Kindergarten Curriculum Picks 2024-2025
Okay, who agrees Kindergarten age is the BEST? It’s my absolute favorite to teach and I feel so blessed to be able do it again!
If this is your first year homeschooling (or maybe if you just need a little pep talk) I always tell other moms that homeschooling this is just an extension of motherhood. Since the day our children were born, we’ve been their first teachers and we will be forever. Choosing this lifestyle is a lot like having a new baby. Remembering trying to read and learn and buy all the things to prepare, but there wasn’t anything quite like simply experiencing it, huh? We will all make mistakes. Embrace them and learn from them just like we did in those newborn years. Homeschooling is going to stretch us and pull us and test us in ways we’d never imagine. And right about the time we feel like we’ve got it all figured out, the seasons shift and our kids will be in a new stage of development and growth and everything changes.
It is a blessing that we have hundreds, if not thousands, of tools and resources to help us assist us in raising and educating our little ones. But, remember, isn’t our most valuable resource really going to be the Lord’s guidance? This is a role that is within our divine natures and as we make an effort to live close to the Spirit, this is a truth we recognize. So my advice is to always put the Lord first every day and let’s let our children witness us do this. No matter what insecurities, or storms, or new challenges we may come up against this journey - He has called us to be here and as we turn to rely on Him, He will enable us to teach, nurture, and guide our children.
Since homeschooling has a learning curve for all of us (as well as your children) - if this is your first year - you may come up against some challenges. Do not be afraid to keep things really simple. I think it’s always better to be consistent and keep things sustainable than to plan too much, feel overwhelmed, and burn out. Even though this is almost my 5th year homeschooling - I know I am balancing 3 other kids and so my choices reflect more simplicity this year anyway. Remember at this stage - I also know what I love for my family so my core curriculum choices are good for all of us, but maybe you’ll have a different experience and that’s okay too.
After our morning devotional and scripture time (which I’ll be writing more about later) my older girls head off to do their independent work and then usually I work with my boys. I always work one-on-one with my youngest first and we complete everything together. Once I’m done with him I’ll meet with my oldest son and my youngest can play or do a learning game on the computer. While I help my older girls my younger boys play together and then we usually do experiments or art projects or anything fun like that in the afternoons once we get our core work completed. If you need I have an editable daily rhythm template to help keep track of your routine and here are 5 Tips on Creating a Daily Rhythm.
Language Arts
Handwriting: TGTB Handwriting K We’ll do one page out of this book every day. If you have a child still working on pencil grip (very normal for Kindergarten age) then you’ll want to make sure to grab some of these pencil grips while doing these books. It is so much easier to correct a poor pencil grip now versus later. If your child struggles with this book - don’t hesitate to go back and do TGTB doodle books first (or even multiple times). As long as you practice consistently these books are a great tool for developing fine motor skills.
TGTB Language Arts K: We will use everything in this bundle and the Nature Reader, the Africa Reader, and both sets of Kindergarten Books: Pet Pals & Bees and Trees. This is a 4 day a week curriculum which is what we’ll do. If you’d like to see inside the curriculum - it is available as a free download on TGTB website. It is all open and go and makes it SO easy for the parent.
Now, when I work through the readers I just start with one nature reader and the reader booster books that come with the course set. I have my child read book/story 1 until it’s mastered (which usually takes 3-4 times over a few days just depending on how often you’re doing it.) If your child can’t read the book within a few times, don’t hesitate to set the curriculum aside and work on letter sounds and blending some more before you keep working through the curriculum. (It is a prerequisite for this course to have letter sounds mastered.) I have a whole post on learning to read at home you can review for more tips.
Some kids do really well with the workbook style and some kids at this age still really struggle sitting still for even 20 minutes so also don’t hesitate to take the lesson off the page and use other learning items or games to make it more engaging. Work into sitting for longer attention spans. I have two Kindergarten highlights saved on my IG where you can see some ways I’ve done things like this in the past.
Phonics Practice: Explode the Code 1: We’ll also do 1 page a day out of these workbooks just for a little extra phonics practice. I’ve used these books with all my kids and I have a full review on the Explode the Code books which you can read here.
Dash Into Learning: This is another collection of readers I love to use with my early elementary kids. They are so cute and coordinate really well with TGTB. We also have the decodable poetry collection which I’d definitely recommend. Discount code: HCL15 will always get you 15% off.
Math
TGTB Simply Math K: We dabbled in this course book a little bit last year so we’re already a few lessons in and we’re just going to keep moving forward. All of my kids have really enjoyed TGTB math and we’ve used it all the way up through 6th grade now. Remember this is also available as a free download on TGTB website.
Social Studies & Science
My Enclyopedia of Very Important Things: Like I said - I wanted to go with simplicity this year and I mulled over so many different things and finally came back to using this children’s encyclopedia as a spine for my little guy. At this stage I know how I like to homeschool and I want to just read a few pages of this book with him a couple times a week and then if we have time we’ll do a fun hands-on project with it and if not, then, no big deal. I’m sure we’ll supplement with other books and stories (I love the Little Hearts & Hands Science books for this age too) At this age I try really hard to foster a love of learning so I think this will be a fun way to do that.
Creation Study Extension: If you read my 6th grade girl’s curriculum picks, you’ll know they are studying science through the lens of the creation. Each lesson they complete there is a simple science experiment to do so I am going to have them do it with my boys. I am also planning on finding some coordinating YouTube videos and picking up some library picture books along the way to read with my younger boys - just keeping it really simple here though.
Art, Music, & Other Electives:
We love to integrate art into all our studies and we mostly pull from Lily & Thistle Courses and Deep Space Sparkle. Both have some great projects that align well with what we’ll be studying this year. If you want to learn more about Lily & Thistle courses I have a whole blog post on them here: Lily & Thistle Art School. Deep Space Sparkle is also perfect for really fun elementary art. They have TONS of free tutorials on their site, but I am a member of their Sparkler’s Club so I’ll be pulling from that for my youngest (most likely projects that’ll coordinate with what we’re learning in the encyclopedia). Enrollment for the Sparkler’s Club only opens twice a year in January and August though so just FYI.
The Draw, Write Now series is also one of my favorite drawing series to use with early elementary and we also use a lot of Art Kids Hub.
We also do lots of family bike rides and physical activities so I don’t worry too much about structured PE. For music we will be doing a family composer study during our devotional time (we’re hoping to use Beautiful Feet Book’s new materials, but they haven’t been released yet).
Additional Learning Items I Like To Use
You definitely do not need all of these things to homeschool or homeschool effectively. Many homeschool curriculums will come with starter sets of things you need (like TGTB has a math box with little manipulatives you can use). But, I’ve been able to collect lots of my favorites over the years so I thought I’d share a few things I love to use during Kindergarten.
I hope that helps get you started with Kindergarten. Let me know if you guys have any questions!
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