Free Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum (Full Schedule)

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Free Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum (Full Schedule)

Free Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum (Full Schedule)

Kids typically start kindergarten at 5-6 years old.

At this age, they’re developing a lot, so it’s a big year for learning new things and developing new skills.

Because they have little to no background on most topics that they’ll be learning, coming up with an appropriate kindergarten homeschool curriculum can be difficult, especially if it's your first time homeschooling.

But the kindergarten curriculum is pretty straightforward...

It focuses mostly on mastering the alphabet, their sounds, and how they form simple words.

This is the year that they’ll be taking their first steps toward reading and expanding their vocabulary.

Kindergarten is also when your child starts grasping the basics of math. They’ll learn how to count, recognize shapes, and even perform single-digit addition and subtraction.

To make homeschooling your kindergarten child easier, we’ve created a free printable weekly schedule for you to download.

And then in the sections below, you’ll find links to multiple activities, ideas, lesson plans, and resources to supplement your routine.

Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum Schedule

In our weekly kindergarten schedule above, you’ll notice three core subjects for kindergarten highlighted in blue.

Math
Writing
Phonics & Reading

We call these the core subjects for kindergarten because most homeschool curricula focus on these 3 fundamentals.

The time spent for each of those is 30 minutes for a total of 90 minutes per day, so teaching your child just these 3 subjects already complies with the ISBE’s recommendations.

There are also secondary subjects in the schedule between 1:00 to 2:00 PM, such as:

Art
Music
Science
Social Studies

It’d be good if you also taught these to your child since they’ll learn a lot from it, but you might not always have the time, and that’s okay.

If you’re a parent who has to work in addition to homeschooling your kids, just focus on the 3 core subjects. Then, if you have extra time, you can expose your kids to the secondary subjects.

A Quick Disclaimer...

The weekly schedule and the resources provided below are only our recommendations.

Even when we’re basing it on the ISBE’s recommendations as well as numerous homeschool curricula online, homeschooling laws per state vary.

So, make sure to familiarize yourself with your state’s laws on homeschooling.

Some require no notice while some have more strict regulations.

The required subjects to teach per state are different, too.

Because of this, you should create your own schedule that complies with your state’s regulations.

Here’s an empty table that you can just fill out depending on your situation.

Homeschool Hours Per Day in Kindergarten

Just this March, the Illinois State Board of Education released a chart summarizing their recommendations for how long you should be homeschooling your child per day.

The amount of time depends on the grade level.

For kindergarten, it’s 30 to 90 minutes per day with a recommended length of sustained attention of 3 to 5 minutes.

Some parents homeschool their kids for longer, but it depends on what your child can handle, as it’s important not to stress them out.

Some kids keep learning even during their free time, so their parents go beyond the recommended hours when homeschooling.

On the other hand, some kids find school work boring, so it’s probably best if parents stuck to the recommended hours (while being extra patient).

Download Our Daily Planner

Here’s a daily planner you can use to map out specific activities you’ll be doing throughout the day.

Using this planner is simple:

In the Objectives box, write down everything you want to accomplish with your child by the end of the day. For example, you can write down, “Be able to recognize squares, circles, and triangles” or “Count from 1 to 10.”

In the Activities box, write down the exercises, worksheets, or games you’ll be doing to help achieve your objectives.

And in the Materials box, make a checklist of all the necessary things you need for the activities planned.

What Your Kids Will Learn in Kindergarten

Children learn and develop at different paces, but it’s still reassuring to know what kind of things to expect at this stage in your kid’s life.

Typically, this is the year when children learn the basics of math, reading, and writing.

Here’s a list of some of the most common things children learn in kindergarten:

Counting up to 100
Naming and writing all 26 letters of the alphabet
Recognizing uppercase and lowercase letters
Read about 30 high-frequency words such as the, and, was, and in.
Writing simple CVC words like dog, cat, and rat.
Reading the time
Organizing objects by size, shape, and weight

These are only some of the achievements your child will be accomplishing, and we’ll list down these learning achievements per subject in the following sections.

Keep in mind that the list above and the following lists you’ll see are only recommendations and should be used as a comparison tool, not the be-all and end-all standard for your child’s development at this age.

