Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum

Are you looking for kindergarten homeschool curriculum? Below you’ll find a comprehensive list of kindergarten curriculum compiled by a homeschooling mom who has taught kindergarten four times. I’ll share what I have used in years past and also what I plan on using this upcoming school year.

Things to Consider Before Planning Your Homeschool Kindergarten Curriculum 

UNDERSTANDING YOUR HOMESCHOOLING STYLE

It helps to have a clear idea of how you want to homeschool your children. If this is your first year homeschooling and you’re not sure of your homeschooling style, check out this post that covers the five different homeschooling learning styles. There is traditional, classical, unschooling, unit studies and the Charlotte Mason approach. You do NOT have to pick one style and stick with it. I tend to be a traditional homeschooling style (we use curriculum) with a bit of a Charlotte Mason/unit study approach on the side. We love reading books and bringing those books to life through unit studies offered through Home+Haven Homeschool Curriculum. They release seasonal unit studies that are fantastic for early elementary students. 

HOW DO YOU HOMESCHOOL A KINDERGARTNER?

I’m here to tell you that YOU CAN DO IT! My goal with this post is to help simplify the process of getting set up to teach your child kindergarten. Keep it simple and don’t over think it! Kindergarteners are such a sweet age where learning can be done in so many fun ways. It doesn’t have to look like sitting at a table all morning going over workbooks. I’ll cover some of my favorite resources, tools and activities below that I have found to make learning fun! Kindergarten is such a great time to instill the love of learning in your little ones. The curriculum I suggest below will give your Kindergarten student a solid foundation of learning and covers all the basic subjects that they need to know. I also love the following resources because they’re perfect for the short attention spans that typical kindergarten students have. You can do small lessons each day with very minimal planning. I love a good open and go approach for kindergarten education. Also- you can easily find a complete homeschool curriculum  from many curriculum providers. I prefer piecing together different different curriculums instead of purchasing a complete curriculum set. The best thing to remember, is to do what is the best option for your family! 

WHAT SUBJECTS ARE REQUIRED FOR KINDERGARTEN HOMESCHOOL?

The first thing that you’re going to want to start is by finding out what the homeschooling guidelines are for your state. The HSLDA (Homeschool Legal Defense Association) has a fabulous tool on their website that outlines that laws and legal requirements for your state. As the parent, you are responsible for knowing that regulations and guidelines you need to answer to. Every state is different. Some states don’t require you to register with the state that you are planning on homeschooling your kindergarten student. Other states have regulations that require certain core subjects, hours logged and state testing. Make SURE that you check to see what your state’s regulations are. This Instagram post from Home and Haven Community is also helpful in finding other homeschooling mamas from your state.

A TYPICAL KINDERGARTEN HOMESCHOOL SCHEDULE

The beauty of homeschooling is that you can decide what schedule works best for your family. Keep in mind that your homeschool setting isn’t going to look exactly like a public school setting (or private school). Maybe you enjoy being outside. Take your books outdoors and do your learning on a quilt. Or maybe you have a toddler or baby in the home and mornings can feel little chaotic. Save your schoolwork for the afternoon while they take a nap. I have a post written up here that goes over how to homeschool with toddlers/babies in the home.

On a typical homeschool day I’ll make sure that we have covered some sort of math, phonics, reading and writing. Those four things can be achieved in a variety of ways. Either through curriculum, flash cards, playing with play dough, magnets, etc. I’ll share more of what I mean below.

WHAT IS THE BEST HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM FOR KINDERGARTNERS?

I’ve compiled a list of my favorite homeschool curriculum below for you to look over. I will share what we have used in years past and why we loved those curriculums. I will also share what I am planning on using this upcoming year with my kindergartener (this will be my fifth kinder to teach). I have used several different curriculums over the years. I love trying new things and adapting for each child’s learning style. What might have worked well for us, may not be a good fit for your family. I’ll do my best to elaborate why I loved each curriculum. 

READING KINDERGARTEN HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM

Teaching reading will always be my favorite part of kindergarten. I have had kindergarteners take off with reading right out the gate and others who took a little bit longer to grasp the concept. There are many incredible reading resources out there to give your child the reading skills they need.. My approach to teaching reading is a very simple one. You don’t need to overthink teaching reading. I have friends who have loved books such as this one to teach reading, but it honestly overwhelmed me and felt incredibly boring. I have had great success teaching my children with the approach I have written out below.

I have taught all of my children to read by using Bob Books and these wooden letters. This is a rough outline of my process:

+ Open the first BOB book with your kinder student. Point out the letters that they are seeing throughout the book and go over the sounds each letter makes on their own.

+ After you have covered each letter and it’s individual sound, then it’s time to put them all together! Show your kindergartener that when the letter sounds are put together, they make a word. The Bob books are designed for your student to read fairly quickly. I LOVE THEM because it has built such confidence right out the gate for each one of my kindergarten students. 

+ After reading through their first Bob book, you’ll then get out the coordinating wooden letters. Show them how each letter has a certain sound. Then put those letters together to create the words that were in their first Bob book. 

