Welcome to Kindergarten! You and your child are about to embark on an incredible and productive journey of learning. There are 180 days of learning in the traditional school year, and there are over 190 topics for instruction in our kindergarten curriculum for the academic year. So if you do one topic per day (catechism is done weekly), which is recommended at this age, there should be more than enough material for you to get through a school year, and then some. Teach the topics in whatever order you like; this is homeschool after all, and it is very flexible by design. Just make sure topics are marked “complete” once done to keep track of your progress. Of course, feel free to go back over any topics your child may need more work on. Teaching for mastery may require extra practice, and that is ok.

Your child is ready for Kindergarten if your child can:

1. Use language adequately to express his/her needs and wants and to interact with others.
2. Can speak in simple but complete sentences.
3. Asks many questions and looks for answers.
4. Enjoys being read to and talked to by adults.
5. Enjoys sharing information about his/her self and their family.
6. Enjoys language play, nonsense rhymes, songs, riddles, and jokes.
7. Practices using words and language heard from others.

What Kindergarten will help your child accomplish

Cognitive Development

Will have a much longer attention span and can listen to longer, more detailed stories. Will follow multi-step directions. Concentrates on tasks from beginning to end. Can tell left from right. Will name basic colors and shapes. Will copy designs and shapes. Will understand concepts of number, size, position, and time (such as days of the week). Associate the number of objects with the written numeral. Will recognize letters and identify the sounds they make. Able to print their own name. Will read familiar words.

Motor Skills

Will control their large muscles: hop on one foot; jump over objects; and throw, bounce, and catch a ball easily. Your child can also run, climb, skip, tumble, and dance to music. Will dress and clean themselves. He/She is developing greater control over their small muscles. Able to tie their own shoelaces and manage buttons and zippers. Will cut on lines and use a paintbrush, crayons, markers, clay, and glue. Can print capital letters and lowercase letters, and their name.

Social Development

Is social and enjoys interacting with other children and adults. Is curious and has an active imagination. Is confident but still needs praise and encouragement when trying new things.

Skills Checklist

The following checklist is intended to help you track your child’s progress in the kindergarten skills that the curriculum covers. Evaluate your child against each skill as your child masters it.

Basic Skills

1. Names basic colors
2. Names simple shapes
3. Identifies opposites
4. Understands positional concepts
5. Names the days of the week in order

Reading Readiness

Math Readiness

1. Counts objects to 20
2. Writes numbers to 20
3. Identifies numbers to 20 in random order
4. Rote counts to 100
5. Counts by 10s to 100
6. Uses ordinal numbers
7. Read a basic graph
8. Identifies and continues established patterns

Writing Readiness

1. Dictates a sentence about a picture
2. Writes from left to right
3. Leaves spaces between words
4. Writes some words independently
5. Writes own sentences using sounds
6. Uses punctuation in sentences

Fine Motor Skills

1. Colors within lines
2. Draws shapes
3. Holds a pencil
4. Prints letters and numbers
5. Cuts a line with scissors

Some of the common elements you will find in the topics are these:

Rhyme time: When I became a parent, I did not know the importance of nursery rhymes and songs. So I just skipped over that part, and it wasn’t very masculine anyway, as a homeschooling dad to be sitting around singing. My son, however, developed a difficulty speaking early on, and it was impossible to understand him well beyond what he should have been. So I learned the hard way that at least having nursery rhymes playing throughout the day would have been a big help. You can avoid my mistake by singing with your child and by playing nursery rhymes throughout the day that they can hear. Many topics in our curriculum include lyrics and what tune they can be sung to in order to teach this.