Kindergarten Curriculum Core Subjects

Circle Time or Bible Studies:

You and your child might not be much of a group for circle time, but it’s still a good idea to sit down for some fun and simple activities before starting your formal lessons.

During this time, you can:

Sing songs
Recite poems
Read a little bit
etc

Think of Circle Time as a warmup to get your child in the mood for learning. If you don’t know what to do during this time, here’s a list of 37 ideas for circle-time activities.

In Christian households, parents can use this time to pray with their kids or teach them bible stories.

Christian Resources

Here are 4 free resources and websites to teach your child all about the Bible:

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Kindergarten Math Curriculum:

Teaching your child math at an early age will help them learn vital life skills such as problem-solving and analytical thinking.

Besides, if they learn to love math at this age, the likelier it is that they’ll grow up to be good at math.

So, how exactly should you teach math to your kindergartener?

Here are the objectives for this subject:

Math Learning Objectives

By the end of the year, your child should be able to:

Numbers

Count rotely and objects in a set to at least 20, preferably up to 30 or beyond
Count in 2s and 5s up to 20
Count backward from 10 to 0
Recognize and write the numbers 1 to 20 and understand that these symbolize quantity
Understand the concept of “equal,” “more than,” and “less than,” and using these, can compare and order 2 or more sets of objects (with each set having no more than 20 objects)
Use both cardinal and ordinal numbers
Add and subtract single-digit numbers

Geometry & Patterns

Name, describe, and draw common shapes (line, circle, triangle, rectangle, and square)
Understand basic directions (up, down, left, right, near, under, etc.)
Classify and sort sets based on a rule (e.g., sort in 3s, sort by color, or sort by shape)
Recognize half of a whole object
Continue repeating patterns (e.g., square-circle-square-circle or 1-3-1-3)
Identify a missing term in a repeating pattern (e.g., yellow-black-yellow-____-yellow-black)
Identify and organize sizes (big, average-sized, and small)
Compare and order objects by weight
Name 3-dimensional shapes and understand that they’re formed by 2-dimensional shapes

Time

Tell time to the nearest hour
Name and order the days of the week and months of the year
Compare the duration of events by hours

Money

Identify coins and relate their values (penny, nickel, dime, and quarter)
Count coins and know the value of combinations

Math Worksheets and Resources

Here are 5 free resources and websites that can help you with the objectives listed above:

Math Tips for Parents

Children at this age can’t quite grasp symbolic concepts yet, so it’s helpful to teach them with manipulatives such as blocks, puzzles, or clocks. It would also help if you played simple activities or asked them questions outside of lessons.

When you’re riding in the car, for example, you can just state a number and ask your child to tell you what number comes next. Or when you’re waiting in line or putting them to bed, you can ask how many people are in the line or how many stuffed toys your child has.

Make use of their surroundings and have them apply what they’ve learned.

This will also teach them to become more observant.

Kindergarten Phonics & Reading Curriculum:

In phonics, your child will start learning the sounds that the letters in the alphabet signify.

Being able to match these sounds from the English language to their respective letters is the first step to literacy.

As you give your child phonics instruction, you should also spend time reading to and with them. This helps enhance their imagination as well as help them understand the world better.

It also increases their vocabulary, attention span, IQ level, and knowledge of morals, personalities, relationships, and emotions.

Plus, the sound of your voice can be very calming to your child, and the time spent reading with them would bring them closer to you.

Phonics & Reading Learning Objectives

By the end of the year, your child should be able to:

Phonological Awareness

Match spoken letters to their pictures/symbols and vice versa
Recognize the sounds associated with the letters of the alphabet
Understand and distinguish consonants from vowels
Recognize and produce rhyming sounds
Segment and blend simple words
Match spoken words with written ones

Vocabulary

Read and spell sight words (words they use often) such as “the,” “and,” “in,” and their names
Read and spell simple CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words such as “bat,” “tap,” and “hut”
Use descriptive language when explaining

Print Concepts

Understand that we read from left to right until the end of a line and then return to the left to read a new line
Distinguish words from letters
Know that words are separated by spaces
Understand punctuation marks

Reading Comprehension

Identify the topic and key details of a book such as who the characters are, what events happened, and where they happened
Understand the basic motivations behind the characters’ actions
Relate the events in the story to what goes on in their life and the world around them
Make predictions of what might happen next
Summarize a story while you guide them with prompts
Notice what’s similar and different between 2 books (e.g., some books tell stories and some are more informative)
Sequence story events using pictures

Phonics & Reading Worksheets and Resources

Here are 12 free resources and websites that can help you with the objectives listed above:

Phonics & Reading Tips for Parents

For young kids, easier-level books are more effective because your child will feel more accomplished from being able to read it. Which then spurs them to read more.

