People often wonder, “Is my kindergartener doing enough? Are they behind? What do they need to know?”
We are answering that question today!
First off, let’s establish a timeline, a base age. When we’re talking about this, we’re talking about what kids should be able to do by the end of kindergarten or by the end of age 5. This is an important distinction because kindergarten is different depending on your area. For example, where we live in Ontario, kindergarten is a 2-year program. So these are the things that they should be able to do by the end of the second year.
The big focus during the kindergarten years should be on play and exploration. It’s a time to focus on introducing kids to new ideas, materials, adventures, and experiences. It’s the time to follow their lead and dive into different things they are interested in. Daily reading, talking about things you see and discover, and lots of play are the best ways to inspire learning.
At the end of kindergarten, here are a few things that they should know:
counting to 20
basic primary and secondary colours (red, blue, yellow and green, purple, orange)
2D shapes
basic money values
basic time (1 hour vs. 1 minute vs. 1 day)
memorize a simple song, rhymes, poems, or play
sit and listen to a short story with pictures
explore various art materials
sing ABCs and identify a few letters
identify their own name when written
understand how a book works and that there are words on the page and those words make up the story
Hopefully, that helps reassure you that your kindergartener is on track and that you really are qualified and capable of teaching your kids at home!
With everything that has been happening with the COVID-19 pandemic, a lot of things have changed. Many people are self-isolating and trying to flatten the curve and most places are closed.
In Ontario, every school is currently closed. That means that thousands of parents are now suddenly trying to “homeschool” their children. Within hours of the government announcing the schools would be closing for several weeks (at least), there were tons of “quarantine schedules”, grade-level worksheet packages and curriculum books popping up online. Parents were suddenly filling forums with the question “how do I start homeschooling?”
Well, we are two teachers and we have been homeschooling our children for a few years now. We have heard this question before. In fact, we even wrote a book about it! But this time it was different. The tone was different. There is stress, fear and apprehension. Parents were panicking with suddenly being left in charge of their children’s education with little warning.
We thought we could step in and give parents some practical advice during this pandemic.
Now is NOT the time to start homeschooling.
There are so many reasons why right now is not the best time to start homeschooling your children, despite the hundreds of worksheet packages, workbooks, and schedules that have become available.
Here are a few reasons why you shouldn’t start homeschooling right now.
This is Not Homeschooling
Despite the word “home” in the title, homeschooling doesn’t really just take place at home. We go to playgroups, church, visit friends, the library, gymnastics, and the science centre. We aren’t actually home most days. We’re out living and learning in the world. Since everything is closed right now to try to control the spread of the virus, things are out of the norm for us, too. Our kids have asked, “When do we get to see our friends?” just as often as other kids.
Everyone is Stressed
Right now, many parents are stressed out. Many are suddenly working from home, laid off or working extra shifts because of the pandemic. People are worried about how to pay the bills, where to find toilet paper and how to do all that with kids who aren’t supposed to leave the house. That’s a lot of stress.
And the kids are stressed, too.
Many have lost trips, competitions, teams. They have lost their proms, graduation celebrations, birthday parties. Their entire routine has been thrown under the bus. And they can’t see their friends. They are stressed, too.
All this stress means that now is not a great time to add in a new change and an added challenge into your home dynamic. Because, when you start homeschooling, there is a change in the relationship. You are no longer just their parent. You are the teacher, too. It’s not a bad change, but it is a change. And considering how many changes are happening right now, this might not be the best time to add homeschooling to the list of changes.
School at Home Isn’t Homeschooling
A lot of schedules and curriculum bundles have come out in light of the school closures. Many suggest a strict time-based schedule similar to a school schedule. It might surprise you that while most homeschoolers start with a “school at home” model, they quickly abandon it for many reasons. Kids can accomplish much more, in less time at home. Being at home also allows kids to reclaim their time. They can get lost in a project or follow a rabbit trail, really getting to dive deep into learning in a way they can’t in school. Now is a great time to let kids explore, try something new and get creative.