There are five benefits of teaching kindergarteners rhymes and songs:

1. Set the foundations for speech: Nursery rhymes and songs introduce your child to all sounds of the alphabet. This sets the foundation for speaking, reading, and communication. Soon enough, often before a child’s first birthday, they will begin imitating the sounds they hear.
2. They help with cognitive development: Nursery rhymes are good for the brain! They teach kids how language works. Because they are repetitive, they also help build your child’s memory abilities
3. It’s a great way to bond: Singing rhymes and songs with your child is a great way to bond. This activity opens communication between the adult and child. Plus, small children and babies are often soothed by soft singing voices, making it a great tool for calming down a child.
4. Children understand concepts: Rhymes and songs are a fantastic way to teach concepts to your child, including colors. But it also teaches sizes, words, people, and events. Think about The Wheels on the Bus, for example. Your child sees it in a song, and when they see a bus in real life, they can understand how it works. They won’t be as nervous when they go over a bump since they know the bus goes up and down!
5. Helps with the rhythm of language: Hearing rhymes and songs from a young age will help children with the rhythm of language later in life. When they learn to speak and read, they will be able to adopt an animated voice more easily since they’ve been exposed to it from a young age.

Snack

Why not eat while you learn? Our kindergarten curriculum includes in most topics a snack idea that coincides with the topic being learned. We strive to present you with wholesome, real foods for our snack time ideas. We are not big supporters of highly sugary foods for kids, and definitely not supportive of food chock-full of chemicals. These can have long-term implications for your child’s health, and we recommend steering clear of them. These days, you can use apps, such as Yuka, to screen out foods that are unhealthy and loaded with chemicals. We highly recommend utilizing that technology.

Story Time: Remember “Story Time” where a parent or teacher would read a story to you when you were young? This is one of the few things from our early years that any of us remember. Why? Because we all loved it so much!! This is probably one of the elements your child will look forward to the most. To them, it’s a great time of not only hearing a really great story and seeing some beautiful artwork that goes along with it, but it’s also a wonderful time of bonding and creating memories that will last a lifetime, which is the most important thing. This can also be a good place to introduce the ABCs, including the difference between lowercase letters and uppercase letters, and to have a letter of the week.

Activities: Learning is something that we do, especially in young children. Few things are as charming as a child’s face when expressing joy while in play. Learning at the preschool age should be playful, and the more you integrate play with learning, the more successful you will be. After all, learning at this age is fun for a small child; everything is new and is an exploration. Playtime should be an enjoyable moment for the whole family.

We will present many activities that have the potential to bring a smile to your child’s face and joy to your home. My hope for you is that it will be the case.

Activities that relate to basic skills and knowledge can be found in each relevant topic. In each topic, there are worksheets for your child and explanations of their purpose and activity ideas that relate to that topic. The Activity ideas that do not relate to a specific lesson topic are general, such as knowing body parts, for example. Those are listed separately under the General Activities lesson.

Each activity idea will list supplies needed and directions. These are intended for preschool-age children and their parents, but you are free to utilize them as needed and as your child’s interest dictates. Once they have mastered the concepts, you can move on with your child as they are capable of handling more, or continue to work with them further until they have mastered each concept. The flexibility that homeschooling affords is second to none.

Art: Creative work is just a natural part of what children at this age want and love to do. So make art time and school time the same thing!! Our curriculum includes many art projects for the kindergarten-age child to reinforce, in a tactile way, the lesson they are learning. This helps with their fine motor skills and their creative thinking skills. Additional supplies will usually be needed, but they are listed on the topics themselves and can be prepared for in advance by looking at the topic and making your shopping list beforehand. Most Walmart stores will have most of the common supplies that you might need.

Worksheets: There are hundreds of worksheets throughout our curriculum, and we are adding more all the time. This is a chance for you to demonstrate to your child how to complete a worksheet, then watch them doing it, and then release them to do it on their own. In this way, they always have something they can be working on, even while they have something else they need to be doing. Once they are doing worksheets on their own, it is a great way for them to be learning and refining their fine motor skills on their own.

When you set up your schedule, remember that Kindergarten does NOT have to last a full 6-hour school day. The traditional full school day is from 9 am-3 pm, but at this age, four hours is enough as long as your child is absorbing the topics. It’s best not to overload your child, but rather to give them something to look forward to and seek out.

