Top 10 Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum Product Reviews

Top 10 Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum Product Reviews

I have spent ages going through all the resources for kindergarten learning and the best kindergarten homeschool curriculum to supplement my child’s school curriculum and trying to narrow down the best one for my child. There are so many options when it comes to learning. Should I let the learning occur naturally through daily activities in the house? Should I go for a set curriculum and design a schedule? What will my approach and philosophy be when choosing homeschooling learning?

Around 2 million children are homeschooled in America on a yearly basis. I have found that many parents often feel like they can create a better environment for learning at home, especially when it comes to younger children. Choosing the best kindergarten homeschool products can be quite an exciting step for a parent too!

If you are a beginner at homeschool learning, like I was at one time, you may not know which approach is the most suitable. That is okay. There are a lot of options that you can leaf through and research, which will lead you to the best possible option for you and your child. Some parents like to follow the lead of the kid, especially when it comes to reading. Other parents may not be generally good at sticking to schedules.

I have found that when it comes to homeschooling, it is best to use those products and approaches that fit your child and parenting style, especially when it comes to kindergarten education. Do you remember how your kindergarten experience was? I remember lots of wooden blocks, eating snacks from my lunchbox, and playing with toys. Academics weren’t really the focus of kindergarten like they have become today. However, the way you learn remains the same – through play.

Kindergarteners do like learning, but they require plenty of time to play as well. Playing is a priority at this age for learning too. There are plenty of years where they will focus on book learning, but during these years, playing is the most important thing for children. There are plenty of kindergarten homeschool products that can help you through this process.

Why Is Play-Based Learning So Important For Kindergarten Students?

Kindergarten classrooms are usually a huge mess, but that is the way they are supposed to be. They are good kinds of messes that involve plenty of trays, costumes, arts and craft supplies, and toys. You can simply imagine all the fun the kids had during their day of learning just by looking at the mess they leave behind.

Sadly, there are still some classrooms that do not look like this. With more and more schools focusing on high-level academics and teaching kids how to memorize sight words, mathematical formulas, and worksheets, the kids are definitely missing out on fun.

Research shows that playing is an important part of childhood development and is the best way to get kids to learn. The push for math and literacy drilling can ignore the fact that children learn their best when they are playing. Getting their hands dirty and working through complex concepts can be the best path for them. To make sure their children learn through play-based learning is why many parents turned to homeschool in the first place.

The benefits of such learning are plenty. Playing allows children to learn by delaying gratification, negotiating with their peers, taking turns, coping with disappointment, solving problems, empathizing, and listening to others. High-level playing can include imaginative play that hones cognitive skills, higher levels of thinking, planning, language skills, and math skills.

Children can work through quite complicated problems very easily through play. For example, tell a group of children to open a new restaurant and sit back and see what happens. With enough time for proper imaginative play, the children can create a restaurant, advertise it, assign roles, and even come with some currency that customers can use.

Playing definitely builds the foundations for later high-level conceptual learning to take place. A lot of people may not realize that play is this important, but if you are planning on homeschooling, you need to concentrate on the “play” part.

It is true that the entire world is focused on results. A lot of kids can be over scheduled and plugged in too much. This can actually lead to an inability to have delayed gratification, low patience, and even frustration.

While it is important for kids to learn social skills, language, literacy, and math, it is possible to incorporate play into the learning. Play is the main language for students of that age. Play can help children learn about the environment and the world around them as well as their own emotions.

Top 10 Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum Product Reviews

There are many kindergarten homeschool curriculum products that can help you out when it comes to teaching your child. Here are my top 10 picks for kindergarten homeschool curriculum products.

1.    Timberdoodle Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum

Timberdoodle aims to help children to read within a year but with hands-on learning too. They have combined STEM learning, thinking skills, creative art, and science experiments. This can ensure that you will be able to create plenty of fun and happy memories for you and your children. The curriculum is designed for 4-5 days of the week for 1-3 hours every day.

The entire kit comes with plenty of resources that you can use for the entire year.