You should also choose books that your child finds particularly interesting, and read their favorite books with them over and over because kids learn through repetition.

Supplement their learning by asking questions and encouraging them to repeat simple words aloud.

When you’re outside, ask them to read simple words from store posters, billboards, or street signs.

If you find them reading books on their own, encourage these attempts by asking them about what they’ve read, if they enjoyed it or not, and if they learned something from it.

Kindergarten Writing Curriculum:

Writing goes hand-in-hand with reading.

It further improves their literacy by applying phonics and the concepts of printed language.

Having your child learn to write this early on will help them learn handwriting, punctuation, spelling, and grammar faster.

At this age, the first words your child will write will probably be in weird spellings or drawings. But even then, they’re already starting to understand the meaning of connection as they try to convey their thoughts on paper.

Writing is also a good exercise for your child’s brain.

It combines skills they’ve learned from reading, math logic, motor skills, and even requires a little emotional intelligence, especially if they’re writing to express their feelings.

Writing Learning Objectives

By the end of the year, your child should be able to:

Words and Letters

Correctly and smoothly write the letters of the alphabet without omitting letters
Identify, distinguish, and write uppercase and lowercase letters
Write about 30 sight words
Write simple CVC words
Write their first and last name and the names of their family members
Spell simple words phonetically
Write and identify numerals

Sentences & Print

Write short sentences involving sight words and CVC words such as “The hat is red.”
Use end punctuation marks (periods, question marks, and exclamation points)
Capitalize letters that begin sentences and important words (i.e., proper nouns)
Write from left to right and top to bottom
Correctly space letters and words when they write

Writing Expressively

Write routinely for an extended amount of time
Write in different purposes depending on the audience
Write a story with a beginning, middle, and end spanning 3 or more pages with pictures and labels
Use transition words such as first, next, and, then, etc.
Write simple rhyming poems or songs
Label and caption pictures, possessions, and objects
Use words and images to investigate, answer questions, and draw conclusions

Writing Worksheets and Resources

Here are 6 free resources and websites that can help you with the objectives listed above:

Writing Tips for Parents

Create an environment where your child can be motivated to write. Provide them with a workplace equipped with writing materials like paper, pencils, crayons, and markers.

Encourage them by asking about the things they’ve written and maybe even frame their drawings or displaying their writings on the refrigerator.

You can also include them in activities that involve writing, such as creating a grocery list or making a chore chart.

Kindergarten Curriculum Secondary Subjects

Kindergarten Art Curriculum:

Art has many developmental benefits for your child.

Making strokes with a paintbrush, shading with crayons, and doodling with a marker all contribute to refining your child’s motor skills.

Drawing, crafting, and sculpting help develop their visual-spatial skills too, which is important because children nowadays learn a lot from graphic sources as they’re exposed to plenty of visual information from television, smartphones, and computers.

Aside from making them more creative and imaginative, art also helps strengthen their decision-making, inventiveness, cultural awareness, and critical-thinking skills.

Every time they make art is a learning opportunity.

They’ll learn new words from colors and shapes, they’ll learn to innovate using the materials they have available, and they’ll explore the world around them by reflecting it in their art.

Art Learning Objectives

By the end of the year, your child should be able to:

Art Tools

Hold writing utensils (pencils, markers, crayons, and paintbrushes) correctly while drawing or writing
Make smooth linear motions with a writing instrument while drawing letters, shapes, and numbers
Precisely cut along a dotted line with a pair of scissors
Use glue with control
Manipulate clay by rolling, squeezing, pulling, and kneading and assemble something with it
Know how to keep and care for their art tools and compositions

