We decided to homeschool Gunnar.
We want him to learn, play in nature, and be as free as possible at 5 years of age.
So he goes to an outdoor Kindergarten twice per week to play with friends.
On the remaining days, I am his lead teacher (with help from my Mom Tappy and husband Alex, of course).
I absolutely love it.
But choosing the best program, was the most challenging part.
At first, I was underwhelmed with all the math curriculum choices.
Most like Saxon and Singapore math seemed textbook heavy and required loads of worksheets.
Oak Meadows gave a lighter approach but didn't meet all the core standards for kinder.
Ultimately, I went with Right Start Mathematics for its reliance on manipulatives and de-emphasis on counting.
Thus far, this unique program has been so fun for both of us.
And because I am adding more art to our lives, we've been homemaking most of the manipulatives.
We already owned an abacus which is a staple for this program but they want you to have one that groups 5's.
This skill of recognizing, or subitizing, quantities grouped in 5s is faster and more accurate than counting.
So we painted groups of 5's with some dark blue house paint we had left over.
Which served as a lovely reinforcing exercise for recognizing 5.
Plus, all three kiddos got to participate :)
The right-start math lessons also inspired me to incorporate them into yoga time as a family.
So I built yoga hopscotch in our living room so we can subitize numbers (the ability to instantly recognize the number of objects without actually counting them) with our whole body and get grounded at the same time using colorful rainbow masking tape from Amazon.
The goal is to place one body part for every square and color.
So you start with one leg (maybe tree pose) on red, then move to two legs or mountain on orange, continue to three body parts (or standing forward fold with one hand down, on yellow, and a lovely downward dog using both feet and hands (4) on green and so forth.
PS- Colorful rainbow masking tape is by far the best Amazon purchase I've made this school year for the enjoyment of both me and my kiddos :)
Yes, it's an affiliate link, and no, you don't have to pay any more money :)