When I was getting ready to homeschool my first child, I got all kinds of advice and suggestions. Most of my friends at that time were using Seton Homeschool. That really was the most popular Catholic curriculum around two decades ago. But I knew my squirmy, busy little boy was not going to want to sit down and do a lot of book work.
So I found a curriculum that was a little more active and had him doing a lot of things including walking, running and making things. It was a much better fit for us that turned out to be a blessing too because that son ended up having some reading problems.
Kindergarten is not the happy social place that it was years ago. This year, with online education being the norm it might be even worse. This article from Boston. com expressed it well.
Pressure? This is kindergarten, the happy land of building blocks and singalongs. But increasingly in schools across Massachusetts and the United States, little children are being asked to perform academic tasks, including test taking, that early childhood researchers agree are developmentally inappropriate, even potentially damaging. If children don’t meet certain requirements, they are deemed “not proficient.” Frequently, children are screened for “kindergarten readiness” even before school begins, and some are labeled inadequate before they walk through the door.
Then came the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, which links federal funding for schools to performance on standardized tests beginning in the third grade. Its passage “put the nail in the coffin” for the old ways, says Ed Miller, coauthor of the Alliance for Childhood study. “Faced with serious sanctions, they weren’t going to say, ‘OK, let them play and do all the things they used to do,’ ” Miller says. “Instead, we have to put them in testing boot camp well before third grade.”
A few years ago I homeschooled my 6th child through kindergarten. Eight years after that, I was taking my granddaughter through her first year of homeschool. I went from a very rigid structure with my firstborn guinea pig kid – to very loose schooling with my baby and grandchild. What I have learned was that it didn’t matter what curriculum I bought, how much money I spent, or how much time we put in. A successful kindergarten for a homeschooled kid really only required a few important elements.
1. Experiencing and living the faith of the parents and the family – seeing the adults and siblings practicing their faith.
2. Learning the letters of the ABC. If they can read great! (only one of mine could and that is Miss Rosie, the kid who is getting the least structure homeschool experience!) But it’s enough that they know the letters and the sounds. Help them draw, paint, or color letters for the experience.
3. An introduction to numbers, counting, sorting, and the calendar.
4. Spending time in real-life situations like cooking, laundry, grocery shopping, gardening, listening to their siblings’ lessons.
5. Listening to all kinds of good music and good books.
6. Opportunities to use legos, art supplies, and other supplies.
That’s really it although I could add computer skills and t.v. if parents feel comfortable with those and want to monitor them.
But the main thing is to get the child excited about learning and getting a sense of accomplishment with a dollop of discipline for good measure. If that can be accomplished during homeschool kindergarten, that’s a successful year!
Some other sources that help:
World Book has a great scope and sequence for Pre-K through high school.
Homeschool 4 Real Life has a nice download of what to teach in Kindergarten.