If you are a person like me, we thrive on a routine, but not a strict schedule. We stick to specific mealtimes, a quiet time after lunch and the same bedtime every night. But otherwise, our day shifts and changes depending on what we want or need to do that day. Make small goals for your day, but don’t try to stick to a strict schedule. You’ll drive the kids crazy and they will rebel.
Boredom Isn’t Bad
If you are worried about boredom, don’t. Your first few days might be rough. Many kids have had their days scheduled for them. Without being told what to do, they may struggle with how to use their time. That’s okay.
They will find something to fill their time. This is how kids find their passions and what they are really interested in.
If they mope and complain about being bored, there’s always something that needs dusting and laundry that needs folding. Either they’ll quickly find something to do, or you’ll get your house cleaned. It’s really a win-win situation.
Boredom is good in the way that it can lead to creativity. Having time to be with our thoughts is like a key that opens up the creative potential of the brain.
Don’t Worry About Not Being Caught Up
Many parents are worried that their children will fall behind if they aren’t homeschooling them every single day. That’s simply not true. If the whole world is standing still, no one is moving ahead.
As teachers, we recognize that not every child has the same opportunities. They don’t all have access to the Internet, cable, computers, and parents at home all day long to help them out. Some older kids are babysitting while their parents work. That means that a lot of kids won’t have access to everything that’s being offered (even the online learning portal from the Ontario government). Your child’s teacher will adjust things when school starts again. They won’t expect all the kids to just jump back into class as if it never ended.
Maybe you are using this time to focus on life-skills, the arts, and health. Just because you might not be doing academic learning, doesn’t mean that your child isn’t learning cool or important things.
So if You Shouldn’t be Homeschooling, What Can You be Doing?
First off, we suggest you focus on your family’s physical and mental health. Do what you need to do to take care of that. At a certain level, this is survival mode for everyone. Do what you need to do to survive. And, your children will survive without workbooks and academics.
Secondly, live life with your kids. We have a strange opportunity to teach our kids things that they’ll never learn in the classroom. Cook and bake with them. Read them your favourite stories, or listen to them as audiobooks. Teach them how to change the oil in a car, or how to plant a garden. Dive into a new skill or hobby. Maybe they want to learn about coding, painting, or video game design. Let them write a storybook. Let them learn about what they want to learn.
Take advantage of some of the awesome free stuff that has become available (we’re not talking about worksheets). With this pandemic, suddenly there are hundreds of free zoo and aquarium tours, concerts, and art gallery tours. Celebrities are reading stories online, and musicians are teaching amazing classes. Some YouTubers are even changing course, to offer awesome seminars on their favourite subjects for kids. Take an evening or afternoon and explores some of these awesome freebies.
COVID-19 has thrown our world into chaos for a while. It’s going to be a weird, stressful time for all of us. Let’s not add more stress by trying to homeschool when we don’t need too.
So many parents complain about their kid’s inability to hold a pencil properly. We hear this a lot, especially from the parents of kindergarteners and preschoolers.
Being a teacher, as well as a homeschool mom, I have a few tips and tricks to not only encourage proper grip but also the enjoyment of writing.
Alligator Grip
I found with young children, practising the Alligator grip is super helpful. Our goal is to get a pencil grip that is 2 fingers on top and the thumb underneath, with the pencil resting in the crook of the hand.
Using the little rhyme “Chomp! Chomp! Chomp! Bite! Alligators like to write!” we chomp down our pencil and then hold it right where the paint ends.
Strength and Coordination
Most people don’t realize how much strength and coordination are required to write with a pencil. You must have the fine motor skills in your hands and the strength in your fingers to hold the pencil. Then, you need to have the upper body and arm strength to push down on the paper with enough force to make a mark. And then there’s the coordination to make readable letters. It’s a lot of work for a young child. Many get tired quickly. And tired leads to not wanting to write, which can lead to arguments and frustration for everyone.
