There are a million ways to do Kindergarten. Public school, private school, university-model, co-op, distance learning, and more. We’ve decided on homeschool for our Kindergartener this year (which worked out well with the timing of our recent move). Schooling with 3 under 5 in an apartment is challenging, but it actually takes up less than an hour of our day and is a beautiful part of our family culture. And less than one hour a day?! This gives us immense freedom to explore, play, experiment, and enjoy our days together.

How do we get this done in under an hour?

Learning is all day in everyday life. “Doing school” for under an hour a day by no means limits our learning to that one hour! We are always learning. We work on building good habits, we cook, read loads of books, play board games, get as much outside play as we can, and constantly learn how to interact with others in loving, respectful ways. Education has been described as “… an atmosphere, a discipline, and a life” (Charlotte Mason, an education reformer). That means my children are constantly learning from the environment they are immersed in.
Quality over quantity. We prioritize our most important subjects: bible, reading, and math. Anything else we accomplish is just gravy! This helps us to prioritize focused attention to our main subjects rather than expect a long school session with multiple subjects for little brains with short attention spans. Being able to focus is an academic skill (and life skill) just as important as our core subjects.
School time is anytime. Formal “school time” for our Kindergartener can happen during naps, after the boys go to bed, or even on the go! Our gym offers a very generous childcare time, so occasionally I can finish my workout, pick up our Kindergartener early, and knock out a reading lesson in the cafe area before we pick up the boys. At home, school can look like coloring at the table next to us, or playing with bowls of rice and scoops on the floor, or sometimes participating with scaled down counting or sorting activities that apply to our work that day.
Family style learning (everyone participates). While formal lessons are reserved for our Kindergartener, we have a family style learning time when we all learn together, focused on the same content at the same time. Specifically, we utilize something called Morning Time. Morning Time is an intentional time when everyone in the family can come together and learn about specific priorities for your family. A typical Morning Time includes bible reading, hymns, and catechism. But it can expand to include the arts, read alouds, and any other subject that you want to start your day with.
- We use Brighter Day Press’s Morning Time curriculum that included the topics and resources I wanted for our family, was open and go (requires little to no prep), and adaptable to my kid’s ages. I highly recommend both Morning Time Volume I, or Volume II if you want to start Morning Time but you don’t know where to begin.

Kindergarten Curriculum Picks

I only use 3 specific tools for Kindergarten formal schooling: 1) All About Reading, 2) Secret Stories and 3). Right Start Math

All About Reading, Level 1 (20 minutes a day)

What it is: All About Reading (AAR) is phonics based, lightly scripted, highly visual, interactive reading program. It includes a Teacher’s Manual, student activity book, 3 texts filled with decodable stories, letter and sound cards, and letter tiles (or the letter tiles app).

Is it Brain Friendly? Check! AAR is a brain friendly reading program. It is multisensory, which means your student employs multiple senses during each lesson (hearing, sight, and touch) to enhance learning and improve retention. By activating different brain pathways, neural connections are strengthened and learning is deeply wired. As a researcher and educator with a neuro background, I love finding programs like this that tap into brain based learning principles.

What I love about it:

It’s not workbook centered. Workbook based phonics curriculums are great for fun extra work but they demand fine muscle coordination. Many 4 year olds and 5 year olds have not developed the fine motor skills necessary to do the pencil work necessary to complete handwriting assignments. Does that mean we don’t work on handwriting? By no means! We have a fun handwriting book that we use because my daughter is physically capable of correct pencil holding. But my 4 year old son? He listens and soaks up much of the phonics we review and will likely be capable of reading much sooner than he is able to write legibly. That’s okay! We will work on handwriting more extensively when it is developmentally appropriate.
It’s not just brain friendly, it’s EASY to follow. Once you’ve set up your activity pages, it is open and go! I first heard about AAR from April Stevenson at thefivegirlschoolhouse.com and @fivegirlschoolhouse on Instagram. She has saved stories about how she sets up her AAR binders of activity sheets so that they are easy and able to be re–used for multiple children. I followed her instructions on binder set up to the letter (pun intended).
The Teacher’s Manual is an easy to read, wealth of information. It includes specific tips, tricks, background information, and the “why” behind the lessons. The appendix includes lists of games, activities, snacks and rewards, and creative word play for even more reading fun.

The Secret Stories (combined with AAR)

“The teachers at my school can’t stop talking about Secret Stories“ my friend and elementary teacher raved. I had never heard of it before. I dug deeper into this program and the more I’ve learned, the more I want to share it!

What it is: “Secret Stories are the secret sounds that some letters make when they get together.” The Secret Stories are a brain-based phonics tool created by teacher Katie Gardener. It is not an independent phonics program–it is used as an adjunct to whatever reading program you choose.

There are many rules in the English language and many many many exceptions to the rules. Letters make one sound in this scenario, a different sound in this scenario, and wait, ANOTHER sound when they get together with this other letter. This leads to confusion and an emphasis on sight words rather than the decoding skills needed to master phonetic based reading. When your child asks “But WHY do those letters make that sound when they are next to each other?” Do you find yourself saying “They just do” and get frustrated at the arbitrary rules? The Secret Stories are a set of stories that explain all of these why’s.

