p. 43 of Volume 1:
“In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mothers first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it spent for the most part out in the fresh air. And this, not for the gain in bodily health alone–body and soul, heart and mind, are nourished with food convenient for them when the children are let alone, let to live without friction and without stimulus amongst happy influences which incline them to be good.”-Charlotte Mason

This is our 2008-2009 Kindergarten curriculum. It wasn’t until Term 2, that we began using what is not a part of our regular curriculum, the Ambleside Curriculum (also known as AO). As you can tell, we don’t go completely by AO.

Prime reason is that we started in Term 2 with this curriculum so some of the resources listed, was used before we move to a Charlotte Mason/AO so we don’t do “true” Charlotte Mason.

The advantage of homeschooling, is not to think that there is only one set of curriculum that you can or are stuck with using, but a matter of what will work for you and your child at that point of time.

For us, we’ve found that using the AO method that incorporates the Charlotte Mason method has been a great fit, although there are times we do tend to tweak it and include other resources.

Some of what we have listed, isn’t suggested or recommended by Ambleside and we may go to a truer form of “AO” with our first grade curriculum.

To view the AO guidelines for what is consider as Year 0, you can go here.

Please keep in mind, what follows is not our schedule, day by day, or week by week,  but what we are using over the year (we have year round schooling, broken into four quarters).

Our Main Resources for Kindergarten has been:

• Ambleside
• What Your Kindergarten Needs to Know by Ed Hirsch – If this is your first year homeschooling, I recommend this book; It gives a great overview of what kids should learn for each subject, activities and more.
  
• Core Knowledge Lesson Plans- Goes well and sometimes even based with the “What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know”
• Enchantedlearning.com for worksheets-Worth the 19.99 a year membership
• Holy Bible
• Formidable list of attainments for a 6 year old

Bible

• The New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes by Kenneth Taylor
  • Ambleside has a great recommendation for My First Bible in Pictures by Kenneth Taylor, with reverent, non-cartoonish color drawings by Richard and Francis Hook
• Rocket Readers
• Calvery Chapel has great printables and coloring pages
• Yahoo Groups recommended
  • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AmbleSide_Year0/
  • http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CM4EarlyYears/
• King James Version and NIV version (my bibles)

Character and Values

• List of Reference for Training in Habits of Virtue adapted by Montistrick, download pdf here
• Website to use with above: Virtues: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/6823/virtueintro.htm
• Book of Virtues by William Bartley
  

Language Arts

• Read Alouds
  • A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson
  • The Real Mother Goose illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright Mama Goose
• Reading
  • Original McGuffey Pictorial Eclectic Primer (Mott’s Version)-I recommend this version because it’s really geared more for kindergarten age, with more basic words that are dolch word friendly
  • Any of the Dick and Jane books-These are also great because most of us who can remember, probably read a few of these ourselves at one time or another.
• Phonics

• • Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons-EXCELLENT book to teach phoncs and pre-reading skills.
  • Dolch Word Lists from The School Bell, website.
• Writing/Copy Work
  
  • Handwriting worksheets to help with letter formation and re-inforce sounds presented in “Teach Your Child to Read”.
  • Copywork from Mother Goose, McGuffey’s Pictorial Primer

Math

• Time
• Shapes
• Money
• Basics of Addition/Subtraction-I have copywork that you can download from here, or you can do a search online for workbooks that you can buy
• Basic Shapes
• Patterns and Classifications

Science

• What Your Kindergarten Needs to Know by Ed Hirsch has a very informative science section outlining what your kindergartener needs to know
• Schola et Studium-Has a great outline you can download in pdf form to help guide you through “What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know”
• Topics included:
  • Weather
  • Water Cycle
  • Human Body
  • Plants
  • Insects

Nature Studies

• Burgess Book of Birds for Children by Thornton Burgess (From Internet Archive about the book)-Burgess Book of Birds for Children is a zoology book written in the form of a story featuring Peter Rabbit. Peter learns from his friend Jenny Wren all about the birds of North America, and we meet many of them in the Old Orchard, the Green Meadow, and the Green Forest.
• The History of Insects
• Handbook of Nature Study by Ann Comstock-Fre Download here if you don’t want to buy the book
• Yahoo Groups highly recommended
  • CM Nature Study
• Handbook of Nature Study Blog-written by a family who use this throughout the year (highly recommended to read, particulary if you are incoporating nature studies)
  • Beginning in Spring with a lapbook and study of Hummingbirds followed with a lapbook on bats in the summer

Social Studies

• Geography for Primary Grades by C.C. Long; If you prefer a word version, you can download it here
• Geography for Primary Grades  Workbook created by me to have “visual” worksheets to go with the book
• Maps
• Continents
• Community

Art

• Elements of Art using a powerpoint presentation I put together using a Core Knowledge lesson plan and chapter from,What Your Kindergarten Needs to Know by Ed Hirsch
  • Coloring Pages I made from selected art prints to go with above powerpoint presentation
  • Printable pdf version of powerpoint presentation if you chose not to use the ppt
• Art section from What Your Kindergarten Needs to Know by Ed Hirsch
• Kinderart.com is a fantastic site for art lessons, art lesson plans and more

Download a copy of our kindergarten curriculum here.

Love to hear from you, so feel free to leave a comment or send an email.

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