What Should I Teach My Kindergarten Child If I Am Homeschooling?





Are you new to homeschooling (due to the pandemic)? If you are taking on this new role of mom/homeschool teacher, you are probably scrambling to figure out what in the world you are suppose to be teaching your kindergarten aged child. As a former kindergarten teacher,  I had a parent contact me before school started this year, and they had no idea what they needed to be teaching their child in order for them to stay up with their peers. I knew that they were struggling, so I dug out this list that I used in my kindergarten classroom to keep me on track. This is MOST of what I taught in kindergarten, although this is not everything.  Feel free to use this list as a guide for your teaching! 

If you aren't familiar with the online store Teachers Pay Teachers, you should check it out. You can purchase curriculum created BY teachers FOR teachers (or homeschool parents). There are millions of things to choose from from including worksheets, games, digital activities and more. They are only a few dollars each. Here is a link to my Teachers Pay Teachers Shop. My teaching materials are geared towards preschool, kindergarten, or first grade students. Hopefully you can find something that will work for you and your kiddos.

Good luck with your new adventure. You will do great!

My lists are by Quarter! This is what I assessed my kinder kiddos on at the end of each quarter. You can use this list to keep your child on pace if you are homeschooling and need some guidance.

First Quarter
Writing First Name (Using Lowercase Letters With Capital First Letter)
Being Able to Name At Least Half of the Alphabet
Recognizing Rhyming Words
Reading Sight Words 
Recognizing Numbers to 10 (Out of Order)
Counting to 20
Comparing Numbers to 10
Naming Basic Shapes (Circle, Square, Triangle, Rectangle)
Know Positional Words (Beside, Behind, Between Etc.)



Second Quarter
Writing First and Last Name
Naming All Alphabet Letters (Out of Order)
Recognizing and Producing Rhyming Words
Being Able to Produce Half of the Letter Sounds
Identifying the Characters, Setting, and Major Events in A Story
Tell What An Author and Illustrator Do
Recognize Numbers to 20 (Out of Sequence)
Count to 40
Compare Numbers
Create Sets to 15 (Counting out sets of objects to 15)
Write Numbers to 15
Name the Basic Shapes (Circle, Square, Triangle, Rectangle, Hexagon, and Rhombus)
Put Shapes Together to Create Bigger Shapes (Such as 2 Triangles to Create a Square)
Adding to 5 (Using Objects and Without Objects)
Counting By 10's to 100
Basic Measurement



Third Quarter
Produce All Letter Sounds
Read and Write CVC Words
Write Simple Sentences  Correctly (Spaces, Capitalization Punctuation)
Read Emergent Readers
Count Forward From Any Number
Count to 70
Write Numbers to 30
Add to 10
Make 10 From a Given Number When Added
Adding to Five Fluently (From Memory)
Identifying 2 & 3 D Shapes (Cone, Cube, Sphere, Cylinder)


Fourth Quarter
Write Sentences and Simple Paragraphs
Read Emergent Readers
Read Sight Words
Use Short and Long Vowel Sounds
Use Digraphs SH, CH, TH
Recognize the sounds of OO and EE
Recognize the sound of ING
Count to 100
Write Numbers to 100
Subtract Within 10
Fluently Subtract Within 5 (From Memory)
Solve Addition and Subtraction Word Problems
Place Value (Ones and Tens)



Here is a general list of sight words that you can use in kindergarten!

a, and, away, big, blue, can, come, down, find, for, funny, go, help, here, I, in, is, it, jump, little, look, make, me, my, not, one, play, red, run, said, see, the, three, to, two, up, we, where, yellow, you, all, am, are, at, ate, be, black, brown, but, came, did, do, eat, four, get, good, have, he, into, like, must, new, no, now, on, our, out, please, pretty, ran, ride, saw, say, she, so, soon, that, they, there, this, too, under, want, was, well, went, what, white, who, will, with, yes




You may like this sight word, word ring! It is a helpful tool for practicing sight words.



Yes, this list looks overwhelming! Keep in mind, this list covers the entire school year. Take it slow. Work through each quarter (8 weeks). Work at your child's pace. 



Here are some resources that may help!
















Grab these and MANY more kindergarten activities in my Teachers Pay Teachers Online Shop! I hope my list of quarterly goals gives you a little guidance as you begin your homeschooling year. Good luck!


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Crystal McGinnis
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September Themed Simple Sentences for Kindergarten



Kindergarten students need a lot of simple, predictable, repetitive text, in order to develop those beginning reading skills.  They need to develop tracking print, using picture clues, return sweep, sight word awareness, and so much more. A few years ago I started creating these sets of simple sentences to give my kinder kiddos the practice they need. I have a set for each month, including September. This September set includes apples, Grandparent's Day, back to school, and more! We will use these for morning work, whole group reading, and small reading groups. These could be bound together to create a book or folder and placed into student book boxes for a future familiar read. I included a version with tracking dots, and a version without. You choose!
















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Crystal McGinnis
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Word Family Poems for Shared Reading


Do you teach word families in your classroom? Word families are an important skill to teach when teaching reading development. Word families can be taught in a variety of ways, including using poetry. I created this set of 21 word family poems to use each week when we practice a new word family. I will display the poems using our projector and we will learn the poem together. I will then give the kiddos their own version. They will read the poem, find and highlight the word family words, and then place the poems in their poetry notebook. You could also write the poem on chart paper to create a whole group lesson that can be displayed in the classroom. Check out a few of my word family poems below. You can grab a copy to use in your classroom here. 


















I also created this set of poems in a pocket chart version. After learning the poems, the students put the poems together in the pocket chart during center time. Check out the pocket chart version here!










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Crystal McGinnis
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Apple Sight Word Poems for Shared Reading




We are only a couple weeks away from September! In Kindergarten, September is all about the beginning of Fall and that includes APPLES. I try to incorporate apples into many of my lessons throughout the month, including my shared reading lessons. We try to tackle one or two new poems each week. Here are a few examples of the SIGHT WORD POEMS that we will use. We will share them whole group and then create a poetry notebook with them. These notebooks are perfect to keep throughout the year as a familiar read for the kiddos. You are welcome to use these in your classroom. Here is the printable version. You can write them on chart paper if you choose.













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Crystal McGinnis
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