Homeschooling Your Kindergartener Using A Year of Playing Skillfully
Today on the Play Skillfully podcast, Kathy and Lesli discuss how to use their award-winning curriculum, A Year of Playing Skillfully for the kindergarten year.
Main Idea: Look for progress...not perfection!
Developmental Information:
If you question what you are asking of your child, use the website naeyc.org as a resource. The National Association for Young Children has excellent books and articles that will help you on this journey.
Look for ways to teach in a very concrete manner with everyday objects! Workbooks are very abstract and make it harder developmentally to grasp concepts. Move to labeling everyday objects in your home so that your child is learning in a very concrete way.
LIVE LIFE WITH YOUR KIDS! Invite them into your life and talk through your daily activities..you do kindergarten skills ALL DAY LONG.
Learning involves feelings, so make it matter to them! The concepts will stay with them so much longer.
Watch and be respectful of their individual development. What is their behavior trying to communicate to you? Ease up if they are getting frustrated. They should be interested and challenged, but not stressed.
Adding in:
Print out some computer sheets or curriculum samples to try before committing to extra curriculum.
If your child is not holding a pencil correctly, back off paperwork and focus on fine-motor skills: lacing cards, firm clay, building blocks, digging in the mud.
Our favorite (but AGAIN, not necessary for most kids!) add-ins:
Why we like it: Open and go, multisensory, uses engaging teaching methods (Ziggy the Zebra puppet) and offers concrete ways to learn.
Why we like it: Uses hands on with beginning with objects that are important to your child, then moving to traditional manipulatives. Also includes a script so that parents new to homeschooling or education can feel confident in their teaching method.
More field trips are a great addition for kindergarten level children.