Homeschooling Tips for Kindergarten

One of the most important things you can do with your young child is to allow them to have fun. Learning should be fun, especially at such a young age. Never make them feel as though they are not good enough.

Below is just how I handled learning the basics of homeschooling my baby boy. You will probably alter this to suit your own needs. That is one benefit of homeschooling, you can make learning fit right into your schedule and individual needs.

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Know your Homeschool Laws for your State.

This is so important. You can Google your state laws and find out where and how to proceed.

Keep Paper Records of their Work

Keep paper records of the work your children have finished. This will come in handy when having them tested and to show proof of what you are doing. It could prevent legal issues as well.

Find a Curriculum

I use Sing, Spell, Read, Write. It is fabulous! My dear sister gave it to me and I cannot be more pleased with it. It is wonderful.

For the basic learning in early years, you do not have to buy this stuff. You can make your own curriculum. The main things at this tender age are the child's name, letters, colors, numbers, shapes, and maybe some sight words as they get a bit older.

Each child is different and yours may not seem to be catching on as quickly as another child. Don't fret, just keep trying! If you are ever in doubt about what you kid is or isn't learning, ask other homeschooling parents.

Look into what the local school system is doing too. You can no doubt do better because you can devote all of your time to your children. Public teachers have to share their time with many, many students.

If you are not committed to your homeschooling, you will probably fail and that will only serve to harm your children. It is your job to teach them and to teach them well. Get lazy with it, and they will fail.

Use Dry-erase Boards

Oh my at the money these have saved us! I LOVE them and so does my son. His has letters, numbers, shapes, writing and a blank drawing board. It was only $6.00 at Walmart and it is wonderful. Remember to keep paper records too!

The next one we are getting allows you to print out whatever you want and slip it into a dry-erase area. This means you can make the dry-erase board work with any curriculum you have. I cannot recommend this tool enough. Always purchase an extra set of dry-erase markers because the ones that come with the board run out too quickly.

Learning Letters

If you are starting at three, four or even five, you can teach your child their letters. Hopefully by now they have mastered holding their pencils correctly. Mastering this skill will make learning their letters, numbers and shapes so much easier.

Flash Cards are awesome. Using flash cards to teach your children their ABC's will probably be the easiest way to do it. Get really excited while teaching them.

Instead of going through the entire deck of cards, try doing small sets like uppercase and lowercase "A, a, B, b C, c, and D, d". Once your child learns these, go further with "E, e, F, f, G, g, and H, h".

After that, review what they have learned (or forgotten) by showing them the cards "A, a, B, b C, c, D, d, E, e F, f G, g, and H, h". If they are not stumbling through remembering them, try for the next several letters.

If this is the only thing you're teaching them at this point, that is okay. If you can, try and teach them their numbers while they learn their ABC's. Once they learn their ABC's, move on to the next thing ...

Learning Numbers

It is basically the same as learning their letters. Use flash cards and repetition rules!

Learning How to Write Numbers and Letters

I did this in a very simple way. One letter and number at a time. After my son learned how to write the letters "A and a", I moved on to B, b and then C, c. I then went back through A, a, B, b, C, c. After he knew how to write these I did another set of three upper and lowercase letters.

My son not only knows his ABC's, he knows what the upper and lowercase letters are. It just takes repetition and patience to get through them.

The same concept goes for his numbers.

Learning How to Count

The best way I found while teaching my son this valuable skill was to use images he loved.

Ladybugs!

I drew the lady bugs on the dry-erase board and asked him how many there were. He would then ask me "How many are there mommy?". He was just learning so had no idea, LOL.

I then count the number of ladybugs and show and tell him. I then wrote the number beneath the ladybugs and made him look at it. I use the flash cards while doing this. Show the child the flashcard number and the one you drew beneath the ladybugs.

Now I say, I had three ladybugs there. After he knew that was a grouping of three, I erased them and then drew the same amount back. After asking him how many that was and he told me the correct number, I then moved on to the next number.

I usually work in sets of three. This is just how I have always been and it seems to work.

I teach him what groups of "1, 2 and 3" look like. After he masters this I then go through "4, 5 and 6".

Now after he masters "4, 5 and 6", I go back to "1, 2 and 3". If he can recall those groupings, I move again to "4, 5 and 6".

After he masters what those groups look like, I do the next set of three "7, 8 and 9".

Learning Shapes

I teach shapes with flash cards and plastic shapes. It really helps if my son can touch what he is learning. He knows his shapes and learned them pretty quickly just from handling the plastic shapes. It is repetitive and a simple way of learning.

Learning Colors

My son learned his colors when he was really young because I always used the words with his food. I asked him what color Popsicle do you want? He would point to the one he wanted and I would tell him, "you want the red Popsicle"? After he said yes, or whatever, I then gave it to him. He quickly learned that the green, green apple flavored Popsicles were the best. Darn him, lol!

Read To Them

Always read to your children. This will help them in so many ways. Allow them to touch the books and images and words. If children crave books, they already have a head start on the world.