How do I start my 5yr old?

[jeca]

Hello just recently registered after MUCH lurking. I have always found you ladies to be a wealth of information. Anyway for several reasons I have recently decided to homeschool my five year old. But I really have no idea what I am doing. Can you ladies help. What do I need to get started? Where do I get the materials from? Should I set aside the same time everyday, should it be everyday and for how long? Like I said I'm not really sure how to, any suggestions would help.
I also have a one year old nursling, is there anything a child that young can "learn" in homeschool. I'd like to sit them down together(not for as long as him of course).

[Kylix]

With a five year old, you really don't need to be doing much. One great book I've heard ppl here reccommend is You Are Your Child's First Teacher by Rahima Baldwin (i think i spelled that right) She has alot of everyday things in there that you can be doing with your five year old. I'm one that believes you don't need a curriculum or even to "sit" down with your child.

Do alot of the things you have been doing. Read to him lots daily (you can include your one year old in this by doing this while nursing), pull out crayons and let him draw and color things, give him clay/play-doh to mould things with, help to count and sort things by color, shape, and size (blocks work well for this). The book has a lot of good examples of this I believe. (I've only flipped through it...)

Hopefully the other women will have some helpful ideas as well.

Kylix

[khrisday]

Well, a lot depends on your homeschool philodsophy- I think you need to decide if you want to do a formal or informal school day, or do unschooling. You may want to start just by reading some books about homeschooling from the library- We use classical methods a la The Well Trained Mind and Charlotte Mason along with child led learning. For kindergarten we started with a program called Five in a Row. You can easily spend the K year exploring your options and not worry about the kids "missing" much academically.

[hawleyclan]

Hi! At our house, we begin some informal lessons at 5 just to get them ready for the real thing at 6. So far it has worked well!

I am working with my second child, who just turned 5, and he really likes "homeschooling". I find it has been even easier with the second child because he has been watching his brother homeschool for a couple years, and he gets rather chuffy about being involved now! I read a page out of a story Bible, and all four children can join in, then I pick a couple pages out of a shapes and colors coloring book for him to do, afterwards he gets to make certain shapes on the little geoboard my husband made. Once done, he can play until later when we work on a unit study project- we're doing Egypt so they have been making mummies and pyramids lately...

It has been exciting to watch them learn from each other, our oldest has already "taught" his brother numbers, the alphabet song, days of the week, colors, and an appreciation for letters, and computer navigation... just second-hand smoke...

Now that both older children are homeschooling, our third likes to get her coloring books and colors out while they are working- she calls it her homeschool...

The one wild card, is our "baby", he is about 21 months now, and loves to be in the middle of it all! Wiggling, grabbing colors, scribbling... He provides the excitement to our otherwise calm homeschool...

We just keep the first year pretty informal, the dollar store has some good activity books and coloring books. My second son is really active, and would probably be labeled ADHD if we sent him to school. He does really well with hands on work, loves things he can do with his hands or create, or personalize. I was apprehensive about how he would respond to lesson time, but now I see that there are enough hands on activities and creative moments that he thrives really nicely- and he LOVES the positive feedback! (Makes sense though, seeing how often he is in trouble... :LOL)

If you have access to an Outlet Bookstore, or a Half-Price Books, those can be really great places to go and browse and find materials that jump out at you for sharing with your children, and not pay tons for the experience. I love to browse homeschool catalogs for ideas too. I like to make things, or improvise a lot with other supplies. Toy Outlet stores sometimes have good deals on games or other kits with educational themes too.

I like unit studies because you can really use your imagination to improvise and enhance the experience- last year we did Australia, and my husband and I held the ends of a board in the air while the children "surfed", we strapped on stuffed animals and climbed trees like koalas... Just little things, but tons of fun!

The Lord bless you!
Zoie

[Velveteen]

Hawleyclan has some great ideas. I did "Sing, spell, read, and write with my Kinder son last year. We loved it! We made it totally low key. By the way, we did the Kinder level, and this year we are doing 1st grade in the same program. Lots of cute songs, things to color and paste, games to play. I would really recommend it.
To my great and everlasting surprise, he learned to read, even though that was not my mission last year! Considering he would definately be labeled ADD if he was in school, that is a big deal.
Enjoy this adventure, you won't regret it.

[jeca]

I want, no need it to be a little routined. I think I have come up with a plan as far as lessons and how long but it is only kindergarten and I am not pushing or making it too long. With another baby coming and all I need things to be a little more organized. I am adapting alot og the ideas given here, thanks ladies and picking up a copy of the well trained mind. Crafts adn music sound great I forgot about those. I have to decide which books or plans to use are there any good homeschool catologs out there?

[hawleyclan]

Hi! I like a few catalogs... here are websites for them...

Love To Learn Catalog
http://www.LoveToLearn.net

Timberdoodle Co. Catalog
http://www.timberdoodle.com

CBD Homeschool Catalog
1-800-247-4784

You might also enjoy the Five in a Row Series, by Jane Lambert. Lessons are all planned around certain storybooks (which you can often get from the library). Then topics such as geography, math, art, music, reading skills, etc. are based on the story read. You can select which lessons to use, or stories to read. It provides some structure, and ideas, but leaves you room to be creative as well. We really enjoyed using it, and it helped make me comfortable with homeschool. The children really looked forward to it everyday.

The Lord bless you,
Zoie

[Linda in Arizona]

Different things work for different kids. We started out unschooling, but I found that my kids (who are 4 and 5) are much happier when I have a plan. They like structure.

We use Five in a Row, too. My kids love it. We get most of the books through the library so it is very, very cheap to use.

We also use Singapore Math http://singaporemath.com/

Both my kids enjoy Explode the Code (phonics) and my older DD is also using Italic handwriting.

[Virginia Sitz]

in addition to the catalogs already mentioned, i like these as well:

http://www.FUN-Books.com/
http://www.sonlightcurriculum.com/ definitely get their catalog and read it, it gave me rhe confidence to NOT buy a canned curriculum and unschool with books.

http://www.michaelolaf.com/
an awesome source for montessiri-style materals and books.

i also order from powell's.com they have free shipping over $50 and you can buy used or new. mixed in one order. i buy lots of used books from them.

hth,
virginia

[berryMO]

Hawleyclan has some great ideas. I did "Sing, spell, read, and write with my Kinder son last year

Velveteen, that sounds great! Can you give me more information about it? Is their a website to order this stuff?

[berryMO]

Oops, my post makes no sence, I didn't read the whole post first. Sorry