I love teaching these grades because everything is new and exciting! I love to see light bulbs go off as they "get it." I love to see their reading slowly improve until by 4th grade they read to themselves.
There is a lot of great curriculum out there for these early years. I wish I had time to use more than I do. I will caution you that there is also a lot of curriculum out there that is terrible for little people. Curriculum that brings tears and squelches any love for learning that could be ignited in these precious, early years. I won't name specifics, but steer clear of curriculum that brings tears. That causes small kids to "do school" past lunchtime. (that doesn't include the more fun hands-on stuff, or reading out loud, just any book-work type stuff.) If their face looks like this you may want to re-think what you're doing.
In my experience, actual sit down and do workbooks at this stage should be limited to no more than 1-2 hours. Less (much less) for kindergarten. Add a lot of reading out loud, fun hands on learning outside or in the kitchen, and let them guide you as to what they love and have a desire to learn as well.
For Handwriting, I have 2 that I like a lot:
I'm currently using TGTB because I like that they build art into the curriculum, but if you have a child that doesn't enjoy art, then HWT might be a better choice. Another good option is A Reason for Handwriting, especially for girls that like to color and send letters in the mail.
Spelling: Fun Fact: I never teach spelling with a formal curriculum in the K-3rd grade range. You can waste a lot of time teaching them to spell words that if you wait until their reading gets better, they will just KNOW how to spell....so trust me on this one....hold off on spelling until later!!
Phonics/Learning to Read:
In Preschool, I typically like to "do school" as they ask to be like the "big kids."
Some books that I've used and really like are:
- Horizons Preschool book 1 (only) *book 2 has too much writing for this age IMO so I don't buy it.
- My First School Book (Handwriting without Tears)
- Explode the Code Primers: Get Ready Get Set Go for the Code
- Horizons Math K
- Sonlight Preschool Read Alouds (I bought most of these books when my oldest kids were in preschool....you can, honestly, just get any great books and read aloud to them from the library...just be sure to include Bible, and a variety of books like fiction, science, social studies etc--this is usually their favorite time of the day).
**Treasure is starting Kindergarten in the fall and this is what she is currently working on**
- The Good and the Beautiful Handwriting (Link above)
- Explode the code books 1-3
- Learning Language Arts Through Literature Blue Book (I have used this since 1998. It is just FUN. Lots of hands on things. Lot of tiny books they can start reading on their own right from the bat just like Bob Books). I enjoy teaching it and they enjoy learning to read with it. It does have handwriting built in, but I don't care for their style (Italic Handwriting) so we do skip that portion of it.
- Explode the Code (roughly books 4-6...but honestly some kids go faster and some slower so I do books 1-7 total at their pace until they are done, usually by the end of 2nd grade.)
- Learning Language Arts Through Literature Red Book (This is a continuation of the Blue book...by the time they are done with the Red, they are pretty great readers)
- Abeka Language 1 (Okay, I'm honestly NOT an Abeka fan at all...but I do love their Language 1,2,3 workbooks...they are short, to the point and just work to reinforce what this age group needs..after 3rd grade though, I'm really really not a fan of their language arts)
- Good and the Beautiful Handwriting 1
- Explode the Code book 7 (or finish wherever they left off in 1st grade)
- Abeka Language 2
- Sonlight 2 Readers (Read out loud to me all the 2nd grade readers starting with the Beginners Bible)
- Good and the Beautiful Handwriting 2
**This is Ransom's lineup for next year Language Arts**
- Good and the Beautiful Handwriting 3
- Abeka Language 3
- Sonlight 3 Readers (Reading out loud and transitioning to reading independently when they are pretty fluent readers...usually halfway through this year)
- Language Lessons for a Living Education book 3 (which replaces Explode the Code from last year)
One other thing that I have seen good results with is the website Starfall.com We use the free version, and they like to "play" with it in their free time. My 6th child loved it so much, she accidentally taught herself to read on her own.
Another one some of my kids have enjoyed for reading is: https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/
To answer a few questions:
**I really don't teach spelling at these ages**
**It might seem weird to have more than one Language Arts curriculum most years. I really like these combinations..and I feel the most important thing academically to accomplish in these early years is to create good readers. To make them fluent and to enjoy reading as well. So we focus pretty heavily on Language Arts in the first few years. That said, our school is not long and tedious. Most of these books can be accomplished in under 15 minutes each. We devote the most time to out loud reading from real (good)books, and not boring curriculum readers....and they all have seemed to enjoy snuggling on the couch and reading a good book to me.**
**I think reading aloud to your kids is very important. I try to do this when I can, and I typically choose good books from our home library. If you need some ideas, check out the catalogs from curriculum like Sonlight, Heart of Dakota or My Father's World. They all have great selections of good literature ideas.
I firmly believe that Christians need to be some of the best communicators both with written and oral communication. How else can we share the Good News of Jesus? In our homeschool, we tend to make Language Arts a priority for that reason.
