As this is our first year homeschooling, I have been really worried about what we will be using for learning. How should I teach my kids? Use a curriculum? Do unit studies in things that interested us? Use a hodge-podge of materials from the internet and library?
I had done a lot of reading on kindergarten curriculum options. I think that the overwhelming opinion out there is that kindergarten doesn't need a curriculum and that you should let your child learn from playing at this age. And while I do think a lot of learning happens in play, I also know that Banana Bear really thrives on a more structured learning format.
Originally, I thought it would be best for us to try and do most of our schooling from materials I had put together from the internet and library to create a sort of curriculum of unit studies. However, I quickly realized that I didn't have the time to put effort into that kind of task. And since this was our first year of homeschooling, I wanted to make sure I was teaching the "right" things.
Eventually, we settled on My Father's World Kindergarten. We haven't used this curriculum yet, but as I am starting to get lesson plans together I think we are going to really like it! It is really heavy in story book reading and also very hands on. I think it is the perfect balance of structured learning and learning through play.
Princess will be able to follow along with a lot of My Father's World curriculum, if she is interested. I also purchased the Letter of the Week curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler for her. Princess likes to be like her big sister, and so I thought this curriculum would allow her to do "big kid school" at an appropriate level.
I can't wait to start school and see how well these curricula work for us! Just one and a half weeks till we "start" school!
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