Homeschooling kindergarten

[Anonymous]

I did not formally HS my DS, but I did do some academic activities with him the year he was old enough for Kindergarten but I kept him in a half day preschool due to his special needs. He wasn't napping anymore so we spent the afternoons doing about 90 minutes of academics (not all at once). I didn't really follow a curriculum, I just started where he was and tried to move him forward.

Reading: He had seen a reading specialist so I just tried to recreate what she did. I used "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy lessons" as a guide and worked on phonics with him (I borrowed the book from the library). It was really scripted and I didn't like that, but the order they presented to sounds made sense to me. I used magnetic letters and flash cards to have him practice sounds. I also got the list of 100 sight words for K and gradually introduced those. I had him read BOB books, and of course most of the "reading" time was me reading to him something he would enjoy.

Writing: He had a lot of fine motor challenges so I used a app recommended by our OT (Letter School) and also a Handwriting Without Tears workbook. Once he could actually write a few letters and approximate some words we did a very loose version of Lucy Calkins "Writers Workshop" where he would draw a picture and then write a sentence or two describing what was happening. I think you are suppose to have them draw events from their own life, but he was terrible at drawing, too, so I let him pick anything that motivated him. Also, if he had more he wanted to say but was overwhelmed by the writing, I would write it for him, because the thoughts and descriptions are the most important part, not the mechanics.

Math: I honestly am not sure what we did. I think he already could relate numbers to number of objects. I think we did part of a Singapore Math workbook. We looked at a clock, we talked about coin names and values. There were some ipad apps. I know I didn't do any math fact memorization, but probably there was some simple addition and subtraction. Oh, and patterns and simple geometry. For all of this stuff it was a combination of workbooks, books, and hands on activities (pinterist was actually quite helpful for ideas, and random education blogs).

Science: I picked out books and DVDs from the library related to something he was interested in and we would watch them. And we kept going to museums and the planetarium. Nothing too structured for sure.

He did a social skills group but if he were typically developing I would have found extra curricular classes to put him in for socializing. Or gone to our local HS meet ups. So you might want to try that.

I found this to be a good resource for teaching materials if you want to buy something:

https://www.rainbowresource.com/

[Anonymous]

This is a little late, but go to Dollar Tree (no kidding), and Target, and there ar plenty of materials that you can find. Dollar Tree has excellent workbooks for pre-K and K, and Target has a lot of extras. We found a teacher grade book there for a dollar. Decorate the school room, make sur you have a chalkboard, and definitely find a desk. We found ours at our local middle school when they were? throwing some away that were perfectly fine. Buy flash cards for sight words, or make some with index cards. Kindergarten is easy.

[Anonymous]

Is anyone homeschooling a preschooler/kindergartener in French? Plan to start with my DD next year, and not sure how to start or where to get materials!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did not formally HS my DS, but I did do some academic activities with him the year he was old enough for Kindergarten but I kept him in a half day preschool due to his special needs. He wasn't napping anymore so we spent the afternoons doing about 90 minutes of academics (not all at once). I didn't really follow a curriculum, I just started where he was and tried to move him forward.

Reading: He had seen a reading specialist so I just tried to recreate what she did. I used "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy lessons" as a guide and worked on phonics with him (I borrowed the book from the library). It was really scripted and I didn't like that, but the order they presented to sounds made sense to me. I used magnetic letters and flash cards to have him practice sounds. I also got the list of 100 sight words for K and gradually introduced those. I had him read BOB books, and of course most of the "reading" time was me reading to him something he would enjoy.

Writing: He had a lot of fine motor challenges so I used a app recommended by our OT (Letter School) and also a Handwriting Without Tears workbook. Once he could actually write a few letters and approximate some words we did a very loose version of Lucy Calkins "Writers Workshop" where he would draw a picture and then write a sentence or two describing what was happening. I think you are suppose to have them draw events from their own life, but he was terrible at drawing, too, so I let him pick anything that motivated him. Also, if he had more he wanted to say but was overwhelmed by the writing, I would write it for him, because the thoughts and descriptions are the most important part, not the mechanics.

Math: I honestly am not sure what we did. I think he already could relate numbers to number of objects. I think we did part of a Singapore Math workbook. We looked at a clock, we talked about coin names and values. There were some ipad apps. I know I didn't do any math fact memorization, but probably there was some simple addition and subtraction. Oh, and patterns and simple geometry. For all of this stuff it was a combination of workbooks, books, and hands on activities (pinterist was actually quite helpful for ideas, and random education blogs).

Science: I picked out books and DVDs from the library related to something he was interested in and we would watch them. And we kept going to museums and the planetarium. Nothing too structured for sure.

He did a social skills group but if he were typically developing I would have found extra curricular classes to put him in for socializing. Or gone to our local HS meet ups. So you might want to try that.

I found this to be a good resource for teaching materials if you want to buy something:

https://www.rainbowresource.com/

PP here. These are wonderful tips and ideas. Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone homeschooling a preschooler/kindergartener in French? Plan to start with my DD next year, and not sure how to start or where to get materials!

Probably not an entire curriculum, but Rainbow has some French stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is anyone homeschooling a preschooler/kindergartener in French? Plan to start with my DD next year, and not sure how to start or where to get materials!

Probably not an entire curriculum, but Rainbow has some French stuff.

Thank you!