Kindergarten Enrichment
This is from and email that I sent to a family who wants to enrich their child’s experience but do not want to homeschool.
Our family is going on it’s 5th year of homeschooling–I can’t believe it. There are tons of things on the internet that have homeschooling/enrichment curriculum–the thing is to know the words to look for. Charlotte Mason, unschooling, traditional school at home . . . I would suggest you find what “style” you like and then search on that.
In our home I use Catholic Heritage Curriculum http://chcweb.com for my almost 9 year old. She needs the structure and has been in school until this year–so her mind has been trained to learn in a very book-y way. She has a schedule and I just printed out workbox picture cards to help her manage her time and her day. http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/search/label/workboxes I bought the 3rd grade lesson plan for her and the books that go with it. She learns at grade level.
For my 7 year old I use a mix–she is so smart she picks up what the 9 year old is doing so she is really learning tons of 3rd grade stuff in 1st grade. She reads at about a 4th grade level–but most books are not appropriate for a almost 7 year old. She does have “the core” from Catholic Heritiage as well but if she doesn’t do it–I don’t really stress about it.
For my 5 year old–is home and loves Reading eggs. This a computer based reading program that is not just phonics. I like an approach that explains the “rule breakers”. He started with Headsprout reading and didn’t like it.
So my suggestions are:
- check out headsprout for reading–they have a great program for kids who are just beginning AND already reading. http://www.mimio.com/headsprout/index.html
- Reading Eggs is similar to HS and has an advanced programhttp://readingeggs.com/
- Life of Fred for Math–it is awesome–the 7 and 5 year old love it http://lifeoffredmath.com/
- Five in a Row–this is a great way to follow your child’s lead as you read classic books. You get the books from the library and the Five in a Row book guides you in teaching different subjects–I borrowed a book over the summer and had a great time with it. We did the Madeline series–once you get the idea of how it works you could do it yourself or just buy more in the series. http://fiarhq.com/fiveinarow.info/index.html
- I suggest this website http://www.ihomeschoolnetwork.com/ if you click on blog hops–it will give you tons of ideas on what to teach. I have linked up my blog to this website. It is a great resource to find just about anything about homeschooling.
- I also suggest Simple Mom http://simplemom.net/ they have a section “simple homeschool” and I find lots of info there and it is fun to read what other moms are doing.
Be Blessed.
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