I would like to know how to get info on home schooling a kindergarden student. using the internet.?

Question

My wife wants to homeschool my grandson for the first year and then put him in regular school. we are looking for a website to order the info on. HELP WANTED

Answer 1

Hi, congrats on a wonderful decision and a great opportunity to share so much with your grandson.

It's very easy to homeschool for kindergarten. Kindergarten is wonderful and you won't need a website to do him best. Basically, you just "live and learn" in the best sense possible.

Speaking as the mom of 13.5 and 9 year olds, who have unschooled all their lives and are, well, as you can imagine, brilliant, let me say that if you are going to give the dear boy the pleasure and privilege of homeschooling, don't spoil it by doing 'school at home.'

This is what you should do - read lots of books to him every day. As you read, point out letters and the sounds they make. When you read, talk about looking something up in the table of context, or index, look at the page number, look up the page number. It is actually NORMAL for a child, especially a boy, to not become a fluid reader until age 8. He may be more advanced than that, but follow his lead. DK Books are absolutely stunning.

Tell him when you use books and why. "Oh, i've got to fix that leak, let me pull out my home repair book and see what to do." or "Let's get out the cookbook and check this recipe."

Have him write thank you notes when appropriate. When he draws pictures, ask him to tell the story of the picture, then write that story down for him. You might suggest he do a series of drawings, you write the captions for him, then bind the book with ribbon.

put up signs on everything in your house labelling what each object is. (You'll have signs that say "door" "refrigerator" "window" "toy box" etc etc etc)

Play chutes and ladders and count each time you or he moves up and down. Play monopoly jr or monopoly - it'll teach all the addition/subtraction you need. Play yahtzee. Play charades. Play boggle or boggle junior, scrabble or scrabble junior. Pente is an amazing logic game one can learn quickly.

Go to the zoo, go the museums, go to the park with other homeschoolers or the neighborhood kids. Freeze, melt, and steam water. Look at the stars, look at the moon.

Have him draw and label (or you label) a map of your neighborhood.

Really really listen to see what he's interested in and help him develop it. Try to make the learning natural, not artificial. In other words, doing a work sheet on fractions is meaningless and silly. Baking cookies from scratch and just talking about how this is a quarter cup, how many do we need to make one cup? four, because.... of course, you'll have to say it many times, but because it's tied to the real world, he'll understand and apply it much better.

We're personally wild for greek mythology - i think it can spur a kid's imagination like crazy. Marcia Williams does great cartoon versions of myths and literature.

Hopefully, there's no nintendo for him, but there are great computer games that allow learning - Freddy the Fish games and Putt-Putt games and Buzzy the Knowledge Bug are all wonderful - you might have to search ebay and amazon for them. They're older. SO much of the new kids software is very lame.

If you do these things, the dear boy will be so advanced, you may never want to put the poor dear in one of those institutionalized schools designed to teach conformity and obedience.

Hook up with a local homeschool group by searching Yahoo Groups or just google. Sometimes you need to start with state groups, then work your way down. Hooking up with homeschool groups will mean fieldtrips to pumpkin patches or farms, parks, and other group gatherings. If no one is organizing such things, you guys can. Feel free to write me if you want more info or suggestions.

p.s. hslda is an organization of right-wing religious nut jobs who support a theocracy in america. i'd steer clear of them. no need for them.

Answer 2

In many school districts, Kindergarten is optional - compulsory attendance is not necessary until the child is six years old, but check your state laws. You can see an overview at http://www.hslda.org

I wouldn't recommend the internet for kindergarten, as so much of what they learn is hands-on (writing, manipulating objects for math, science 'experiments'). There are some great curricula available, if you want to go that route (Bob Jones has a good K program and so does A Beka, but they're both Christian - don't know if that'll turn you off). We didn't use ANY formal curriculum for K - just reading together, writing, and math/science using lots of manipulatives. See if you can find out what the K objectives are for your school district and then fulfill them on your own.

BTW - not all states require you to submit lesson plans and test regularly (our state requires NOTHING of me). Again, check the HSLDA website just to be sure.

Answer 3

Kindergarten is no biggy. They basically learn the letters of the alphabet, the basic sounds of those letters, how to write the letters, especially for their name, they learn how to count to 20, or something like that, to recognize numbers 1-10 and to write them. Other than that, it's mostly just play in the sand centre and play in the doll centre and play in the block centre and colour this page and cut out that page and glue this to that. That kind of thing. Some places seem to have a more demanding curriculum, but usually, the above is roughly it.

I don't know of any online program and really wouldn't recommend it for someone so young. If you want more specific ideas for materials, just do a search in Yahoo for kindergarten homeschool curriculum.

Answer 4

Check with your local Board of Education. They will give you the parameters and guidelines that need to be adhered to in your school district. They will also have the information you need for books, etc. You will also have to submit your child to testing from time to time so that they can be assured your child is learning from this home schooling situation. You have to submit your plan and have it approved by the Board of Education.

Answer 5

some helpful resources:

http://www.everythingpreschool.com/
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html
http://www.preschooleducation.com/