Preparing for Kindergarten

Time is going by so quickly, and it’s almost time for DJ to start Kindergarten. Honestly, I can’t believe it. How has the last almost five years gone so fast? We didn’t send DJ is pre-k, but I have being doing homeschool pre-k. I’ve been making sure we’ve been preparing for kindergarten. There is still a few things we need to do to prepare for kindergarten as well. First thing is that DJ is technically going to be homeschooled. Our plan was to enroll him in the online public charter school here; however, they ruled to close it down after this year. That means until sixth grade he needs to do an online private school in the mean time. Technically, in order to enroll him in an online private school we need to put that he is homeschooling. Every state has different guidelines and laws when in comes to homeschooling, and I’ve just begun to look into all of them. With all this being said, what we’re doing to prepare for kindergarten might look very different from someone planning on going to a traditional school.

Our Steps Preparing for Kindergarten

1 Learning

I’m not sure exactly what DJ is supposed to know how to do before Kindergarten; however, we wanted to make sure he was still learning in this year leading up to kindergarten. We bought the Highlights Preschool Big Fun Workbook that I mentioned in my homeschool schedule post. That post also gives some good insight into the learning style we’ve been doing to prepare for kindergarten.

I have become a bit more relaxed though, and try to focus more or less time on things depending on how interested he is. If one day he wants to do only one letter or number, and other days he wants to do five then we will do that. It’s really important that he loves learning, and doesn’t begin to dread doing it. I focus on making sure he recognizes all his colors, numbers up to 100, uppercase and lowercase letters, and his shapes. We are also working on his writing skills, and letter sounds. I want to give him all the skills necessary to be able to write and learn to read once starts school this fall.

In summary these are the skills that we are working on and learning for kindergarten:

-Letter recognition (uppercase and lowercase)
-Counting to 100 and recognizing numbers up to 100
-Writing uppercase letters, lowercase letters, and numbers up to 20
-Recognize colors and shapes
-Knowing the difference between small and large, etc
-Knows full-name
-Can hold a pencil properly
-Knows letter sounds

2 Homeschool Portfolio

This is based off of your state’s laws. Technically, in Nevada we don’t need to keep a portfolio. However, I want to keep one for our own records. That way if the laws ever change we will already be prepared. In addition, it will be a great way for us to see DJ’s progress. I haven’t put it together yet, but I’m starting the process of compiling a list of all the supplies I need for it. I have been scouring pinterest to find some examples. The ones I saved are from Southeast Homeschool Expo and Rock Your Homeschool. These have both been really helpful when figuring out how to create a portfolio. Luckily, since we are doing an online school a lot of his work and tests from that school will be added to the portfolio. I plan to make a YouTube video all about the homeschool portfolio when I put it together.

Those are the two main areas we needed to work on to prepare for kindergarten. We are still in the process of working on them, because he doesn’t enroll in kindergarten until he is five. That would mean he starts school in September. We have seven months until he starts school. I can’t wait to see what he’s learned by the time he starts in September.

What did you when preparing for kindergarten with you little one?