kindergarten curriculum picks for the 2019-2020 school year

Time is flying and somehow we are already halfway through Hudson’s kindergarten year (and our first year of homeschool) and we are LOVING it! I am so happy with our decision to homeschool and I’ve been incredibly pleased with the curriculum we chose for this year as well.  I’ve had so many friends ask what curriculum we use so here’s the scoop on our 2019 homeschool kindergarten curriculum picks.

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Main Curriculum: Classical Conversations

I knew before we started homeschooling that I wanted us to participate in a co-op of some sort.  (for those not familiar that’s a group of homeschool families that meet, usually once a week, to do group classes and activities)  We have several options in our area but my neighbor invited me to a Classical Conversations open house and I fell in love!

Classical Conversations uses the classical method (clearly…;) ) to educate students.  Young children like Hudson memorize lots of facts (math equations, history sentences, science facts, parts of speech, Latin conjugations, etc.) that they will revisit and expand on as they get older.  CC utilizes a lot of songs to help the kids learn and since Hudson loves singing I knew this would be right up his alley.

This isn’t a full review of CC or a “What is Classical Conversations” post – I’ll save that for another day!   But since we’re talking about curriculum picks obviously this was a big portion of that.

The Classical Conversations curriculum is pretty comprehensive since it touches on a little bit of grammar, Latin, history, geography, science, and math each week. The only additional things that need to be added to CC are a language arts curriculum and a math curriculum and I’ll share what I’ve chosen for those in just a minute.

Find a CC community near you here

More about our CC curriculum in these videos:

Language Arts: Logic of English

I’m a former math teacher and fairly analytical by nature so you can imagine that a curriculum that has the word “logic” in it will get my attention quickly!  I researched several language arts curriculums but Logic of English was the clear winner.  I absolutely love that it teaches them the logic behind the English language (believe it or not, our language makes much more sense once you learn the logic behind it!) and has a strong emphasis on phonics rather than just teaching sight words.

Logic of English is very game based and encourages lots of movement with gross motor activities.  There is a workbook but the workbook pages are very short.  Most of the practice comes from the games so it’s fun and perfect for those little ones that need to wiggle and be active!

Hudson started with Foundations A, which he will finish before the end of December and then we’ll start Foundations B in January (Foundations A and B is generally what most kindergarteners do).

LOE comes with a handwriting component and you can choose either manuscript or cursive.  I had just finished working hard with Hudson over the summer on his print using Handwriting without Tears so I couldn’t imagine switching to cursive.  HOWEVER.  After doing some reading I realized that the manuscript that LOE teaches was very different from the Handwriting Without Tears printing so either one we chose would have him learning another version of writing.  Also I’d heard that cursive is actually easier for many children because it has a continuous flow instead of having to pick up the pencil for each letter.

You can guess where this is going…we decided to go with the cursive version.  And that has been an excellent choice!  Hudson absolutely LOVES learning to write the new letters and his penmanship is actually quite good.  I’m constantly impressed with how easily he has picked up cursive!

And in case you’re concerned, the handwriting portion is only a small part of LOE so if cursive is a total bust for your child or they are moving much slower with the handwriting than they are with the reading part, you can ditch it and pick it up later, go at a slower pace, etc.

Order Logic of English here

Here’s my LOE unboxing video so you can see what comes in the curriculum:

Math: RightStart Math

And now for math!  As I mentioned earlier, I’m a former high school math teacher so you can imagine that picking the right math curriculum was very important to me and something that I put a lot of research and thought into.

After reading tons of reviews, watching YouTube videos, even ordering a workbook that I thought was a strong contender and then sending it back, I finally decided on RightStart Math.

What initially drew me to RightStart Math is that it’s very manipulatives based and game based.  It uses a hands-on approach and has a big emphasis on mental math.  All things I feel are so, so important!!

Also, in my research I found it to be a big favorite among several other former math teachers (including the author of the Preschool Math at Home book that we’d used and loved in preschool).

Hudson really likes it!  He’s not *quite* as crazy about it as he is Logic of English (he just really, really loves learning cursive so that’s his favorite part of school right now!) but he enjoys math too.  He loves that there are so many manipulatives to use and I love that it’s teaching him a good, deep understanding of math.

Two cons that RSM has is that it’s expensive at first (you buy a large manipulatives kit that is pricey compared to just about every other math curriculum out there, but once you’ve bought it you don’t ever have to buy any other manipulatives again so subsequent years mainly just require one book) and it’s not going to be a grab-and-go curriculum since you use several manipulatives every lesson (so not easy to just stick a workbook in your bag and have your child work on it while you’re out and about).  I definitely think it’s worth it but those are some things to consider that might be prohibitive to you.  I’ll do a full review later but I wanted to mention those in case you’re considering it.

Order Right Start Math here

Check out what all comes with the RightStart Math curriculum here:

Bible: Bible Story Book

This last one is not an actually curriculum, per say, but I want to mention it too.  We have been reading through The Beginners Bible for our daily Bible lessons and we work on learning memory verses (via a Charlotte Mason type scripture memory box) as well as other Bible facts (via various songs, usually).

We also got the book Indescribable, a devotional book about God and science that aligns well with the science topics we cover in CC.    Eventually I want to add in a Bible curriculum but for our first year I wanted to keep it as simple as possible so we’re sticking to just reading Bible stories and not doing any workbooks or anything like that yet.

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And that’s it!  We add in supplemental activities that go along with what we’re learning in Classical Conversations as well as some other fun learning activities like our monthly Kiwi Crates and that sort of thing.  But as far as our main 2019 homeschool kindergarten curriculum picks, there you go!

Prefer videos?  Here’s a video I made sharing what we’re doing for kindergarten

To see what we used for our relaxed, casual homeschool preschool, check out that post here.