Home Schooling Primary Learners

When I home schooled my first kindergartner, my now 12 year old son Giovanni, I was terrified! I didn't know how I was going to get this little kid who didn't even know his alphabet to put letters together and read words. Basically, if your K level child can finish the year knowing the alphabet, numbers -20, colors, shapes, follow directions, you are doing pretty good. If a K level child can finish the year knowing letter sounds and simple addition/subtraction...WOW! you deserve a real pat on the back. No pressure though, some of my kids didn't start reading till they were 6 years old and in first grade, some of them were reading at 3 and 4 years old.  It all depends on their maturity level. 

A preK friend of mine once told me that Kindergarten is to generally teach children how to follow direction. If a child can't do that, then there will be problems later on for sure. 

I have used 100 easy lessons to, but I generally pulled ideas that worked for some of my kids who needed more kenesthetic approach.

Flash cards and games are easy, cheap, and older kids can use them to play/teach little kids. This will make homeschooling a joy because you will get to see your kids virtues in action.

Spelling Bee Bingo, excellent game! http://www.boardgames.com/spbeebi.html

The Lady Bug Game: http://www.theladybuggame.com/

Boggle JR: http://www.hasbro.com/shop/details.cfm?guid=8EC0B9CC-6D40-1014-8BF0-9EFBF894F9D4&product_id=8627&src=endeca

As for curriculum, I do have a list of good old standbys that have always worked for us:

Little Stories for Little Folks by CHC 

http://www.chcweb.com/catalog/Exclusives/PreReadingAndPhonics/LittleStoriesforLittleFolksCatholicPhonicsReaders/product_info.html

Primary Phonics readers and workbooks

http://intervention.schoolspecialty.com/search/index.cfm

Spectrum Phonics Series (K-6th grade) (better buy is the e-book versions, you can reproduce these)

http://www.carsondellosa.com/cd2/Products/CarsonDellosa/PID-0769682901.aspx

Starfall is free. You can download readers and the worksheets free. I especially LOVE the ABC worksheets and online letters and sounds videos. But my kids found the writing journal work sheets a little confusing.

http://www.starfall.com/

More Starfall is also great, and its only $35 for 3 users per year. I REALLY like this one. I like that I can sit for a little while with my primary learners all at once and then let them work independantly while I work with another child.

http://more.starfall.com/

Have fun! These years go by too fast.