Yay! It’s Not Back to School Hop time! Today is curriculum day, and I’m covering our Classical Conversations Kindergarten curriculum as well as our supplements and a little of our Tot School. Here is what we will be using this year!

Our Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum

To keep us on track I’m using the Charlotte Mason Complete Homeschool Planner (for some great insight on how CM compliments classical learning, this book is wonderful!) and our Foundations Guide. This helps us stay on target with our classical kindergarten schedule.

We are still incorporating lots of free play. Mr. T is loving the new Pattern Blocks set we have. Mr. F has just discovered the Beginner version. I love this early start to using logic to solve puzzles. We will be beginning Chess this year with Color My Chess World and No Stress Chess. Both my boys love games and Mr. T is a huge lover of analytics and strategy. I adore that our Classical Conversations base still allows us plenty of time for interest-led learning!

Our Kindergarten History Supplements for Classical Conversations Cycle 3

Have I mentioned that we buy books because we spend a lot on library fines when we borrow them? I love buying used off Amazon and from ThriftBooks.com!

I have stocked up on some amazing books for cycle 3 that we will be able to use for years! Our actual history curriculum is The Mystery of History IV, so these are all read-alouds and will be used in conjunction with Mr. T’s My Book of Centuries: A Timeline Notebook for PreK-3rd Grade, which will also be used for Timeline study. For MOH ideas see our MOH Pinterest board!

History Supplements:

• Explorers Who Got Lost
• The Discovery of The Americas and Activity Book
• John, Paul, Ben, and George
• Ben and Me
• Ben Franklin: His Wit and Wisdom from A-Z
• Ben Franklin Action Figure (It’s the best action figure I’ve ever seen! And yes, he’s mine)
• When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit — A semi-autobiographical tale about a young girl and her family’s escape from Germany in 1933.
• Imagination Station: Problems in Plymouth
• Sky Pioneers— A vintage book about the Wright Brothers with lovely illustrations and aviation information for elementary age learners who love flight.
• Where was Patrick Henry on the 29th of May — A great recounting of the life and convictions of Patrick Henry.
• Sir Francis Drake
• John Phillip Sousa
• By The Dawn’s Early Light
• John, Paul, George, and Ben
• Follow the Dream: The Story of Christopher Columbus
• Emmett Kelly, Jr.: Travels Through American History with the World’s Most Famous Hobo Clown — A brilliant piece of history is enclosed in this book. The stories and photographs capture an incredible piece of America and really bring history alive for young and old alike!
• The Cabin Faced West (for a read-aloud)
• Appalachia by Cynthia Rylant, and if you do buy a copy for your homeschool, splurge on the hardcover!
• The Quilt-Block History of Pioneer Days
• The Story of The Wright Brothers Dover Coloring Book
• Ms. Frizzle’s Adventures for Imperial China, Ancient Egypt, and Medieval Castles (this one’s for fun, till C2 comes around again!) These are great if you have a Magic School Bus lover in your homeschool!
• Presidents of the United States Fandex

There’s a lot of supplement there, but we are really just grazing this year. The freedom to add as much or as little supplementation as you choose is the beauty of Classical Conversations! We are also exploring some hands-on history learning that we will be sharing later this fall!

 

Classical Kindergarten Homeschool Math

 

Math. I just got cold chills. It has never been a favorite subject, so my goal is to make it as fun and painless as possible for the boys. This year, we are floating between Saxon K and Life of Fred. I’m trying to find the perfect balance of fun and repetition for Mr. T. Mr. F is almost ready to begin Marshmallow Math, a fun little book I used with Mr. T. We also have found that Sum Swamp is the best $7.50 we’ve spent so far. We use our Teddy Bear Counters to help “show” the numbers and we play this at least once a day. It’s very simple addition and subtraction but it’s loads of fun!

Our Kindergarten Science Classical Conversations

Cycle 3 Resources

We’ve already been studying human anatomy, so I’m hoping this year will really reinforce what we’ve already learned. For Cycle 3 science we are supplementing with the following:

• Magic Schol Bus Human Body Kit
• Magic School Bus DVDs
• Janice Van Cleave’s  201 Awesome, Magical, Bizarre & Incredible Experiments and Play and Find Out About the Human Body
• Inspector Bodyguard
• Dem Bones
• My First Human Body Book
• SmartLabs Squishy Human Body A very cool 3D figure with squishy organs to take out and put back in.
• My Human Body Unit Pinterest board is full of fun and awesome ideas we will be revisiting!

Classical Kindergarten Geography Resources

Geography for Cycle 3 is all about the USA. We are using these supplements:

• WonderMaps – Just print the map, get out the tracing paper and sharpies, and go! I love that we will be able to use WonderMaps for years/all Cycles with both boys!
• Train of States by Peter Sis. This books is fun and thorough. The illustrations were so incredible that when I saw a book about Columbus by Sis, I got it, too. I’m so glad I did because it is gorgeous and Abecedarian friendly!
• A Soft State Puzzle we were gifted by a sweet friend. I haven’t been able to find anything like it to link to for you, but I’d check local curriculum sales!
• Stack the States app. It’s a fun game where you stack the states like Tetris, and you get to unlock more games as you play.
• Buns Travels Across America

Classical Conversations Kindergarten Cycle 3 Enrichment

Enrichment is important. Exposing young learners to as much culture and beauty as possible in a fun and engaging no-stress manner is a wonderful way to open their eyes to all the beauty around them. What we will be using this year for enrichment:

• Song School Latin Book 1 (and Book 2 beginning in January. I can only listen to the same CD for so long!)
• Mr. T will be using Music for Little Mozarts and piano key finder stickers to begin learning piano.
• Melody Harp is a fun and easy option for music theory as well. The sheet music makes it so easy to play!
• Maestro Classics CDs comprise a chunk of our listening library. They are wonderful! We love Mike Mulligan and Carnival of the Animals!
• Our art, poetry, and nature study resources will be in a different post this week since we are more Charlotte Mason in those areas, but they will be covered, too.

 Homeschooling Kindergarten: The Basics

Our basic reading and writing, Bible, and Practical Life resources are:

• Pearson Homeschool Plaid Phonics (We reviewed Level A here)
• BOB Books pre-readers
• Fundanoodle, a fantastic Occupational Therapist-developed program for handwriting.
• God and Me Devotional
• Apologia’s Who is God? and Who is God? coloring book
• Montessori Practical Life
• Our Montessori Resources
• Tony and the Kids DVD as our PE for rainy days, cold days, and days when the “wiggles” get too bad!

 

Our Tot School homeschool curriculum and resources are pretty much Montessori and Mr. F listening and learning along with his big brother. I do have a few board-books and resources we will be using to have some tot-friendly learning.

Tot School Homeschool Curriculum Cycle 3 and Basic Resources:

• Jesus Story Book Bible
• My First Passover
• The Story of The Wright Brothers
• The Story of Thanksgiving
• LeapFrog Letter Factory DVD
• Montessori Fun
• Sensory Play

And that is a peek into our homeschool this year with tot school and classical kindergarten. What homeschool curriculum are you using this year?

PS: See our homeschool room here  and see why we are no longer using Classical Conversations curriculum here