She wrote: “I’m considering homeschooling my soon to be kindergartner and have no idea how to do so.”
I responded . . .
Welcome to the homeschooling journey! You can do it. You may feel inadequate. You may wonder what to do, and then you’ll wonder if you did it right. Sometimes you will want to quit and then there are times when you celebrate and your space is filled with joy and thanksgiving. Think of all the ways you’ve felt in the past as a mother. Those same feelings will come and go as you homeschool. They are normal. Just remember, I said you can do it. I believe any mom who has taught her child to eat with a spoon can homeschool, especially with the resources and curricula we have available online.
Doing her “Letters Sounds Words” lessons from
academy.alicenine.net
What must you consider?
First, there are five foundation areas that you will eventually make decisions about. I recommend you become informed about these areas. I wrote in more detail about the first four in another post: “Homeschool Help.”
- Learn your states LAWS and regulations for homeschooling. Search with “homeschooling laws + your state.” Or go to Homeschool Legal Defense Association and select your state: https://hslda.org/legal Links there will take you to the laws and regulations on a state government site. I suggest you make sure you are on an official government page since not all websites stay up-to-date and regulations do change. If you read a requirement for 180 days and 4.5 hours per day, don’t be panic. There are many things you already do every day that can be categorize as “school hours.” For example, family read alouds (literature), watching a documentary (science or history), home projects like building a fence, caring for a garden, a nature walk (math, science). Did I just say “building a fence” for a kindergarten. Yes. I remember when my husband put in a new chain link fence and our little K-kiddo helped dig fence post holes with his little shovel and held the end of the measuring tape. Just keep a simple record of date, time spent on it, description of activity, and the subject it falls under.
- Join a homeschool COMMUNITY (or several) like this one online. Also, it is good to join a homeschool co-op in your geographic area. You meet other homeschooling parents and that gives you support. Often electives are offered, taught by other parents. And there are opportunities for your kids to make homeschooling friends. We never did join one because we were homeschooling before there were co-ops. By the time there were, we didn’t feel the need. We are very involved in our church and with our church family. And, honestly, we didn’t have the time to commit to one. HSLDA has a great search feature to find co-ops near you (in your zip code area).
- Outline your SCHEDULES AND ROUTINES. The schedule is an outline when activities will occur. Schedules focus on time-based management. A routine, on the other hand, is a sequence of how the activities are done. Routines emphasize process or steps involved. A simple illustration is how you open your school day. The opening is SCHEDULED for a certain time, i.e., 8:30 am (that’s your target time to begin). What you do during the opening, i.e., prayer, pledge, scripture, a motto, is the ROUTINE.
There are three parts to your schedule: the school year (school days and non-school days; traditional or year-round), then decide which days each week (i.e., M-Th or M-W-F), and finally, decide your daily time (i.e., am and / or pm or part in both am and pm). If something doesn’t work, remember scheduling is flexible and can change based on your needs and situation. And of course, family situations like illness will disrupt it. When it does, do not try to play catch up. Just pick up where you were and continue. My advice is to hold the schedule pretty steady but don’t be a clock watcher; don’t keep changing the schedule or sequence of activity. Kids thrive on predictable schedules. Kids also thrive on predictable routines, and academic skills grow better in regular, purposeful learning routines.
For example, your math lesson might be scheduled for the morning, right after your breakfast is over and cleaned up. The lesson would always begin with a quick retrieval practice (review activity), something that requires recalling or using knowledge from prior lessons. Perhaps you have been working on number sense, so the retrieval practice would be matching numerals to domino patterns with manipulative or paper/pencil. Plan 3-5 minutes for the retrieval practice. Then have an instructional time for new material. The sequence is you explain and model (You Do It). Then he does it with you as you talk it through again (You + Student Does It). That will take 10-15 minutes. Finally, he does it on his own (Student Does It); we call it independent work. Plan 10 minutes. The routine consists of review, you do it, you + student do it, and student does it.
Plan to have systematic, explicit lessons every school day for two core subjects: language arts (foundation literacy) and math. When you begin the year, start with only one subject until your schedule and use of materials is running smoothly (one to two weeks) for that subject. Then add the other. For example, start with math, then add language arts. - Decide on your CURRICULA (ideas below) for your first year. Then near the end of that year, reflect on it: what went well, what did not go well, what did you achieve with it, what were you unable to achieve. Based on your reflections and what you’ve learned about available curricula, choose what you want for the next year.
- Determine the SPACE in your home where you will do the work and where you will store books and supplies. Think about the kind of work your student will be engage in and be flexible. i.e., on the floor with puzzles, at the table or a small desk to draw or write, in a comfy chair to read. Or you can dedicate a room or part of a room to schooling if you have space. At one point we had seven kids homeschooling, so we turned our daylight basement family room into our homeschooling space.
Family room converted to learning space for seven kids.
Before I share more specific information about curricula, I encourage you that once you start do not jump around, trying this curriculum or approach and then trying a different one. Find something and stick with it. Set your course and stay it. Choose the basic resources and curriculum you want to use and stick with them long enough to actually determine if they are working for your students. Of course, if something isn’t working and you’ve given it plenty of time, change it or supplement it. Being able to adapt is part of the beauty of homeschooling. Don’t get distracted from systematic, explicit curriculum by hunting for “fun” things or “games.” The fun is in the learning, the doing, and the interaction your child has with you. Your goal is not solely memorization of content, but most importantly it is on developing thinking skills.
For science and social studies, we used an eclectic approach. You can have science as daily routines, i.e. notice daily weather and keep records, notice seasonal changes, take walks and observe life.
