Hey there friends you might be here because you are considering homeschooling your kindergartner and I think that’s great! Deciding to home school is a big step and naturally comes with a lot of questions. I want to invite you to think about all of the things you have already taught your children to this point. If you taught your child to sit, walk, eat, and talk you are officially your child’s first teacher! One thing I have learned over my 6 years of homeschooling is that it is an extension of my parenting. You are your child’s best teacher but to further motivate and inspire you I have answered the 10 questions I asked myself when I was considering the same thing you are.
Am I Qualified to Homeschool My Kindergartner?
Many parents wonder what qualifications you need in order to teach your children at home. You don’t need any special training or certificates to home educate which is a relief to some but shocking at the same time. I am the kind of person that wants to know everything before I dive in. I want to have a notebook full of information, questions I need answered, and a lesson plan to give me the confidence and reassurance I can tackle whatever I am learning. I took comfort in the fact that I am with my children every day all day. I know their schedules, routines, what they like, what they don’t like, and their little signs of distress – such as being hungry, sleepy, or bored.
Since my children were born I was studying them and learning how to be their mom. Little did I know that studying my children – learning how to be their mom would also arm me with the qualifications I would need to teach them how to read, count, and the difference between an omnivore and herbivore. As I mentioned above I learned that homeschooling is no different than parenting. My child needs to know or understand something and it is my responsibility to teach and demonstrate for them.
What Does a Typical Homeschool Day Look Like?
One of my favorite things about homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility to do what works for your family and in the season of life you are in. I know kindergarten for my son looked vastly different than what it did for my daughter. They were different kids, we were in different seasons, and this required a different approach.
Even though our school days looked different between children there were a few constants between both which is what I will share with you today. I chose to keep my kindergarten days simple and I filled the days with reading, hands-on activities, and outdoor play. I kept lessons short – no more than 20 minutes and really seized natural learning opportunities.
Whether you choose to start your day in the morning or wait till the afternoon there are natural learning opportunities everywhere and once you start to recognize how simple this practice is you will be perfectly comfortable with keeping lessons under 20 minutes.
A few questions down I will share what subjects I focused on for kindergarten but I wanted to answer this questions with honesty. You have the ability to make your day how you want. There is no right or wrong answer as the parent and teacher you will make changes until you find a flow that works for you and your family. Feel empowered to keep experimenting until you find what feels good.
Do I Need to Follow a Specific Curriculum?
Finding and following a curriculum for kindergarten really comes down to how much effort you have to piecing together resources, your confidence in your teaching abilities, and your preference. Many moms choose not to follow a specific curriculum for this age because they are able to teach children letters, numbers, and phonics naturally through books and play. They find free or inexpensive resources and ideas online. I personally chose to follow a specific curriculum because I was working full time and in college the first time I taught kindergarten – I needed something open and go. I appreciated the structure of a curriculum ensuring we were covering everything we needed to. Homeschooling kindergarten – or any grade comes with a lot of decisions and I would advise starting somewhere with the knowledge you can tweak and make changes as you go.
How Many Hours a Day Should I Spend on Homeschool?
When you attended school you were probably there for 7-8 hours a day. If you are considering homeschool for kindergarten you might wonder how many hours a day you should spend teaching. I personally liked to keep our homeschool days short. By short I mean maaaaaybe an hour a day. After we went over the subject we were focusing on (teaching the child how to read) we would spend the rest of the day exploring, reading picture books, playing games, and activities that would further develop their fine motor skills. We would take trips to the library, the park, and to visit family. Mainly we enjoyed this curious age and sprinkled in little tidbits of instruction as we lived life.
This could look like asking the child to retell a story we just read. Oral narration was an easy way for me to gauge their interest on a topic, encourage early writing skills, and learn about what stood out to them in a story. Another easy way I would sneak learning into our day was through a simple game of. “I spy with my little eye” instead of choosing something that was a color I would use letters. For example, ” I spy with my little eye something that starts with the sound mmmm” or ” I spy with my little eye something that has the letter J”. My kids always had fun playing this simple game and would giggle so much when I wasn’t able to find what they spied!
What Subjects Should I Focus On?
When it comes to homeschooling kindergarten my main focus was on teaching her how to read. Everything else I considered supplemental. Everyone does things a bit differently and you are able to take what you want and leave the rest – I am sharing what worked for me in our homeschool. Math was something that we learned naturally through play. Simple counting or matching games was enough for me. I had read a book that explained if a child learned no math until she started high school she would be able to complete a full 12 years worth of math in only 4 years. This was because so much of math – especially early math is learned naturally through play, experiences, cooking, and the observations of the child. Knowing this solidified my decision to make my main focus teaching my children to read and that’s what we did for the full year. We mastered letters, their sound, how to blend them, and practiced our little hearts out. Now my daughter – who is in first grade is able to read books that are recommended for 9-12 year olds fluently.
What If My Child Resists Doing Schoolwork?
Many children respond differently to structured learning time. My son resisted when we first started tackling formal lessons and I needed to learn how to make our lessons more fun and engaging. My daughter on the other handle absolutely loved doing school and would often ask to do more than one lesson a day. Now this could be because I was more confident in teaching, or I had more tricks/resources up my sleeve, or she simply enjoyed learning.
A child resisting school is a common fear many parents face whether they choose to homeschool or not. I try to incorporate my child’s interests into a lesson. If my son was really into super heroes I would find books in his reading level he could practice his reading skills with. This was an easy way for me to communicate I hear him and wanted to make a customized learning experience for him. My daughter really enjoyed anything that was in a game format. I would often read a lesson ahead of time and see how I could teach the same topic but make it a game.
Listen, I am not above bribery when it comes to a child resisting school. I often incentivized school with baked goods or candy, trips to the library or park, or a special movie night with pizza and the works. I – as an adult look forward to my take out once a month or getting something new as a little reward for making through another pay period. The kids are no different and sometimes the little things like a sucker after a job well done makes everything much smoother.
How Do I Know If My Kindergartner Is Learning Enough?
The age old question – Is my kindergartener learning enough? Moms will always wonder if they are doing enough for their children but there is a special little place in our heads for this brand of guilt when you choose to homeschool your kindergatener. Sometimes the stress of being their sole educator makes you feel a little crazy especially when you look at other children and what they are able to do at the same age.
I combat this question by putting BIG OLE blinders on. I avoid comparing my child to others. Every child is different and they learn different things at different stages. My son learned to count to 100 no problem and I barely had to introduce the idea – however teaching him to read and write at this age was a major pain point. It was the exact opposite for my daughter, she took off with reading and writing and genuinely enjoyed mastering these ideas. Hates math though. She struggles with concepts and needs to review constantly – which I am totally fine with because when it clicks she will take off just like her brother did.
I encourage you to celebrate each and every little achievement! Everything to a kindergartener is new they have to put in so much effort to learn everything. Their little brains are learning to decode strange symbols and to understand concepts that may be simple to us but are a completely new idea to them. They are trusting us to teach them truth and don’t question anything because they don’t have a foundation of knowledge yet. Everything learned and mastered at this age is worth celebrating! I found when we were celebrating mastery I was able to calm my mom guilt a little. I was able to say, ” yes he is struggling to hold a pencil but we just celebrated that he can count to 100 without any help!”
When you are able to celebrate what has been a pain point you will understand the immense joy teaching brings! I want to leave you with one more tidbit to remember when that mom guilt starts coming in. Making progress is always better than meeting a specific standard. Children do grasp concepts at different rates and cannot be standardized.
What If My Child Struggles to Learn to Read?
I have a few practical tips on how I helped my kids if they were struggling to learn to read. Before I share some applicable steps you can take I want to communicate that reading will click for your child. Trust the process and give them lots of practice!
When of the first things I try when my child is struggling or showing signs of frustration over an idea being taught is to simple take a break. I often find that when I give them space to ponder an idea independently without a lesson they come back with a refreshed mind and are able to view the idea with a new attitude. I typically take a week off the idea with no formal lessons before diving in again.
When I take a break from formal lessons I shift my teaching into more of a passive activity. I will read aloud more and have them follow along if I can, I will point out words through out the day. These could be words on food labels when we are cooking, a word on a sign or billboard, or a word that is on their clothes. I found this especially beneficial because it made finding decodable words “out in the wild” like a game, eventually they were able to point them out to me!
Something else that was an easy shift to foster more reading was simply turning the subtitles on the tv when they were aloud to watch. I honestly don’t know how much this helped during the process but the idea was to expose them to as much written word as I could.
How Can I Socialize My Kindergartner?
I know one thing many parents worry about when it comes to homeschooling is socialization. Socialization is the process of learning to behave in a way acceptable to society. I personally think that choosing to homeschool for kindergarten is the best way to naturally teach acceptable behavior I have a few ideas on how I tackled socialization for kindergarten but just know that socialization is something that happens naturally as you go about the day.
Often we would visit friends or family and would have a few engaging questions for them to ask. A few things I would start encouraging were maintaining eye contact, asking follow-up questions, and explaining the meaning of body language.
While we were visiting the library, I would encourage the kids to talk to the librarian. They would talk about the books they had checked out, ask where to find something they were interested in, or ask what books they liked.
Lastly, we had regular play dates, playing at church, or participating in group activities at the library or a co-op. These were fun activities, everyone looked forward to and gave the kids an opportunity to play and interact with groups of kids.
What Supplies Do I Need for Kindergarten Homeschool?
If you are looking into homeschooling kindergarten you will need to pick up a few basic supplies. I chose to follow a curriculum for teaching my child to read, early readers, picture books, basic school supplies, tools for building fine motor skills, and educational games. You can few a complete list of homeschool supplies for kindergarten here.
Homeschooling kindergarten doesn’t have to be complicated. The main priority should be teaching your child to read, while math, science, and social studies can be naturally explored through play, picture books, and hands-on activities. Keep lessons short, focus on fine motor skills, and embrace the flexibility to adapt learning to your child’s needs. Most importantly, trust yourself—you’ve been your child’s teacher since birth!