Kindergarten Q & A

I was so excited to hear how excited y’all are for Kindergarten too! It sounds like there’s a good group of us headed to K together this year! 🙂 In response to a handful of emails and DM’s I decided to write one big blog post with our FAQS. If you’re wondering something and I missed it feel free to email me at hello@alittlelearner.com 

When do you plan to start?

We will start the first week in September. I know technically that’s “late” and it coincides with Labor Day so we will be flexible with expectations. Our calendar for the year will look different so starting in September will suit fine since we’ll do school year round as opposed to a traditional calendar.

Why did you choose to do year round? Don’t you want Summer off?

The calendar we’re using this year starts in September runs for three months through November and we have the whole month of December off. We’ll pick back up in January and run through March- take April off. Then will finish out the year starting in May going through July. Combined with a couple educational weekend trips we’ll get in the full 180 days. We’ll have time and space throughout the year to enjoy (Christmas in December) and to relax/build up new creativity (April and August.) 

What curriculum are you using?

We aren’t using a specific curriculum this year. I’m sure I’ll pick a curriculum in future grades but for Kindergarten I wanted to focus on making learning engaging and developing her heart to love exploring through education. I’m using the Common Core standards to guide what we will do and mapped out a basic plan for our year. (You can read about that here)  I’ll plan lessons each week from the curriculum map with the goal of learning each of those objectives/subjects by the end of the year. 

What planner are you using?

I LOVE the planner I’m using! It’s simple and easy to modify and adjust for teaching at home. I include our family plans and meal plans along with lessons all in one planner.  You can find it at Target or on Amazon here

Do you have a school supply list?

I have a few basics we always get: primary journal, crayons (lots), glue (even more), construction paper, safety scissors (if you don’t have some already), regular pencils, watercolors, dry erase markers, and a plastic folder. 

How are you going to teach kindergarten to your oldest with your other two around? 

Flexibility is the key and mini lessons make all the difference. It’s not reasonable to ask her to sit and directly teach for 6 hours. They don’t even do that in “real” school. 😉 We will do a lot of activities all together- read aloud, hands on activities, etc. I’ll do a daily mini lesson (5-8 minutes) in literacy, math, and social studies or science. In addition we’ll organically sprinkle in activities like picture study, composer study, French and Poetry. Singing together is another fun way we can all learn together too. (Basically we’ll learn French in song form)  I plan to try a morning basket routine to easily keep those subjects in the loop. 

What is a Morning Basket?

There are a number of different takes on a Morning Basket. Here’s what I’m planning to start off with: A small basket with our Children’s Bible, Gospel ABC set, a picture for our picture study, a couple stories within that month’s theme, and any flashcards we’ll go over (alphabet, sight words, etc.) This is how we’ll start the day. After breakfast we’ll comfortably settle in with our morning basket, read, sing, and review what we’re learning. From there we’ll break out into hands on activities with manipulatives or arts and crafts, etc. 

Will you be using your preschool curriculum?

Sadie (3) is going to do preschool this year so she’ll have some activities specially tailored to her skills. I’ll pull some from the preschool curriculum and modify the things I do with Macie Jane to prepare lessons for her. 

Will you be sharing your kindergarten activities and plans? 

I plan to share the things we do as we do them on my website and mostly through instagram. I’ll also prepare monthly themed packets to supplement teaching and post them on my resource page. However, what I’m most excited to share is our Little Learner Through the Year Notebook. It’s still in production and I’m working out the details but I hope to share more VERY soon! 

Any other questions? Always feel free to email me hello@alittlelearner.com or comment below! I hope you’ll enjoy following along with our new adventure!