I am just starting to home school my daughter. She started the year in a public school that I love. (my son still attends the same school) However she has been sick already 3 times and we are only 6 weeks into the year. So our pediatrician has reccommended that we take her out of school for the year and maybe try again next year. Now I am scrambling to find curriculum to do a good job educating her. She will be six next month, so she is kindergarten age, how ever we did kindergarten at a private school last year. But due to her illness she did not finish out last year so when we put her in school we felt we should do kindergarten again. However if I am going to be teaching her one on one I have decided to go ahead with 1st grade curriculum. I would really appriciate any and all help we can get. I have thought if I can get my feet under me that I can really enjoy this and maybe even teach my other 2 children as well.

I already have plenty of Math curriculum. I need Language arts, social studies, and science. I have spent the last two days on the internet, there is so much out there. I am just not sure which is the best programs and which are not worth the money. I am open to all help here. I don't want to have too much down time before I get this going, I don't want my daughter to think this is a vacation.

I look for ward to hearing from other families out there.

Thanks
Liz and my daughter Gracie

Liz, my best advice would be to visit with us at the homeschool park date and chat to as many moms with kiddos Gracie's age, as you can.  You're right about there being a lot of different approaches and that is because there is such a variety of people.  What works for one will be terrible for another.  If you would like more information about what each of us does personally, we would be happy to share with you online but since you don't know us at all, you may find it difficult to know whom to follow.  It does take a while to find what fits but it is important to do it.  (My opinions of course).  

We started homeschooling on doctors orders too and it has been a wonderful journey so far.
Good luck,
Lyndi

I am also fairly new to all this, I started in May homeschooling my 10 year old son (gifted plus LDs) and my 6 year old daughter. My daughter is currently attending a small private Montessori school, but I am still afterschooling her, as well as homeschooling my son. A few resources I highly recommend are:

The Homeschool Buyers Coop. This group has over 30,000 members and offers excellent (sometime astonishing) discounts on (mostly) digital/internet based programs. It's free to join and they have a current Group Buy on a phonics program that my 6 year old loves: ClickN Read ($29.95, AND you can reuse it for other kids — it's a lifetime subscription).
https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/index.php?option=com_epp_offer&Itemid=570

For trying to evaluate different curricula, I've found the Homeschool Reviews site to be very helpful. The reviews usually describe the pros and cons of different curricula; often parents have tried more than one system and can compare them; and often parents will discuss what type of learner their child is (visual vs auditory, needs lots of repetition vs easily bored, etc) in relation to whether the particular curriculum did or didn't work for them. I've found it very helpful in narrowing down the overwhelming number of choices to a few that I can explore in depth.
http://www.homeschoolreviews.com/reviews/default.aspx

A great book I highly recommend is Homeschooling: Take a Deep Breath, You Can Do This! by Terrie Lynn Bittner. There is a wealth of practical advice and suggestions, from organization and record-keeping to building lesson plans and unit studies, etc. I got a copy at my local Barnes & Noble. (BTW, once you've registered with the State as a homeschooler, you can take your confirmation form to Barnes & Noble and Borders and get a 20% Educator's Discount card.)

For practical suggestions, with a first grader you can do a lot with a few workbooks and your local Library for science books. Personally I like the Harcourt Family Learning series of Language Arts workbooks, but there is a HUGE selection of workbooks on all topics, for PreK to 8th grade, at Barnes & Noble that you can look through and see what appeals to you. At least if you have a couple of workbooks (or even one of those big all-in-one 1st grade curriculum workbooks) you can get started schooling right away while you explore your options. There is also a series called What Your (fill in the blank) Grader Needs to Know by E.D. Hirsch Jr (also available at B&N, Amazon, etc) that can give you a general idea of things to cover in 1st grade this year, and the books themselves provide a lot of content (history lessons, reading passages, etc).

For reading, we love the "Bob" series of readers. Some people find them too plain, but my daughter loved the fact that she could read them all by herself very quickly, and you can't beat the price — we got all three sets of books at Costco for $10 each.

For science, it's easy (and appropriate for a 1st grader) to do lots of little mini-units on things like plants, insects, landforms, cooking, etc. The library has dozens of books on experiments for kids, visual encyclopedias, etc., and the Usborne science books are especially good for early elementary grades. Explora offers great science classes for homeschoolers — my son is currently taking the 5th-7th grade course at Explora and loves it. The Museum of Natural History is another great science resource (especially the Naturalist Center); you can also print out elementary grade activity sheets from their website that kids can fill in when you visit.

For history, I would also just use library books combined with visits to local museums, historical sites, etc. It's easy to put together little mini-units for history and tie them to other things that are going on (like holidays, family trips, etc). And again the What Your First Grader Needs to Know book can give you a rough idea of topics to cover (and provide much of the content, too). One caveat about that series though — I think they recommend WAY more that the average child in an average public school is ever taught, so don't feel like you have to teach it all!

You mentioned that you already had plenty of math materials, but I'll recommend this site anyway: Math Mammoth offers a series of worktexts designed specifically for homeschoolers that are very well designed, effective, and inexpensive. You can buy a whole package for a specific grade level, or can buy individual topics, like addition, multiplication, fractions, etc. They also have a big package of 280 worksheets you can download for free, and there are some excellent reviews of various other math curricula as well. The main website is Homeschool Math:
http://www.homeschoolmath.net/
And the specific Math Mammoth website that sells the worksheets & books is:
http://www.mathmammoth.com/

If you really feel like this is only a temporary thing, and you just want your daughter to "keep pace" with her public schoolmates, then you may just want to ask the school what books they use, and/or ask for their syllabus/list of standards for the 1st grade and follow that. But if you want to go further, you can certainly provide your daughter with a big head start even if she returns to public school — I think you'll be amazed at how much more kids can learn at home!

Hello, I homeschool my two youngest kids (oldest is in college).  I am very much pro homeschooling.  However, if you are really planning on returning your daughter to school next year, and if her Dr. said she should stay home for the year, you should qualify to receive her curriculum from the school and a visiting teacher under a 504 plan.  You may want to research that.  There would be hoops and red tape, and if you'd rather avoid that, you might just mention what the doc said to the principal and see if they will let you borrow the curriculum that is used in her classroom.  Specific curricula is usually scope and sequenced out, and if you do plan on sending her back to that school, it might be a good idea.

all good advice ladies!~
Welcome!~
I suggest the what your K needs to know, as a refresher you should be able to breeze through it and that way you can start knowing K is covered. You can get them on ebay for a couple of dollars, or vegsource.com, they have a homeschooling swap board.

I agree  if you plan to keep her in school you may want to contact the school, if it comes down to it you can purchase the books she is using. A couple of families I met on the set of a movie the kids and I did, did this when their kids got speaking roles, that way they can pop in and out and be on track. Even though we have a teacher on set for the kids, this way they know they will be on schedule.
I hope you find what you need........
Tina