• Kindergarten scheduler and handbook makes it easier for you to promote study through all sorts of fun ways without missing out on any crucial elements.
• The Full-Color Reading set has fun chapter books with activities, games, and phonic stories.
• Channie’s Easy Peasy Alphabet helps children through identifying letters and stay consistent with spacing and size.
• Spelling You See helps the child become a good speller at their natural speed through colorful, fun lessons.
• What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know is full of all elements that experts consider is important for kindergarteners.
• My Epic Life Word Book is made based on word lists that kids should know with illustrations that help children understand over 1000 words.
• Math-U-See Primer helps children understand mathematical concepts before they move onto more complicated learning later on.
• Can You Find Me helps children develop thinking skills by using analogies, classifications, sequences, logic, and comparisons to solve riddles.
• Visual Perceptual Skill Building book
• Smart Farmer has 60 challenges that require flexible thinking, problem-solving, concentration, planning, and insight to solve.
• Gobblet Gobblers uses tic-tac-toe in a fun way to help children work their way through complex games.
• Story Time Chess is a fun board game that has a chessboard, customized chess pieces, and silly stories to make it fun to learn chess.
• Little Red Riding Hood game
• Kumon Kindergarten Logic develops thinking skills by analyzing patterns, determining real from acting, and making comparisons.
• Bede’s History of ME is a great introduction to history that allows the child to understand how church, family, geography, and timelines work.
• This Is How We Do It helps children understand the traditions and the society they live in.
• Skill Sharpeners Geography for Grade K
• Around the World Mazes
• Show Me Science has fun experiments that will get the child interested in the field.
• Building Blocks of Science for Book K introduces the kindergartener to the 5 main areas of scientific study through coloring pages, activities, and drawing.
• Look Inside Your Body helps the children learn more about their bodies, which is perfect for curious minds.
• ThinkPlay Gears Extreme helps children explore physics concepts such as creating power and friction in a simple and fun way.
• Flashcards
• I Can Doodle Rhymes have activities that help instill spelling, handwriting, and reading skills.
• Djeco Bugs helps children learn how to follow directions, give attention to details, and practice patterns.
• Postcards
• Push-Pull Empty Full is an activity book chock full of creative activities and fun characters that teach through drawing, doodling, and coloring.
• Pencils
• Sharpener
• Mad Mattr play dough
• Pencil pouch

As you can tell, the entire set is quite extensive and provide parents with plenty of resources to help their child develop the necessary skills. However, I know that the entire set can be quite expensive for some parents, but it can be worth it since it includes an entire year’s learning!

2.    Math-U-See Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum

Math-U-See is definitely a really great kindergarten homeschool product since it allows you to try new things. It helps children learn mathematical concepts quite easily. Math-U-See can help avoid any gaps in the mathematical concepts for the child, and the Primer set is perfect for kindergarteners.

The integer block set in the set has been lauded as one of the best things. It encourages hands-on learning and works through many math concepts in a fun way. Numbers are represented by different colors that trigger visual memories in children. This can help them understand the concepts, and when they eventually move onto paper, it is easier for them.

The DVD in the set is definitely another advantage for me. It feels as though there’s an expert math tutor right on the screen. The best part is that the children can pause and rewind at their own leisure if they get stuck. Mr. Demme on the screen is definitely quite a helpful assistant for all parents. He shares many math tricks that make it fun for kids to learn math concepts.

The course is designed based on the Charlotte Mason approach, which means there is a focus on high-quality literature. It has short lessons with worksheets to help the kids work through their learning. In earlier years, they are pretty basic but go over mathematical concepts in a great way.

At first, I was nervous about the pacing of the program a little bit but was pleasantly surprised. The curriculum is quite considerate of skill levels and doesn’t put too much burden on the kids. You may be surprised to find out how easily the kids pick up fractions, even if you think it may be too early for that.

The primer level helps the children learn how to write numerals, basic counting, geometric shapes, addition, subtraction, and telling the time. The instruction pack can help parents design the schedule and pacing of the entire program too.

However, there aren’t many play focused activities here. As I discussed before, the Charlotte Mason approach is more focused on academic learning. While the curriculum does make it easier for children to learn difficult mathematical concepts and bring ease to parents, it doesn’t incorporate as many fun games as I would have liked.

3.    Abeka Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum

The Abeka curriculum utilizes expert education experiences to help you decrease the time it takes to prepare homeschooling activities. It also increases the likelihood of your child finding success in this process. It comes with kindergarten materials that can help students excel at their learning. The challenging experience of learning can actually be quite interesting and fun for them.

Abeka is a tried and tested systematical approach through phonics that is enjoyed by parents and children alike. They have had millions of success stories and have been in the game for over 60 years.

The Abeka curriculum includes a detailed guide for lessons that tells parents what they need to teach and how to teach your children. You can take advantage of the schedules for instruction, supplemental ideas, and teaching tips. There are easy plans that you can follow to teach numbers, reading, phonics, handwriting, activity time, and language enrichment.