We let our daughters use a marker for their writing work. Markers don’t require any upper body force, which means one less thing to think of. And they get the encouragement of seeing marks on the page right away. And it’s way more fun, getting to pick a fun new colour every day.
Keep It Short
If your child is still struggling with holding a pencil, consider shortening it. A long pencil gives more options on where to hold it incorrectly. It also can be difficult for them to balance it correctly on their little hands because of the long length. Consider things like golf pencils, mini markers or chalk, all of which are short and require you to hold it at the end rather somewhere in the middle.
Art and Writing are Very Different Things
Art and writing both use similar materials but the outcome is quite different. The way you hold a marker, crayon or pencil while drawing is very different from the way you hold a pencil while writing.
Allow children lots of opportunities to explore writing mediums in an artistic way to strengthen their hands and arms (but don’t focus on the grip). Only focus on the grip while forming letters. Even if your child draws letters in their drawings, let them do so how they want. It’s all part of the learning experience and they are testing out how their grip can change the way the letters look.
Writing can be a lot of fun, especially if you don’t over-burden a child with too many expectations. Let them doodle, write in a secret journal, or draw on the pavement with chalk. It’s all working towards building writers who love to write and can hold their pencil properly.
A lot of parents are concerned that they are not qualified to teach their kids at home. They doubt themselves and their abilities to homeschool their kids. And, society reinforces that fear. After all, a teacher goes to school to learn how to teach kids right? They get a university degree and then go to teacher’s college. For most teachers, it’s at least 5 years of post-secondary education.
Well, we are two teachers and together, we have 10 years of post-secondary education plus a few extra courses here and there. We have over 14 years of teaching experience between the two of us. Most people assume that we are qualified to homeschool our kids. Well let us tell you, public school and homeschooling are nothing alike and nothing in teachers’ college prepared us for homeschooling.
In teachers’ college, you aren’t really learning how to teach. My experience was that teachers’ college was like going back to elementary school. We sat in desks and had classes in Math, Science, Language Arts, Music, and Visual Art. We would do activities like we were in school. I painted pictures in art class, did experiments in science class and sang songs in music class. In our Language Arts class, we literally sat on the floor and took turns reading picture books to each other.
On top of those subject classes, we had two other classes. One was ethics and law of teaching. The other class was Methods. Most people imagine that Methods would be how to teach. But the reality is, it’s something very different. We learned about how to set up a classroom so it’s safe and effective for 25+ kids. We learned how to set up a routine and rules and how to maintain order in a class with 25+ students. We learned very little about how to teach a kid to read, write, or do math. Teachers’ college prepared us for teaching in a classroom, where you have 25-35 students. You’re teaching a large number of kids things they aren’t necessarily interested in. You have to make lessons that are for the average student in your class, find ways to make it more challenging for the advanced kids and accessible for the kids with learning difficulties. You have filler activities for the kids who are done because they can’t be distracting the others.
Homeschooling is totally different. First off, there’s significantly less children. We can teach our kids in the way that they learn best, take breaks when they want and study topics they find interesting. We can read books that they like, rather than following a reading list.
With all that being said, you might still be wondering if you are qualified to teach your kids. Let us make this clear to you and everyone around you…
YES! YOU ARE QUALIFIED TO TEACH YOUR KIDS!
Here are 5 reasons you are qualified to homeschool your children.
Your Kids Are Your Passion
You love your children more than any teacher ever will. As much as teachers care for children, they will never love them as you do.
No teacher will ever love your kids the same way you do. They make like your children but they will never love them and that’s a huge difference.
You Know Your Kids
You know your kids better than any teacher. You know their strengths, weaknesses, and passions. You know what they love, what they hate and what motivates them. You also know about their lives. You know if they were at a hockey tournament all weekend and need some extra sleep or if they had a big fight with their sibling that they are upset about. You know how these things will affect your kids and you have the flexibility to adjust accordingly. That’s not something a teacher can know, or easily accommodate.
