How to teach 5 year olds


How to Homeschool a 5 Year Old

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Homeschooling a 5 year old is an adventure. A whole new world of learning is waiting for your rambunctious and curious child. Your challenge is finding the right homeschooling strategies and resources to open up that world.

The following information will help you do that, by providing you with guidance on homeschool activities for 5 year olds, curriculum options, scheduling ideas and how Time4Learning sparks a child’s imagination. Topics include:

  • What Should a 5 Year Old Be Learning?
  • How To Start Homeschooling a 5 Year Old
  • What Should a Curriculum for a 5 Year Old Look Like?
  • How Time4Learning Helps You Homeschool Your 5 Year Old
  • Tips for Homeschooling a 5 Year Old

What Should a 5 Year Old Be Learning?

Five year old students are  traditionally in kindergarten. At that grade level they should be learning basic concepts in reading, writing and math, and also be improving their motor skills by using hands-on activities. Additional learning goals should include:

  • Writing their first and last name
  • Knowing the letters of the alphabet
  • Improving and practicing phonetic skills
  • Recognizing and writing numbers up to 20
  • Identifying time to the nearest hour using digital and analog clocks
  • Ordering events in a sequence
  • Doing simple addition and subtraction problems
  • Reciting the days of the week and months of the year
  • Using qualitative and quantitative observation
  • Understanding the characteristics that animals share

How to Start Homeschooling a 5 Year Old

Homeschooling a five year old can be a bit like driving a bumper car — one moment things are going smooth and the next moment, boom! Minimize the “booms” by preparing yourself for the upcoming year using the following steps:

  • Step 1: Check your state laws for compulsory attendance. Ages vary when attendance is mandatory, but it’s always safer to investigate the required days per year that you must homeschool your child.
  • Step 2:  Choose a homeschooling curriculum or curricula that fits your child’s learning styles.
  • Step 3: Decide on a schedule. You may have to modify your schedule occasionally, which is natural.
  • Step 4: Join a local homeschooling group that shares your homeschooling vision.
  • Step 5: Set your homeschooling goals (don’t set concrete goals, as they tend to change as the year progresses).
  • Step 6: Don’t forget to have fun and include activities such as field trips.

Homeschooling Planner

Start planning out your homeschooling days with this free easy to use daily planner.

Get Started With This Daily Planner

What Should a Curriculum for a 5 Year Old Look Like?

Most experienced homeschoolers discover that there is no one perfect curriculum. They use a few different resources, depending on their children’s learning styles and their family dynamic. But there are some basic guidelines you should follow when figuring out what to teach a 5 year old at home. A homeschool curriculum for a 5 year old should offer: