Homeschooling in Kindergarten

What do you teach a child in kindergarten? How long should the school day be? Is kindergarten required? Will my child be behind if I don’t use a kindergarten curriculum? Are these some of the questions you have about homeschooling a child in kindergarten? If so, I’m so glad you are here! I have some simple information and suggestions in this article, so keep reading, because I want you to go away feeling empowered and encouraged about homeschooling your child in kindergarten.

First, the Law

As I wrote in a previous article on preschool, you may not be required to formally teach your child in kindergarten depending on their age and the compulsory attendance laws in your state. For example, in Florida, children are required to be in some form of school between the ages of 6 and 16. This means that if my child is 5 years old, I would not be required to put them in school or teach them at home. Now, you may want to start teaching them at this age, and that is perfectly fine. Just know that you are not required to report it to the state, at least not in Florida. As I look through the map and information on the HSLDA.org website it seems most states set the compulsory attendance age at 6 or 7. I am very surprised that there are so many states that set it at 7, however, there are some such as South Carolina and Virginia that set it at age 5. So, wherever you are, find out what the required age is, and know that even though you may start schooling your child at a younger age, you are not required to report anything until they reach that compulsory age.

I need to make it clear that I am not an attorney and I do not offer legal advice in any way. I recommend going to HSLDA.org if you need any help with the legal side of homeschooling.

What Do You Teach a Kindergartner?

Let’s start with the obvious things you would want to teach a kindergartner. Letter sounds and letter recognition, counting and number recognition, coloring, tracing, and anything you can read to them from a book. I would say these are the main things and you really don’t need a fancy curriculum to do it unless your state requires it. Now, if you’ve read my previous articles or listened to my podcast, you know when I started homeschooling my first child, I bought a very popular curriculum and bought all the bells and whistles that went along with it. I was new to this homeschooling thing and didn’t know any better. I now know that it’s not necessary to spend all that money. Although, I still highly recommend that curriculum, I wouldn’t recommend all the extras unless that’s what you really want for you and your child. You don’t need to spend all that money or time doing all the things. Some flashcards, letter and number tracing sheets, and lots of books are almost all you would need to teach kindergarten to your child.

How Long Does it Take to Homeschool in Kindergarten?

Does an hour sound too long? If you only have 1 child in Kindergarten, it will probably only take an hour or less each day of formal learning. This might not include any arts and crafts you might add in or any nature walks outside etc. This would be you teaching them letter sounds and numbers and counting then whatever work pages or tracing pages they may do. Of course, as mentioned above, I would add in time to read a book or at least part of a book to your child every day.

Will Your Child Be Behind if You Don’t Teach Them in Kindergarten?

No. I was going to leave this one word as the entirety of my answer, but you might need an explanation. When a child is homeschooled, there is no such thing as being behind unless you are comparing them to children in a school or even other homeschoolers. Your child learns at their own pace. The only reason you might want to keep up with other children in a school somewhere is if you plan on sending your child to a public or private school sometime in the future. Otherwise, it’s not something that even needs to be considered. The only time something like a scope and sequence or knowing what the average child is able to learn and do would come in handy is to help determine if your child has a learning issue.

In most first grade curricula, review of all the alphabet and letter sounds is done. It is the same with numbers. What a child learns slowly in kindergarten, they tend to learn a little more easily and quicker in first grade. Some might say this is because they already learned it in kindergarten, and it’s just a review. This is not necessarily true. After being out of school the whole summer, they probably don’t remember all that much unless it was reviewed with the parent all summer. A lot of times they are actually learning it again from the beginning. This is why, in my opinion, it’s not necessary to have a formal kindergarten curriculum or to even teach kindergarten if you are not required and don’t feel that your child is ready.

Please don’t think that because I am stating you don’t have to that I am advocating that children shouldn’t be taught in kindergarten or that you shouldn’t homeschool your kindergartner. That is not my position. My position is that if you want to and you believe your child Is ready, by all means go for it. However, you do not need to spend lots of money to do it. On the other hand, if your state does not require it, and you feel that your child is not ready for formal education, and you want to wait, then that’s okay as well.

 I taught all of my children starting at age 4 with some preschool type workbooks. I did this with my oldest because I thought it was the right thing to do as a first-time parent and homeschooler. I did it with my subsequent children, because they wanted to do school when they saw their older siblings doing school. They just wanted to be included. It was nothing fancy, just letter and number coloring pages. They still had to learn it all over again the next year.

Homeschooling in kindergarten can be so much fun. Seeing your child learn and ask questions and talk about things you read in a book is amazing. It also can help ease you into the whole process of homeschooling as it is easier and takes less time in those first few years. As the years progress you add in more subjects and spend more time helping your child and teaching them. It’s a good introduction to what will come in the subsequent years.

Final Thought

If you think your child is ready for kindergarten then you can definitely start teaching them using a store-bought curriculum or just some flashcards, worksheets, and story books. If you believe it might be better to wait, and the laws in your state allow it, then it is perfectly fine to hold off for another few months or maybe even a whole year.

If you have a child in this age range and you are looking into kindergarten homeschool materials I will leave a list of some recommended resources and books below.

I used the books below with my youngest son to teach him phonics and beginning reading and writing.

Bob Books – Learning to Read series Explode the Code – Phonics, Reading, and Writing

Get Ready for the Code – Recommended for ages 3-5

If you have read any of my previous articles or listened to my podcast you know how much I love the Abeka curriculum. They offer the homeschool kindergarten curriculum with manuscript or cursive handwriting lessons. I used the manuscript when I homeschooled my children, but I have seen children in private schools who have learned to write cursive in kindergarten instead of manuscript or print, and they have beautiful handwriting. If I could go back, I think I would start with cursive. Just my 2 cents.

The first 2 links below are for full grade packages. While I do recommend the child kit, you do not need everything in the parent kit unless you want to purchase it all. Otherwise, just the lesson plan books will be enough to get started. I will leave separate links to those below as well.

Abeka Grade K5 Child Kit (Manuscript Edition), 
By Abeka

Abeka Grade K5 Complete Parent Kit (Manuscript Edition), New Edition
By Abeka

Here are the links to the individual lesson plan books.

Abeka Homeschool K5 Phonics, Reading, Writing, and Numbers Curriculum/Lesson Plans (Revised)

Lastly, here is one website that offers Charlotte Mason based curricula that I think is worth a look if you are interested in this way of educating your child. SimplyCharlotteMason.com

I would love to hear from you. Please let me know if you have any questions. Mary@whatabouthomeschooling.com

Wishing you all the best in your homeschool journey.

~Mary

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