This year I’m experiencing quite a change in my homeschooling life. I’ve been homeschooling my daughter for a couple of years, and now I’ve added my son! Going from one student to two has been a little more challenging than I anticipated, but every day we get behind us, the more things are settling into place.
I wanted to share with you a little of what I’m doing with homeschooling and how I do it. (I’d definitely love for you to add your thoughts and links to helpful articles in the comments below.) Both my children are enrolled in a weekly tutorial, so that helps with history, science, and enrichment—including Spanish and fun classes that are geared to their special interests. My daughter will be taking an “American Girl” class (she loves those books) and my son is signed up for a Lego class.
While I will supplement their history and science to some degree at home, here’s my curriculum list for this year:
Curriculum List for My Kindergartener
Below you can see what I’m using this year as the curriculum list for my kindergartener—a very active little boy. (I’ve already discovered that homeschooling a boy is a lot different from homeschooling a girl!)
Reading
- All About Reading Level One – I’ve really enjoyed All About Spelling with my daughter, and I’m excited to begin using their reading curriculum with my son.
- BOB books – Garrett loves these little kid-sized books for early readers (and beyond!).
- Read Alouds – we will be doing TONS of read aloud time together, but I will add those lists later!
Math
- RightStart Math Level A – I have a complete review coming soon where I will be talking more about RightStart Math, but for now, just know that we are loving this math curriculum. We’ve had some struggles finding a math curriculum, but this one seems to be a great fit.
- Calendar Time – We have a “Calendar Time” each day when we fill out these sheets in our Daily Learning Notebook for Preschoolers (a free printable from Confessions of a Homeschooler)
Handwriting/Phonics
- Get Ready for the Code Book A, Get Set for the Code Book B, & Go for the Code Book C – These are the preliminary books to the Explode the Code curriculum. My son loves these fun books that teach phonics.
- Rod & Staff Early Learning Workbooks — This collection of Rod & Staff Early Learning Workbooks includes Adventures With Books, Bible Pictures, Counting With Numbers, Do It Carefully, Everywhere We Go, and Finding the Answers. These provide lots of great handwriting and reinforcement for what we’re doing.
- Primary Journal – I picked a few of these up for him to use to practice and words or sentences and just to use to doodle and have fun with. These are geared toward K-2nd and have a half page for picture at the top and wide lines at the bottom. I usually pick these up for around $2 during back to school sales
Curriculum List for My 2nd Grader
This is my curriculum list for my 2nd grader. With three years experience of homeschooling her, I’ve become a little more adept at knowing what works for her and what she’ll like. My learning curve is totally by trial and error!
Math
- RightStart Math Level B – You’ll see my complete review of RightStart soon, but after trying a couple of different math curriculums with my daughter, I believe we have finally landed on the right one! (Whew!)
- Calendar Time – My daughter uses the Elementary Level Daily Learning Notebook each day (also a free printable from Confessions of a Homeschoooler).
- Games – We love games around here and in addition to the many that come in our RightStart curriculum, we like to play Sleeping Queens, Rat-a-tat-Cat and Math Dice, all of which the kids love. They don’t even know they are learning so much!
Spelling
- All About Spelling Level 3 – I love this curriculum, and so does my daughter. The approach is great for any kind of learner, and they offer so many great tips for helping your student learn well. I know she is getting a solid base for phonics rules, and so am I!
Grammar
- First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind Level 2 by Jessie Wise — This is written from the Classical Education style of learning, but can be used by any homeschooler. We have really enjoyed it.
History
- The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child, Volume 4: The Modern Age: From Victoria’s Empire to the End of the USSR by Susan Wise Bauer – My daughter will be using this curriculum and learning history for the most part at her tutorial, but we’ll supplement with some reading and projects at home. This year we will only cover through Chapter 22.
Science
- Christian Kids Explore Physics – These are fun science experiments that include not only the hands-on activity but also coloring pages, thinking exercises, and applicable Scriptures, all pointing to God as the Creator.
