Welcome!
We are privileged to be part of your homeschooling experience.
Here are some great guidelines for you as you explore Kindergarten with your child. The beauty of homeschooling is you are able to customize what you are teaching to your child’s level. Reading and Math are the two subjects that your child needs to master the requirements listed below. However, at this age you are introducing a concept, and then coming back to it multiple times throughout the year. The idea is that each time your child hears about the subject matter he/she picks up a little more each time.
As their teacher, you know that your child needs to learn ordinal position (first, second, third…). So, throughout the day you can incorporate those words. “Would you like to go first or second?” “This is your first helping” etc.
Your teaching doesn’t have to be all sitting down in a formal setting.
Additionally, you can review and reinforce what you taught them in “school” during the rest of the day!!
Kindergarten Reading
I have described the basics of teaching your child to read here: Learning to Read
Once your child is blending words together he/she is reading. Up to this point the only sounds they know are the short vowel sounds. At that point you are able to teach them more blends and the exceptions.
Here are the must blends:
ch, sh, th, wh, ck, or
The reason these are important because they cannot be decoded based on the traditional sounds you’ve taught them the letters make.
The rest of these blends are optional because your child will be able to decode them using the standard letter sounds.
sp, st, cl, mp, nd, sl, fl, tr, pl, ng, nk,
Sight Words:
It’s never too late to start teaching sight words. I prefer using the Dolman approach, which means you pick 5 sight word cards. Each card starts with a different letter. Three times a day (meal times work great) you pull out the cards and go through them quickly (making sure your child is looking at the card). “This card says (pause) here.” That allows your child to pipe in if they know the answer, and they don’t feel badly if they don’t know the answer. However you want to encourage your children to learn words is up to you!
Kindergarten Math
1. One-to-One Correspondence (they stop counting when the objects stop)
2. Counting
a. To 100
b. Backward from 10
c. By 5’s
d. By 10’s
e. Notice Missing Numbers
f. Reordering (1 -10)
g. Match a Number Card to a Set of Objects
3. Graphs
a. Reading and Creating a Pictograph
4. Patterns
a. Reading and Creating an AB Color Pattern
b. Reading and Creating an ABB Color Pattern
5. Most and Fewest
a. Identify on a Graph
6. Ordinal Position
a. Identify to the 10th Position (First, Second, Third, Fourth…)
7. Shapes
8. Money
a. Identifying Pennies, Nickels, Dimes, Quarters
b. Counting with Pennies
c. Counting with Nickles
d. Counting with Dimes
e. Counting with Quarters
f. Writing Money Amounts to $1.00
g. Paying for items up to $1.00
9. Sorting
a. By Color
b. Up to Three Attributes (color, size, shape)
10. Acting Out Story Problems
a. Some Came and Some Went Away
11. Addition
a. 0’s Facts
b. 1’s Facts
12. Subtraction
a. 0’s Facts
b. 1’s Facts
13. Telling Time
a. To the Hour
b. To the Half-Hour
14. Calendar
a. Days of the Week
b. Months of the Year
English
Literature
1. Here are the top 100 Books to Read for Kindergarten:
2. The Kindergarten Canon
3. The more you read the better!!
Grammar
1. Parts of Speech
a. Nouns, Verbs, Pronoun
2. Punctuation
a. Period, Comma, Question Mark, Exclamation Point, Quotation Marks
Handwriting
1. Letters
2. Numbers
Science
1. Plants
a. What Plants need to grow
b. Label Plant Parts
c. Types of Trees: Deciduous and Conifers
2. Seasons and Weather
a. Clouds: Rain & Snow
b. Wind
c. Sunny: Clear Day
3. Temperature
4. Human Body
a. 5 Senses
b. Muscles
c. Skeletal System
d. Digestive System
e. Taking Care of Our Bodies
5. Animals
a. Mammals: Warm Blooded
b. Reptiles: Cold Blooded
c. Habitats
d. Taking Care of Animals
6. Science Experiments
a. Sink or Float
b. Gravity
7. States of Matter
a. Solids, Liquids, Gases
8. Conservation
a. Recycling
9. Science Biographies
a. George Washington Carver
b. Jane Goodall
c. Wilbur and Orville Wright
d. Loius Pasteur
Geography
1. Directions
a. North, South, East & West
2. Continents
3. Oceans
History
1. Pilgrims
2. American Revolution
Music
1. Check out our Music Page
Art
1. Check out our Art Page
Foreign Language
1. Check out our Language Page