Blending kindergarten homeschool subjects and life doesn’t make it easy to determine kindergarten homeschool curriculum.
However, today I’m helping you to know how to effortlessly blend the kindergarten subjects with what you’re doing naturally every day.
Further, don’t forget up to this time you have not used any curriculum in your instruction.
Sometimes very little kindergarten homeschool curriculum is needed.
In addition, families vary in their needs, but all children benefit from a gentle and relaxed approach to the kindergarten homeschool subjects.
Moreover, it’s important to build a strong foundation for lifelong learning.
And it begins what the subjects that are foundational and the subjects that can be folded into your day naturally.
Beginning my journey 20+ years ago, I didn’t have to make a choice about common core and by the time the No Child Left Behind act was passed, I was well on my way to homeschooling.
Because the educational world can be muddled to trek through, I will give you a glimpse of what is important at this age.
Essential Kindergarten Subjects
Too, it’s important for you to first to know what subjects you need and want to teach.
1. Begin with the subjects your local homeschool law requires.
First, begin with your local law.
No, you don’t choose homeschool curriculum first because your local law could be relaxed or it could be rigid. And your curriculum can help or hinder you meet state law.
Choose curriculum after you’re familiar with the subjects you must teach.
2. Second, focus on math and language arts which are your essential subjects
Then, know what are foundational subjects for kindergarten.
Although curriculum companies tout that you need all subjects, the truth of it is that math and language arts are the key components.
But, I know you want details because that is what I needed to when teaching my first child.
What’s more look below at this list to see what skills you need to focus on.
| ESSENTIAL SUBJECTS IN KINDERGARTEN |
| MATH | LANGUAGE ARTS (Tip: The subjects vary by age and grade.) For Kindergarten, the subjects are Reading, Phonics, and Writing. |
| SKILLS TAUGHT IN MATH | SKILLS TAUGHT IN LANGUAGE ARTS |
| Know the ordinal numbers up to 10, but recite numbers to 100 | Names the parts of a book like cover, back, and inside pages. Understands which direction to hold the book And knows that a story has a beginning, middle and ending . |
| Knows how to compare two groups to understand the more than, less than and equal to. | Recognizes the letters of the alphabet and understands that the letter represents sounds. |
| Recognizes shapes, and understand patterns ABC, AABBCC, ABBCC, ABAB, etc. Identifies money. Is familiar with conventional measuring tools like rulers, but starts with unconventional tools like a pencil. | Can see that we read right to left and top to bottom. Associates sounds with symbols for writing and begins with inventive writing which letters can be indistinguishable. And practices adding new words to his vocabulary. |
| Compares objects based on size and capacity. | Can retell stories and can even act them out. |
| Counting by 10s and understands what is a pair. | Begins to learn and recognize signs from his community like stop signs, etc. |
| Is familiar with a clock and the numbers on it. | Recognizes his name and attempts to “write” it. |
| Becomes familiar with word that represent position like under, through, on top of, etc. Also, begins basic addition and subtraction by learning how to group sets and break them apart. | Begins to sound out and read CVC words like cat, rat, and sat. |
3. Decide how to pair kindergarten subjects with life skills.
Next, look at these skills above which are normally introduced in curriculum through a scope and sequence or order.
Kindergarten Subjects
So, you can either use a laid-out curriculum or continue to do what you’ve been doing up to this time in your child’s life.
For example, look at how I effortlessly blended the kindergarten homeschool subjects with life skills.
- Reading aloud increases your child’s vocabulary, ability to retell, and encourages him to act out what he has learned.
- Point out words or signs in your home and community to explain their meaning and what they say.
- Provide plenty of pictures books to your child to look at and dream about.
- Plant a garden to cover science, measuring, and “write’ on plant markers.
- Instead of using the app on your phone, have your Kindergarten help with a grocery list.
- Encourage your kindergarten to understand money by adding some to his piggy bank and paying for small items with your supervision.
Kindergarten Homeschool Ideas
Also, here are more ideas of things you’ve probably already been doing.
- Take care of a pet and learn to measure the pet’s food or medicine.
- Practice and recite rhymes. Rhymes are not just child’s play but the foundation to hear rhyming and syllables of a word. These skills are the beginning of phonics. Eventually, the sounds will be put to writing to learn spelling. It’s important to rhyme.
- Use paint brushes, q tips, sticks, to ‘”write” with.
- Bake cookies and learn fractions and the measurements on the cups.
- Take a nature walk and look for patterns in nature. For example, look at the repeating patterns of petals and the seeds in the head of a sunflower.
- Do crafts and make a clock with moving hands.
- Play games like uno and dominoes to learn number and additions.
- Use popsicle sticks and glue on 10 beans and use as a counter for 10s, 20s, and etc.
- Use these fun rock crayons which encourage the correct grip prior to holding a pencil.
Moreover, as you can see all of this can be done without worksheets. Puzzles, play props, and play-doh should still be part of kindergarten.
Do not give up what you’ve done for the first five years of your child’s life. Learning doesn’t always have to be divided into subjects.
Finally, if you need a curriculum, remember to use it as a framework, but do not make it the ultimate way a child learns.
What things are you naturally doing with your kindergartner each day where you’re blending learning and living?
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