Kindergarten is such a fun grade in our homeschool! At our house, kindergarten involves a lot of play and activity, while slowly introducing seat work. Kindergarten Complete from Homeschool Complete was a good match for the goals we set for this stage of learning.
What Is Kindergarten Complete?
Like the title implies, this is a complete kindergarten curriculum. We received a digital copy of the first semester, so this review will be speaking to the lessons in that.
Specifically, I received a teacher manual and a student book for this semester.
Kindergarten Complete is Unit Study based. This means the students study all of the subjects in thematic units. If the theme is farm animals, students read books about farm animals, have farm animals on their counting pages, and learn about animals in science.
It’s a fun way to learn, and helps students really build connections between subjects. After all, math is not an isolated subject. You use it in science, you have to read in math, you use math in so many life skills.
The same can be said for any subjects. They are all connected and related.
Here are the themes covered during the first semester:
How Did We Use This?
I worked on this curriculum with my five-year-old son. He is enjoying being in school like his older siblings.
There are many suggested activities for each day. Remember that you don’t have to do them all! Pick and choose the ones that meet your child where they are, and don’t let school be too overwhelming, especially at this tender age.
There were some great routines suggested, like a calendar time and reciting the pledges to the American flag, the Christian flag, and the Bible.
These were routines I did more when my older kids were younger, and they’ve sort of slipped off our radar as they outgrew them. And I realize I never really implemented them again with this next batch of youngsters!
So it was nice to get some basic routines back into our homeschool. The littles are benefiting nicely from it!
The Teacher Manual
The teacher manual is an essential component of this curriculum. It weaves everything together. It also provides tons of teaching strategies, encouragement, and practical tips that I think would be especially beneficial for a first time homeschooling mom.
Here’s a peek at the layout. I appreciate it’s simplicity in presentation, and completeness in content.
The Student Book
The student book contains workpages and activities for students. It’s easy to print out what you need – you can do this a week at a time to avoid having to print every day.
There were some worksheet style activities, and also fun projects like this monkey craft. Simon is cutting it in the first picture, and it’s partially assembled in the next. I forgot to take a pic of the finished monkey, but it was pretty cute with more details on the head and a face!
What I Thought About this Curriculum
I enjoyed the variety of activities in this curriculum. It wasn’t boring to work through, and I like how it works in themes.
I appreciate that even though there were some colored aspects, everything looked decent when printed on our black and white machine.
There are some fun ideas for learning, and some great tips to help you out along the way.
Homeschool Complete has many other amazing products available, including complete levels for older children and stand alone unit studies. To learn more about their offerings, please click on the banner below.
