Kindergarten...

I've had a few people ask lately what I've done for Kindergarten, so I thought I would put some information here.

I tend to focus on reading, because you have to read to be able to do work in other subjects. We use Hooked on Phonics (HOP). Its a 1983 version. There are no games or little books like the ones you buy at Wal-mart but you can find "my" version on Ebay. I started whenever my kids were ready. Jesse started HOP in July when she started Kindergarten, but Chloe started the January (or February) before she started Kindergarten. They both will finish all six books by the end of their K year. Jesse was reading on a second grade level and Chloe is at a third grade level (but she hasn't finished it yet). I can't tell you how much I love this program! I never would have thought my girls could do the reading they were (and are doing) by the end of K. And by the way, for those who don't know, reading was John's key for continuing to homeschool. "They at least have to be able to read some by the end of the year." Some...right. I laugh now because really we were both shocked.

For math, we used A Beka Numbers K. I liked it but be forewarned it will not be for an entire year if you have been working with numbers at all with your child. Both Jesse and Chloe started their A Beka Grade 1 book in January of the K years, with no problems. We also played a lot of math related games like Hi! Oh! Cherrio!, Sorry! and Bingo.

Science was different for both girls. Jesse did little to no science in her first semester of K, but at the end of the year I was told about a great series of books,Let's-Read-And-Find-Science (something like that anyway). So the second semester, she did all of the animal books in that series along with the Kingfisher First Encyclopedia of Animals. Chloe read the books the first semester, then did the Kingfisher Encyclopedia the second semester and it worked beautifully.

Writing. Oh, writing. Some kids like to write others loathe it. I simply bought (for the first semester of K) a writing tablet from Dollar General and wrote out our own words (using dashes for the letters so they could trace) from the HOP program (did you see how that went together? I love homeschooling!). Second semester, their writing was from their Spelling Workout A book, while they are consumables we don't consume them. They have to write everything out, hence writing! Again, I love homeschooling. LOL

We did one other subject for Chloe for K...geography, simply because she wanted to do it with Jesse. I have a lot of geography games and we would rotate them over a two week period. Jesse did not do geography in K.

And that is all we did. Yes, I know there is no history here nor a few other things people may consider important. However, as I said in the beginning, my focus in on reading. I really wanted them to have the reading down so when they started first grade they would be prepared for all the extra stuff, like history.

I hope this helps those who were wondering and for those who weren't wondering but you read it anyway, you now know how my days are spent. lol