Our Relaxed Kindergarten Homeschool Schedule & Curriculum

When I was creating our kindergarten homeschool schedule and gathering ideas for curriculum, many moms said, “Don’t fret. Work on reading and math and let them play!” While that’s great advice, I wanted some specifics, which is what I’m going to share with you.

You probably have questions like what a typical day might look like, how much time it takes, supplies to have on hand, and maybe even need some curriculum suggestions.

What I’ve found is that it’s not that hard, it’s not time consuming, and I’m happy with all the extra memories we are making as a family!

If this is your 1st year homeschooling, you can read how to start homeschooling for the total beginner: curriculum, legal, socialization, and schedules. I’d also recommend reading the pros and cons of homeschooling to help discover your “why”, and check out my homeschool resource page for a list of all the thing’s we’ve used and tried over the years.

Kindergarten at home means being together all day

I was used to being home with kids all day while we homeschooled preschool. If you are already doing that, then kindergarten at home will probably not change your life too much.

If you are ending a preschool program away from home, then you may find homeschooling more of an adjustment just learning to be around each other all day and having less time to yourself.

More posts for homeschool moms:

Homeschooling during pregnancy #4

Treasure hunt game for teaching prepositions

The power of taking a one week screen time break to get your child to play again

Best gifts for homeschool moms

Start to gather ideas for kindergarten reading, writing, and math

One semi-frustrating thing for new homeschool moms is that there’s no “right” way to homeschool. If you ask 10 moms how they homeschool kindergarten, you will get 10 different answers. And 10 different curriculum choices.

You kind of have to have a pioneer personality and then just try something. Even still, I find it really helpful to get a glimpse at what others are doing to get ideas and a sense of what’s normal for others.

If you are stressed about how to start, and want to see our very simple, relaxed homeschool kindergarten routine and curriculum choices, keep reading!

Our first week homeschooling kindergarten

With that being said, I will never forget the awkwardness of our first week. All I did for kindergarten was a math lesson in the morning, and it felt weird to say “Ok today’s our first day of school!” (and then it was over in 20 minutes).

We added in one new thing each week to ease into a routine. This was way less intimidating and eased us into school. I highly recommend it!

One morning, when the other kids were in school, I took my son to a creek with another homeschool family. We stayed for 2 hours while he looked for bugs, dug a dirt ditch, and climbed up a small waterfall.

The absolute best part of that first week was that day when I realized I was getting time back with my son.

If he was in school, he would not be with us at the creek. He would not go with us to the science center anymore. He would play with other friends instead of his siblings.

Know the law for kindergarten homeschooling requirements

One thing you must know before you start homeschooling kindergarten is what your state requires.

Some are VERY lax, where you just have to report attendance. Others require documentation of each required state subject, grades, and more.

I had to pay to sign up under a cover school, notify our local school via certified mail that we would be homeschooling, and keep attendance.

If you’re not sure, head to HSLDA, the homeschooling legal defense association and see what your state requires.

It’s also a great idea to become a member with HSLDA as they will defend you in the case that you are wrongly accused of something by your school district or state. This happens from time to time but is unlikely.

Think about your goals for kindergarten

First you should come up with a general idea of what you’d like to accomplish this year. How much can you reasonable spend on this new expense?

Feel free to check out how much it cost us to homeschool kindergarten. Then, you can start the arduous task of looking for homeschool curriculum.

For kindergarten, think about things like:

• What subjects will be your core (for us it’s reading, handwriting, math)
• How much time would you like your kids to play outside each day?
• What habits need practiced, like teeth brushing, chores, etc.
• What local places would you like to make an effort to take your kids?

Also, your school year will likely include habit training. I’ve written 17 chores for 7 year olds and 15 chores for 5 year olds that are actually helpful if you want some ideas.

Here’s everything I wanted to fit into our homeschool schedule. We don’t do it all every day! Here’s our list:

• Reading
• Writing
• Math
• Bible
• Play
• Sibling relationships
• Chores
• Make homeschool friends for myself and kids
• Utilize memberships we have to zoo and science center

How much time does homeschool kindergarten take?

We do about 45 minutes a day of structured learning, chopped into 2-3 chunks. Plus LOTS of play, outside time, and unscheduled learning activities like painting, legos, and more.

I’ll break that down for you later.

I’ve really liked doing school 4 days a week. We do a nature co-op for a couple hours once a week and go to Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) once a week.

At BSF the kids have the same teacher each week and fun activities for 2 hours while I do a bible study. It’s an international program so look online to see if there’s one by you!

