Everything You Need to Know About Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum

Looking for kindergarten homeschool curriculum? Look no further! This comprehensive list compiled by veteran homeschool mom and former classroom teacher will set you up for success!

This is an exciting time as your child embarks on their school journey! They are eager to learn and explore. But remember, this is just the beginning! I often see parents of kindergartners overwhelmed with a giant stack of all the curriculum they plan to do for their first year of homeschool.

My friend, I beg you to step away from the stack! Take a deep breath, grab a pen and paper, and let’s make sure we lay the right foundation.

How do you homeschool a kindergartner?

Homeschooling in kindergarten is MUCH easier than we make it out to be in our minds. There are a few key concepts that kindergartners need to know, and much of the year is spent developing those essential skills.

Below, you’ll find a list of the best kindergarten homeschool curriculum out there and some tips on how to teach each subject. But before we get there, I’d like to offer some advice from a former first grade teacher, early childhood specialist, and veteran homeschool mom.

NOT ALL KIDS ARE READY TO SIT AT A TABLE FOR KINDERGARTEN!

If we were sitting together having coffee, you would have heard the desperate plea in my voice and felt the frustration in my heart. In many ways, we’ve got “education” completely mixed up with “institutionalism” and our precious babies are suffering.

A 5-year-old child, especially a boy, is literally learning every moment of the day. They are learning when they fold something, make something, put something away, hold something, look at something, and test something. I think you get the idea. In fact, at this age, kids learn SO MUCH MORE by doing and exploring things than you could EVER teach them with a piece of paper and a pencil.

So, relax and enjoy the ride. Your kindergartner is full of adventure and it’s time to embrace it! (Don’t worry, I’m here to help!)

What subjects are required for kindergarten homeschool?

To legally answer this question, you’ll have to consult with your state requirements. The most reputable place to find these laws is the HSLDA website. Note that I didn’t say to ask your friend who has been homeschooling for many years (that’s a big mistake- look them up yourself).

Many states have NO requirements at all for kindergarten and don’t even require parents to submit notification that they are homeschooling until age 6 or 7. Other states have general guidelines for core subjects. Occasionally, you’ll find a strict state that requires specific hours to be completed. Again, the only way to know what rules you have to follow is to check the site yourself.

Here are some typical kindergarten homeschool curriculum subjects:

• Reading
• Math
• Science
• Social Studies
• Bible
• Home Economics
• Fine Arts

But don’t let that list scare you. Regardless of your requirements, the main focus in kindergarten should ALWAYS be reading and math. These are the two building blocks for the other subjects. When you focus here first, you build a foundation that will set your kids up for success for years to come! Let’s get to the practical ways to do just that.

A typical kindergarten homeschool schedule.

I’m a big fan of block scheduling and routines. When you break your day into 15-minute increments and label each one with a task, you’ll find yourself constantly frustrated with interruptions and unexpected messes.

Instead, we chunk our day into manageable pieces: morning, school, lunch, afternoon, and dinner. You can read more detailed info about our overall homeschool schedule here. For this post, I’ll stick with a few specifics for kindergartners.

Morning Schedule Chunk

In our home, the morning chunk has three specific goals:

• To teach good habits
• To teach basic life skills
• To get the day off to a good start

In preschool, I start the kids with a morning checklist. We do this together! The checklist walks us through those basic good habits and life skills so we can build on them as the kiddos grow. Check out the FREE morning checklist and read more about this strategy.

I typically stick with this morning checklist for kindergartners, too. But if your child is eager to learn and diving into multiple subjects, the weekly checklist might be a better fit.

School Schedule Chunk

Our focus during this time is high-quality educational activities. Each age group of kids is going to have a slightly different routine during this time. Usually, I start with the youngest member who is at the table. I have the rest of the kids get started until I’m ready to work with them. If your kindergartner is the youngest, perfect. If not, you might give your kindergartner his/her book box while you work with preschoolers first.

• TABLE time: This is the part of homeschooling that most people think of, but it’s also typically the shortest! During this time, I work with my kindergartner, teaching them reading and math. If there is time (and attention) we may do other subjects, but typically not.
• BOOK BOX time: Next up is the book box. My kids have their own personal book box from age 3 to high school. These are books I’ve selected that are high-quality, wholesome, and engaging. Giving them a boxful allows them to choose and not feel BOXED in. I set the timer and require 30 minutes for this box. At first, they may not sit with the books long, so be patient and work your way up from 5 minutes.
• CENTER time: Taken from the old preschool classroom, our educational time ends with centers. Basically, these are little stations I set up with activities for my kindergartners to do. This might be busy bags or it could be something like a sand table or puzzle. I print and laminate the numbers 1-3 and put them in the area with the activity. Then the preschooler cycles through the activities while I’m working with other kiddos on school or folding laundry, etc. Independent learning time is REALLY important, so don’t skip this.
• Science and History Exploration: If you didn’t get to it earlier, once you’ve worked with some of the older kids and given your little guy time to “play” at centers and other activities, you can add in some time with science or history-related books/activities. We typically do this as a family. I read aloud, we explore ideas, and each child keeps a notebook of what we learn. We also do field trips, nature walks, and other activities.

