Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum: Your Complete Guide For 2023
Beginning your homeschooling journey with young children? If you plan to homeschool kindergartners, EZ-Teach is here to help! In this guide, you’ll get all sorts of information including tips for choosing curriculum and links to free curriculum! Keep reading or click on one of the links below to get started.
Section A: Planning
1. What is the best kindergarten homeschool curriculum?
2. How do I choose kindergarten homeschool curriculum?
3. What is the most commonly used kindergarten curriculum by homeschoolers?
4. Montessori - What makes it different?
5. What do I need other than curriculum to homeschool my child?
6. Canada vs the US and the main differences in kindergarten homeschool curriculum
Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum
It is always a good idea to start with a plan, so remember to begin your homeschool journey by planning.
Image Source: StartupStockPhotos
Section A: Planning
1. What is the best kindergarten homeschool curriculum?
No matter what curriculum you choose, the best kindergarten homeschool curriculum includes play-based activities. According to The Home School Mom, research shows that your kindergarten child's learning “should be primarily play-based”. The emphasis should be on the joy of learning and exploration.
Also, you probably don’t want an intensive curriculum. It is recommended that students at this age should have no more than 30 minutes - 2 hours of lessons per day. And they will need lots of breaks and hands-on opportunities.
Overall, the best curriculum is one that works for you and your child, is age-appropriate and suitable for your unique child’s developmental level, and is play-based.
2. How do I choose a kindergarten homeschool curriculum?
Yes, this can seem daunting, but there are guides out there to help. You can use the Ontario Curriculum Guides from the Government of Ontario website that are available for free online. You can download the Kindergarten Program here. You can also do your own search or join a homeschooling group to get recommendations. We will give you some suggestions in Section B, Homeschooling Curriculum, too.
3. What is the most commonly used kindergarten curriculum by homeschoolers?
Many homeschoolers will align most of their curriculum with the Ontario Ministry of Education expectations referenced above. Since parents may not want to go searching on their own for lessons that align with these expectations, you can get The Complete Canadian Curriculum for Kindergarten.
This covers core subjects like Math, English, Science - and even French in one workbook. Other standard curriculums used are by ABeka and Sonlight.
ABC Mouse is another commonly used online curriculum.
Montessori encourages the development of independence and life skills, not just books skills.
Image Source: Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians
4. Montessori - What makes it different?
According to the Canadian Council of Montessori Administrators, the Montessori method is:
“an individualized approach to education for children from toddler through high school that helps each child reach full potential in all areas of life. It is a student-centered approach that encourages creativity and curiosity and leads children to ask questions, explore, investigate and think for themselves as they acquire skills.”
Children learn at their own pace and teachers are more like coaches who help guide students as they explore their interests. Montessori has its own following and many children have had positive experiences in this educational setting.
Although homeschooling looks different for each family, the Montessori approach can be applied to your individual setting.
Of course, you will probably be working around your children’s pace as a homeschooling parent. Still, you could make a point of focusing on each of your child’s interests and letting them have more freedom and independence when exploring and learning new skills at home. Here is a helpful guide from Sapientia Montessori called MONTESSORI AT HOME: A HOW-TO GUIDE FOR PARENTS.
5. What do I need other than a curriculum to homeschool my child?
Okay, so there are probably a lot of lists we could make here, but we have added 3 things you absolutely need to think about besides curriculum and guides for grading and record-keeping:
Materials
Work Spaces & Play Areas
Support
Continue reading to learn more about why we’ve included these as our top 3 things to consider.
Materials
Other than the curriculum, you need materials. If you are teaching Science, you might need resources to do science experiments. If you are teaching Art, you will need art supplies. You get the picture!
Try not to leave it until the last minute, as there is nothing worse than planning an excellent lesson and then discovering that the materials you need are all sold out at the store!
Don’t forget about providing room to play in your home!
Image Source: Image by Daniela Dimitrova
Work Spaces & Play Areas
Since Kindergarten is heavily play-based, it is important that you have both a space for kids to sit and read and colour or write, but it is equally important that you provide spaces for them to play - indoors and outdoors! Here are some ideas:
Sandboxes
Water Toys
Painting Easels,
Chalkboards
Gymnastics Equipment
Musical Instruments
Building Blocks (Various types and sizes)
Toys that reinforce learning (Think Letters, Shapes, Colours, Patterns, the 5 Senses, etc.)
Climbing Equipment for outdoors
Magnets
Dress-up & Make-Believe Stations
My oh my, I got excited just making that list - so I‘m sure you will have fun designing your homeschool spaces, too! Here is another blog post with some ideas from Keep Toddlers Busy if you need a little inspiration: 40 Amazing Homeschool Room Ideas You Absolutely Must See.
Remember to build a social network - for both you and your kids!
