How to Homeschool Kindergarten

Our family room where homeschooling is conducted.

Sample page from "Everything for Early Learning" workbook.

A not-so-great view of our virtues tree in the children's bedroom.

How To Homeschool
Kindergarten

The following activities can be used with children from three to five years old. You must be the judge of when it is developmentally appropriate to introduce these activities. If the child does not show interest, never push it, put it aside for a couple of months and then try again.

Three types of curriculum I recommend for this age group:
The Montessori Method: Teaching children how to do things for themselves. Arranging the home and the child belongings in an age and height appropriate way. Teaching the virtues of cleanliness, orderliness, beauty, and discipline develops the spiritual nature of the child and encourages a desire for excellence. Book: "Teaching Montessori in the Home:The Pre-school Years" and "Teaching Montessori in the Home: The School Years" by Elizabeth G. Hainstock and Lee Havis.
The Gentle Revolution: The flashcard method used in the books "How to Teach Your Baby to Read" and "How to Teach Your Baby Math" created by the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential.
Preschool Workbook: "Everything for Early Learning: Preschool-K" (with a bumblebee on the cover - this is important because they have two books for this level) by McGraw-Hill Children's Publishing. Amazon.com sells it however they don't have an image so I can't be certain it is the one with a bumblebee on the cover. The workbook does include a sheet of stickers, but I think the other pre-k workbook does too.

What I did:

When one of my children turns 3 years old, we start formal homeschooling (there is excitement and anticipation built up about starting school prior to the birthday).

Our school environment consists of low shelves in the family room that is open to the kitchen and dining area. There are many small tables with small chairs for the children to work comfortably. Their school supplies are all within easy reach. They have also learned by this age, how to use the stereo system properly and will often turn on some children's music. If I am teaching a lesson or reading a book, we will turn the music off. But if they are working on a workpage (writing or coloring), I will often let them listen to music. The school space has enough room to dance around if they feel restless. There are educational toys on the low shelves to play with as a break between lessons if needed.

The child will have a reading lesson from "Phonics Pathways", a writing lesson from the preschool workbook (starting with the left-to-right section, proceeding through letters and numbers), and a workbook page (starting with colors, position words, same and different, sizes, and shapes).

I will be more insistent about following instructions and doing some school even if they don't feel like it but I don't push. I will insist 1-3 times but will also frequently let the child not continue the lesson, especially if they become emotionally upset. So here, I'm trying to establish a teacher/student relationship and a regular school routine but I don't take it very seriously and will not make school mandatory. I found, though, that at this age and with this curriculum, each of my children were excited to do school and would often beg to do extra workpages (which I allow sometimes, but other times I say they have to wait until the next school day).

There is no fixed time period for when the kindergarten curriculum will end. From now on I progress according to their achievements or abilities. Please look at each subject area. Start with the first books or curriculum when you feel it is developmentally appropriate for your child and then just naturally progress from there. I don't recommend starting the science and history program until 3 1/2 or 4 when their attention span is appropriate to the material.

Teaching Reading:

From 2 or 3 Years Old:
Start a phonics reading program such as:
"Phonics Pathways" by Dolores G. Hiskes or
"Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" by Haddox, Bruner Engelman or
""How to Teach Your Baby to Read" which is more of a whole language method which can be started before age 5.

Early Readers:

I recommend the following sets of books for children to begin reading as they become comfortable with their phonics lessons:
"Now I'm Reading: Playful Pals (Level 1)" by Nora Gaydos and the other four sets in the series.

Preschool Workbook:

I have bought and tried numerous preschool and kindergarten workbooks. I find the majority of them inappropriate for three year olds and for a first beginning point (except the one I recommend here:"Everything for Early Learning: Preschool-K" with a bumblebee on the cover by McGraw-Hill Children's Publishing). All my kids loved doing the workpages in this book. This is an excellent way to introduce: following instructions, fine motor control, writing, letters, and numbers. I don't necessarily follow the order of the book but will do only one section at a time. Some sections I never do. You must judge what is developmentally appropriate for your child. I recommend the following order: colors (skip shapes until later), cut and paste position words, same and different, sizes, then shapes, left-to-right, beginning writing skills, letters and sounds, numbers, one-to-one, more and fewer (I usually never do the sequence, time or rhymes sections).

Character Development:

Age 3 is a good time to start teaching the child formal lessons about their character and behaviour. I recommend "The Family Virtues Guide". I bought a tree from Staples (in the teacher's supply section) and wrote the name of each virtue on a leaf or apple. Every morning we have a virtues lesson after prayers (which comes after breakfast and brushing teeth). One virtue is taught for a week. When we begin a new virtue, one of the children gets to place it's leaf/apple on the virtues tree with a pushpin. I have collected numerous supplemental resources for teaching each virtue. These can be found in my Virtues Lessons section.

Spiritual Development:

My children start to recite a memorized prayer from about 2 or 2 1/2 years old. This they learn just from hearing others recite prayers during morning and evening prayers. By age 3, I expect the child to systematically learn to memorize short prayers and I expect them to learn to control their bodies and sit quiet and still (reverently) during prayers. Before age 3, they are told to sit quiet and still but it is not strictly enforced due to their capacities at that age. For their 3rd birthday, I create a personal prayer binder with prayers to learn in the inside folders. When they successfully memorize a prayer, it is placed in the rings of the binder and the child can put a beautiful sticker at the bottom of the prayer page.

Literature:

It is important to continue to read many books to your children. Go to the library regularly. There are a few literature programs which I recommend:
Five in a Row: There is also a "Before Five in a Row" program. This method is based on the Charlotte Mason approach to learning. The goal is to naturally discuss many academic subjects while reading high quality age-appropriate literature. I recommend trying to find the books in their book lists and reading them to your children. Many of the books will become favourites. I personally found the activities associated with the program tedious and not natural for me. But I learned the method and try to incorporate "teaching moments" whenever I recognize one.
Sonlight: This is a homeschooling curriculum which is a combination of Charlotte Mason and a Classical Education. It has a strong emphasis on exposing children to only high-quality literature. I highly recommend getting their catalogue. Some of the Read-Alouds they recommend for each age group are truly excellent.