Before we knew we were going to homeschool full time we had decided to redshirt our son B. For those of you not familiar with the term, redshirting means that you hold your child back a year before starting kindergarten. (Scroll down for our curriculum picks if you don't want to read out backstory!)
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So why would someone want to hold their kid back from Kindergarten? A lot of research shows that kids with summer birthdays (especially boys) do better starting later. Boys who are the youngest in the class tend to get diagnosed much more frequently with ADD, when really they are just acting a year younger. Boys also develop the nerves in their fingers later than girls, so it helps to give them an extra year.
Our son has a July birthday and we didn't want him to always feel like he wasn't as smart as everyone else because he was so much younger. We also didn't want him to be more susceptible to peer pressure.
However, as kindergarten approached, I attended some Ready For Kindergarten classes our county puts on. The teachers talked about how some of the kids with summer birthdays would fall asleep at their desks, or ask if they could go home to take a nap. Yikes! B still takes naps almost everyday, and he just turned 6.
We had B in an excellent, academically focused preschool, and I was working with him at home. As the time drew closer to register for kindergarten, I realized he was very academically ahead of the standards that our local public schools had for kindergarten.
He is still at a kindergarten level for some subjects, but more at a first grade level for others. Here are our curriculum picks for an advanced kindergartner!
Language Arts
Reading
We are using a very old version of Hooked On Phonics. I also have him read one Frog and Toad story every day. When we get through those we have a big selection of random early readers that we will use. On days that are more difficult (attitude wise), we read several Bob Books (because they are easier). We also have the Usborne My First Reading Library that we use as well.
Spelling
We are using Spelling You See level B. I picked this one because it doesn't just have a list of words to memorize like most spelling programs. The kids work on the same passage every day for a week and each day they have different things to do, such as finding all the words that end with ___. They also copy out part of the passage every day. The program builds spelling skills sequentially as they go through the levels.
Writing
I got Writing With Ease Level 1 to use for B's kindergarten writing program. He was a bit overwhelmed with his spelling copywork the first couple of days, so I am putting this one away for a few months.
Grammar
We are using first language lessons for grammar. You only do this program 2-3 times a week, it is all scripted for you and it only takes a couple of minutes. So far it is going well.
Literature
Currently we are reading Pinocchio. We just read one chapter most days.
Science
Since we are following the science progression in The Well-Trained Mind, we are doing biology this year. We chose to use R.E.A.L Science Odyssey Life level 1 this year. We have just started using it but so far so good. I was glad that I purchased an extra set of student pages so I could look at the instructions from the manual while B does the lab sheets.
History
We are using The Story of the World Volume 1 Ancient Times with the accompanying activity book. This has been really fun so far. We have been studying the stone age this week and they were outside trying to hit rocks together to make stone axes. So fun!
Math
Choosing a math curriculum was very difficult for me. I ended up picking Math You See Alpha level. I was a little skeptical about the program at first because on the surface it seemed to be very easy. But as I looked through the teacher's manual, I realized that it really goes in-depth about how and why math works the way it does.
We are also using Miquon math a couple of times a week and Khan academy a couple of times a week.
Art
I just joined Masterpiece Society for our art program. So far I have been blown away by the membership area. The kids have done 2 art projects so far and they loved it!
As for music and foreign language, I am still figuring that out! But I felt like I should start our year and add more subjects when we got settled into a routine.
What are your curriculum choices this year?