Teaching Frugal Kindergarten
If you are starting to design a curriculum for kindergarten you may find fewer resources available than for upper level grades at least in the curriculum catalogs. Here are some of the ways I taught frugal kindergarten. We started with the World Book Course of Study. Much of our kindergarten was unit driven. I would use the units in Learn at Home as well as different units that corresponded with the months and that were mentioned in the course of study. We also used What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know. This book gave some great read aloud stories and suggestions for material to cover I used to teach preschool music so I followed their unit list for example Fire safety in October, Black history in February, etc. I also looked for free handouts through the internet.
Thematic Units for Kindergarten
Kinderkids -a great list of seasonal units to use with kindergarten.
Mrs. Wilt's Secret Garden of Thematic Units-What a fantastic list of units she has connected from around the internet. With this list you just may be set for the year!!
Math
I used math workbooks I picked up at yardsales as well as worksheets from Learn At Home. Many of these were older workbooks but the math stayed the same. I also used flash cards and math worksheets from the internet. Eventually we started into a first grade math book.
Phonics
We used a very old phonics book I also found at a yardsale years ago. I know this book is no longer in print, but it was the teacher's guide with the "Readers" printed in the back. The teacher's guide, although it was published in 1960 gave me some great teaching guidance like making a house with two ladders. I drew this on a chalk board. My daughter had to say the word written on each step of the ladder. If she missed the word she fell back to the bottom of the ladder. Once she climbed up to the roof she did the same thing going down the next ladder. If she missed a word she had to return to the roof and start at the beginning of the "down" ladder. It was fun and simple and very effective. The amount of phonics you teach at this age is really up to you and your child. Some kids jump right into it and others get there....when they get there. Either way find a place where you're all happy with your progress.
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