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[quote=Anonymous]I'm not an experience K homeschooler, the youngest I've homeschooled is first grade, but I am an experienced homeschooler, and I've also taught Kindergarten, albeit in a self contained special ed class.  I am currently teaching special ed in an older grade virtually, while homeschooling 6 kids with the help of several other relatives.

The first thing I'm going to say is that the strategies I use to get my kids to engage in homeschool wouldn't work in a setting where I had no control over the schedule. Some of the things I do that help my kids engage are:

I weave what they're interested in into the instruction (e.g. for a kindergarten, I'd pick books on their favorite topics for reading, one of my kids is super into winning so we play a lot of math games, my middle schoolers are studying world religions this year because they asked to)

I use a "first then" structure, so first we do something that I picked that they might not love, and then when they finish they know something that they do love or where they have choice is coming.   I don't say "if you . . .  then you can . .  . " any more than I tell my kids "if you wash your hands I'll feed you."  I just say "after this we'll . . . " and then I take as long as I need to get through and then we do the fun thing. For my two most difficult kids, I actually do a fun thing first, because it's like they need the reminder that there are fun things in my homeschool every single day.  So, they start with fun while I make other kids work, and then after like 15 - 20 minutes we switch and it's a pattern all day.

I started homeschooling with short blocks, and a few subjects, and then once they felt successful we added more.  So, every day from the beginning they felt successful.

See what I mean, about how those things won't work?  OK, so here's what I'd do as sort of a combo of Kindergarten teacher and former Kindergarten parent (my kids were in school in K)

Understand that it's exhausting.  In person would be too.  My kids went from PreK to K in the same building, and K was exhausting at first.  So plan on afternoons with some exercise, and some snuggles, and time to reconnect, and very few demands.  If you usually make your kid as play the piano or clean their room in the afternoon, tell her that she gets a month off, and just move and snuggle and eat her favorite foods and go to bed early.

Look for places in the schedule where you can put something fun, or something that fills her bucket so to speak, and then present it as first this, then that.  Don't say "if you do a good job", just let her know that something good is coming, and when the class ends do that thing, whatever it is.  If they're stopping and suggesting you do some kind of independent work, don't do it then, do the fun thing and then come back to it.

Make some kind of visual so your kid knows how the day goes and can see themselves progressing towards done.  So draw pictures of each part of her day, including the fun things, and then draw a star next to them when they are over.  Not an earning kind of star, not a star if she did good.  Just a star or a check mark or a happy face to show that that things is done, so she can see that lunch or playing outside or snuggling with you and reading a book is coming closer.

Put her to bed early.

Keep your teacher informed if she's struggling a nonjudgmental way.  We, teachers, did not choose this.  Despite what DCUM tells you teachers did not cause the pandemic, they do not have the power to close schools, and the ECE teachers certainly didn't design this schedule.  So, send an email that says "Hey, thank you so much for your effort to make the day fun.  I really liked when you you . . . I wanted to let you know that the schedule is long for her (I'm sure it is for you too).  She's trying her hardest, but she's tired.  Do you have suggestions?  Are there parts that are optional?"  That way A) She might have really good suggestions and B) When her principal asks what feedback she's getting she has some to share.

I'll also say that if your kid is in their local public school, and not a private, or charter, or OOB school, or specialized program where you can lose your spot, I'd think about pulling to homeschool this year or semester.  I'm a teacher, and a parent who pulled my kids because of medical reasons.  I believe in school, and I think that we can make DL work reasonably well.  But there's no doubt in my mind that a parent can do homeschool better in this situation.  If you're not working, you can make wonderful plans with her, and if you are working, it's going to be much easier to help her do fun things that you set up and then get back to work, and spend 30 minutes 4 days a week on each of reading and math.  (Maybe do both on the weekends, and alternate on the weekdays, that's the sort of thing we do).  [/quote]

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