I am sharing just how we homeschool kindergarten because I always wondered exactly what it looked like for other parents. I remember that the first year of school was fun in school and I want my kids to have happy memories of their homeschool years as well.
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How We Homeschool Kindergarten – Year in Review
First off, I didn’t have a set schedule of when we were doing school. I was also homeschooling my second grader, and we still didn’t have a set schedule. I can’t do routine, even a homeschool routine. (Edited to add – after 7 years, we still don’t have a set schedule and it works great, for us.)
What We Did
We read a lot of books! We’re talking about multiple trips to the library a week. I started her out reading from the I Can Read books because they are shorter, smaller books that aren’t as intimidating.
We practiced writing simple words, like a cat, and writing in a lined scribbler. It was our language arts for working on more controlled letter/writing.
Workbooks & Flashcards
I did buy some workbooks. We did workbooks a few days a week, but only for as long as she wanted to. She was very eager to do school work every day, even on weekends, she just loves to learn. So to be honest, there were days when I had to tell her to stop doing her school work! (And yes in the Winter months we do school in our pajamas.)
BrainQuest – All in one. We have used BrainQuest workbooks in the past for fun, for a little something else when my oldest was in public kindergarten, and love these books. We also have their flashcards which are fun!
We did a lot of cooking/baking, and a lot of science experiments. We had a lot of hands-on fun.
In the end, she did everything I had planned for her to do, plus I had ended up buying some extra workbooks for her because she loved them so much.
We also used Reading Eggs. She loves it, my eight-year-old loves it, and I love it! They learn a lot about using phonics, and I often hear “I learned this on Reading Eggs!”
What We Didn’t Do
We didn’t have too many tears, I can only think of one day that she cried about doing homework and that was because she doesn’t care for practicing her letter-making skills, and she rushes it a bit.
Again, we didn’t do a strict routine.
Important to Remember
It’s Kindergarten, they’re 5 and 6 years old, at which age play is still learning for them. They need hands-on, involved learning more than sit-down bookwork.
What does kindergarten look like for you?
Similar posts that you may be interested in:
Kindergarten Reading List for Homeschool