Basic Principles

Be familiar with the primary and secondary colors, as well as black and white
Know the difference between light and dark colors
Draw different types of lines (straight, narrow, wide, jagged, curved, vertical, horizontal, and diagonal)
Draw the basic geometric shapes
Combine and close lines to create abstract shapes
Connect and combine shapes and materials to create something else
Be aware of different textures of surfaces in their environment
Repeat lines, shapes, and colors to make patterns
Make a collage
Use all the elements they learned to create an artwork

Context and Analysis

Talk about the details of what they drew, painted, or crafted and if they were inspired by nature, an event, or a story that they read
Respond to their own or others’ art by talking about how it makes them feel
Differentiate works of art based on style and subject matter
Investigate their environment and notice the colors, lines, shapes, and textures that make up the objects they see
Understand that their environment can inspire art
Have examined a few historical and modern artwork so they can relate those to their own work

Art Worksheets and Resources

Here are 6 free resources and websites that can help you with the objectives listed above:

Art Tips for Parents

When making art, kids end up getting upset if they can’t create what they visualized in their minds.

So, tell them that mistakes are to be expected and that you can turn mistakes into something else.

Another hack when teaching art to your kindergartener is to minimize the use of pencils.

Pencils have thin strokes, so when they use it to draw small shapes like eyes and have to color them, they might get frustrated if they color outside the lines.

Pencil markings can also be erased and this makes it more likely for them to second-guess.

So, use markers. They’ll help your child commit to drawing, forgive mistakes, and then work around them.

Also, always pick subjects that they find fun, and remind them to clean up their workspace whenever they’ve finished working on something.

Kindergarten Music Curriculum:

Music connects everyone in the world. Its effects on us are almost magical.

When you expose your child to music during their early years, you’re helping ignite their intellectual, emotional, and social readiness.

Music is also an excellent tool for language studies because your child can learn words and their meaning through song lyrics.

Music Learning Objectives

By the end of the year, your child should be able to:

Recognize and move to a steady beat
Distinguish between different ways we use our voices - (singing, speaking, whispering, and shouting)
Sing in high and low pitch as well as match the pitch in melodies
Sing loudly and softly
Differentiate fast and slow tempo
Know the sounds of an orchestra
Sing skipping songs and songs with actions
Know a few folk songs

Music Worksheets and Resources

Here are 8 free resources and websites that can help you with the objectives listed above:

Music Tips for Parents

When you’re singing songs or playing games involving nursery rhymes, be energetic and have fun.

That way, you’ll leave them wanting more.

Kindergarten Social Studies Curriculum:

The social studies curriculum in kindergarten is focused mostly on kids’ social relationships with their family, what their neighborhood is like, and some primary civic responsibilities.

This subject is important because it’ll be the basis for your child knowing how to interact with new people they meet, especially those of other cultures.

It’s a start for developing social skills, learning how to make and keep friends, and learning how to cope with difficult feelings if things don’t go the way they want during an interaction.

Social Studies Learning Objectives

By the end of the year, your child should be able to:

Family & Friends

Play, cooperate, share, and take turns with others
Recognize their names when they see it in print
Be familiar with the names of their immediate and extended family members as well as what they do (if they have jobs or still in school)
Be familiar with their phone numbers and street address
Use a telephone
Understand that there are different types of families (e.g., single parents, stepparents, adoptive parents, same-sex parents, etc.) and be able to appreciate these differences
Maintain positive relationships with friends and family, respect others, and be responsible for their own actions

Society & Environment

Follow basic rules and explain why rules are important
Know the basic street signs (stop signs, pedestrian lanes, traffic lights, etc.)
Know what makes a good citizen
Know their country’s basic symbols like the national flag, Pledge of Allegiance, or national anthem
Know the importance of honesty, bravery, patriotism, and responsibility
Respect their leaders and know the purpose of authority figures in society such as police officers, librarians, and firefighters
Respect and care for the environment by not littering, recycling & reusing objects, and not disturbing plants or animals in their natural habitat
Know necessary safety measures if there’s ever an earthquake, a fire, or intruders.

Culture & Economics

Know that groups and cultures in society have different interests, ideals, and traditions but still form a collective that should help one another
Explain what the different jobs are that people do at work and know that people work for money so they can buy the things they need
Know how and why their family and other families celebrate significant religious or social holidays
Name the basic human needs (food, shelter, clothing, and safety) and be able to differentiate between want and need

Social Studies Worksheets and Resources

Here are 6 free resources and websites that can help you with the objectives listed above:

Social Studies Tips for Parents

Society can be very confusing to a kid, so if your child asks questions...