You Don’t Need to Know Everything
Many people think teachers know everything, which is why they are qualified to teach. The truth is, sometimes they don’t know anything about a particular subject. They get the textbook and read it before they teach it. They look up activities on Pinterest and cool videos on YouTube to learn what they need to know to teach the next unit.
As a homeschooler, you can do the same. If you don’t know much about a particular subject you can learn it with your child. You can read the manual, watch videos, and read books. You can also find experts all around you to help everyone learn.
And a great bonus to all of this is that your kids get to see you learn. They learn that learning is not a static thing, but something that you can do forever. It helps create a love for life-long learning.
You Won’t Put Your Child in a Box
There are so many ways for a child to be categorized in school. A good reader, a bad reader, one who struggles in math, one who talks too much. But when you homeschool you don’t have to put your children in a box. They don’t have to fit arbitrary grade levels, they can take their time learning something. If they aren’t reading by grade one, that’s okay. That doesn’t make them behind, as they would be labeled in the school system. Without these labels, children aren’t burdened with the stress of being behind or different.
And you can allow their differences to be their strengths. If they are creative, you can focus more on that. Or if they need to be more active, you can build their schooling around lots of movement, breaks, and activity. Rather than label them a problem, you can use this to your child’s advantage.
You Know That School Isn’t Everything
As a parent, you know that school isn’t the be-all and end-all of life. There’s more to life than just work and school. There are hobbies, health (physical, mental and emotional), and life skills.
When you are homeschooling you can teach things that aren’t always taught in the school system, like baking, car repair, budgeting, and taxes. You can teach skills that extend beyond the classroom and focus on raising healthy, happy adults who are self-sufficient and productive members of society.
While I can easily get the attention of 30+ kids with a simple clapping song, I cam no more qualified to teach my kids than anyone else.
You are qualified to homeschool your children. Your love and knowledge of them, their lives and their hearts, makes you more qualified than any teacher.
This might surprise many people, homeschoolers and non-homeschoolers alike, but we don’t homeschool during December. Yep, that’s right.
During December, we don’t do any work in our workbooks, journals, or flashcards. We even take a break from our novel studies. This might seem odd to most, but it’s a very conscious decision on our part.
You see, December is just so busy.
There are Christmas concerts and parties, storytimes with Santa and family dinners. Then there’s all the holiday stuff like decorating the house, shopping for presents, and holiday baking. Then there are all the fun things you want to do during the holiday season like writing letters to Santa, decorating gingerbread houses and making ornaments with the kids. In the past, I’ve tried to do it all. And I just end up exhausted, frustrated and overwhelmed.
Last year, we decided to take the month off of homeschooling and it was the best decision we could have made. Instead of doing everything and feeling overwhelmed, we decided to lean into the holidays and focus on all the festivities for a few weeks.
But just because we aren’t homeschooling during this time doesn’t mean that we aren’t learning.
We start the month with our advent activity calendar. It’s filled with activities, crafts, and events for us to do for the 24 days leading up to Christmas. Some of it is educational like baking and letter writing. Some of it is fun, like the Christmas carol dance party. But, it gives us a chance to pick and choose what we will do during the month.
We also read a lot of Christmas books. We pick a different storybook every night from under our Christmas tree and read a lot. It’s fun to have festive seasonal books at this time of year. We also go to concerts, plays, visit Santa and spend lots of time with our friends and family.
Taking a break, especially during the holiday, can be a great blessing for your family and homeschooling.
A few years ago, we started going to the pumpkin patch in the fall and it quickly became a favourite family tradition. So, every year during the month of October, we drive out and spend the day at the pumpkin patch. It’s the perfect day.
After a few hours of wandering through a corn maze and wagon rides, we found the mountain of pumpkins and picked out our perfect pumpkin. Zoé found ours this year and it was a great big pumpkin. We loaded it up in our car and headed home to carve it up.