The binder has a number of steps, charts, headings, content page, and illustrations which guide parents through the process. The lessons are outlined per day, with 170 days of learning. Everything is clearly outlined and easy to locate, meaning you can find everything you need to know quite easily. The binder is a 3-ring design, so you can take out a page when you need to.

Even if you are a beginner, the simple and clear instructions can make you seem like an experienced teacher. The clear and simple instructions include specific examples, wording, time allotment, and teaching tips to help you prepare, review, and apply the entire curriculum.

The curriculum comes with many creative ways to introduce new concepts to the children. The games and singing are all part of the fun that makes children want to learn. With a focus on music, art, science, social studies, and even Bible instruction, it can be a holistic learning moment for the kids. It has DVDs that use music and expert instruction to help the children learn. All the digital text comes with fun animations that make it fun for the kids.

The biblical perspective is sold separately, though. If you have a ministry heart, you will find that the addition of bible learning can reach out to the minds and hearts of the young children in a unique way. The biblical philosophy permeates throughout the curriculum, which can be great for religious parents. However, you should note that the workbooks are not reusable, and you will have to purchase another set for any future children.

4.    Sonlight Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum

Among the kindergarten homeschool products, the Sonlight curriculum is the most literature-based. It comes with dozens of picture books, novels, reading instruction systems, and volumes on American history. It also comes with daily Bible stories and an introduction to Bible verses every year. The American History program definitely stands out among all the rest.

The curriculum has enough material to last you for a year with daily lesson plans that do all the work for you. It has read-alouds for history, Bible, geography, and literature studies. It also introduces the kids to math, science, language arts, handwriting, and reading.

The program is quite flexible, allowing the parents greater control over what they are going to do for the day. It teaches through reading and memorizations of the Bible, geography, and history as well as read-alouds. There are many stories about important figures and key figures throughout American history. The children can learn about everything from the four presidents on Mount Rushmore to the Constitution and even the Star-Spangled Banner.

The bible section of the curriculum has memory songs that give you a great overview of stories from the Scripture. The children’s books in the set are insightful, fun, and easy to understand. The children are introduced to letters before they can move to read real stories, which can be quite a fun experience for them.

The science section teaches the students how they can think like a scientist while introducing them to concepts like insect eyes and the sun’s temperature. They can develop amazing scientific practices and skills to explore reptiles, plants, insects, rainforests, and more. With experiments and discoveries, the science section can be quite fun for curious minds. The literature will provide them with the context of the experiments, while the discoveries allow them to experience the scientific process.

The course also helps them write numerals as well as go over basic counting, geometric shapes, addition, subtraction, skip counting, and how to tell the time. They also use a blocks system to get their introduction to math concepts. The Handwriting Without Tears book guides the child through daily success in honing their motor skills.

The program is great for parents who want to inculcate the habit of reading in their children. Children of that age are quite impressionable and curious, so learning through stories can be a great way for them to explore the world.

5.    Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool

The Easy Peasy curriculum is a free homeschool product that was designed by Lee Giles. The preschool and kindergarten curriculum covers reading, language arts, math, reading, history, music, Bible, science, and art. It helps students get children ready for the years of academic learning that are about to come.

Lee Giles has created the curriculum based on Charlotte Mason and traditional methods to bring you a good reference point to guide your children. It comes with copy work, picture studies, real books, and narration techniques that focus on the academic aspect of Charlotte Mason’s approach. The curriculum also has online courses and activity sheets that are part of more traditional approaches.

The courses are divided into daily instruction lesson plans so that it is easier for parents to follow them. Each lesson plan has a link that takes you to the specific material that you will need for the day. It holds clear instructions that guide you on what to do. The linked materials come from the Easy Peasy website as well as other source websites. It includes activities and content that are part of the daily lesson.

Lessons can be printed for easier use for free, but you can also purchase printed books that come with activity sheets if you don’t want to print the pages. Apart from a computer and the activity pages, you will also need glue, scissors, pencils, paper, colored pencils, and crayons.

It doesn’t matter if you are registered or not, you can still access all the online courses. With no additional costs, though, the registration will give you access to the My EP system by Easy Peasy. The system helps you set up the subjects for the day as well as track their progress. It saves parents from having to sort it out every day.

