Homeschool Kindergarten

If you’re Googling for that term “Homeschool Kindergarten” you’re new to our world. Hi, welcome, we’re glad you’d like to homeschool. We need to start at the beginning and explain homeschooling to you so that you can best homeschool (home educate, home school, world school, wildschool, unschool ) your kindergarten-aged little one. There are a whole bunch of terms and methods in homeschooling that you probably don’t know about yet, so we’ll explain those and point you towards books, toys, and tools to use with your pre-school child. But first I want you to know some very important things.

• You can do this. You don’t need to be a teacher and you don’t need special training.
• Loads of kids are homeschooled, all over the world and numbers are rising rapidly.
• Homeschooled kids often have great outcomes.
• Homeschooled kids or parents generally aren’t weird, I know loads, we’re pretty normal.
• My kids have been homeschooled from Kindergarten to high school, they’re great kids, well-educated.
• Play is most important for your kids right now.
• You will find support if you look.
• Check your local laws, it’s unlikely to be illegal, but a few countries have crazy laws forcing parents to use state controlled education. There may be requirements in terms of registration and record keeping.
• Don’t join a regular homeschooling or unschooling Facebook group and ask about homeschooling kindergarten. I’ll explain further down the page.

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Homeschool Kindergarten

Let’s start at the beginning. Baby steps for you and your kindergarten aged child. Homeschool Kindergarten should look the same as life at home did last week, or last month, whenever your child reached kindergarten age.

You will continue to be mum or dad or guardian and continue doing the things you’ve done since the moment your child arrived. You will continue to make that child as happy and healthy as you know how.

Your child will continue to learn, every day, from all the things he or she does, solo, with other kids, with you or with other adults. Every moment of your new human’s waking life, they are learning.

What most small children want most in the world is to be with you, so well done, you’ve taken a major step towards improving your child’s quality of life by not forcing premature separation on them.

Homeschooling Terms You’ll Need to Know

There are a whole bunch of new words, terms and philosophies you’ll need to find out about. Some of them are listed below.

• Deschooling
• School at Home
• Unschooling
• Worldschooling
• Wildschooling
• Relaxed Homeschooling
• Classical Unschooling
• Montessori Homeschool
• Charlotte Mason Homeschooling
• Earthschooling
• Strewing
• Distance Education and Online Schools

What Age Do Kids Start Kindergarten ?

My son would have been 3 when he started kindergarten, which I’m sure you’d agree is way to young to be forced away from his mum. The usual age for commencing Kindergarten is around 5 years old, but it varies around the world and between districts and states.

There’s an interesting article here from Psychology Today on what age kids should start Kindergarten. They found no conclusive evidence that earlier or later is better in relation to parents delaying Kindergarten admission in the USA and other countries. My thoughts on this round up are these – it’s not the delaying Kindergarten that caused their statistics, it was the nature of the child. Parents know if their child is ready for Kindergarten. Others know instinctively that Kindergarten just isn’t for their child. Every child is different and statistical studies like these  hold little value. As a scientist – I was one in my life before kids – data is easy to manipulate and often misleading.

As a child who went to school young and was always youngest in my class, I’d suggest holding them back. It’s hard being the youngest and I was a studious, quiet child who did well and passed all the right exams.. I wasn’t a ball of energy at all, my son was. I knew it wasn’t for him.

You can bookmark the image below to Pinterest, just use the red button.

Is Kindergarten Attendance Good For Kids ?

Some like to say full day Kindergarten attendance is good for kids. I’d like to say, define good?

If you’re measuring a child’s worth in grades rather than in happiness, you may get totally different results.

The study above says that full day Kindergarten attendance helps kids do better in elimentary school. Is that the only yardstick by which we measure our children? It’s sad if it is.

Most homeschooled kids, of course, don’t go to Kindergarten yet studies shows they often out perform their peers that is, if we’re just going to consider academic outcomes. They didn’t go to elimentary school either. See how the reported data could be flawed?

I get it, I see that some parents just have to go back to work, they can’t afford to stay home with their kids so state funded full day Kindergarten is fantastic for them. But is it best for the kids?

These studies tend to measure outcomes such as better accademic performance in the following grades and better ability to play with their peers and sit at a desk. These attributes are only required in a classroom. They’re not real world, real life skills. Why would we, if we’re going to homeschool Kindergaren and beyond, even care about such markers? As a mum of older kids I know that they will socialise as much or as little as they choose, as often or as infrequently as they choose, in whatever way they choose. School social interractions aren’t what the real world is all about. These classroom kids are developing coping mechanisms for the classroom environment. Don’t put them in a classroom and they’ll never need them.

