My oldest son is in 4th grade and my middle son is in 3rd grade. I did a boxed curriculum for my oldest just for kindergarten. That didn’t work very well and so I used workbooks for my middle son. That was a fight every day to get work done. So, with my youngest son (who is in kindergarten this year), I have something completely different.

I went to our state homeschool convention back in June with the idea of purchasing a boxed curriculum for him. After looking at the offerings and the prices that went along with them, I decided against it. I attended a seminar while at the convention about teaching a kindergartener without any papers or workbooks. Eureka!

I felt like I had found my tribe sitting in that room. I had been trying so hard to come up with something to do with him that I had forgotten I already have everything I need. Books, paper, pencils, art supplies, and time. The point of the seminar was that kindergarten is not a required grade in my state and kindergarten also isn’t what it used to be.

My motto for homeschooling is to have an individualized education. My youngest son has a few delays and honestly isn’t interested in certain subjects right now. He loves to learn through play and art. So, we are focusing on that this year.

Our school day for my kindergartener looks like this:

  1. Awana memory verse- we go over his verse for the week together. I don’t expect him to know it by himself. He can’t read yet and that would be detrimental to his learning if I expected him to do it himself. He enjoys doing the memory work with me.
  2. Read aloud- I read aloud every single day to all of my children. I read books way above my youngest son’s level but he sits and listens (while coloring a picture or playing Legos). He is required to sit with us and listen.
  3. Handwriting- this is very basic. I have a spiral notebook and I write his name at the top of a sheet in the notebook and he copies it however many times he wants. He may also write it on the dry erase board if he prefers. His name is very long and takes a lot of practice. That’s one of my only goals this year is to have him write his name by himself. He can actually do it now but some letters are backward. We are working on that. He may also request to copy some numbers, letters, and names of other family members.
  4. Teach Your Monster to Read- this is an app on his Kindle. He plays for about 10-15 minutes a day while I do other work with the older two boys. He can do this on his own and it is teaching him letter sound recognition. It’s pretty much the only screen time he gets other than a show on TV in the afternoon.
  5. Art- once a week we all do an art project. We’ve done chalk pastels of Van Gogh’s Starry Night. This week we will be painting our fall pumpkins. He loves joining us for art because it’s a lot of fun and he can be as creative as he wants to be.
  6. Read with me- I do ask that he bring me at least one book a day to sit with me and read together. This is his one-on-one time to be with mommy. Plus, we are reading together and that’s my favorite part of every day.

That’s it. His work doesn’t take any time at all. He doesn’t become frustrated having to sit through the older boys longer lessons. Once he is finished with his work, he goes and plays with Legos or animals or goes outside. It works beautifully for us.

He has learned so much just by doing these few simple things each day since September. His vocabulary has grown from listening to our read aloud. His dexterity has improved by writing his name several times each day. He can sit and be quiet for a period of time while I read. He is learning a few sounds of letters and has actually learned to spell a few words as well. He has learned to color inside the lines for the most part by participating in art and watching what his older brothers are doing.

Simple doesn’t always mean doing nothing or boring. It can mean giving a child a little more time to be little and play while they are learning at the same time. This has worked for us but some families need boxed and that’s okay too. Like I said, give them an individualized education.