Afternoon Schedule Chunk

After lunch is our favorite part of the day. Typically, my kids have about 1 hour of free play (which is sometimes turned into errands).

• Family Read-Aloud is something we do every day during the lunch hour. I choose all kinds of things to read together while the kids are eating lunch or coloring/doodling at the table.
• Free play with toys or outside (Be sure your child has lots of open-ended toys that build intelligence like blocks or building cubes.)
• Quiet time is non-negotiable in our house. Even my high schoolers have it. Everyone needs downtime. Naps aren’t typical for all kindergartners, but this time might also be filled with audiobooks, their book box, or quiet toys in their room.
• Free play again. Typically, my kids have more free play before dinner time, too. Outside if the weather will permit, or inside with toys and fun things.

What is the best homeschool curriculum for kindergartners?

The best curriculum for kindergartners is a mud puddle and a stick. Hehe. I’m joking, but only partly. There is some truth to this. Remember, kindergartners are full of adventure. They learn by doing. Carving out their name in mud is far more valuable learning than having them copy it on paper because THEY own it. You and I both know that when you own something, you do a much better job with it.

We’ve already said that kindergartners should have lots of adventure and hands-on, full-body learning, but what does that look like practically and is there ever a place for pencils and paper? Let’s dig into those questions now.

Reading kindergarten homeschool curriculum.

For reading, our main goal would be to experience words in print (like looking at signs or reading the cereal box), to begin to recognize that letters and sounds fit together to create words, and to understand basic concepts of literacy.

Now that probably sounds really sophisticated, but it really means that we want our kindergartners to:

• Learn how to hold a book and turn the pages
• Point to the title of the book
• Tell you what is happening in the pictures of the story
• Predict what might happen next in the story
• Show you some of the individual letters that make up a word
• Finish a sentence with a word that rhymes with the sentence before it

See what I mean? You can teach your child all of that without a fancy curriculum or a piece of paper! Reading together is the single most important factor in the academic success of kids. So start by making sure you plan plenty of that in your day.

We read in the mornings before our day gets started. We read together as a family every day at lunch. And we read after dinner. You should have two kinds of books: those that you read aloud to your child and those that he/she can read. (Yes, I know they can’t actually read yet- just trust me.)

Fostering a love of reading should be your priority in the early learning years because kids will read to learn for the rest of their lives! There is NO SUBSTITUTE for lots of high-quality reading time together, so be sure you make this a priority. Some children can learn to read simply from this practice, but most of us need something a little systematic.

Kindergarten Book Box

After that, we then grab whatever beginning readers we can find and practice reading. I create a “book box” for kids this age so they have simple things to read that will help them feel successful, but still give them the ability to choose what they will read.

The more you read, the better. We tackle a new book or story for 15 minutes a day and then spend 20-30 minutes practicing books we’ve already mastered. (Hint: this is crucial for building fluency and comprehension.)

Here are some of our favorite beginning readers:

Leveled readers are perfect for the kindergartner’s book box, but don’t forget to include simple picture books that they enjoy reading, too. Even if they are just repeating what is memorized or “reading” the pictures and making up stories, this is a great way for kindergartners to gain literacy skills.

Personally, I believe this simple method teaches everything I want my kids to know when they are little. I don’t want them to be tied to the desk for long. But if you feel the need for more, again All About Reading would be a good fit. It has the same foundation but provides a little more meat into your study.

Writing kindergarten homeschool curriculum.

There comes a point around kindergarten when your child will want to write letters. If you have encouraged them to doodle their way through the preschool years, it is likely they can already write their name and many other letters. Now is the time to teach them formally.

You can read my entire scope and sequence for Teaching Children to Write, but here are the basics for kindergartners:

I love it because it helps children truly understand the individual lines that make up each letter. We start with this magnetic board and wooden piece set. The kids learn to put together the wooden pieces that form each letter and then they use the magnetic pen to write the letters. Not only is it a great foundation, it’s super fun.

I generally follow up this practice with the accompanying book for kindergarten or even Pre-K. After kids have used the magnetic board, the books come easy. We use the suggested crayons until about 1st grade.

WHAT ABOUT CURSIVE?  

Most people teach their children to print first. However, many have advocated that cursive is easier to teach first as children are naturals at circle strokes. Whatever you choose is fine! Do what you think is best.

How to Teach Writing

So far we’ve been talking about HANDwriting. When people say “writing” they usually mean composing sentences, paragraphs, or papers. Is there a place for this type of writing in kindergarten? Yes and no.