Homeschool Kindergarten Curriculum

If you start Googling you should be able to fnd your local, state or national homeschool curriculum.

If you’re looking for curriculum materials take a look at homeschool workbooks. Also check out online kindergarten level homeschool curriculum materials and check out the boxed, or pre-made homeschool curriculums available to buy.

Don’t lose heart or think this is going to be expensive. A workbook is just a few dollars and there are many free online learning resources to incorporate into your kindergarten homeschool.

Things to Do With Your Homeschooled Kindergarten Child – How to Homeschool Kindergarten.

You need to find what works for you and your child and this often takes months, maybe years. A lot of new homeschoolers dive straight into school at home. I did it! You can read more in New Homeschooler Mistakes I Made.

Follow your child’s interest. Do things that she is genuinely interested in doing, forced learning isn’t a thing. People and kids have this very human tendency to learn what they want to learn, when they need to learn it. Run with that.

Realise that the things you do every day, like cooking, reading or going to the shops, are just as valuable as attending a formal Kindergarten, for instance:

• Go to the shops, count money, look at prices, weigh produce and, later, make change.
• Learn social skills through every day interractions on buses, in restaurants, at the mall.
• There is a lot of science in cooking, from physical and chemical changes to weights, measurements and volumes.
• Go to the pool, practice swimming and get your PE done.
• Arts and crafts come easily to most kids and can be counted as technology.
• Look at wildlife, give those animals categories.
• Look at the sand on the beach and the water in the streams, you’re obcerving the water and rock cycles, talk about them
• Toys such as magnet sets, circuits and robot kits are all kindergarten science starters or homeschool resources. Remember girls are just as good at science as boys.

Finding Support

Go online and search. You will find endless Facebook groups and websites, like this one, where people share support. If you haven’t yet found your local tribe, a virtual one is super helpful. Both is ideal.

Finding Other Kids and Families to Play With

Head to your local pool, playground or library. Go anywhere that the regular schooled kids like to hang out after hours. This could include sports or other after school activities that the regular schooled kids attend. You may still be able to continue attending your play group, I did this with my elder child and his younger brother. Then, on top of this, start finding the homeschoolers.

Homeschool Groups can be hard to find, I don’t know what it is, but they don’t seem to be good at running websites. Your best place to look is probably Facebook. Don’t forget to try all the search terms, homeschool, home school, home education and so on. Once you connect you’ll be amazed that they were so well hidden.

Most homeschool groups hold weekly play meet ups. You’ll also find, clubs, classes and teams once you start looking.

Books to Read

There are endless books I could recommend on Homeschooling Kindergarten, Homescool Philosophies and Methods. There are a few below to get you started.

Materials You’ll Need at Home to Homeschool Kindergarten

You will need all the things you already have. Lots of love, lots of fun, lots of time and lots of play. Then you can add paints, paper, crayons, craft materials ( trash boxes and bottles are perfect), tape, modelling clay and books. Lots and lots of books, any fun books they enjoy already plus more of the same. Read to them, read with them.

You can buy homeschool workbooks for Kindergarten age kids, we mention some in our post if you click-through. Keep it light, keep it fun.

Other items you’ll need to homeschool kindergarten, pets, a garden, wildlife, a kitchen, a TV and maybe a computer, although with small kids I didn’t find this essential. Computers most certainly are essential with older homeschooled kids. You’ll need parks, playgrounds, museums and nature reserves. Think what you do with your kids on weekends – then do more of it. So nothing fancy, no big bucks, no big costs, just a well stocked play and craft cupboard and bags of energy.

Toys, Games and Kindy Homeschool Accessories

So best of luck, enjoy. Homeschooling doesn’t work out for every child or every family, there are disadvantages, some people see them as big, others, like me, see them as totally insignificant ( there is a post on the pros and cons of homeschooling right here ). Regular school doesn’t work out for all kids and families either. Kids do, still, leave the education system illiterate, many leave damaged, some, sadly, don’t make it out alive. Homeschooling has worked out, still does work out, brilliantly for my kids and family. I have a young teen studying through Open University right now and as happy and content with his life as it’s possible to be. This homeschooled kid will sit exams – if he choses to, but he’s not under any obligation to do so. Give it a go, you can do this!