Why homeschooling kindergarten doesn’t take as much time as a classroom setting

Most homeschoolers don’t tally up the amount of time they spend on things like:

• bathroom breaks
• lunch
• recess (playing outside)
• transition time between subjects
• arts & crafts
• hands on activities like Legos (aka play)
• library visits
• music lessons (if any)
• answering copious amounts of questions all day

For fun, check out this post that figures out exactly how many instructional academic hours are spent at school. She subtracted so many things like standardized testing days, half days, lunch, PE, library time, and much more. It came out to 1 hour and 47 minutes per day to replicate the instruction taking place in the elementary school system!

Not to mention book work just goes WAY faster when you are working one on one.

You actually do many of the things included in a public school day, you just don’t count them.

Update summer 2021: If you want to get to all the things you hope to plan but find you can’t do all the things every day…read how we set up a loop schedule rather than a set schedule.

What homeschool moms who used to be elementary teachers have to say

One homeschool mom I know who used to teach kindergarten said 1 hour of her full day kindergarten was spent doing potty breaks!

She said it was during the first half of the year until the kids were able to go with a buddy. Waiting in line and hand washing takes time!

Two other homeschool moms said their days now look nothing like when they taught public school. They said when they initially tried to replicate public school schedule…it didn’t work at home.

You don’t need a homeschool room

We don’t have a homeschool room. Someday, I’ll probably make more of an official spot. But for now, we homeschool at the table, on the couch, and on the living room floor. It’s perfect for what we need, now.

I just bought this yellow metal rolling cart, and I think I fell in love! It holds almost all homeschool books, except our math activity box. Somehow it takes all the homeschool clutter and makes it look cute!

Update 2022: I love my rolling carts! I now own 2, one for curriculum and art supplies. One for board game! They get stored in our coat closet so when the door shuts, our house doesn’t have homeschool stuff everywhere.

Here’s our complete list of homeschool supplies we like.

Can you homeschool without knowing your child’s learning style and without a homeschool philosophy?

If you are new to homeschooling, I want you to know that you absolutely can homeschool without pinpointing “which method” you agree with or want to use.

You will hear categories like Charolette Mason, Classical, Eclectic, Montessori, Unit Studies, and Unschooling.

Holey Moley did this stress me out. These terms were 100% unfamiliar to me, and I didn’t know what in the heck I thought about each one, or what would work for my personality and my kids.

So instead of picking curriculum that was supported by one method or another, I basically just chose curriculum individually for each subject I wanted to cover. (Ironically, I learned what I chose is called “Eclectic”)

I do recommend reading this post on homeschool methods, mostly to inspire you to see all the possible ways you can do it right.

When you don’t know your kids learning style yet

I just want to assure you that it’s ok not to know your kid’s learning style yet. You are new and figuring out a very basic homeschool schedule!

I’m half way through kindergarten and just starting to understand what my son loves, how he responds to workbooks, what he resists, subjects he likes, what makes him stubborn. It can take years to know your child’s learning style, so don’t worry.

Our kindergarten homeschool curriculum

One thing that helped me decide on curriculum was to search YouTube “flip through” with whatever book you want to see inside.

Tons of people literally flip through homeschool curriculum books to give you an idea of what the pages are like inside.

Here’s my YouTube channel where I do curriculum reviews and flip throughs.

Our kindergarten math for 2019-2020 school year

My first year homeschooling kindergarten, I used level k math from The Good And The Beautiful. It was open and go, easy to use, and made me feel like it was possible to teach math. Since then, a new version has come out (that I haven’t used) with shorter lessons, and less pieces to grab out for each lesson.

Update 2022: I decided to move away from The Good And The Beautiful curriculum after 1 year. I now recommend Kindergarten Math With Confidence. It’s open and go, filled with games, gives kids a solid number sense, and will go up to 6th grade. (2nd grade comes out June 2022). I’ll be using this with my 3rd and 4th kiddos.

Here’s my review of 1st grade math with confidence we’re using with my 2nd child.

Kindergarten math programs we’ve tried:

Kindergarten math with confidence by Kate Snow.I’m starting this with my 3rd child who will be 5.5 years in kindergarten.

Math Lessons For A Living Education. It’s a more gentle approach, shorter lessons, and any teaching is done within the included math stories (so no home instructor’s guide). It contains Christian values within the stories. We used level 1 for kindergarten with my 2nd child. If you are looking for a more rigorous math program, this is not for you.

We enjoyed the level 2 for my oldest when he was a 1st grader, but level 1 for my kindergartener was a total bore. 50% of it was writing out numbers and she hated it. We finished half way through the year and played math games for the rest. We used Singapore math and Math With Confidence for the following year with my 2 kids. Here’s how they compare.

