Homeschool Kindergarten

You've been interacting with your child for years. No one knows them better than you do. You taught them how to walk, talk, feed themselves, dress themselves and much more.

There's no need to turn into "mean old teacher lady" and pull out a bunch of workbooks and boring textbooks to teach your child the things he/she needs to know for Kindergarten.

Stick to the basics - Reading, writing and arithmetic. Check the resources below for tips on these subjects. Read to your child at least 30 minutes per day. Have lots of paper and pencil available at all times to use when your child draws or makes a list with you or wants to copy some words. Count money, plates, people - anything you can think of. Play with money. Play games.

Look at how your child learns best - Do they like to fill in workbooks, make books or act out stories. Learning style plays a huge part in how your child learns. You'll want to provide resources that help your child learn in the way that he retains knowledge the best.

Answer his questions - Some children ask so many questions that you can plan a whole curriculum just around all their questions. Give him answers for what you know and research together the answers to the questions that you don't know.

Play Games - Children learn an amazing amount of skills and knowledge from playing games. Puzzles are good for kids to do too. Interact with your child as much as possible. You will only have this year one time in his/her life.

Curriculums are great for parents because they give us a sense of security that we are "getting it all done", but curriculums were really designed for classrooms where teachers had to keep 30 kids under control. They are given lots of busy work so that everyone stays on task and the teacher can monitor their progress.

In a homeschool environment, you know if your child knows their letters, numbers, colors, etc. They don't have to do 15 worksheets AFTER you already know that they have the knowledge.

Guides, guidelines, checklists, and goals are good. They help keep us on track. They give us a plan to work out and give some structure to our day. Set aside some time each day to read to your child, play games, draw pictures, play playdough, and anything else you like to do together. Your child will flourish in this kind of environment and will probably learn more and move along quicker than if you plod through a curriculum.

Each person has to decide for themselves whether a curriculum is what is best for their child or if they can accomplish the same goals with a guide instead. The most important thing to consider is what is best for your child.