Here’s an example:

“These two love to ride the train down the track, chugging along as they go- “CH-CH-CH-CH! CH-CH-CH-CH!” And that’s the sound they make (church, chin, chew)

BUT…sometimes they pretend to be the train conductor and make his hard C (or K) sound instead! (choir, schedule, ache)

Brain Friendly? Check! “Secret Stories® aligns phonics instruction with how our brains actually learn best, engaging more neural pathways for stronger learner connections and easier skill retrieval. Weaving abstract letter sounds into stories makes them interesting, activating the brain’s positive emotional state and hooking the information into a strong memory-holding template.” —Katie Gardener (Educator and creator of The Secret Stories)

What I love about it:

It fits seamlessly with many phonics based reading programs. We combine Secret Stories flashcards with our All About Reading Level 1 curriculum and love to point out the “secrets” we find while we work.
Visual cues. If it’s easy on the eyes, it’s easy on the brain. The flashcards and posters are a big part of The Secret Stories program, because they provide visual prompts for that letter combination. They can reference the visuals while reading and writing, giving them a big boost in competence, comprehension, and confidence.
The Facebook Support Group has FREE file uploads to help you incorporate the secret stories! Check it out here: Science of Reading meets Science of Learning with Secret Stories Phonics. The group is monitored by the creator Katie Gardener and is full of educators who share their experiences and ideas. We use a free version of the Word Collection Book, found in the files of the group, as a way for my kids to look out for “secrets” in the words they see every day. When they find it, we get their collection book, turn to the page for that particular secret, and then record the new word.

RightStart Math, Level A (20 minutes)

I learned about RightStart Math from a master’s prepared teacher at a homeschool development event. The talk was all about teaching math with an integrated and holistic approach. She taught at a rigorous school which mandated an older, established math curriculum (Saxon Math). She taught from Saxon, and her children who attended the school were also required to use it. But the part that grabbed my attention was that she personally supplemented her children’s math at home with RightStart Mathematics. Instead of “drowning in math worksheets” she and her boys played math games, made shapes, and had fun working their way through the concepts. As a professional educator, she wanted her own children to have RightStart.

What is it? An evidence-based, comprehensive math program that emphasizes visualization of quantities, discourages rote counting (simply reciting numbers in sequential order vs. determining quantity), and provides visual strategies (mental images) for memorizing math facts. Understanding is emphasized over completion. It focuses on chunking in base groups of 5 and 10, a hallmark of common core math education. It balances both conceptual teaching and procedural practice with a Montessori-like approach.

Brain Friendly? Check! Remember, If it’s easy on the eyes, it’s easy on the brain. Children (and adults) thrive on visual representation when learning new concepts. RightStart Math is heavily focused on visual representations and physical manipulatives to understand core math concepts. In fact, RightStart does NOT emphasize counting as a primary way of learning math. It heavily utilizes games for practicing math concepts and learning math facts which increase motivation and interest-led learning. RightStart also prioritizes problem solving. And, because it’s a multisensory program, it uses visuals, songs, and touching physical manipulatives to learn in a more holistic (and effective) way.

What I love about it:

It’s not workbook centered. I’ve already mentioned the developmental pitfalls of an early workbook focus (see above under All About Reading). RightStart Level A is a hands-on program, so it is not directly tied to a student’s ability to write. Since math is inherently practical and embedded in our everyday life, I want to provide a conceptual understanding and foundation first. Will we add more paperwork as we progress? Absolutely! And as the levels progress, RightStart incorporates more worksheets for review. But for beginners, particularly in Level A, it is an interactive approach.
It promotes independent thinking, a hallmark of raising a competent adult.
- The National Research Council published a report on the future of mathematics education called Everybody Counts. Here’s what they have to say about thinking and math: “More than most other school subjects, mathematics offers special opportunities for children to learn the power of thought as distinct from the power of authority. This is a very important lesson to learn, an essential step in the emergency of independent thinking.”
- Here is an example of this principle on pg. 3 of Level A:
  - “Place 3 objects on one tray and 2 objects on a second tray. Ask the child if she agrees that there are 3 objects on each tray. It is very important that the child feel free to disagree with you during math time. After a short discussion about the number of objects, add one more object and then ask her if she agrees that they now both have 3.”
It emphasizes games! “Games are to math as books are to reading” —Dr. Joan Cotter, creator of RightStart Math. There are math games incorporated into Level A AND a separate book of math games that many teachers have told me they utilize in their classrooms or homeschools. A plethora of research studies in the past two decades have highlighted the benefits of math games. Using math games to reinforce learning can:

Takeaway

Total time for “formal” academic work: 40 minutes a day. If we add in our Morning Time as a family, we reach 1 hour a day! Even if we add extras we can finish quickly and practice focusing well. I prefer homeschooling with a few, carefully chosen, evidence-based, high quality curriculums. We do occasionally supplement with fun add-ons, but our core subjects are laying a firm foundation for future work. In review, here are our core curriculums: 1) All about Reading, 2) Secret Stories, and 3) Right Start Math. Too add beauty and truth we add Morning Time. For fun handwriting work we use A Reason for Handwriting. These are supported by an everyday learning lifestyle.