Vocabulary/Writing-Journaling/Handwriting/Copywork
- Pictures in Cursive Primer (Daily Cursive Writing Instruction Based on Picture Study Lessons) by Sandi Queen — This is daily cursive writing based on picture study lessons of classic works of art. Love it!
- Primary Journal – My 2nd grader use these for devo time, vocabulary, writing book reports and any stories that interest her. She uses these books for Bible verse and devo times to draw pictures of a verse, copywork and to answer questions I ask her about the verses. In addition, she writes a one paragraph report on the independent readers she finishes, which is about one every week or two. And it also gets used as her vocabulary notebook. As we read throughout the week, she keeps it close and any words she doesn’t understand she writes down. Then during vocabulary time, she looks them up using an online kids dictionary, then draws any pictures she wants to.
Spanish
- Rosetta Stone — This will be part of each weekly tutorial and we’ll follow up at home.
Piano
- She’s taking lessons from a local teacher.
What does your curriculum list look like for this year? Got any tips for homeschooling two kids? Please share in the comments below!
Stay tuned–I’ll be talking about what we’re using for our Bible curriculum in an upcoming post!
More Homeschooling posts you might like:
- My Favorite Homeschool Planner
- Kids’ Character Training Tools
- How I Found the Right Math Curriculum for My Kids
- Five Things Kids Can Do to Make Mornings Less Hectic
Hi Kelly,
My daughter started Kindergarten this year, so I was excited to read your post! I noticed you had piano lessons on your list. I’ve been looking for someone close to my area. I live in White House, TN. Do you have someone you can recommend?
Thank you!
Jennifer
Hi Jennifer, Please send me an email and I can give you contact info! kelly [at] faithfulprovisions [dot] com.
Hi Kelly,
What type of preschool curriculum would you recommend? I have a 4 year old very active boy 🙂
enjoy your blog, thanks!
Melanie
We used My Father’s World kindergarten curriculum and found it to be actually very easily used for pre-K 4 or 5. We loved it. It’s a fun and faith-based curriculum. Also, I loved the forum that they provide on their website, where other homeschooling moms who are using MFW gave you lots of extra ideas, like extra activities, games, field trips, books, and songs to go along with each day’s assignments. Just go to My Father’s World and look for “forums.” Access by age and lesson. It’s great! Does anyone else have a pre-K curriculum you have liked? Let’s give Melanie lots of suggestions!
We are finishing up Rod and Staff. My 5 yo son has been
doing it since May, when last year’s kindergarten program let out.
(He went part time to our churches kindergarten last year as a 4
year old.) Once we finish Rod and Staff, I am thinking of doing
without a curriculum until January. He constantly makes his own
relatively complex projects, and is happy to draw new words on
cards for his vocab “bus,” write memory verses and draw phonics
lessons with me from it, etc. Math is where I’m still stuck. Have
been experimenting with number lines, counting pennies, etc. I’m
still not seeing what’s going to work for him.
My Daughter is 7 and in 1st grade. we started out doing horizons, she likes the math but not the phonics and reading, or the spelling. What would you suggest? should i add other subjects beside math, phonics/reading and spelling. its turning into a not so happy experinece. And she doesnt want to do her work.
One thing I have learned is that you need to do what works for your child. If they are not enjoying learning, it might be time to re-evaluate. My primary goal in the early years is to instill a joy and love of learning. But, be sure to look at your own delivery, environment etc. I learned that sometimes it was my attitude that made the difference! If she likes part of the curriculum, I’d look into changing the pieces she doesn’t respond well to. Curriculum isn’t one size fits all, so you will definitely need to test out different subjects. Many have sample lessons online you can try before you buy.
We use All About Reading and All About Spelling for phonics, combined with First Language Lessons for Grammar. My childrens both seem to enjoy it and I like how easy it is!
Hope this helps!