When to start homeschooling child
TIPS FOR HOW TO START HOMESCHOOLING KINDERGARTEN || How to homeschool
hi sweet mom's welcome back to my
channel home and arrows and welcome back
to my kitchen table where every week
usually on Thursdays I love to upload a
video that encourages you to cheerfully
embrace the very short season of time
that you have your arrows at home with
you this last school year I wrapped up
seven years of teaching kindergarten and
that totally made me so sad because I
actually loved teaching kindergarten now
you might be wondering but wait a minute
I thought you only had five kids surely
I do but if you've watched my channel
you might also know that I have a degree
in elementary education and when I
finished college I came home and I
actually taught kindergarten for two
years before getting married and having
kids and staying home and all of that so
that gives me a full seven years of
having taught kindergarten and while
it's all still super fresh in my mind I
wanted to dedicate an entire video to
just kindergarten I've also heard from a
whole bunch of you that you would love a
little bit of direction for this first
year that can be kind of daunting or
intimidating especially if you're a
first time home schooling mom so if you
are just beginning your homeschool
journey or you have a little one
entering kindergarten or maybe you've
already just started kindergarten this
year this video is for you
[Music]
I thought that I would break this video
down into eight thoughts that I have
about homeschooling in kindergarten and
I seriously plan to roll through these
so get ready and buckle up here we go
number one find out your state's laws
pertaining to homeschooling every state
is different and every state drafts
their own laws for homeschooling if
you're unsure about where to even begin
I promise that even if you just sit down
into a quick google search you will be
able to find some information regarding
your state's homeschool laws or reach
out to another homeschooling family or
friend do a search on Facebook for
homeschool groups in your area yeah most
states even offer annual homeschool
conventions I know here in Virginia
where I'm from there is an annual
homeschool convention and it was
actually one of the things that I went
to before I even started homeschooling
that totally persuaded me and kind of
sealed the deal for our family that we
were going to be home schoolers number
two consider the age that you want to
begin with my kids I typically went by
what our local school system does and
requires which is that the child has to
be five years old by or on September
30th but mom's you know your kids there
are some kids that are able to start
earlier than five years old but also
know that there is a lot of research out
there that suggests there are actually
many benefits to delay in kindergarten
number three and this just might be the
longest point I have think about what
you want your child to learn this year
in kindergarten and then after you've
decided that move forward with selecting
your curriculum for me personally I have
always only focused on three subjects
for my kindergartners those three
subjects are reading math and
handwriting I'll go ahead and share just
a couple of the things that we have
chosen to use in our family mind you
there are many many many great
homeschooling curriculum resources out
there but I will share with you the
things that we've used because I know
I'll probably get asked anyways so for
reading with my older two daughters I
used an incredible resource that other
homeschooling moms kept talking to me
about and maybe you've even heard about
it the cover of the book is super old
school looking but it ended up really
working well
for my two older daughters and that is
the book teacher child to read in 100
easy lessons and if I'm honest I didn't
even start my girls with that book like
on a September of their kindergarten
year
my second daughter daily I could just
tell that she was ready to start
learning how to read and that's probably
because she had an older sister who
really is only 11 months older than her
butwhat's River started learning and
wanting to learn how to read her little
sister was trailing right behind her
wanting to know as well so what I would
do is I would sit down with both of them
at the same time on the couch with this
book and we would just go through
lessons together sporadically as we had
time and before I knew it both of my
girls were reading daily who is my
second started reading at three years
old using that book and River who was
for almost five at the time also started
reading using that book I know that
teaching a child to read can seem
intimidating and I just want to say if
that is you if you are intimidated by
teaching reading to your child know that
there are so many curriculum options out
there that take all of the guesswork out
of it for you for example right now
we're using the good and the beautiful
and Mama
it will literally tell you say this to
your child then with my next two with
Daniel and Joanna I think I was just
curious about what else was out there
and we moved into a Creek ulam called
all about reading and then for my last
one Benjamin the good and the beautiful
just started coming out and I used the
good in the beautiful language arts
curriculum with him last year if you
were to ask me what my favorite out of
those three would be I honestly think
that the old school yellow book teach
your child to read in 100 easy lessons
was probably the easiest but I think the
good and the beautiful has been my