Image Source: Image by Daniela Dimitrova
Support
Don’t try to homeschool on your own. You need support and so do your kids. Look for a homeschooling group for inspiration, a homeschooling cooperative where everyone can take classes jointly and share the teaching responsibilities (for example, Joey’s Dad teaches a science class and Olivier’s Dad teaches a Physical Education class).
You can also simply find other families that are like-minded if you can’t find other homeschoolers in your area, so that your kids can play together and parents can interact, too.
There are also many online homeschool groups nowadays, so even chatting on Zoom or Google Meet can help diminish any feelings of isolation and loneliness and provide an opportunity for you as a family to build social networks.
6. Canada vs the US and the main differences in kindergarten homeschool curriculum
Luckily, when it comes to Kindergarten curriculum, the differences between the materials you find in Canada are vastly different than those in the US. Most homeschoolers will find that the main differences relate to the following concepts:
Money
History
Geography
You can easily solve problems that arise by supplementing any materials that are not included in the curriculum you are using. For example, you can find resources online that deal with Canadian Money or you can simply pull out your own coins and bills for a real show and tell! It is also relatively easy to find maps of Canada online to print from home.
Look for curriculum that encourages exploration and play.
Image Source: M W
Section B: Curriculum Ideas
1. Featured Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum
Before we start listing curriculums, we thought it would be fun to add a feature item! With today’s culture that is more media-based than ever, we thought you might want to know what is available for young learners to help them develop media literacy.
Canadian Media Literacy - Grades K-1
About:
This curriculum is designed to help students acquire the skills to look at media images critically and to be better equipped to make decisions about the true value of the messages. This material includes:
7 media texts activities
2 media forms and technique activities
4 creating media texts activities
19 additional activities
Plus a teacher guide!
We recommend the enhanced e-book because it saves parents and teachers from having to print off pages and allows students to enter their answers right from their computers or other devices!
Price:
$21.99 - Enhanced E-book
$16.99 - Regular E-book
2. Free Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum
Everyone likes FREE materials, right? Well, here we will list some of the best. In fact, we’ve ranked them.
Best Free Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum
Ambleside Online offers a free curriculum based on the Charlotte Mason Method. If you haven’t heard of it, we’ve added a video below in which a lady named Sonya Shafer explains why she chose this approach while homeschooling her children. After watching the video, you may find that this method is similar to the Montessori method of education.
Ambleside Online incorporates principles from the Charlotte Mason Method. Watch the video and learn about this method.
As some private teachers know, there are schools that ask their teachers to develop their own curriculum. This can be quite a task, especially when time is limited and materials can be hard to find. We picked Core Knowledge Foundation because of its free science curriculum since it is often harder to find. Find a list of the downloadable Science curriculum here for Kindergarteners.
3. ABC Mouse
While not entirely free, ABC Mouse is offering new members the 1st month free right now. This award-winning curriculum provides activities for children between the ages of 2 and 8 in the following subject areas:
Reading
Math
Science
Art & Colors
We recommend this online program for teaching reading because it is known for teaching young children how to read in fun ways. I have personally heard from parents and children how much they love this online learning program.
Look for free printable Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum online and get some ideas below!
Image Source: Aline Ponce
3. Free Printable Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum
There are actually quite a few resources online that offer parents and teachers free printable kindergarten homeschool curricula. Here is a list of some of the best ones:
This site offers lots to download. You can click on their Printable Worksheets and then sort by Grade, Subject, Topic, and/or Standard. There are also picture samples so you know what you are getting.
TPT (Otherwise known as Teachers Pay Teachers)
Although teachers can earn money by posting materials for people to buy, there are free materials available on TPT for Kindergarten. Just search and filter the options by Grade and Price. One of our favourite contributors on TPT is Create In Kinder.
You can get a full language arts course set online when you sign up here. This set includes everything you need to teach your children how to read and foundational concepts of language arts like phonics, spelling, grammar and more!
4. Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum Packages
Even though they aren’t normally free or low-cost, choosing to buy packages or bundles of the curriculum will save you time. If you have more than one child, it could possibly even save you money in the long run.
For example, if you buy the K5 Online, you are getting everything you need, from teacher’s manuals, printouts, answer keys and other essentials. This means you don’t have to create worksheets, look for them elsewhere, or even find accompanying videos. Here is a link to this product from BJU Press.
EZ=Teach
Wherever you are along your journey, we hope this guide has helped you as you set out to teach Kindergarten at home. You can find more inspiration from The Homeschool Mom, too.
You can also check out our other blogs for more help, like the one entitled Homeschooling: How To Start In 5 Easy Steps or you can browse our Curriculum, Courses and Teaching Resources pages.
Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to contact us by clicking on our contact button below if you have questions or comments.
