Reading Instruction
Homeschooling at this age should focus on just one goal: helping your child to become a fluent reader.
Kindergarten traditionally starts when children are five years old. This is an excellent time to teach reading, as young children's minds are primed for language acquisition. Most five-year-olds are fully capable of learning to read.
That said, children this young usually have short attention spans and should not be required to spend long stretches of time on any task. We recommend starting with very short sessions (five to ten minutes in length) and gradually increasing the lesson time to up to half an hour over the course of the year, if the child's attention span permits. The reading sessions should be done twice daily, at the same time every day if possible.
Our curriculum uses The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading as a guide for teaching your child to read. This is a phonics-based program, which we believe is the best method for teaching reading as it provides children with both a systematic understanding of how English words are written, and the skills to sound out new words.
We recommend completing one ten-minute lesson from The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading each morning. At a separate session later in the day, choose a book at the child's reading level and allow the child to read it aloud to you, helping the child to sound out unfamiliar words as needed.
Reading Skills Progression
In the curriculum, books that are intended for the child to read to you are categorized under the Reading Skills subject. We start with the Bob Books series, one of the few fully phonetic book series for beginning readers. The series may be begun right away, as early books use only a few letters each. We recommend proceeding systematically through the Bob Books before your child attempts non-phonetic books, such as the simple Dr. Seuss books recommended in the middle months of the kindergarten curriculum.
By the later months of this year, your child should be ready to progress to easy readers. We have suggested a few classic easy reader series in the curriculum, but you should not limit yourself to these. There is a wide selection of easy readers on the market today, and you should be able to find plenty that fit your child's interests and reading level at your local library. Continue to have your child read these aloud to you and offer help as needed.
Reading Aloud to Your Child
Throughout this year, you should spend at least 30 minutes to an hour per day reading aloud to your child. We suggest allowing your child to choose books from the children's section of your local library, and read these in addition to the classic children's books included in the curriculum.
Children vary widely in how quickly they pick up reading. However, if you complete reading lessons consistently on the recommended schedule, and spend plenty of time reading aloud to your child, your child should become a proficient reader by the end of the kindergarten year.
Writing
Note that the curriculum does not introduce writing this year. This is because the fine motor skills and concentration necessary for writing are often not yet developed in kindergartners, and attempting to teach writing in addition to the reading lessons would be too demanding for many children this age. Reading and writing are separate skills, and do not need to be taught in tandem. That said, if your child has a special interest in learning to write, it is fine to demonstrate how to form letters and let him or her practice writing for fun.
Foreign Language
It is also a good idea to begin this year to familiarize your child in a playful way with the foreign language he or she will study more formally later on. We have included Calico Spanish as an age-appropriate option for families who choose to study Spanish.
Art
There is no formal art curriculum for kindergarten. We recommend providing your child with basic art supplies and allowing him or her plenty of time to make artwork for fun.
The approach to teaching reading described above is based on the recommendations of Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise in The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, and Jessie Wise and Sara Buffington in The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.