The Value of a Curriculum Review:
As a teacher and homeschool mom, I find curriculum reviews from other people helpful. I appreciate the tips and tricks shared which often make my experience with the materials more time efficient and enjoyable. Reviews also give pros and cons that help me make informed decisions.
Do I really want to use this curriculum? Will it be a good fit for my child and our family? Is it grade level specific or can it be used for multiple grade levels simultaneously, etc. ?
Last year, I began a series of curriculum reviews, but I am limited with time when I am in the middle of a homeschool year, so I am excited to share a new review with you today!
Read Abeka® Preschool Curriculum Review and Teaching Tips.
Focus on Fives is an all-in-one kindergarten curriculum that is written for classroom use. As a homeschool mom, you have the flexibility to personalize this curriculum for your child.
It is jam packed with resources and ideas, so you can choose the suggested extra projects based on your child’s interests and the time you have as a family.
An extended activities section is included at the end of each lesson in the Teacher’s Edition, so you can pick and choose what you would like to complete from this section. As I mentioned, this curriculum is originally written for classroom use, so you will need to modify occasionally, but it is really not a big deal to do so.
The extended activities section includes an arts and crafts section, and kindergarten students are all about arts and crafts! There are also ideas for reinforcing motor skills, songs to sing, science projects, story book suggestions, and much more!
Focus on Fives Materials:
The six spiral bound Teacher’s Editions include all the teaching information. The Visuals and Phonics Charts are also necessary for purchase along with the pack of 34 Readers.
Tap to View Materials at BJU Press®…
A new reader is presented at the end of each week. They begin with picture reading and progress all the way to basic reading skills by the end of kindergarten. I liked to review the readers throughout the week for a couple weeks. We didn’t read the reader and put it away. We read them over and over again for review.
Three consumable workbooks must be purchased new for each child: the Worktext, Phonics Practice, and Write Now (handwriting). Each of these workbooks is colorful and visually engaging to young children, so completing the page is fun rather than a chore. The Phonics Practice book also has very short reading practice stories that are presented gradually throughout the year. These must be torn out and folded for the student.
The Worktext also includes Checkup Stations for evaluation of skills at the end of each unit. You can use these as fun tests to know if your child needs any additional help before moving on to the next level.
The Visual Cards are the visual aids for the unit and lesson themes. For example, lessons 6 through 10 are about firefighters at work, so the firefighter visual provides visual aids for many of the things discussed, and some extra teaching information is included on the back of the card.
The Phonics Charts include the alphabet song charts, the phonics song charts, and the phonics character charts. The high-frequency word cards, phonics characters, mascots, word family cards, spelling cards, and handwriting wall charts are also included and will need prior preparation by mom… lots of cutting out, but it is worth the effort!
I love how new words are presented through word families and high frequency words. Word families follow patterns such as it, sit, hit, wit or in, tin, win. High frequency words are words to memorize that do not usually follow normal phonics patterns. Flashcards are included for both word families and high frequency words, but many times I would write out word lists for each day in a notebook. It is so important to practice these words every day! Don’t skip this step because the daily practice makes an excellent reader by the end of kindergarten.
Organizing Focus on Fives Materials:
All the workbooks have easy to tear out pages, so you may choose to hole punch the pages and keep them in a notebook, or you can staple the daily pages together and give your student a packet for each day. I used both of these methods for different children, and you may have another idea for organizing your child’s papers. The important thing is that you help your child stay organized and begin teaching organizational skills at a young age.
Lesson Topics:
The daily lessons focus on community helpers, books, animals, landforms and bodies of water, seasons, weather, gardening, vacations, the Bible, and much more. Many holiday themed lessons are also included, so all the variety gives an excellent groundwork for science and social studies. The holiday themed lessons are included in Part 6 of the Teacher’s Edition, so you will teach those lessons at the appropriate times throughout the year.
Depending of the lesson themes, I often supplemented with video lessons from online. So much is available for early learning in the form of visual media online. For example, when the lesson topic was ladybugs, we watched a video about ladybugs. When it was about the life cycle of a plant, we watched several videos to help visualize this process.
Singing is a big part of kindergarten. Phonics songs are included to help teach the alphabet letters. There are also many songs that go along with the lesson and unit themes.
One of my favorite things about this curriculum is the style of handwriting that is presented. It is PreCursive letter style that uses slant and elliptical formations for natural hand and pencil movements. It is a very pretty form of printing that makes the introduction of cursive much easier in later grades.
The curriculum includes listening stories with comprehension and critical thinking skills questions. These stories usually go along with the daily lesson theme. Sometimes the stories follow the life of the Vick Family, who has recently moved to the Pine Hill community, and other times the stories are about some of the other K5 characters… Hopscotch, Dottie, Hopper, and Bonnie.
The Phonics Characters are super helpful for phonics instruction because they represent the basic patterns of the English Language. For example, Mr. and Mrs. Short and Uncle Short teach the short vowel rules. Miss Long along with Miss Silent and Marker E help with longer vowels, and Bossy r reminds students when vowels come before r, they are influenced by the r sound.
My children also enjoyed the weekly writing activities that center around the unit themes. These activities help the student focus on one topic. The student learns to write one sentence with a capital letter and correct end mark and draws a picture to go along with the topic. It’s a simple but very necessary learning skill for kindergarten.
Math is not included in this curriculum, so you will need to purchase K5 Math from BJU Press or another publisher of your choice. I used the math curriculum from BJU Press, and my children liked it very much.
For one of my children, I also supplemented the curriculum with first grade Heritage Studies and Science student books from BJU Press®. We didn’t use the activity manuals or complete tests, but we read the books for informational purposes.
I am also a big advocate for reading aloud to children at all ages, so I can’t end this review without mentioning that the library is one of your greatest resources as a kindergarten homeschool mom! Read storybooks every day and help your child fall in love with reading!
No curriculum is absolutely perfect, but I can wholeheartedly recommend Focus on Fives as an excellent kindergarten curriculum choice. I used this curriculum for two different children, a boy and a girl, and had great success with both of my children. They entered first grade as confident beginning readers and have continued to excel in reading skills.
Reading is the foundation of all learning, and while Focus on Fives includes all the typical entertaining kindergarten activities, it has a strong emphasis on phonics and reading. You will not be disappointed!
