Finding what works best for you is the most important, but here is what I do FWIW.
Right now I have 4 students in 2 grade levels. I pair them off starting in Kindergarten for my own sanity. : )
I do four subjects for Kindergarten: math, reading, handwriting, and religion. Other things are only as time and desire permits. If they're more interested in building forts or playing house than doing "school", I let them. If they want to sit in on some history or science with the older children, that's fine too. (My oldest 2 didn't even have the option of extra school ... we did the four main subjects only.)
Religion - Religion books are about the only things I've used from OLVS. I've found the content of their religion books to be great, but I often toss their approach (ex. copy these 35 repetitive questions into your notebook and answer them) and just use the text itself. I don't want religion to be tedious. Chats with God's Little Ones is good for K. We also have lots of saint picture books like the Fr. Lovasik books that we read on their feast days.
Math - I use RightStart Math. Many homeschool teachers don't want to have to touch a math book and go with something more hands-off, but I enjoy math and have enjoyed using RightStart. Before my 5th and 6th students begin K, I plan to move my oldest 2 on to Saxon. I've never used it, but it seems to be the #1 pick, especially for older grades.
Reading - I use a single book called Phonics Pathways to teach reading from grades K-3.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1118022432/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1118022432&linkCode=as2&tag=httpwwwchanco-20I grade K, we alternate between reading the pages and then spelling the words we just learned. We use magnetic letters at first for spelling and then move on to a wipe board as their handwriting progresses.
My children have all done well with this one, $20 book (which I actually bought for half that at a homeschooler's garage sale), but if ever I needed to try something different, I've read good things about the All About Reading program.
More Reading - I usually don't officially have books in our school plans. We participate in the Pizza Hut Book-it program throughout the school year and then the library's summer reading program. So, everyone usually has reading goals based on those. One way or another, we're starting into reading BOB Books about 1/2 way through K. Before (and after) that, they're read to regularly by either myself or their older siblings. Before they can do very much book reading, I spend a couple of weeks doing sight word worksheets that I found online as the Phonics Pathways book doesn't spend very much time on sight words.
Handwriting - I use Kindergarten Handwriting for Young Catholics from Seton along with pages that I print myself online.
http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/Again, the Seton book is handy, but much too boring IMO. We do a page or two of each new letter before incorporating that letter into words. (The book gives you 5 pages of each letter, no words, and encourages drawings and whatnot which we only do on occasion.)
I have my 2nd group of students learning cursive in K-1 as well, but I'm not sure what sort of difference that will make in the long-run.
I'll come back and tell you what we do for first grade later today.
Topic: Homeschool Courses and Curriculum (Read 4447 times)