Homeschooling

Kindergarten Homeschooling Schedule Using Timberdoodle’s Elite Kit

August 29, 2022
kindergarten homeschooling schedule timberdoodle

We recently started homeschooling our two boys – our oldest is in Kindergarten (5yo) and our youngest is preschool-aged (3yo). As I searched for a homeschooling curriculum that fit our needs, there were a few things I was looking for:

  • Strong STEM-based curriculum
  • Incorporates games
  • Emphasis on problem solving and critical thinking skills
  • Bonus points for faith-based curriculum

As I reviewed what Timberdoodle offered, it checked all of our boxes, and more. Not only did it offer a strong STEM-based curriculum, the elite kit also includes a plethora of games, building/engineering tools, critical thinking workbooks, as well as offering faith-based options for social studies and science.

For my oldest son, we chose Timberdoodle’s Kindergarten Elite curriculum kit. Which, I have to tell you, has A TON of amazing material. Probably more than we’ll ever use in a year.

Over the summer, we started lightly implementing the curriculum in order to ease ourselves into a homeschooling schedule. But now that it’s officially the start of the school year, we are attempting to utilize the whole curriculum.

Disclosure: I only recommend products I would use myself and all opinions expressed here are my own. This post contains affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, I may earn a small commission when you buy through the links on this page.

Here’s what an average day (so far) looks like for us with the Timberdoodle Kindergarten kit:

7:30am – kids’ green light turns on, they can come out of their rooms and play with their morning boxes (see more about this below)

8:15am – breakfast & short devotional (we’re using this book right now)

8:30am – Reading & Math (~20 min each), critical thinking (~10 min)

9:30am – weekly add-on subject (science, geography, art, building activity, emotional intelligence)

10:00am – snack then free play while mama works OR other activity (homeschooling co-op, field trip, park, etc.)

11:30am – clean up, get lunch ready

12:00pm – lunch, reading time or play a game

12:30pm – quiet time

2:00pm – clean up time

2:30pm – TV time

3:00pm – play time

6:00pm – dinner

7:00pm – bedtime routine

Here’s how we rotate our “add-on” subjects:

Monday – Geography/History (we’ll do the world map puzzle, a maze from Around the World Mazes, and/or a couple pages from the Geography workbook, Here and There, or My Story K)

Tuesday – Science (experiment from Show Me Science Kit and/or read Look Inside My Body book)

Wednesday – Emotional Intelligence (“What’s Going on Here?” cards or Happy, Sad, Feeling Glad book)

Thursday – Art (Making Animals Air Dough Kit, I Can Doodle Rhymes book, Animals and Their Homes Kit, Aquarellum Animal Postcards, or Bug Scratch boards)

Friday – Building activity from ThinkPlay Gears Extreme + handwriting

My 5yo painting with Aquarellum Animal Postcards

What’s a morning box?

Morning boxes (or morning bins) are simply boxes that the kids play with when they first wake up while I’m doing other things – having a prayer time, reading my Bible, exercising or getting breakfast ready. The items in these boxes are reserved for this time only – they don’t play with these items at any other time, so when they see them in the mornings, it’s extra special.

Here’s what’s inside our morning boxes:

Monday Mad Mattr (kinetic sand + tools from Timberdoodle)

TuesdayPlus Plus (an open-ended play building set from Timberdoodle’s Preschool kit)

Wednesday – coloring/stickers

ThursdayThinkPlay (another open-ended play building set from Timberdoodle)

FridayMagnet Tiles

Saturday – play doh

Sunday – coloring/stamps

One of the building challenges from Timberdoodle’s ThinkPlay Gears Extreme

A few notes on what we’re NOT using from the Timberdoodle Kindergarten Elite kit:

Right now, we are not utilizing the science workbook all that much – to be honest, it’s pretty basic, but between the science experiment kit (which includes online videos before each experiment) and the body book, we’re plenty occupied and satisfied with science. We are not using the OLSAT prep book at all. Right now, as we’re still learning to read and in the thick of that, we’re not utilizing the handwriting book that frequently or the spelling book. I’m assuming that we’ll start using those more later on, but for right now we have enough on our hands with the All About Reading kit.

