Today, I want to share with you a re-cap of the curriculum we used for schooling this year and my honest opinion/feedback on the product and learning experience. *I purchased all of these products myself and was not gifted anything or asked to review any products mentioned below*
Language Arts
This is a GREAT program for young learners and parents who are looking for short but effective lessons. It is recommended that you spend 20 minutes a day on a lesson but you can break up the lesson into however many days that your child needs. No need to complete a lesson every day. I personally love this "permission" to take it slow and at the pace of the child. This really takes the pressure off of teaching to get through the program vs. actually taking time to allow your child to learn, stretch and process the information for better retention. AAR Pre-Reading teaches a letter of the alphabet and the letter sound and has great game ideas and handouts for art projects that review each letter. I would highly recommend this program to any homeschooling family who needs a simple, open and go approach to reading.
We are currently planning on using the next level for the upcoming school year - All About Reading Level 1 Program
Handwriting
I wanted a gentle introduction to handwriting with my child and these workbooks were perfect! The pages are really simple and can easily be understood by young learners for independent work with a light instruction time beforehand. We would do a couple of pages a week and my child quickly became a fan of writing once he gained confidence after a few short weeks of using these workbooks. The best thing thought is that they are $4.99 each on Amazon!
Math
This year, I learned that my son LOVES math! This was our first time doing any type of math with him and Singapore Dimensions was really great at introducing math concepts at a good but challenging pace. This set comes in two parts - A and B - which can be completed in a typical school year. You have two workbooks, two textbooks and two teacher's guides. All of the materials are really bright and colorful but not too distracting. The only thing I didn't find beneficial and that I don't think is necessary is the teacher's manuals. That might not be true for the older grades but for the PK level, I used the book for the first week and realized it was geared more towards a traditional classroom setting. I believe this is something they are changing in the future but you can totally get by successfully without them.
Science + Social Studies
I'm pretty sure my kids favorite day of the month was when these subscription boxes arrived at the front door. They had SO much fun with Little Passports and Green Kids Crafts for Social Studies and Science. I really enjoyed these two subscriptions because they were so easy to follow and had multiple activities included that could be spread throughout the month. We will probably order these again for the upcoming school year because they were totally worth it.
Final Review
I truly believe in everything I shared and loved our homeschooling year using these educational programs and tools. I love flexibility in our homeschooling rhythm and these all worked really well into our style. Reach out if you have any specific questions about anything! I'd be more than happy to help support you!
* Please note that this post contains affiliate links and any purchase made through such links will award me a small commission (at absolutely no extra cost for you). These funds help support my family and keep this blog up and running. All products discussed in this post were personally purchased and I did NOT receive any of these products for review purposes.
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