Supplements for Kindergarten

For kindergarten this year, we have decided to use the curriculum, My Father's World, to homeschool our son.  While this is a complete curriculum, we have decided that he needs a little extra this year.  I have really enjoyed this curriculum, and our son is already starting to read and we are only 7 weeks into the program. That being said, I think each parent has to assess their child and see what needs to be added or taken away from a program to educate their child the best way possible.  This is a great thing about homeschooling: you can taper the program however you want! Each week, I am blogging about any "extras" I find to help make each unit more exciting.  To see a list of each unit, see here.  Below, I have listed below some extra material that we use each week as well.  We owned some of this before we started the school year, and I have added a few others along the way.

Singapore Math:  Essential Math, Book B
Last year, we completed a basic kindergarten math workbook that I picked up at Walmart.  It was helpful in counting to 20, basic addition and subtraction, etc.  I really wanted to find something that would challenge him a bit more, so I looked into the Singapore program.  Workbook A seemed to cover the same things that he already had learned, so I opted to just get Book B.  So far, it has been a good fit. It's a lot more challenging than the workbook he completed last year, but still age appropriate.  The workbooks are very affordable, and I would recommend both books A and B if your child has not completed any sort of math workbook yet.
*This has been one of the most important supplements we have added.

A Reason for Handwriting K
There are so many free print-ables you can find online for helping your child practice the letters of the alphabet, so this book isn't really necessary.  But, if you like to have all of your worksheets in one place, then this is a great book.  The child practices correctly writing his letters and then has a coordinating coloring sheet to go along with it.  The focus of this text is proper formation of letters and beginning sounds.  Hint: Look for a copy at Goodwill to save money!

I Can Draw Animals
We usually use this book once a week.  I let our son pick out an animal that he would like to draw and this book leads the child through a step-by-step instruction.  I don't even have to help him with this and he seems to enjoy it.

Meet the Sight Words
I never would have ordered this if it had not been on sale simply because of the expense.  I found it on Zulily on sale for $30 for Meet the Sight Words 3 DVD set AND Meet the Sight Words Easy Reader Books, which contains twelve books per level, totaling 36 books.  The dvd's seem a bit boring, but our son seems to enjoy them and it really has helped him learn his sight words.  The short books are a great start for teaching beginning reading as well.  Each dvd is divided into chapter selections, and each selection is about 5-6 minutes long, so you can control how many lessons they watch, etc.  We try to watch a few chapter selections each week.

 Bible: Big Truths for Little Kids
We use this book several times each week to add a little extra to our Bible time.  Each lesson in this devotional teaches children about the basic truths of the Christian faith, as it follows the lives of Caleb and Cassie.  I think the book, Big Truths for Young Hearts: Teaching and Learning the Greatness of God, looks really good too, and I would like to try it when my children are a little bit older.

Berenstain Bears' Big Book of Science and Nature
We owned this book before we started kindergarten this year, but it has been a fun book to use with our curriculum.  Our children love The Berenstain Bears, so they enjoy learning from this book.