Although temps are as high as they come, our “summer” is coming to a close in one sense – next week is our first week of homeschool.  We choose to homeschool August – April, which allows summer vacation to begin in May, a beautiful time to play outside in South Carolina.

My children are so young (5.5 and 3) and I believe in a “better late than early” approach to academics, so our kindergarten homeschool is story, art and play based.  I establish a daily and weekly rthym that supports us, and helps me fit everything (including household chores) into my limited time with the kids.  

Happily, planning is complete, both the overall sketch for the year and details for August.  I detail each month about a week in advance, which allows my plans to reflect our real life circumstances.  I thought I’d share with you the books that are a part of our homeschool this year.   

Stories – Read alouds for school

The Complete Tales of Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne.  We’ve read the original version of these delightful stories before, but never all at once.  I know my littlest one will fall in love with Pooh – he’s just the right age.The Jesus Storybook Bibleby Sally Llyod-Jones.  Last year we focused on Old Testament stories through the Alice in Bibleland series.  This year we’re going to read the entire New Testament sequence from this book.  The Jesus Storybook Bible is by far my favorite children’s Bible.  It’s a joy to read as a parent too.

Little House in the Big Woodsby Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I am so excited to reread this series, and bring it to my daughter.  If she loves this first book, we’ll continue with the series indefinitely.

Poetry & Songs - for Memory Poems & Circle Time

A Child’s Seasonal Treasuryby Betty Jones is my all-time favorite source for beautiful children’s poems.  It is organized by season, and also includes songs, fingerplays, short dramas and projects.  Unfortunately, it is now out-of-print.  Used  copies are pricey, but I feel this is worth owning.

Enki Kindergarten Seasons and Skills- Enki Education is an approach that ties together Waldorf, a little Montessori and  modern day research into how children learn.  This is my favorite boxed curriculum.  We rely heavily on their movement binder for creating seasonal circle times, and just generally enjoying the seasons through poetry and song.

Resources for Mama

A Kid’s Herb bookby Lesley Tierra is the basis of our herbal studies this year.  Aria will be studying one medicinal herb per month, culminating with making an herbal remedy for our medicine chest each month. 

Parenting with Scripture:  A Topical Guide for Teachable Momentsby Kara Durbin, is a Christian book with Bible verses and discussion ideas by character topic.  I tell the children stories a few mornings each week about two children, Elsa and Peter who are remarkably similar to Aria and Liam.  I use these stories to illustrate lessons in behavior.  They are my kid’s favorite part of “school”.  This book will help spark ideas and Biblical references for the topic at hand.

Related posts:

1. Our Kindergarten Rhythm
2. Nature Play & Nature Study with Young Children
3. Creating an Art Studio for a Young Child – Part 4
4. Creating an Art Studio for a Young Child – Part 3
5. Creating an Art Studio for a Young Child – Part 1

Tags: homeschool, Waldorf

This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Children (3-6 years). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.