Kindergarten writing should be informal and fun. Let your kids keep a journal to record fun events and information they learn, or to respond to a great book they read. Don’t fret about spelling and grammar. This isn’t the time. Of course, you can help them if they ask, though.

I don’t like to do any type of curriculum before 4th grade. This is a great time to focus on teaching handwriting, which is just the formation of letters.

Math kindergarten homeschool curriculum.

We are rather simple with our math curriculum. It’s easy to fret and over-think things. Don’t give in to that. Stay simple and use what works for your family.

You’ll want to focus on counting, and subtracting, adding, and multiplying real things in your house. This is FAR more valuable to your little guy than a curriculum and it happens naturally if you are engaged with your kids. For example, you might ask your child to DIVIDE the cookies evenly among her siblings. Be sure you use the real math term (divide, multiply, add, subtract) to introduce them to the terms they’ll need in the future.

MATH MASTERY IS ABOUT BASICS.

Main goals at this age are to learn shapes, number recognition, and how to talk about things in mathematical terms. I’d also start to work on skip counting. This is a crucial skill for multiplication and number sense.

There are probably 100 great math curriculum options out there. But if you skip to that, you’ll miss the point. Math is a subject systematically built on tiny blocks of information. If you miss the foundation, the top will crumble. Period. Sadly, this is why so many kids struggle in math.

If you’re interested in a curriculum, here are a few that focus on the skills I mentioned. The second two include literacy skills as well!

• Mathseeds computer program
• CLE Kindergarten
• Rod and Staff ABC

Science kindergarten homeschool curriculum.

When the kids are little, reading should be your focus, and science curriculum should be super laid back. In fact, for our kindergarten homeschool curriculum, “science” class was digging into a pile of amazing books while cuddled on the couch. Each week I’d carefully select nonfiction books sharing all about fish, elephants, or really, anything interesting. And the kids loved it!

This helps you focus on what is most important at this stage: growing strong readers. When mom holds her little ones on her lap and reads aloud, kids hear beautiful language, learn the organization and structure of language, and eventually begin to desire to read those words on their own.

Some of our favorite homeschool science books have been…

We’ve also really enjoyed homeschool science videos. Kids gravitate toward the screen, so why not use it for good stuff, like learning? We have so many great ones like these…

We also have a subscription to Pureflix where we can watch hundreds of educational titles.

Even for my kindergarten homeschool curriculum, we keep a notebook where we will note some of the things we have learned from our reading and exploring in a science journal (think composition notebook with blank pages). Don’t get too overzealous about this. It can be a killjoy. Just allow your kids to draw or write something that interests them.

Sometimes I have them narrate facts to me and other times I don’t. Let it be natural and fun!

I know this method is a little non-traditional, but remember, there is a reason we didn’t go with the traditional school option anyway, right?

Social Studies kindergarten homeschool curriculum.

Kindergarten homeschool curriculum should lay a great foundation that cultivates interest and excitement for the history of God’s world. Be careful about buying too much curriculum. It’s easy to weave these topics into your day using great read-alouds or short simple studies. I would also recommend the use of audio books. They are engaging and teach so much! (See our list of books below to help get you started.)

This is my favorite age for social studies. I recommend staying away from curriculum. Instead, read living books, go on field trips, and explore things. This is a great time to talk about missions, different cultures, and people in our community (like the role of firefighters and other jobs in the community).

Have each child keep a notebook and draw or write about what you read or where your family visits. Make sure you take lots of field trips! Visiting the local library, police station, or a local ethnic grocery store definitely counts.

Bible curriculum for kindergartners.

What does a kindergartner need to learn?

I’ve given you quite a bit in this post, but I want to leave you with one final thought. It’s easy to get so caught up in curriculum and requirements that we forget to keep our vision in mind. Ultimately, who do you want your sweet baby to be when he or she is 18 and leaves home?

Those are the things you need to teach them. This includes reading and math, but in our home, the focus is on spiritual growth and developing the life skills they will need when they leave home!

More Christian Homeschool Curriculum

Using my expertise as a certified educator and 12+ years of homeschooling, we’ve created a comprehensive list of the BEST Christian homeschool curriculum for each grade level. You’ll find each of them linked below.

• Preschool Homeschool Curriculum
• Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum
• First Grade Homeschool Curriculum
• Second Grade Homeschool Curriculum
• Third Grade Homeschool Curriculum
• Fourth Grade Homeschool Curriculum
• Fifth Grade Homeschool Curriculum
• Sixth Grade Homeschool Curriculum
• Seventh Grade Homeschool Curriculum
• Eighth Grade Homeschool Curriculum
• High School Homeschool Curriculum

Still stuggling to see how everything fits together? Get a better overall vision for Christian homeschool curriculum in this post.