2022-2023 Homeschool Curriculum Overview: Kindergarten

August is one of my favorite months of the year because it means that we are back to school. There is something exciting about the new curriculum, the new school supplies, getting back into a solid routine, and the eagerness of learning something we didn’t know yet. The other thing I love about August is that it is the ushering of fall, which is my favorite season.

This is an exciting year at Mars Hall Legacy Academy because our youngest is finally officially starting school. That’s right, folks, we have a kindergartener in the house now.

If you have been around here for any length of time you know that we have used My Father’s World curriculum for quiet some time now. The kindergarten curriculum is great because it is centered around daily life. It is more play focused with just a minimal amount of sitting at the table doing busy work. Today I’m going to share a bit of what to expect when using this program.

My Father’s World From A to Z

The MFW Kindergarten curriculum consists of 28 weeks of learning. The first 10 days (the first 2 weeks) are an introduction to the creation story that is found in Genesis chapter 1 and 2. Because this curriculum is entirely biblically based the creators have begun with the foundational story of creation. This also gets the kiddos into a fun routine of listening to a daily story or two, having a craft activity, and a couple of other intentional learning focused times during the day. If you have done a preschool program that covers this foundational introduction you can skip these two weeks (That is what I ended up doing with my oldest who is now about to start 7th grade!)

Once you are through the first 10 days of introduction the next 26 weeks will take you through the alphabet. Along with each letter is a theme of the week. This is wrapping up language arts, math, and some science concepts all into one nice pretty package that doesn’t overwhelm you or your little learners.

Rather than beginning at the first letter of the alphabet the curriculum begins with the more commonly used letters in the alphabet for the first three weeks, then we add in a vowel. After about six weeks or so of learning the student has been introduced to enough letters and their sounds to begin blending short words together to begin a gentle approach to reading and spelling.

Topics That Will Be Studied

Since this program focuses on the 26 letters of the alphabet there are 26 topics that get focused on. Those topics are:

• Sun (Space)
• Moon
• Leaf (Trees)
• Apple (Fall Harvest)
• Nest (Animal Homes)
• Turtle
• Us (Five Senses)
• Dinosaurs
• Octopus (Ocean Life)
• Water (the water cycle)
• Insects
• Goat (Farm Animals)
• Cow (Farm Animals)
• Horse (Farm Animals)
• Elephant (Wild Animals)
• Penguin (Wild Animals)
• Kangaroo (Wild Animals)
• Zebra (Wild Animals)
• Rock
• Jewels
• Butterfly (Life Cycles)
• Frog (Life Cycles)
• FoX (the X sound is a challenging one!)
• Vegetables (Growing and being healthy)
• Quail (Birds)
• Yellow (Colors)

This is the order in which the letters are learned but as you can see there is a broad array of things that are covered within each weekly unit.

Supplies Needed for MFW Kindergarten

The teacher’s guide suggests gathering 27 file folders, each labeled with the corresponding letter/unit topic and use these folders to hold the weekly worksheets, craft instruction, and any other fun items that go with the unit, such as magazine clippings, pictures, brochures, small books, and other ideas on how to engage with the topic. This is helpful to have so that when you just happen to come across something that might go with the “Butterfly” unit but you are still in the “Goat” unit all you have to do is drop that item into the correct folder and it is there and waiting for you when you are in need of it. It also helps when well meaning grandparents, aunts, uncles, or friends come across something they think might be useful when your knee deep in something else and can’t really take the time to focus on the item. You can also do the same thing on your computer if you would rather find more digital resources. Just create a book mark folder with 27 individually labeled folders. Then when you come across a link for a great resource on wild animals you can just bookmark it in the right folder and you ready to go when it is time to plan out that lesson.

You will also need some fun textured letters, a Bible, all your typical school supplies, and a library card. There are quiet a few fun read aloud book recommendations and as much as we would all probably like to go buy up all the books sometimes that just isn’t financially possible or sometimes we are limited on our storage space. (Both of those problems in my case!) Luckily we have a great children’s library here in our town so even if the library doesn’t have some of the recommended books on the list there is always a great selection of fun books that will go with the weekly theme. (PRO TIP: Make friends with your librarians! They are the best homeschool resource you could ever ask for!)

Some Final Thoughts

Kindergarten is one of my favorite years to teach. This will be my third time teaching this level and it is always so much fun. This is a time where those little sponge brains begin to soak up everything around them so I like to really embrace the love of learning during kindergarten. I am a firm believer that if I can really capture my children’s hearts and their love of learning and engage their curiosity then as they grow and we move from stage to stage they will continue to be curious and enjoy learning.

So there it is! Kindergarten with My Father’s World. Come back next week and I will be sharing all about what we will be doing and using for 5th and 7th grade!