The questions come as part of the lesson plan rather than the activity sheets. You will also receive the answers in white, and you can make them clearer with a highlighter. The linked websites come as practice and drill sites. Every forty days, the children can add their favorite parts and activities to the portfolio so that parents can start to build a physical record of all their work instead of running after grades.

The daily lesson plans outline all the subjects you need to cover for the kindergarten levels. It gets the children ready for reading and writing as well as math. It should be noted that the Giles approach is definitely unusual. It uses phonics as a reading tool so that children can grasp sounds and letter names. First, you start by teaching them to read through sight words before moving onto phonics. The phonics is easy to take up since they already know how to read the basic letters. She relies heavily on the phonic presentation and sight-reading to make sure that the children can pick up reading.

The Easy Peasy curriculum is perfect for parents who cannot spend too much money on purchasing a full curriculum kit. The homeschooling kit has been used by millions of people and is quite easy to pick up. Parents find it easy to follow the source material and then relay it to their kids.

6.    ABC Mouse Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum

ABC Mouse offers a fun and colorful way to provide education and entertainment to young children. The entire website is child-safe and only costs $9.95 monthly. Children from two to kindergarten can enjoy the website and learn a lot from it.

You will need a smartphone, tablet, or computer to access the website. Parents can use up to 650 lessons and 7000 activities to help their children learn reading, skills, math, language arts, social studies, art, music, science, and more. The best part is that you can set up a different account for each child so that they can progress in an organized way. Lessons are designed to take the child on an educational journey.

All the lessons are designed using online books that children can read. There are games, puzzles, songs, and art activities that they have to work through. You can also print the activity sheets, which helps children with writing and drawing practice. The reward and ticket system motivates the children to move along through the course.

The system has a huge library of non-fiction and fiction books that can get the kids interested in reading. The books all provide an introduction for the kids to academic subjects that they will learn about later on. There are also some fun fairytales and classic stories that you and your children can enjoy together.

The reading section of the program is designed to give an introduction to the children on sounds and letters, sight words, phonics, blending, and lower and upper case letters. It has fun phonic songs that children can sing along with for practice.

The math aspect of the program helps children count numbers up to 100. They will also be introduced to mathematical concepts such as shape identification, telling the time, patterns, one-to-one correspondence, and less than and more than concepts. Addition and subtraction are also introduced to the kids.

Social studies and science offer plenty of answers to curious young minds. They can learn about the human body, families, transportation, animals, plants, the planet, seasons, the solar system, and the US. Since it is an online course, art activities are more centered on computer manipulation than art. There are some painting and drawing tools with dot-to-dot and painting by a number type of activities. Coloring activities include free coloring, coloring within the lines, and automatic color filling. You may want to incorporate some arts and crafts on your own so that kids can get their hands dirty and refine their motor skills.

Music is also used to teach children. Games are also a widely popular element of the program that can help children learn. They are easy and simple activities for all kids. It is a great way to create a good foundation for the children for their academic years to come. However, since everything is online, it is not suitable for parents who don’t want their children to use the screen too much.

7.    Reading Eggs Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum

Reading Eggs is an online program that can be used to teach children reading. It is divided into five components, with one for math that you can access through their dashboard once you have subscribed to all the complete suites. You can access the lessons through your computer or even through apps on your iPhone, iPad, and Android. Students can hear the information through audio in the program. Each lesson uses cartoon characters, games, and different lesson formats to keep the children interested in the program.

The Reading Eggs Junior is designed to introduce children to pre-reading with games, online books, and videos. The Reading Eggs section helps the children learn how to read. There are also spelling lessons that can help reinforce the reading skills too. With the basic reading skills, the children can begin to move onto comprehension skills too.

The Reading Eggspress component can be a supplement to the Reading Eggs section. The fourth section of the program is the library. It has over 2500 books that are free to read. The last component is the Mathseeds section, which teaches the students basic mathematics.

The program comes with a parental guide that has details about the sequence and scope of the Reading Eggspress and Reading Eggs program. I would recommend going through at least some of the information on this guide since it can help you understand the full layout of the program. The Bonus Materials even have a sequence outline for books that cover topics like social studies and science.

The Reading Eggs Junior program offers children the chance to select information about various subjects, videos, and alphabets that can help them learn about the world. Children can also listen, watch, and click on activities that are passive in the beginning but become more advanced as the children progress. Children can hone skills such as visual discrimination, counting, sort, memory, following directions, listening, and recognizing sounds and letters.

