Homeschool Planning 2012-2013

I have begun to plan our first "official" homeschool year: kindergarten. I am super excited and may possibly be going a little overboard.  ;) There is an incredible amount of information, resources and free printables out there! We also have an insane amount of awesome iPad apps that are educational and fun (and most are free)! 

I keep going back and forth between using an all-inclusive bought curriculum and just collecting various resources to cover the subjects and skills required. I am pretty sure I will be doing the latter.  I just cannot justify paying for curriculum for kindergarten when so much is available for free and the core standards are easily met by these mostly free resources. I am gathering several extensive lists of standards/what a kindergartner should know. I will use the core standards to make sure we cover everything expected. 

I do have some purchased items that I've gathered in the past. A couple of years ago I bought Hooked on Phonics Kindergarten because I had an awesome coupon code and couldn't pass it up. We have used it a little and Nehemiah enjoys it. I also have a used copy of Teach your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons.  Nehemiah has not enjoyed the 10-15 lessons we have done so far in that book (because of the redundancy and it being stuff he already knew). He has the basics of reading down already just by us reading a lot and practicing words together. He can sound out CVC words and knows many sight words. I am not sure which program I am going to use for reading yet. I know I need to decide and stick to it! We will also continue to "play" www.starfall.com. 

For organizing and gathering worksheets, I am starting by making a manilla folder for each week of the school year (36 weeks, 36 folders). I will be doing all of my printing and laminating at once and file it according to which week we will use it. Today I made a board on Pinterest titled Kindergarten and repinned some things out of my general Homeschool board. I also bought a new ink cartridge for the printer because I'm going to need it!  :) 

I'll update every so often to share how I am coming along in my plans, in case anyone is interested. If you are a teacher or homeschooler and have tips, advice or resources please pass them along to me! Thanks in advance!