favorite because it was definitely a
much more well-rounded curriculum that
included other things not just reading
for handwriting we've used only two
different curriculums the first that we
used was I'm pretty positive it's called
a reason for handwriting and then they
have like all the different grade levels
and then again the good and the
beautiful came out with their own
handwriting curriculum which we tried
last year
first time and fell in love with it and
I'll tell you why for their handwriting
curriculum they have like their lesson
for the day where they learn to write
you know whatever certain letters and
numbers and then they move into short
sentences as they're moving into short
sentences it's really sweet to see that
sometimes these passages of Scripture
and I love that wish a reason for
handwriting also used Scripture which
was something I really loved about them
too but for the good and the beautiful
for me what set them apart was that at
the end of every lesson there would be
some kind of like little art activity
that the kids could do there'd be like a
picture to color or there would be um
like a connect-the-dot theme or maybe
like a little maze the third thing that
I always wanted my kids to learn in
their kindergarten year was math and
unfortunately I don't have a lot of
curriculum options to share with you we
have always gone with horizons math
again tons of great curriculums out
there look and see what works and fits
best for your family but for me as long
as my children at the end of the
kindergarten year were able to read
we're able to write well meaning that
they could write all of their letters
all of their numbers capital lowercase
and if they had finished their little
math book well four horizons it's
actually two books in a year as long as
they finished those things in a year I
have always felt like that meant we had
a really great home school kindergarten
year and just a little side note case
you're wondering about science and
history my last three kids have learned
their science in their history through
cc classical conversations the coop that
we are a part of number four and I want
to share this one with you because I
just talked about reading and I feel
like it makes a great segue into my next
thought which is that a reading
curriculum is great but I have
personally found that nothing beats
taking time aside to read to your child
and to have them read to you and I'm
gonna be honest some kids are able to
pick up learning how to read by just
doing this alone and in case you're
wondering this is one of the reasons why
I have never bothered to make sure my
kids memorize all of the phonics rules
that some curriculums encourage them to
memorize guys if you've ever looked at a
reading curriculum you will find that
there are so many phonetic rules in the
English language if it's in the
curriculum I honestly just breezed right
through it I mostly focus on me reading
side by side with my child and having
them practice reading to me and part of
the blessing of homeschooling is that we
have the ability to snuggle up with our
kids on the couch and do as much as this
in our day as we want to do I recently
read the book Christi which is about a
young woman who went to the Smoky
Mountains in like the early 1900s to
teach poverty-stricken families and
their children in a little one-room
schoolhouse there and she tells the
story about this one little girl named I
think it was Mountie Oteil who was
absolutely starving for affection and
attention from her family well Christi
did not know what to do with this child
this child could barely even talk much
less read and what she ended up doing
was bringing this little girl onto her
lap every day and doing some basic
phonic reading lessons with her and she
found that the more one-on-one touch and
personal interactions she had with this
little girl she found that this little
girl's learning would speed up
dramatically and as I was reading it I
was reminded about the value that
learning and touch have and that when
you put those two things hand-in-hand
you are not only making great memories
with your child that personal connection
that personal touch along with learning
can really benefit and help our kids to
learn better and I think maybe even
faster and number five while we are
still on reading because let's face it
that is just a really big part of
kindergarten my next thought is to make
sure you keep lots of easy readers
around your house we've kept Bob books
we've had some us born early reader
books dr. Seuss we love pathway book
curriculums like the good and the
beautiful and all about reading come
with their own readers and their own
books you can go to the library and
check out early reader books just keep a
lot of books handy and accessible to
your child that way whenever they're
inspired to read they have so many good
options available to them of books that
are at their level number six try your
best to create and maintain a routine or
a schedule for your kindergarten
kids thrive with a routine when they
just know what's gonna happen next in
their day there is a comfort that comes
with that for them I mean make a routine
out of things like mealtimes and getting
ready in the morning and brushing your
teeth and getting dressed
scheduling quiet time scheduling when
you're gonna do school time together at
the table I found that in home school in
kindergarten I can get kindergarten work
done in like an hour and a half or two
every day I know that when my older ones
were younger I would even schedule in