When I was reviewing the website, the learning sequence did seem a little random to me. But I found out that the publishers are soon going to implement a simpler and new navigation route that can make it clearer for you.

The program can appeal to children from all over the world and can even give American kids some knowledge about words they may not typically come across, like durian and narwhal. It is quite a colorful and fun program with lots of different things for your kids to do and experience. However, again, the entire course is available only on online platforms, which may not be suitable for every parent. It also doesn’t give children the chance to get their hands dirty and learn through physical play.

8.    Time4Learning Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum

The Time4Learning education program is completely online. The kindergarten homeschool product is a monthly subscription service that has animated, interactive lessons that kids enjoy a lot. The program covers math, science, and language arts, which are all divided between grade levels.

One of the best things about the program is that even if you sign up for a specific grade, you will also have access to one grade lower and higher. This means when you sign up for kindergarten, you also have access to Pre-K and Grade 1, which can help you find the right level for your child to start at for every subject.

When you sign up for the program, it is quite simple to start off with. The parents have their Parent Admin Account that I recommend you familiarize yourself with. You can learn about some quite important information through the account such as student schedules, activity scheduler, demos, navigation help, and even ask questions from experts. Parents can also preview the lessons for the child, along with progress reports, lesson plans, quizzes, tests, and activities. You will also get information about the games that kids can play while the lesson is loading. If you are bothered with any technical issues, you can also get help for that.

The lessons have a recommended order that the children need to follow to do the lessons, but it isn’t that strict. There are different lesson plans that help children learn different things. The Under the Sea program helps to learn about the difference and likeness as well as simple patterns and sorting along with attributes. The Playtime in the Park helps with position shapes and words. The Let’s Go On a Safari helps children recognize numbers up to 20 and gives them an introduction to comparison groups as well as subtraction and addition concepts. The What’s Cooking section helps with measuring, telling time, calendars, and informal fractions. Lastly, the Numbers in the Neighborhood helps to explore numbers such as graphing, probability, and patterns.

After the children have gone through a lesson, they can take a quiz to make sure they know everything before moving onto the next lesson. You can print out worksheets for the math lessons if you want to do so.

The Language Arts section has been organized in a way that helps the kids understand the letter sounds. The children can connect it to nursery rhymes and stories. There are also phonological and phonemic activities to understand the letters. You can also print out decodable stories for worksheets.

9.    Deep Space Sparkle Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum

The Deep Space Sparkle website provides fun examples, lesson plans, techniques, tips, and tutorials for art. If you want to have an art class for your child at home, this online platform is the perfect place to get ideas. All the ideas are approved by teachers and are designed for kindergarten kids and up. Since the website was developed by elementary teachers, it goes in line with kindergarten level art.

The lesson plans on the website are divided by techniques, grade, and subject, so you can find appropriate ones for your child. Parents can review the basics of art and vocabulary from the Art Basics section. You can also check how-to videos, supplies, and organization details on the Inside the Art Room website. The posts will give you more insight into how to create an authentic experience of the classroom for the children.

For me, the Scrap Box is the best section of the entire website. It has amazing information on art, including art shows, book reviews, and blog posts. Everything on the website is free to use, but you can also purchase some eCourses and eBooks if you like.

10. Confessions of a Homeschooler

The K4 Curriculum by Confessions of a Homeschooler has 34 weeks’ worth of lesson plans that you can use to teach your child. It introduces the children to beginner level math, reading, and handwriting skills that can help them maneuver the coming years of academic life. The kindergarten homeschool product aims to give students a basic education of addition and subtraction, reading skills, place value, logical thinking, vowel words, and more. There are plenty of activities that can help students become skilled.

The curriculum focuses on:

• Bible
• Math
• Reading
• Writing
• Art
• Music
• Movement
• Motor Skills
• Logical Thinking
• Sight Words
• Vowel Sound and Blends

You will also receive worksheets and games that will be quite interesting for the children to do each day. The curriculum is quite a complete kit that has a little bit of everything! It can be great for children since they will definitely never get bored.

Conclusion

The kindergarten homeschool curriculum products above are all designed to introduce your child to new concepts and learning opportunities. Some are more focused on specific subjects, while others are more complete kits. Some of these sources are only accessible online, while others come in physical kits. The best part as a parent is that you can use which one suits you and your child the best. Go for the one that you think will help you get the most out of your homeschooling experience.

Ashley Yeo 

P/S: You may also find this article useful in your selection of a homeschool curriculum…

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