Oct. 29, 2009
Homeschooling kindergartners
I received the following comment:
I am an Indian living in SaudiArabia and while looking up for homeschooling groups in this region i happen to hit on your blog. I have 2 daughters, a 5 yr old and 10 months old. I have just began homeschooling my elder one and as a beginner have many concerns and queries like what methods to follow and how to deal with issues like group activities and socialization. I would appreciate if you, as an experienced home schooler can advice and help me out.
First of all, thank you for your comment. I may be able to hook you up with other people who are homeschooling in your region if I knew more details. Feel free to email me if you want. For a kindergartner, it is best to concentrate on the language arts. Kindergartners don't need a lot of time yet. You could give her a one on one reading lesson while your other daughter is napping. I use How to Teach Your Child in 100 Easy Lessons. Connor really enjoys it. All of my boys have been different in their reading abilities. Some needed a lot of attention, but Connor can practically do them on his own because he knows I am busy with my other three. Kindergartners love to color and do crafts. I would recommend using Singapore Math. But, if you don't want to buy it right now, you might want to just look at what they are teaching in kindergarten and find worksheets for free online.
Socialization may be a challenge for you living in Saudi Arabia. If you live on a compound with other kids, it shouldn't be a problem. She will have plenty of kids to play with when school is out. But, if you live in an apartment, you may have to work a little harder to find people that you and your kids can hang out with. It's very important for you as well to find other women who share your interests and who you can laugh with here. It can be lonely for women if you don't make the effort and reach out to others.
Homeschooling is tough for anyone when starting out. But, it is well worth it. If she learns to read during kindergarten, then you are doing very well. You may want her to learn Arabic as well. Rosetta Stone is good. I would spend the quality time that you have with her alone, teaching her to read and then, reading to her. The most important thing about kindergarten is that it should be fun and instill in her a love for learning. If a lesson is to hard for her, then, go back and review and try it again in a couple of days. The most important thing that I have learned is that kids may fight you about learning something, but if you keep trying they will eventually get it and will get so excited about it. They'll get it when they're ready. Don't give up!!
I have 2 Comment! Thank you people!
Oct. 30, 2009 Thnx for the info
Posted by Masrath
Hello,
For the second time I tried and was unable to email you...so I am leaving a comment. Kindly send me your email address as the blog isnt redirecting me to it when I click on the email link.I will mail my details.
Thank you once again for your advice.
Nov. 4, 2009 Untitled Comment
Posted by bbullard
Great advice to your blog readers--advice that I had to be reminded of often on last year when my youngest was a kindergartner. I kept forgetting how, when the older two were that age, we cooked, we did art, we learned through games, etc. IMHO, the only thing I would add is that reading to them (good, living books) is the key to making them want to read and become avid readers, so reading to them and then teaching them to read is a good way to order those activities in terms of priorities.
You asked me about current events with the kids. Could it be the sources of news you use? I have the kids use Student News Daily (www.studentnewsdaily.com) and World Magazine's web version. I can't remember the exact link for the latter, but these are both on my blog farther down on the right-hand side. World is conservative in its presentation--sometimes to the point of obvious biases, I think, but I really like Student News Daily. If the kids struggle with finding an article there, I also let them go to www.newseum.org, the museum for news. Newseum has its own headline articles, but they also have links to every U.S. newspaper, so any of them can be pulled up for review. Another source, if they're still struggling is either usatoday.com or cnn.com, but of course, as you stated with these latter three options, you can quickly get into the murders, etc. I am convinced that some of the work of getting quality events reporting is to train your child's eye in what to look for and consider relevant news.
Hope I helped and wasn't too long-winded. God bless you, Chris.
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