Use a “daily calendar”–one you’ve made or one you purchased. Below is a picture of the one we used. We loved that it was magnetic. We also liked that the student had to make selections from all options. Tip: I am a firm believer that it is as important to recognize what something is not as it is to recognize what it is. Click HERE for ink to it on Amazon.
Use library books written for children: science topics (i.e., weather, magnets, animals, plants), history (i.e., stories, flag, symbols of our country, biographies of famous people in history), and geography (i.e., maps, globe). Sometimes we did “projects” using printable workbooks, i.e., learning about our body. Workbooks available online work well for these special units, i.e., Spectrum or DK (link to some science workbooks as samples). Or you can use a grade level textbook and simply follow it. For example, get the student science book for K from Abeka or BJU and just read and discuss it together. Let it guide your topics.
Learning about My Body.
Ethan’s life -sized skeleton created as he learned
about his skeletal system (K). We bought a consumable
book to print the parts of the skeleton.
Click here to open resource for skeleton.
Keep in mind that puzzles, games, read alouds, and play time are all part of their learning. Baking or cooking with you, gardening, learning to care for things (chores), guided shopping (talking about items like names of fruit and veggies, etc) are also part of K learning. So be intentional about these activities. If your state requires you to keep attendance or track work, include these.
Core Knowledge has a great free resource that outlines core knowledge / skills by grade level. It will help you be informed. WARNING: Do NOT be overwhelmed when you look at it. There are lots of materials and resources that simplify it for you!! With a math program like Saxon (more below) and with my online lessons for foundation literacy (more below), you can easily provide the two most important core subjects.
Language Arts: “Letters Sounds Words“ at Alice Nine’s Academy (virtual lessons)
Teaching foundation literacy is my expertise; I have four decades of educational experience in multiple capacities. My virtual on-demand kindergarten course is “Letters Sounds Words.”
You stream and go. Think of me as your co-teacher who plans lessons, teaches lessons, and models the work. I carry the heavy instructional load for you. You, as the other co-teacher, provide time, place, supplies; monitor student engagement; and give encouragement.
Students experience hands-on learning in 80 lessons that seamlessly integrate print awareness, phonological and phonemic awareness, alphabet knowledge, phonics (both decoding and encoding), handwriting, spelling, word work, sentences, capitalization, punctuation. Instruction is systematic, explicit, and teacher-modeled. Videos are student facing, picture-in-picture, and students feel like they know me, calling me their teacher, answering my questions as though I were actually with them.
The course has over 620 videos, ranging from 3 to 15 mins in viewing time. There are 4-8 videos per lesson. A lesson can be spread over two days. Read more and watch some sample videos HERE.
In “Letters Sounds Words” we sing songs, write in cornmeal, create letters with clay/play dough, write with tracking letters. We learn the English code, discover sound-symbol patterns in words, take dictation and self check our own work, sound out words to write/spell them, then sound them out to read, create word families with rhymes, do word finds in our work.
Check out my FREE web resource for sound-symbols (phonograms) and for formation of lower case letters using a clock face as a backdrop — phonogrampage.com.
When your child begins to read, it is good to use pictureless short text with comprehension questions as well as picture books for practice. “See Johnny Read” is that type of resource, written by a first grade teacher using high frequency words. We also used McCall-Harby Readers.
In addition to my virtual lessons and practice reading passages, you should read aloud with your children every day. Read for fun. Read to learn about something they are interested in. Read so they unconsciously learn vocabulary, background knowledge, and the rhythm and structure of written language.
Math: Saxon
Now, for math, I highly recommend Saxon math. We have used it with 13 grandkids, all levels, K-HS. My son-in-law did all his math in Saxon… through HS. What Saxon does well is build understanding of the concepts in the lessons… and the lessons are scripted so anyone can teach math well. You don’t need to worry about doing it right or what comes next or when do I need to review. It’s all in the teacher’s manual. Also, Saxon is a spiral curriculum, an educational approach were core concepts are revisited and built upon throughout the course, increasing in complexity and depth. Saxon has a kit of manipulatives that you will use in the lessons; I recommend purchasing the Saxon kit rather than piecing it together from online purchases. You will need the teacher’s manual and the student materials.
Supplemental online practice
I recommend Starfall for additional practice and application of language and math. It aligns well with “Letters Sounds Words.” Both our course and Starfall activities are based on the science of reading and cognitive research. Starfall gives your students quality screen time and independent practice activities. We found them to be much better than workbook pages. Just limit their time online. We also allowed them to pick and choose what they wanted to do on Starfall. My grandkids have all loved it. They especially loved Zac the Rat (one of the story characters). A well-worn, very loved patched Zac the Rat holds a place of honor on one of our library shelves. And even though my grandkids have grown up, they still take Zac the Rat down from his perch from time to time.
For more information or clarification, contact me. I’ll support you in any way I can. Use “Reply” below, or use our private Contact Form. When you subscribe to Alice Nine Academy courses, I am available to make recommendations 1:1 about how we developed reading skills, i.e., comprehension, fluency, and to share how we grew our writing (composition) skills.
May your homeschooling be blessed with the joy and the love of learning.
Meet Alice Nine
For more than four decades, Alice Nine has served in various educational positions. She is a former classroom teacher, private school administrator, national professional developer for foundation literacy instruction. She homeschooled her kids in high school during the late 80s. And she has helped homeschool thirteen grandkids, K-HS, since 2005. Currently Alice is a virtual teacher and a curriculum writer. Alice Nine earned a bachelor of science degree in elementary education and a master of science degree in elementary administration.
where Alice Nine teaches language lessons that
Empower Students with Language Proficiency
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