While we were carving our pumpkins, we decided to do a little math activity. Using the super awesome worksheet below, we had some fun practicing measuring our pumpkins. Alexie learned how to use a ruler and a tape measure. We measured the circumference, diameter, and weight of our pumpkins. We also estimated how many seeds were in our pumpkins and then counted how many were actually inside. This is clearly a skill we’ll need to work on, but it was just a fun thing to do.
We designed fun faces for our jack-o-lanterns and had a fun and educational evening. Oh and then we roasted the seeds. They were delicious and the perfect way to end the day!
When the kids were really little it became a place for us to go and let them play in the kids area. It was quiet, fun and most importantly free! Since becoming homeschoolers, we love it even more.
Books to Read
We love to read. We read books with our kids daily. And the library has become a great way for us to bring new books into our house on a regular bases without costing us a cent. We use a book basket to get a selection of picture books in our home and the library really helps keep it fresh and fun.
Put Books on Hold
I LOVE using the holds system.
Our city’s library system is actually made up of over a dozen branches. Sometimes the book we want isn’t at our local branch. So I put it on hold and within the week, they deliver it to our home branch just down the street. And with the help of the on-line account library system, I can put things on hold from my laptop on my couch.
I also use it when I’m doing a unit study. Online, I can find titles and put them on my list. When I want them, I just click the HOLD button and they are sent to my branch. I’ve got a list of about a dozen Barbara Reid books in my list, ready for our author study this winter. The hold system really helps us maximize the books we have access to.
More than Books
Libraries are not just for books. These days you can check all kind of things out of the library. Movies, Audiobooks, music, documentaries are all available. I’ve even seen some libraries that allow you to check out toys. (ours doesn’t have this program, but I wish it did.) Checking these different things out are great ways to find interesting supplemental resources for your homeschool. And sometimes, it’s just a great place to find a movie.
Fun Classes and Activities
Most libraries offer a variety of programs and classes, often very cheap or free. Ours is no exception. They have one-day programs on school PD days, weekly activities during the summer and of course book clubs and story times. We personally love the summer programs because it gives us an outing and a chance to socialize with others during a time when all of our other activities (playgroups, gymnastics, co-op) are off for the summer.
Our library often brings in entertainment too. In the past, they’ve brought in magicians, animal rescues and authors. One year they brought in a children’s musicians and Alexie loved it and laughed the whole time.
A Place to Go
The library have become one of our favourite places to go. It has a special place on my list of outings. When we need to get out of the house, we can go there and play for awhile. Or to give us a different environment for us to do our work. Since it’s free, it makes it a great place to go our an hour or so and just get out of our 4-walls. And if we really need something different, we can go visit another branch in the city.
These are just some of the reasons that we love the library. It can be an incredible resource for any family, but especially for homeschoolers. From free books to a place to go and hang out to activities and classes, the library is the place to be these days!
Stéphane has a fascination with looking at things under the microscope. And like father, like daughter, so does Alexie. These two love finding things, especially in nature, and examining them under the microscope.
Since it’s fall, he decided to do a Fall themed microscope discovery session with Alexie. He gathered a bunch of cool, autumn things and brought them inside. With our super cool (and affordable) digital microscope, they got busy looking at each item.
We also had a great little printable made up for our various microscope sessions. Here, Alexie can draw what she sees on the screen and “record her findings” like a real little scientist. This printable is great for a variety of ages and you can download it for free right here!
This month, we’ve been slowly getting into the flow of things. Stéphane is back to work, the girls’ groups, classes, and activities are slowly starting up again and we are really starting to find our rhythm. And part of our rhythm has become a daily walk.
So far this month, we’ve made it out almost every day, even rainy days. We’ve enjoyed walks around the neighbourhood, down to the park and through the various trails near our home.
During our latest walk, we decided to add a little activity. We made a fun scavenger hunt of leaves. Our Northern Ontario trees are unique and we wanted to spend a little time learning about them. We made a photo list to help us identify leaves and off we went on our walk.
