I want to share how homeschooling your kids in kindergarten can be a low-stress experience. I believe Waldorf is the best homeschool for kindergarten.
In the Waldorf philosophy:
- Play is the focus of early childhood (birth through kindergarten)
- Seasonal, weekly, and daily rhythms guide activities
- Academic work, such as sitting down to learn letters and numbers, begins in first grade
- Children need to move their bodies
- Kindergarten repeats over two years
If you follow this philosophy for kindergarten, you won’t need to try to hold a very young child’s attention on a worksheet or worry about which phonics and sight words programs give the best preparation for first grade.
Instead, you can enjoy stories, songs, verses, and fingerplays. You’ll have ample time to prepare for yearly celebrations by making decorations and special food. Your child can work with watercolors, beeswax modeling, and crafts, all of which will give him or her skills that will help with math, reading, and writing when those are formally introduced. In addition, time for free play will foster imagination and provide a balance to quieter activities.
Here is my basic plan for a kindergarten day.
Circle time (Bible story, songs, verses, fingerplays)
Nature walk (around a block in our neighborhood)
Morning activity
- Monday: bake
- Tuesday: watercolors
- Wednesday: beeswax modeling
- Thursday: craft
Play together, prepare lunch, eat, and clean up
Rest time
Afternoon activity (Monday: free play at home, Tuesday: library, Wednesday: free play at home, Thursday: group nature walk at a park)
Tea & snack with books
Free play (while I clean, prep dinner, exercise, etc.)
Fridays are reserved for family, friends, field trips, and festival (holiday/birthday) preparations.
I truly believe these activities are rich experiences for young children and valuable for letting them soak in all childhood has to offer while they are still so very young.
If you want to learn more about this philosophy, you can go to the main page, where you’ll find articles that go more in-depth about Waldorf education and how to give you and your child a low-stress homeschooling experience.