A final note about our schedule:

While I am thrilled about the Timberdoodle curriculum kit, I’m also not a slave to it. For example, today my son wanted to make paper airplanes after we were done with our math and reading. So instead of working on Geography, we made paper airplanes and watched a video about lift and drag (the physics behind why airplanes fly). It was great! But we totally skipped our Geography/History lesson. And I’m okay with that. We probably won’t get through *all* of the curriculum for the add-ons subjects, but my kids are learning and I’m letting them explore their interests – which is so important.

We are, however, pretty ‘strict’ about math and reading time – we do those two subjects no matter what because those form the foundation of pretty much every other type of learning. And it’s also good for kids to have to sit their butts in a seat for at least part of the day!

Stay tuned for more posts about gameschooling using Timberdoodle and reviews of Timberdoodle’s All About Reading and Math-U-See Alpha (1st grade math)!

Learning Chess with Timberdoodle’s Story Time Chess set

So far we are LOVING Timberdoodle’s Kindergarten curriculum! To check out the various elements of the curriculum kit, visit the links below:

Kindergarten Curriculum Kit https://timberdoodle.com/products/2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know https://timberdoodle.com/products/what-your-kindergartener-needs-to-know?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Spelling You See A https://timberdoodle.com/products/spelling-you-see-level-a?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

All About Reading 1 https://timberdoodle.com/products/all-about-reading-level-1?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Italic Handwriting A https://timberdoodle.com/products/italic-handwriting-book-a-kindergarten?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Math-U-See Alpha https://timberdoodle.com/products/math-u-see-alpha?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Wrap-Ups Addition https://timberdoodle.com/products/wrap-ups-addition?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Smart Farmer https://timberdoodle.com/products/smart-farmer?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Story Time Chess https://timberdoodle.com/products/story-time-chess?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Gobblet Gobblers https://timberdoodle.com/products/gobblet-gobblers?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Kumon Thinking Skills K https://timberdoodle.com/products/kumon-thinking-skills-k?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

OLSAT Test Prep A https://timberdoodle.com/products/olsat-test-prep-level-a?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Apple Twist https://timberdoodle.com/products/apple-twist?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

ThinkPlay Gears Extreme https://timberdoodle.com/products/thinkplay-gears-extreme?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Look Inside Your Body https://timberdoodle.com/products/look-inside-your-body?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Show Me Science: Slime, Crystals & More https://timberdoodle.com/products/show-me-science-slime-crystals-more?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Skill Sharpeners Science K https://timberdoodle.com/products/skill-sharpeners-science-grade-k?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Happy Sad Feeling Glad https://timberdoodle.com/products/happy-sad-feeling-glad?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

What’s Going on Here? https://timberdoodle.com/products/what-s-going-on-here-flash-cards?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Here and There https://timberdoodle.com/products/here-and-there?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

My Story K https://timberdoodle.com/products/my-story-k?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Faber-Castell Pencil Sharpener https://timberdoodle.com/products/faber-castell-pencil-sharpener?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Grip Colored EcoPencils https://timberdoodle.com/products/faber-castell-grip-colored-ecopencils-24-pc?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Mad Mattr Craftsman https://timberdoodle.com/products/mad-mattr-craftsman?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

My First Pencils https://timberdoodle.com/products/my-first-pencils?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Skill Sharpeners Geography K https://timberdoodle.com/products/skill-sharpeners-geography-grade-k?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Around the World Mazes https://timberdoodle.com/products/usborne-around-the-world-mazes?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Kids World Map Puzzle https://timberdoodle.com/products/kids-world-map-puzzle-100?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

I Can Doodle Rhymes https://timberdoodle.com/products/i-can-doodle-rhymes?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Bugs Scratch Boards https://timberdoodle.com/products/bugs-scratch-boards?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Aquarellum Animal Postcards https://timberdoodle.com/products/aquarellum-animal-postcards?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Animals and Their Homes Multi-Activity Box https://timberdoodle.com/products/animals-and-their-homes-multi-activity-box?utm_source=mommy_mayhem&utm_medium=brt&utm_campaign=2022-kindergarten-curriculum-kit

Are you homeschooling? Comment below and let me know what your daily schedule is like!

For tips on crafting a shared homeschooling/office space, check out this post.

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