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I have a new kindergartner this year and he is so excited at the thought of being in Kindergarten! I remember starting homeschool with my oldest as a kindergartner. I feel a lot less stress this time around! As always. one of the challenging parts about homeschooling is selecting a curriculum. We have been trying out a new kindergarten curriculum over the Summer called Kindergarten Stepping Stones by Kendall Hunt Religious Publishing. I get to share that review with you today!
(This is a sponsored post in behalf of Kendall Hunt Religious Publishing. I received free materials and am being compensated for my time in using and reviewing these products. All opinions are my own.)
About Stepping Stones Kindergarten Curriculum
Kindergarten Stepping Stones is a Christian (Adventist) curriculum that has nine literature-based units with different themes based on the books. We received one of the nine units for review. Each of the units is meant to be used over the span of a month. That themed unit includes three or four picture books, various lessons, and a Bible Story book.
With our curriculum set, we received two different teaching manuals, a CD-ROM with all of the masters for the worksheets and activities, and three picture books. The lessons cover a variety of instruction including Bible, writing, phonics, social studies, math, science, music, technology and crafts.
The lesson guides are set up with the picture books as the main focus. I have to say that I found the lesson guide a bit overwhelming and confusing at first!! But once I figured it out, there is so much included in it and so many fun things to teach and do. The confusing part to me was that it was divided by topic of study, not by lessons for the day. So for instance, it has all of the math lesson plans together for the whole unit. Then all of the language arts lesson plans together and so forth. Once I understood that, it made it easier to plan and decide what we would do for each part of the unit. I can see the benefits of this, though. You can plan out each subject individually.
Wonderfully Made: Kindergarten Curriculum Unit
As I mentioned at the beginning we received one of the units to review. The one I chose is Wonderfully Made and is all about our bodies. I loved doing this unit with my son. He was quite excited to learn all that was included and really enjoyed each part of the lessons. The picture books included were The Busy Body Book by Lizzy Rockwell, The Growing Story by Ruth Krauss and Happy Healthy Me by Robert Robinson.
This unit only included three books while some of the others include four. The Busy Body Book is divided into two parts for the unit. There is a lot of information about bodies in that book, like a beginning anatomy lesson for little kids, so they spread it out a bit. We spent most of our time learning from this section of the lessons, because that was what most excited my son!
His favorite part was cutting out all of the bones and muscles and attaching them to himself!! They make them with little flaps that can actually be taped around their arms and legs. The organs even are made to e attached to them. He thought this was the coolest! He saved them and re-used them multiple times making himself into a skeleton.
Thoughts on Stepping Stones
The Stepping Stones Kindergarten Curriculum is a complete and thorough curriculum for kindergarten. You would not need anything else and could have a wonderful year! I want to mention that it is meant for classrooms, but is very easily adaptable for a homeschool setting. I liked the themed units a lot and was impressed with the lesson materials and books included. My son enjoyed it, too. So that is a plus! He was always happy to do the lessons and even asked to do more.
We did not receive all of the religion materials covered with the units, but from what I read in the teacher guide it is adaptable to different denominations. You could easily teach it according to your own faith.
I give this one a big thumbs up!
What are you using for Kindergarten this year?
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