Singapore math Primary 2022: This is the newest updated version of Singapore kindergarten math for homeschoolers. It goes up through 5th grade and is considered one of the more advanced math thinking programs out there.

You’ll need KA and KB books for 1 full year of Singapore kindergarten math. I haven’t used this level, because we started in 1st grade with my oldest.

What we use for kindergarten reading

This is probably the year they will begin to learn how to read! It’s SO exciting when they do!

Around kindergarten age (anywhere from 5-7) We use Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons, a phonics based reading program that teaches sounds and letter names.

It’s no prep! By the end of the book your child will be at a second grade reading level. We used that with my son around age 5 and went slowly over the course of 1 year. We started it at age 6 with my daughter.

Here’s how we used it to teach my son to read, with a video of the book!

Not all kids are ready to read in kindergarten

Remember some kids will naturally want to read earlier than others. I’ve seen this in our family, and in our homeschool group.

The families that have multiple ages of kids usually have 1 or 2 that read sooner (by end of kindergarten), and 1 or 2 kids that don’t grasp it till 1st or 2nd grade.

I’ve had an early reader who learned to read before kindergarten, and a “late” reader who is just beginning to pick up books on her own by the END of 1st grade. Both are ok. It’s a love of reading I’m hoping to encourage.

The best thing you can do if you’ve completed a formal reading program and your kid still isn’t interested in reading is 1) read books to them on the couch. And 2) have them read easy books 10 minutes a day to you on the couch.

It’ll happen when THEY are wanting to read. I get excited when the littles even enjoy just the pictures. That’s the start of the desire to read!

Use the library for beginner reader books

We started going to the library once a week (and still do) to get books.

Once we finished Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons, I picked books with a couple sentences per page so they aren’t too intimidating. Eventually one paragraph per page.

I would increase the length of book once we started to run out too quickly.

Read out loud often

So many mamas told me if I only have time for one thing some days, then read out loud. I’m taking this to heart!

This is unscheduled. When I feel like it and for however long they seem to listen. Short 5 minute books. And also chapter books they can listen to while playing with blocks or toys (Maybe 10 minutes at a time).

I bought these Illustrated Classics below. They are condensed versions of classic books with a photo on each page. It was a nice introduction to reading longer books in our home.

What we use for writing in kindergarten

We do:

• 10 minutes of tracing each day
• Copy the date
• Copy 1 short sentence from something I’ve written or from a book.

I will admit, writing has been hard for us with my oldest. He doesn’t like it. And his hand movements are much sloppier than his younger sister because she has about 10,000 hours more voluntary coloring practice than he does!

Since we have taught him how to write his letters and he can read, I thought he’d be able to just write words on his own by thinking of how it sounds.

It really frustrated him, so we paused to work on tracing instead.

What we use for tracing

First I bought Trace with me sight words, which has 100 sight words to trace. They trace a word a few times and get to practice writing it too.

We actually are not studying sight words at all, but I thought it would be good to practice writing them. He can read them, but can’t yet write them without looking at an example.

I also bought the doodle booklets for $12 from The Good And The Beautiful. Worth. Every. Penny! 100 pages. It recommends doing 10 minutes a day so that’s what we do and he does it cheerfully.

Update 2022;

We’ll be using this book from Handwriting Without Tears for my 3rd child in kindergarten. It’s a solid program that works it’s way up to older levels.

Why we are not doing sight words

Somehow my son just learned to read sight words, and I don’t really know how.

I think it was through The 100 Easy Lesson reading book. It covered many sight words calling them “funny words”. Others he may have just learned through reading and being read to.

Many other sight words can actually be sounded out rather than memorized if you recognize the letter pattern. For instance, “like” “little” and “long” all have sound combinations that are taught in 100 Easy Lessons.

How we teach the bible in kindergarten

If you aren’t familiar with a “morning basket”, (which can be used at any time of the day), it’s basically a literal basket with a few books or activities you want to read to the whole family at once.

This is how we do “Bible”. Cuddle on the couch. Read a bible story. Read a verse you want to memorize each day. Ask a few questions.

Bible stories and a hymn

Right now, we try to read the kids a bible story every night from Egermeirs Bible Story Book.

It’s more detailed than most children’s bibles, and the kids seem to be able to pay attention a lot better around age 5.

Then we sing a hymn. Which looks like mostly me singing (not a great singer here guys) and the kids eventually joining in as they get familiar.

Memorize a verse

You can memorize a bible verse by reading the same one in the bible every day. Ask them to repeat after you, or to say it with you.

For us right now, it’s Psalm 23.

