Homeschooling 6 Year Olds
Children at this age simply aren’t ready for academic sit-down lessons. This is not because they are defiant or unmotivated, but due to their brain development.
Instead, focus on building their ‘learning abilities’. These are a set of abilities that research has proven will help them excel in school and life if fully developed before the age of 6. Examples include: 1.
1. Reading
Homeschooling is a great way to teach children reading, but the key is to make it fun! Kids spend countless hours playing with siblings, building legos and magnatiles, drawing pictures for grandparents, making cookies, taking family outings, grocery shopping, etc. These real-life experiences go a long way in helping kids develop their reading skills.
Educators recommend that parents work with children on their reading skills at least 20 to 30 minutes each day, and use online resources for additional practice and learning. However, they should remember that some children are natural readers, while others may struggle with this subject.
2. Puzzles
Puzzles and other thinking games help kids develop a wide range of skills. Whether it’s traditional jigsaw puzzles or logic puzzles like brain teasers, they teach kids to analyze problems and find solutions through trial and error.
They also improve hand-eye coordination, as kids need to learn the relationship between what their eyes see and how they move their hands. This is an important milestone for kids, and they can work on this with a variety of toys, including puzzles that have large pieces or stacking puzzle games.
Finally, solving puzzles teaches perseverance and builds self-confidence. When a kid can complete a difficult challenge on their own, they feel good about themselves.
3. Riddles
At this age kids still need to have a lot of fun. They need to play games that get their creative and logical thinking juices flowing.
Riddles are a great way to do that. They can also help with language arts, as many riddles contain idioms and make students pay concrete attention to commas, periods, quotation marks and speech tags.
Try picking an object (such as a chair), think of all the different ways you can describe it, and then create your question from there. It will teach them the importance of working backwards, and it will give them a sense of achievement when they answer the riddle correctly.
4. Flashcards
Children at this age are unable to focus for long periods of time and need a variety of activities throughout the day. Incorporating fun activities into their studies will help them learn and stay engaged with home schooling.
Children love to look at flash cards that contain contrasting colors and images. These cards will stimulate their eyesight while helping them develop phonics sounds. They can also use these to practice math measurement facts, which will help them in real life.
These math flashcards are not the typical type of memorization that is taught in many math curriculums, which can lead to burn out and lack of understanding. It is important to teach them math in a way that helps them internalize the concept.
5. Storytelling
At this age, children enjoy learning when it is fun. It is best to make learning a fun experience as opposed to forcing them to study all day. This is why many homeschoolers make a habit of taking their children on field trips, visiting the library often and even having poetry teatimes.
Try starting with simple narration like fairy tales or Aesop’s Fables. Ask them to retell the story using their own words, not just repeat it back word for word.
If you are new to homeschooling, you might want to check out online curriculum such as Time4Learning. This online Kindergarten and first grade curriculum honors 6 year olds shorter attention span by mixing interactive lessons with printable worksheets and quizzes.
6. Science
Young children are naturally inquisitive and love to explore the world around them. Let them use their natural curiosity as a springboard to learn by experimenting with fun science experiments they can do at home.
Kide Science uses a story-based approach to help kids grasp key concepts like chromatography (ink investigations) and physics (bridge-building). Each lesson also includes hands-on DIY tasks to try at home, with no special materials required.
Sonlight’s Science levels K-E now include Discover & Do, which combines literature and hands-on experiment to give students a solid foundation in the scientific method. Each week’s experiment directly ties to the reading materials for a clear progression from learning to doing.
7. Math
Kids learn best when they understand why math works – not just how to do it. Conceptual curricula, like Life of Fred, teach arithmetic through entertaining stories that approach each adventure as a mathematical equation.
These programs also give children lots of opportunities to practice their skills through math games and hands-on activities. If your child responds well to video lessons and enjoys using manipulatives, a conceptual program may be the right choice for them.
…