+ The coordinating wooden letters have been a great resource when it comes to teaching different blends. My kids have all loved playing word games with the wooden letters. For example, lay down the letters AT. Have your student sound out that word. Then place other letters in front of the AT to create new words for them to read. CAT, BAT, HAT, SAT, etc. Doing these simple activities will begin to build reading confidence in your student!

+ The wooden letters are a fantastic way to get your younger kids familiar with the letters of the alphabet as well. They have been a fun way to build a great foundation for letter sounds and word families.

+ I have found having an excellent phonics curriculum ensures that I am not missing any phonics rules that are important when teaching reading. Between a good phonics curriculum and the Bob books, your kindergartener will be reading in no time! Teaching reading does NOT have to be overwhelming or hard!

PHONICS KINDERGARTEN HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM

Below I have a list of Phonics Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculums that I have loved in years past:

Horizon Phonics: I used the Horizon Phonics books for my first three kindergarteners. They were open and go lessons that were bright and entertaining. My kids loved them and they paired beautifully with the Bob books that I referenced above. The Horizon Phonics books are a great option if you’re feeling overwhelmed with curriculum choices. They’re not super long lessons, so you could easily do several lessons a day. Or you could do one lesson and spend the rest of your time doing a fun unit study from Home+Haven Homeschool Curriculum.

The Good and the Beautiful Kindergarten Curriculum: I have a whole post written here with a review on The Good and the Beautiful Homeschool Curriculum. It’s an amazing curriculum that adds a bit more literature and creativity to the learning experience. In full transparency, I did feel like their Kindergarten curriculum was lacking a bit. So I would supplement a lesson or two from the Horizon Phonics book to bulk up the lesson a bit. Again, just a personal thought. I loved The Good and the Beautiful for grades 1st-5th. The other grades weren’t the best fit and were lacking.

Sonlight K Phonics Program: This year I’ll be using the Sunlight K Phonics program with my kindergartener. I started him on some light Kinder work last year, but will technically be starting him in Kindergarten this upcoming fall. I’m excited to use the Sunlight K Phonics program because their phonics program looks to be very similar to the Bob books that we already love and use. I also love that it will include writing activities!

HAND WRITING KINDERGARTEN HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM.

Handwriting Without Tears: I started using Handwriting Without Tears with my oldest many years ago. It is a phenomenal handwriting program and the one that I highly recommend! It is fabulous for teaching writing skills and I can’t imagine ever switching again! You can purchase coordinating wooden pieces that make letters come to life. I highly recommend adding those on.

The Good and the Beautiful Handwriting: they have wonderful handwriting programs that cover Bible verses which I loved! If you have an older student working on cursive, I would suggest their books. My favorite handwriting for younger grades is Handwriting without tears, for older grades it would be The Good and the Beautiful.

MATH KINDERGARTEN HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM

Horizons Math Curriculum: this is the only kindergarten math curriculum that I have used for Kindergarten students and I don’t ever plan on changing! I have used it since my oldest daughter was in kindergarten (which was over 9 years ago). I love everything about it! It’s bright and engaging, builds on itself beautiful, open and go style and my kids have all loved it! I love using these counting beads and also these wooden number letters as tools to go along with the Horizons Math Curriculum. We will be using it again for this upcoming school year.

SPELLING KINDERGARTEN HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM

In years past I haven’t done a spelling program with my Kindergarten students. We pretty much covered it when we were working with our wooden letters or when they would practice writing words down.

This year I’m excited to try a spelling program that looks like an excellent addition to our homeschooling year.

Spelling You See A: Listen and Write: I loved that it combines practicing writing individual letters as well as forming together simple words that they will have learned through their phonics and reading. I’ll report back on what I think!

SCIENCE KINDERGARTEN HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM

For Kindergarten Science I do not use a science curriculum. We do a life science approach by learning about nature around us as well as using unit studies. We love the Seasonal Unit Studies that Home+Haven Homeschool Community provides and often times they’ll have a science lesson or two in them.

For life science we’ll learn about the nature around us. For example, one year we learned all about the process of chicks hatching. We read many books on the process, used these eggs to study each day, drew many diagrams and hatched our own eggs! It was my favorite life science project to date! There are so many free resources to be found for life science! Find something that interests your children, then take advantage of your local library to find coordinating books to add to the learning experience. You can also take advantage of Pinterest for fun science experiments that coordinate with what you’re learning about.

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OTHER HOMESCHOOL POSTS YOU MIGHT ENJOY:

• How to Homeschool with Babies and Toddlers in the Home
• 6 Tips for Choosing Homeschooling Curriculum (plus a FREE Curriculum Planning Printable you’ll want to use for the upcoming school year!)
• Our Top 15 Chapter and Read Aloud Books
• A Letter of Encouragement from a Homeschooling Veteran (my mama who taught me K-12th)

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I hope this blog post has been helpful to you as you plan out your next school year! If you did find it helpful, it would mean so much if you took the time to share it with your friends and also pin it on Pinterest! This post contains Amazon affiliate links throughout it. Whenever you click through one of my links and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission. Thank you for supporting the blog!