I don’t care if it takes 1 week, 1 month, or longer. It’s not a race, there’s no pressure, and everything they soak up is a win to me.

Update at the end of kindergarten year: We spent the whole school year gently memorizing Psalm 23. I’m so thrilled the kids can say it!

First I read it out loud, then had them join in, and eventually would just say part of the next phrase to see if they could finish the verse. I also had my son copy one line at a time for his copywork.

I put this print out on our fridge for easy access, and I’d look at it when they would practice it by memory to see if they skipped anything.

New City Catechism questions

We have also just started using New City Catechism for kids in the morning. It takes about 2 minutes. If you’re not familiar, it’s a small booklet of about 50 questions with very condensed answers on the nature of God and biblical truths.

It’s not overwhelming, and teaches a lot that I might not think to talk about. We do about 2 questions a day and review a couple from the day before.

Other unscheduled kindergarten activities

We have nothing formal for history, science, or art, but we are learning all those things. For example:

• Kiwi Co STEAM boxes (read my review here)
• Educational shows (anyone else have kids that have seen ALL 16 seasons of Wild Kratts and know animal facts galore??)
• Exploring Nature with Children (science!)
• Tempura Paint (art!)
• Read aloud books in different time eras (history!)
• Baking (applied math, science!)
• Science experiments! Use YouTube, science centers, and this experiment book perfect for kindergarten and elementary age. My kids were blown away by the easy “unpoppable balloon”.

So what does our kindergarten homeschool schedule actually look like?

We “do school” for about 45 minutes a day, 3-4 days a week. And my son is reading on his own more and more, which I don’t count in the 45 minutes I mentioned.

We are going to school year round, and spreading out our breaks.

I aim to finish it in the morning, but often times it works better for me to do my sons’s math in the afternoon when it’s quiet and the other two are napping.

I’m a very unscheduled person, but my kids do better when they know what to expect that day. Since I have no desire for an hourly schedule, we have more of a daily checklist. My next goal is to get a physical checklist on the wall somewhere.

Update: I created a chore chart/routine chart for us to use. It can be printed and written on or laminated.

Here’s a general look at our homeschool schedule with my kindergartener. He can do the tracing alone, but everything else requires me to be there.

Monday:

• Morning basket with bible verse & questions from New City Catechism kids (5-10 min)
• Math (20 min)
• Tracing/copy work (10 min)
• Read out loud (10 min)

Tuesday:

• Bible Study Fellowship (Takes the whole morning with getting ready, driving, and an errand while we are out)
• Math
• Tracing/copy work

Wednesday:

• Morning basket with bible
• Math
• Tracing/copy work
• Read out loud

Thursday:

• Morning basket with bible
• Math
• Tracing/copy work
• Read out loud

Friday:

• Nature co-op
• Read out loud

Get outside as much as possible

One of the best gifts you can give your kindergarten aged kiddo is to take them outside and go explore.

I’m not a huge outdoorsy person by nature, so I’m pushing myself to go to new places and intentionally get outside. It’s refreshing to the brain, gets you exercising, and teaches you to pay attention to what’s in front of you.

We bought the book “Exploring Nature With Children” by Raising Little Shoots. It’s a week by week nature study with poetry, book recommendations, art to look up online, small extension projects, and a weekly nature walk with things to look for. It’s so so good!

I don’t do all the things, but will be using this year after year with all my kids. Here’s my full review of ENWC and how we’ve used it.

Follow the Instagram hashtag #exploringnaturewithchildren to get incredible ideas of things you can do with your kids based off of this book.

It’s taught me two things.

1. You’re never too old to start learning about nature!
2. Pay attention to what’s in front of you seasonally. Ask what it is and how it works!

I also put together this MEGA list of free nature study curriculum based on your state.

The best tip I have for homeschooling kindergarten

One of the best (and easiest) things you can do for your kindergartener is to answer their curious questions. Thank goodness for homeschooling in an age with Google!

My son said “I wonder where they take our recycling.” I actually don’t know much about recycling plants at all so we went onto YouTube and watched all about it. It was fascinating!

It’s no big deal that you don’t remember the order of the planets. Or the parts of an ant. Or why leaves turn colors in fall. You can say, “I don’t know, lets look it up!”

I am learning just as much in some areas as my kids. No shame!

What are your homeschool questions?

If you made it this far, I’m impressed! Feel free to check out my big list of homeschool resources we have used with all my reviews, products, supplies, and favorites in one easy to find spot.

Also I’d love it if you would subscribe to my YouTube channel for homeschool videos! It’s a new space for me, but I’ll be posting more often there!

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