up this year because I want him to have a good foundation to stay in the TGTB Math courses. Having said that, I am definitely going with more of a game schooling approach with him than I ever did with my girls. He really thrives with games and I can tell he feels a stronger connection when we play games than when we do the bookwork so we’ve stocked up so we can be more intentional about this. Here are some of the games we will be using:
Math Dice Jr., Sum Swamp, Proof (this can be simplified for younger kids, but I can also use it with my older girls), Uno, Dominos, Tangrams, Puzzles, Monopoly Jr, Race To The Treasure, Sleeping Queens, Set, and Qwirkle. We also do TONS of legos. My little guy is already better at lego sets than I ever will be. Our local library also has a ton of literacy and math games we can check out so I am sure we’ll be adding in some more.
Science & Social Studies: Since my boys will be at a Montessori school for a few hours each week, they’ll be getting some great science and social study experiences there. I am planning our big unit studies around my girls and I’ll always have materials around for my younger boys too to discover too (like age-level printable, puzzles or games that go along with what we’re learning).
But, in addition to that, the boys will be home all day on Mondays and Fridays so my plan is to make those days more about them. We’re going to loop between using Little Hearts and Hands Fields and Flowers from TGTB for science and Me On The Map from Little School of Smiths and, as I mentioned above this is when we’ll work on the EQ program from Dash (this is something I want to do family style). When I say loop - I don’t want anyone to think I’ll be doing all three of these every M and F - I just mean we’ll be rotating through ONE of these each Monday and Friday to do as a family.
For Little Hearts and Hands, these lessons are really short (we’re talking like 15 minutes) and I am just going to let my son choose which lessons he wants to do. We won’t follow the curriculum in any particular order. This way it’ll be totally interest based.
For Me on the Map, there are 8 units so beginning in September we will do 1 unit a month and probably spend 2-3 days in each unit a month — with the exception of unit 4 which is My State. I have this mapped out to do in January and we may dive a little deeper here and do a bit longer study of our state’s history and include my older girls - we’ll see as it gets closer.
Fine Arts, Health, and Physical Education: Many of these subjects (art and music) will be integrated into our unit studies and holiday and seasonal plans. Last year I mapped them all out, then totally ended up doing different things - just more what I felt like at the time — so I am going to take more of that approach this year.
I do know we are going to do the Safety unit from TGTB which I want my five year old to be included in for most of the lessons. BTW I feel like I personally would be really comfortable simplifying this curriculum for K-2 grades. The course is designed for 3-6 and the only unit that may need to be simplified even more would be lesson 6 which is about body safety. The vocabulary is a little advanced for this age, but flipping through the student journal, I felt like there was so much K-2 students could do in it too.
We’re also enrolling him in a karate class and getting a rec center pass so all of the kids can go swimming during the off season — our family also likes to ride bikes and play pickle ball so I feel like he gets lots of activity.
I think that sums up our year! To recap for quick reference:
Kindergarten: