3 Top Tips For Choosing The Right Homeschool CurriculumPin
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Homeschooling kindergarten can be so simple. We are going to tell you how to do it with three key ingredients for success.

Homeschooling Kindergarten Doesn’t Have To Be Complicated

Did you know that there are still some states in the United States where you don’t even have to do kindergarten? Kindergarten is not even a requirement in many areas. In addition,  there are still a number of states where you don’t have to report that you are homeschooling a child until they are six or seven years old.

I’m telling you this to hopefully encourage you that you really don’t have to worry too much about kindergarten. It would be really hard to
mess it up. So, first off, take a deep breath, relax a little bit, and remember, this has the potential to be a wonderful season of homeschooling.

In fact, most of kindergarten will be introducing your child to the delights of learning. That’s it!

Traditionally, we think that five year old’s are in kindergarten, but you don’t have to start the minute your child turns five. Err the side of letting them play longer, not do academics.

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Sometimes you have a child who’s just really eager. They want to learn how to read. They want to study, especially if you have older kids. You may have a five year old who really wants to do what the big kids are doing. If your child is asking you for that, then I think it’s totally okay. But if your child is not asking you for that kind of learning and is resistant to it, I would ask you to consider not requiring any kind of academic schooling from your child for another year or so.

Make it an invitation instead of a requirement.  Would you like to do a reading lesson today? Would you like to do a math lesson today? Your child will not be behind if you don’t start academic learning until six, or even after six.

3 Top Tips For Choosing The Right Homeschool CurriculumPin

3 Key Ingredients For A Kindergarten Plan That Works

When you and your child are ready to begin, these three key ingredients will guide you to a successful kindergarten year.

1. Math

The first key ingredient is math. Introduce math in a way that is hands-on and fun. Manipulatives are a great place to start. You’re counting things, you’re moving things, you’re putting things together for adding, you’re taking things away for subtracting, and you’re really working with the concrete as opposed to the abstract. Your math may not necessarily mean sitting down and working with a worksheet. Keep it light and fun.

2. Phonics

The second ingredient is some kind of phonics instruction. As we’re teaching our kids to read, we want to give them a leg up by showing them how language fits together. Phonics instruction is how we do this.

Keep phonics lessons short. No more than 5 minutes a day is plenty for this age. We used a wonderful phonics program called All About
Reading. It was easy to break the lessons into five to 10 minutes a day and it made learning to read a whole lot of fun!

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3. Morning Time

The third key is morning time. Morning Time is bringing all your kids together each day, no matter what their ages, to build a family culture of beauty and learning. It’s enjoying wonderful, beautiful subjects as a family.

What kind of things are you going to do in your morning time?

Probably the most important thing that you can do for this age group is read aloud to them. Don’t feel like you’ve got to rush into chapter books at this point. Lots and lots of picture books are perfect for morning time.

You may also want to spend some time memorizing poetry and scripture. Little kids love to memorize, especially if you sing it to a song or put some fun hand motions to it.  Morning time can include singing songs, moving around, looking at beautiful art together, doing some art projects –  things that are fun, wonderful learning experiences that you can do with your kindergartner.

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Fabulous Resources For Homeschooling Kindergarten

That is it. Those are your keys to a successful kindergarten plan. I would work 5 to 10 minutes a day on some phonics, with a fun
program,. Then, 5 to 10 minutes a day on math, using concrete manipulatives. Finally, institute a morning time for reading aloud, art, and music.

We support families with easy to use monthly learning themes that are perfect for morning time. One month might be bugs and one month might be Native Americans, wild flowers, Christmas traditions or reptiles. It’s just a wonderful way for kids to learn.

What a wonderful start to the homeschool years.

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