Taking the leat

[beccasmommy]

We have decided to be quiverfull and homeschool We may end up being quiverfull with only two however our dd is almost 5 and we will be keeping her home for school, my husband has left the curriculum choice up to me and I am so nervous about it. I don't know what to choose, she knows all of her letters and can read with some help, she is doing simple addition and subtraction. I don't want to get her a kindergarten curriculum and have bored with it BUT I don't want to get somthing too advanced, we used ABEKA K4 this year any suggestions? Somthing that is easy to use and won't take too long to do?

 

[RoseofLima]

I wouldn't do a curriculum at all for a Kindergartener. I would get a Robert Louis Stevenson kids poetry book. Have her memorize some of the easier poems-- two lines at a time over a few weeks. Then when she has them memorized- draw a picture to match- while you write it for her-- and then turn them into a poetry book of her own.

I would read to her a lot. I would also work on reading Bible stories and fables and having her tell them back to you, while you write exactly what she says and then have her illustrate it. And maybe buy an easy Math workbook- the Abeka ones are nice and colorful - and do a page a day, unless that is too much. And mayybe do about 5 minutes of phonics a day. It should be no more than 20-30 minutes total of seatwork, in my opinion, for a 5 year old. Get some great kids' song CDs to listen to (the ones from Abeka a great- as well as the Wee Sing series)- as well as some classical music- Tchaikovsky is a great choice for that age.

ANd then I would immerse her in enriching activities- long nature walks, trips to the zoo, cooking with you, cleaning with you, gardening. Those things go a long, long way in stimulating a child to be curious and to want to learn about the world around them.

 

[annaapple]

As a teacher I totally back up was Rose is saying. Play play play - that is the most important thing a 5 year old can do! Of course, you direct the play so that she is learning all sorts of things without knowing she is learning. It has been shown that if you start a child with reading and writing later (6 or even 7 years old) they learn it much faster and there is a much lower incidence of specific learning difficulties / dyslexia.

There is a homeschooling board here in the forums too - lots of good ideas circulating there.

 

[ChristianMama84]

How do you present this curriculum to the school board? That's the only requirement here in MS.

 

[CelticRose]

Ask in the homeschooling forum as well. Someone there will know if no~one here does. Being non~American I can't help. The HSLDA (?) site is suppossed to be really helpful but I don't have a link though you could try googling.

 

[kcunningham85]

I was homeschooled as a child and currently and going to college to be a teacher. I have used nearly all the curriculums. Abeka and Bob Jones are the hardest. Alpha Omega and Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) are the easiest. I agree, yes, they should at this age be very involved with their environment and especially nature. If you look at websites they have homeschooling for every belief and religion you can think of, so look there as well.

 

[teishpriest]

I was homeschooled JH and HS and my DH was in a private school K-12. We both had ACE, and are not terribly impressed with it. We both were able to memorize very easily, so we did well, but the downside is that I didn't always LEARN, sometimes I got by just by memorizing the facts. I would not worry about sticking completely to only ONE curriculum, feel free to combine several. One may be better in Math, and another in Science. Homeschooling is great because kids learn in different ways and who knows your kids better than you do? You will be able to tailor things to your kids' needs better than a teacher with a classroom of 25 kids.

Remember, the most important things your kids will ever learn will never be covered on a test! (ie. character, relationship with God, etc.)