Homeschool Resources/Curriculum for Kindergarten? And Questions...

[eastmillcreekmama]

Hi there all, new to this forum,

We live in a very rural area. There is a public school here, but it is rife with problems, and I am not comfortable sending my very bright daughter to K next year, unless they hire a great new teacher. So I'm exploring what's out there in the way of homeschool resource for Kindergarten. 

Also, I am having a second baby in July, and the timing seems somewhat inconvenient to homeschool for me! Has anyone done this, and if so, what was your experience like? How much structure did you provide your K homeschooler? Any stories would be useful in my exploration here.

Thanks! 

[onyxravnos]

NAK

i use oak meadows k along with the  secular books from sonlight and i love it! lots of read alouds and art and nature and no prob with the babe in tow (now toddler) 

[chime]

I'm interested in the replies you get, because I'll be in essentially the same position next year. Our "new baby" will be a 2 year old from China, so the adjustment will be different, but I'm still not sure how I'm going juggle two.

I haven't decided about curriculum yet. I might just cobble together bits and pieces from here and there. I looked at our state's standard course of study for Kindergarten and it looks pretty basic (number concepts to 30, weather, holidays around the world, beginning reading a phonemic awareness concepts, etc) but at least that gives me a starting point.

Work boxes or something like that might be something we'll try too so he can be a bit more independent and have something to work on if I'm tied up with the new little guy. We've been pretty laid back about school stuff so far (he didn't go to preschool), so I imagine we'll probably continue in the same vein and I'll try to work in what I can here and there as we go about our lives. I think I lean towards the unschooling side of the fence, though. :)

[la mamita]

I bought a few books to do a mix and match homeschool curriculum for K (but my kid ended up wanting to go to school which has worked out well). Here are the publishers/programs I ordered:
math: Singapore
handwriting: handwriting without tears
reading: teach your child to read in 100 lessons

that's pretty much it. it was under 100$ in total. I wanted workbooks for the three R's so i would be covering all the essentials and have a structured way to teach those things, but everything else is just playing and reading and getting books from the public library.

[Plummeting]

I had a new baby in March of my DD's K  year, and it was the first few weeks that were the most challenging - we took them off entirely. After that it got easier, even though my dd2 was really, really, really fussy. I figure if I made it through with a super-fussy one, anyone can do it. :) You'll be healed up and you'll be starting to figure your new LO out by the time you start K with your older. I think it's do-able, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

I basically covered reading, handwriting, and math with curriculum. The rest was completely interest-led. I'm sure your dd has interests that are easily worked into science or history. My dd was all about nature and animals, so that was easy to feed. We watched Magic School Bus episodes and read the books and read books about everything else that interested us. The thing with K is not to overthink it. Find some simple things, try them out, figure out what works for your child as the student and you as the teacher, and go from there.