Recommendations

Cooking: You might see the danger in this, and you would be wise to be cautious, but that does not mean there are things your Kindergartener can’t do. Cooking can be a rewarding experience for you and your child. Not only are you spending time with and giving your child an important tool for the future, but you are reinforcing counting skills, measuring, and how to cooperate and work together. They are learning new words, the importance of directions, the importance of cleanliness; all about time and order of things; and about the differing textures, shapes, and colors of ingredients.

Make the cooking experience with your child a total one, as much as is appropriate at their age. Have your child create a picture-based list of ingredients you intend to buy at the store. They can draw this or clip out pictures from the store ad circular in the newspaper, or one that comes in the mail. Then have them take their “list” with you to the grocery store and have them pick out the ingredients on their list. Ask them to help you set up the utensils needed, stir/mix, pour, and shake as needed. This helps with fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination. Don’t forget to let your child help with cleaning up, too !!

Art: Art time can be incorporated every day and is something a child will naturally be inclined towards.

1. Encourage your child to do their artwork freely. There is no structure here, but it is important for them to fully engage both their imaginations and their fine motor skills. Avoid asking your child what they are drawing; instead, show interest in your child’s work by asking, “Can you tell me about your picture?” This open-ended question avoids one-word answers and engages your child’s conversation-building skills.
2. Keep plenty of art supplies on hand for rainy/snowy days or just for when your child says they are bored. Encourage them to experiment with several media such as: paints, collage, clay, Play-Doh, print making, etc.
3. Be sure to teach your child that part of being a good artist is cleaning up after oneself and putting all supplies back where they belong in their proper places.

Fine motor skills,  for things like writing, you can have the child help set the table, silverware placement included, build with Play-Doh, or any activity that requires fine detail. It’s quite likely they’ll make many mistakes, but it’s all a part of the learning process at this early age and worth the extra time it takes to fix them.

Under no circumstances should you try to compare your homeschool with someone else’s. It’s tempting, especially as you try to figure out your path, but it’s more detrimental than helpful. After all, learning your speed, style, and methods is all a part of creating a homeschooling experience that is unique to your own family. Which is far more important than trying to mimic another family.

Do NOT spend too much time on one subject. If something is working out perfectly, you’re tempted to continue, since the progress is so great. On the other hand, if things aren’t working out well, it’s just as tempting to push and to try to drive the lesson home before stopping. In reality, at this age, about fifteen minutes per educational activity is enough for one sitting. After that amount of time, take a break and do something else entirely, then come back to it later. You’ll be surprised how much better this method works. Use everyday errands like going to the grocery store to supplement what you’re learning that day. Learning does not just happen at the kitchen table at this age.

Homeschool Space. A private and dedicated homeschool room is by no means necessary. It can be convenient if you have space, but if you don’t, there’s no reason to stress out about not having a “school room”. Many families who live in small spaces tend to do just as well without dedicating a specific space in their home to educational activities. You can create a space where they can store all their supplies, which might even be a large mobile tote for learning “on the go”. But none of these things are necessary. You can homeschool in whatever spaces you have to work with. I used to teach my daughter phonics on our couch.

Read, read, and READ some more! At this age, you can never read to your child too much. In fact, at this age, many children absolutely love the opportunity to cuddle up on the couch with you as you read them their favorite book. You can point out the words as you read them to help develop pre-reading skills with sight-based learning. If the book contains nursery rhymes, all the better, and if songs, then sing them aloud to make it even more fun. The more they hear words being read to them, the better.

Summary

Homeschooling Kindergarten is a wonderful experience for both parent and child. Just do NOT stress. It’s tempting to try to dive right into everything all at once, trying to see just how far their little minds can go, but resist the temptation to do that. This year is a time to take advantage of their natural love of learning more than anything else. After all, it’s a process that truly comes naturally to every child!

 Keep the basics in mind. Keep it fun, keep it simple, and keep going.