Kindergarten Homeschooling – Making a Good First Impression

Kindergarten Homeschooling – Making a Good First Impression

What will your kindergarten child’s first impressions of homeschooling be? First impressions are important! Before you begin your homeschool journey with kindergarten, grab a cup of coffee or tea and read through these tips to create a happy homeschool experience for kindergarten!

Short and Sweet

Kindergarten children’s attention spans are short. To help little ones stay focused, keep lessons short and sweet! Fifteen minutes or less per activity or lesson works well. Likewise, kindergarten children concentrate best when their school day is kept short and sweet. One and a half hours or so each homeschool day works well. This allows little ones to give their best to their homeschool work. It gives them the impression, “I can do this, and I enjoy it!”

Keep a Routine

Kindergarten children thrive with routine. Chaotic, unpredictable days create stress and leave little ones anxious about expectations. When little ones know what to expect, they can give all their brain power to the task at hand. A routine time to start, a routine order of doing subjects, and a routine time to end helps little ones focus better. Routine gives the impression, “I know what to do, and I am good at it!”

Cuddle Up and Read

Kindergarten children love for parents to read aloud to them! Excellent living books give little ones a great first impression of homeschooling. Choosing to cuddle up and read on a comfy living room couch or loveseat makes the books all the more delightful! Literature-based homeschooling includes narrative readings for all subject areas. Dry textbooks leave little ones weary and disinterested. Cuddle-up-and-read books give the impression, “I like books, and these books are great!”

Connections Create Memories

Kindergarten children remember better when they make connections to themes. The subject of history easily connects to many other subjects. Weekly history themes can connect to Bible, art, music, devotionals, rhymes, and even to science topics! These connections create lasting memories, and they give the impression, “I am learning so much, and it all goes together so well!”

Get Movin’

Kindergarten children like to move! Sitting for endless hours makes little ones restless and sad. Hands-on activities, simple science experiments, and purposeful bodily-kinesthetic movement helps little ones make a mind-body connection to learning. Planned breaks also help little ones work off some steam and return ready to learn! When kiddos get movin’ in their homeschool day, they get the impression, “This is fun, and I can’t wait for school tomorrow!”

Special Time Together

Kindergarten children love to spend special time together with their parents. They know how busy their parents are, and when parents slow down and set aside time just for them, they feel special. They also inherently know what they are doing (school) must be pretty important. So, turn off the t.v., set aside the cell phone, avoid emails – make dedicated, special time together for homeschooling a habit. That one and a half hours of homeschool time can be divided into two 45-minute sessions, or three 30-minute sessions. Somehow, carve out special time together for homeschooling because kiddos get the impression, “This is important, and this is special!”

Talk the Talk 

Kindergarten children pick up on things pretty quickly! Smiling, happy parents who share their joys of homeschooling with spouses and with others show they enjoy homeschooling, and little ones take notice. So, talk the talk – what you say gets heard and repeated! Attitudes are catchy, so choose a thankful, Christian attitude toward this important work you are doing homeschooling your children, and send the impression, “I like being your teacher, I like homeschooling, and I hope you do too!”

Stay on Track

Kindergarten children notice when the day is dragging on, and they usually are not impressed. Oh sure, they may enjoy the hands-on activity going twice as long, but they probably won’t enjoy their collective homeschool day going l-o-n-g! They want to play too! So, when you feel like going deeper, elongating discussions, adding more to the lessons – pause, and weigh if it’s worth it. Consider finishing the rest of the homeschool lessons for the day first, so your child has a balanced day of learning. Then, come back to those ‘extras’ you were going to add – if you still have the time and your little one still has the energy! Staying on track gives the impression, “We have things to do that matter, and each day you will have a predictable balance of important work to do!”

A Complete Curriculum

Kindergarten children thrive when their homeschooling day includes a variety of subjects. A complete kindergarten curriculum keeps the homeschool day fresh and exciting! Children quickly see that homeschooling will teach them many new things. Many times, children learn as much from the subjects that don’t come as naturally to them, as they do from the subjects God has gifted them in. A complete curriculum moves children from subject to subject efficiently, so no one subject takes over the day. Little ones learn if they love something, it will come back around. If they don’t love something, they will move on to something else soon anyway. This gives the impression, “I will learn many things, and no one thing will take over my day!”

Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum 

The most important thing to give kindergarten children a good first impression of homeschooling is simply to pick the right curriculum!  Heart of Dakota’s Little Hearts for His Glory worked wonderfully well for my three children for kindergarten!

The guide is short and sweet; it only takes 1 and 1/2 hours to do each day. It uses the Charlotte Mason short-lesson format; each box of plans only takes 15 minutes or less to do. We enjoyed many cuddle-up-and-read books. My children made lots of great connections, as the entire left side of each daily two-page spread of plans centered around the weekly, chronological history theme. My busy sons loved the get movin’ history activities, thinking games, Bible bodily-kinesthetic activities, dramatic play, artistic expression lessons, and hands-on science experiments.

I made a simple kindergarten schedule to routinely follow each day.  I also made a point to avoid social media during homeschooling. This helped me set aside special time together to homeschool. It also helped me stay on track with our homeschooling. Since it is a complete homeschool curriculum, I never worried about my children missing anything. Little Hearts for His Glory gave my kindergarten children a wonderful first impression of homeschooling! I hope it can do the same for you and your children!

In Christ,

Julie

P.S. If you have a 1st grade student, check out Heart of Dakota’s placement charts! Little Hearts for His Glory can work well for 1st grade students too! Simply customize it accordingly!