Art – is easy, get lots of art supplies and let them go at it! When you want something more structured, here are two books that explore different artists and styles and the one has art project ideas in the style of the great artists.
Music – piano lessons (at home for beginners when they show interest – sometimes not until 1st grade) and when you want kids to learn more about the history of music, this one has bios and includes a CD of samples. We also learn about instruments, types of music, make our own instruments, etc. The church music is great for ideas on learning to read music, familiar tunes for the kids, etc.
Science – we get more involved later on, but for kindergarden we’re all about Magic School Bus!
Social Studies – I have a different curriculum we start for first grade but for kindergarden we do local social studies. We learn about our state, neighboring states, our country, continents, oceans, the globe (okay, not so local) and then we do field trips: fire station, courthouse, police station, library. So think local – draw a map of your house, your lot, your neighborhood. Then explore out from there!
Literature – pick your favorite books from when you were a kid and read them aloud. Then we do a story chart – talk about character (who), setting (where & when), plot (what & why.) Discuss intro, climax, conclusion. Big themes that will come back again and again over the years! This is an intro to narrating, when we read something and have them summarize for us what they read – for now we’ll just ask what do they remember most, what was something funny they liked, etc. (Helping it stick in their minds.)
Language – we focus just on reading and handwriting for kindergarden. If the kids want to tell stories we’ll have them dictate and we’ll record (as we don’t want their imaginations slowed by their limited handwriting skills!) We’ll also let them record themselves telling stories on video. We love Starfall and LeapFrog DVDs
Math – we use Saxon math, as it’s K through high school calculus. We actually skip K and start with Math 1 (Max is ready, believe me!) This is the whole shebang:
But we found the teacher guide used and purchased the student workbook for $20 (there are two parts.) The other stuff is optional. There are a ton of math curriculums out there (Becky has used others so ask her) and you can also just buy a math workbook for this kindergarden year and it would cover the basics. Like these – Kindergarden Math Workbooks
We also start the day with circle time which truly covers almost all the concepts they are expected to learn in kindergarden anyway. The great thing being it’s teaching the younger kids as well!
The top ones are our “specials” and we do them once a week. Then language and math we do 3x a week, since we school year round. Language & math together shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes a day for kindergarden or first grade. I don’t include in that half hour the time on our special subject or the reading aloud we do every day. Plus we make sure the kids always have access to the box of math manipulatives, art supplies, the science box (with magnifying glass, empty plastic jars with lids for collecting, and the stuff they’ve gathered like rocks, sticks, dead bugs!) So on their own they are exploring multiple “subjects” each day but formally we just focus on language, math, and one extra. And reading, always reading! We visit the library at least every week and encourage them to check out whatever looks fine. If we’re focusing on a specific subject I’ll check out a lot of books and leave them around, the kids inevitably explore them and ask me to read them aloud. But then THEY are initiating (or at least they think they are) and it’s sticking. If they express an interest in something, like C with his greek gods, then we run with it – we’ll make meals, learn about the culture, look up art project ideas, etc.
For record keeping I’ve tried a variety of teacher record books, online notes, regular old note paper and pencil. There are online options for tracking your class projects and kids’ progress but honestly, I gave up! I know where the kids are in their lessons for math & language and we keep a log of books we’ve read, but I only write down what they’ve down every semester or so. I know by the end they’ll all have completed the language book, Saxon math, the history, etc. Daily notes was just getting tedious for me, between the four kids. Texas doesn’t require any reporting or testing so there’s no one that needs to know we did this science experiment, read this book, learned about this artist, etc. I kept much more meticulous notes when we got started, but over the years I realized I know what my children have covered and what they still need work on so I know what we need to focus… it’s a work in progress, always. 🙂