thirty minutes of them being able to sit
in front of the TV and watch something
educational I mean they share something
with you that our family has loved and
that is liberties kids it's a cartoon
that's based on American history and
I'll try to leave a link in the
description box below I seriously think
that I paid like seven dollars for this
series and it has been well worth the
investment so I would like to schedule
in you know maybe right after lunch they
would get like thirty minutes in front
of the TV to watch an episode of
Liberty's kids make that something a
part of their day that they'll really
look forward to if they don't watch a
lot of TV and this is what I've found
with my kids because we don't watch a
lot of TV especially during the day
there's like no screen time then when
you do put something on for like 30
minutes you'll find that it really keeps
their attention for that amount of time
and that leads me to my next thought
number seven which is while you're
working on scheduling their days make
sure that you schedule in time for them
to just play I will try to link a video
here and if not I'm still learning a lot
about YouTube I'll put it in the
description box below or on the end
screen of a video I made about the value
that I have found in creating time and
space for my children to just play in
fact for me this is one of the biggest
reasons why we homeschool there is so
much value to me personally being able
to give my children time and space to
just be to be creative to just read to
do art to be outside in nature I have
always made sure that my kindergarteners
are doing way more playing than they are
doing sit-down formal schoolwork if you
want to know or you don't know the
benefits of
play in the lives of children I'm not
gonna explain it all here but just do a
google search on it there are several
ways that I try to foster lots of really
good play in our house the first is that
we have a steadfast rule that there are
no electronics during the day unless I
decide to give them that one little
30-minute time slot of watching
something educational the second thing
is that I love to provide my kids with
lots of open-ended pretend play toys and
I want to share just a few of our
favorites with you we love puppets
magnetic tiles just plain old building
blocks like I have bins full of blocks
cuz I'll find a mate yard sales are all
fine about goodwill and when I find them
super cheap I'll just keep dumping them
into this one bin until we have massive
bins of some of these toys and I will
literally go to the garage and pull out
one big bin and they can play with that
for like an entire day and when they're
done playing with it for like a day or
two I'll pack it all back up and kind of
tuck it away and then the next day I'll
maybe bring out some Lincoln Logs I do
the same thing I'll look at yard sales
or goodwill if I find Lincoln Logs and
I'll dump and dump and dump until it has
literally huge bins full and then they
feel like they can create these huge
villages and huge houses and it makes it
so much more fun for them I love having
things like dollhouses and my daughters
have all especially loved Calico
Critters I love to sit my kids around
the kitchen table and pull out some
watercolors with plain paper or
playdough and in the background I'll be
playing some music for them or some
adventures in Odyssey my kids love to do
that we love pattern blocks Wicky sticks
coloring book and my kids like tanks and
what I mean by that are like like old
fish tanks or little aquarium type
things my kids will take those outside
and create habitats for bugs and frogs
and caterpillars and worms they will
spend so much time outside playing and
creating habitats with these little like
empty tubs and bins so momma's of
kindergartners make sure that you have
allowed lots of time in your day for
your kids to just play I promise maybe
it doesn't sound as valuable as
important as formal sit-down school work
but oh my gosh it really truly is and
last but not
it's number eight consider a co-op in
our family we've just always been a part
of some kind of homeschool community or
some kind of homeschool co-op I know
I've enjoyed it for the relationships
that I've built with other like-minded
moms that are home schoolers and my kids
have enjoyed it they've enjoyed having
friends who have a similar lifestyle to
them it helps them know that they're not
alone in this unique lifestyle of hem
schooling in their younger years my kids
have been a part of coops where I sign
them up for like a little science class
or a little history class they've done
things like homeschool soccer and you
don't have to when they're in
kindergarten but for our family we've
just found so many benefits and being a
part of a homeschool community even in
my kids younger years all right moms
again I feel like I say this at the end
of a lot of videos I know that what's a
lot but I hope for those of you that
have a child in kindergarten maybe you
just started or you're thinking about
homeschooling for your family I hope
that you found this video to be
chock-full of ideas for you and as
always thank you so much for taking the
time to join me at my kitchen table so
if you've received anything from
watching today I hope that you'll give
the video a thumbs up maybe click on the
notification bell so you can be notified
when I upload other videos and guys I
hope you have a great week I know a lot
of you have already started
homeschooling I hope that you have a
great school year and as always thanks
for watching and I'll see you next time
bye
[Music]
