What did you use for kinder curriculum?

[LittleSweetPeas]

DD is 4 in April. I am still on the fence about HS so thought I would take next year to work through K program with her before i make a decsion about what to do with her the following year.

I would like something that is a more complete curriculum and varied. I tried LHTH for preschool but it is just too repetitive for me. I dont know if I want it Bible focused so much since we do a lot of that already but a lit focused program would be good. Any thoughts?

[Moon]

Sounds like Five in a Row could be a good match for you?

I never planned on doing kindy with my kids. They had other plans when they got there, both of them insisted on workbooks. We had a hodge podge of various workbooks from the educational supply store, for math and phonics or sight reading. Counting and knowing the alphabet sounds by the end of the year were my only hard goals for kindy, big ds was reading 3 weeks into kindy and dd was figuring it out by the end of kindy. We were always at the library, reading to them tons, had more of a "Well-Trained Mind" approach to science and other things (that's a book). Nothing terribly organized.

[SueQ]

Sounds like Five in a Row could be a good match for you?
:yes
I have a K this year and we don't really have a curriculum. I read him a lot of books on a variety of subjects. I love this book list (http://www.amblesideonline.org/00.shtml). We read at least one poem and bible story each day. He then paints, draws, or makes something each day. And plays a lot. We work on phonics using regular children's books and he is reading simple really books on his own. I do have a math workbook because he wanted it. But we do lots of hands on math. For handwriting I use this (http://www.pennygardner.com/italics.html). And that is pretty much it.

[Thia]

:popcorn

[LittleSweetPeas]

Oooh, I didnt like BFIAR at all. Is FIAR any better?

I suppose something that had worksheets (she enjoys them) and manipulatives and good lit in it would be nice. She is big into science and math so it would be nice to have a well balanced approach overall.

I thought BFIAR was really.....boring. :hiding

[Mama Calidad]

Have you looked into My Father's World? I've heard good things about it. (We used a little of this and a little of that for DD, so I don't have any experience with a complete curric.)

Sonlight or Winter Promise might be worth looking into, too.

[IslandMama]

If you can afford it and want a complete curriculum set for you, I'd say Sonlight or MFW. If I had the money, I probably would have tried them :yes But I don't, and discovered The Well Trained Mind, and love it! It is a complete curriculum that you design, and is lit based. Never a boring moment, bcuz you get to pick and choose what works for you. For kinder, we read books (from the library or bought used) for most subjects except for music, art, and math. I do use workbooks too, especially for math or just to reinforce or mix things up, and dd enjoys them. I have mostly used suggestions taken from their Kinder and 1st grade curriculum, and added in stuff here and there. ;)

[LittleSweetPeas]

I'll have to check out WTM again. I loved the book and remembered thinking that that was what school should be.

My Sonlight catalog is on its way as well.

[gandpsmommy]

Dd 5.5 is doing kindergarten this year, and we are using the classical approach outlined in TWTM. We really love it. Dd is a bit ahead of grade level, but here is what we have done:

1. We used The Reading Lesson for phonics. I bought it used at Amazon. It worked amazingly well for us. She started it at 4.5, but we took a loooong break at age 5 because we were selling house and moving and everything was a bit crazy. When she finished the book in December, she was able to read first and second grade level books. She now reads third grade books easily. We bought both the HarperColling Treasury of Picture Book Classics and The 20th Century Children's Book Treasury for storytime, and we check out a lot of library books.

2. We are using Miquon math and Singapore math. We are doing the first workbook in Miquon, which is the orange one (each level has a different color.) It includes a lot of discovery learning and introduces a lot of math concepts in the first year that traditionally might not be introduced until later grades. I love this aspect. Dd has gotten to work with number lines, find out what negative numbers are, understand that multiplication is just repeated addition and figure out multiplication problems on her own, and figure out fractions. Miquon uses Cuisenaire rods frequently, and graphs and pictures to help kids see what is happening. The orange book is actually intended for first grade, so you would know more about whether your dd is ready for this, but my dd has really benefitted from it. Singapore Earlybird math is designed for kindergarten. We used the Earlybird 2A and B books which are intended for 5yos. It is a really great program, too. It helps kids see what is happening in mathematical operations with lots of color drawings. It also has great ideas for activities to introduce or practice concepts. It starts out very basic and progresses gradually to really help 5yos learn with confidence.

3. We use Getty-Dubay italic handwriting.

4. We have been doing the first grade work from First Language Lessons for the Well-trained Mind, by Jessie Wise. I think it could easily be used for most kindergarteners, especially because she includes suggestions for children at different lessons in the activities.

HTH

[J3K]

I used nothing when they were that young. Play play play and more play. Educational , fun , entertaining play. Not "sit down in front of the game system" play. ( which is what he does now at nearly 15 :shifty).

Outside , in the dirt , inside with playdough....just play.

and I would work at answering his questions honestly and start showing him when you don't know the answer , how you find it. "I don't know what that animal is , let's go find out." Great stuff.