Make sure to answer patiently and as clearly as possible.

Kindergarten Science Curriculum

Science is very important because it’s based on curiosity and holds most of the clues that your child needs to understand the world around them.

It’s super helpful in helping your child learn essential life skills such as organization, concentration, observation, communication, and just an overall sense of awareness of themselves, other people, and the environment.

Science at this age is also a great teaching tool because children are hands-on learners, and science will give them plenty of opportunities to explore the natural and technological world.

It’ll definitely give your child a huge boost in intellectual development.

Science Learning Objectives

By the end of the year, your child should be able to:

Scientific Thinking

Note observations and guesses in a journal
Communicate their observations (e.g., how plant leaves are different from one another, comparisons of the properties of different materials, etc.) as well as their ideas
Ask a question, come up with a guess to answer said question, and investigate (by observing, measuring, or gathering data) whether that guess was correct

Life Science

Name basic human body parts and determine their functions
Know the 5 senses
Distinguish living things from nonliving things
Detail how seasons affect living things
Understand the life processes of animals and plants as well as their basic needs for survival
Know the major parts of a plant (roots, stem, leaves, flower, etc.)
Describe and compare the appearance, structure, and behavior of common animals like birds, cats, dogs, earthworms, etc.

Earth Science & Astronomy

Grasp the concept of seasons
Analyze the water cycle
Explain that the sun is a source of light and heat, and if you block it in certain ways, it can create shadows
Compare the night sky from the sky at daytime
Name the planets in the solar system
Group and classify rocks whether they’re smooth or rough, dull or shiny, big or small, etc.

Physical Science

Be familiar with how gravity affects everything on Earth
Compare and describe properties of physical materials -- such as paper, wood, and fabric -- using the 5 senses
Have explored how different materials react to water
Observe how an object’s physical properties (round, square, rough, etc.) affect how they move
Build things with various objects and tear them apart
Know that some things might not work if their parts are incomplete

Science Worksheets and Resources

Here are 11 free resources and websites that can help you with the objectives listed above:

Science Tips for Parents

When teaching science to your kindergartener, you should always encourage them to have an inquiring attitude toward everything going on around them.

Be an example yourself and show excitement whenever you’re exploring nature, technology, and all other disciplines.

This interest will seep into them and they won’t help but be excited as well.

Don’t forget to always be safe whenever you and your child are doing experiments. Wear proper science gear such as lab gowns and safety goggles.

Science can be messy because you’ll be poking around a lot and stirring things up to find out what’ll happen if you do certain things.

So, be safe and supervise your kids.

Kindergarten History Curriculum:

History is all about modeling great qualities from people of the past so that we can imitate their achievements.

It’s also about learning from other people’s mistakes that have led to catastrophic consequences.

For children, studying history is very important because they’re the next generation to take on the helm of humanity and hopefully set right the things generations before them have done.

A proper study of history will help them become better citizens, more responsible people, and members of society who push for social development.

It’ll also improve their judgment, decision-making, and sense of identity.

History Learning Objectives

By the end of the year, your child should be able to:

Concept

Understand the relationship between the past and the present
Recount personal occurrences to further understand that history tells events that happened in the past
Sequence historical events using before and after

America

Know prominent national historical figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Sojourner Truth, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, and Harriet Beecher Stowe
Know that Native Americans were the original inhabitants of North America
Remember stories of historical figures who were embodiments of honesty, bravery, and responsibility

World

Know that early inhabitants of the world moved a lot so they can gather food and hunt, and they didn’t have all the things we have now but were able to improve their lives by making tools, domesticating animals, and farming
Know what an astronaut is and name a few (e.g., Neil Armstrong)

History Worksheets and Resources

Here are 4 free resources and websites that can help you with the objectives listed above:

History Tips for Parents

To make learning history more engaging, use pictures and videos when telling stories of the past. It’ll make it easier for your child to visualize the events.

When discussing historical events, you might miss out on a few details, so prepare for questions that your child will ask.

They’ll inevitably ask about topics on the uglier side of history, but don’t shy away from their questions.

Without going into too much detail, just carefully explain that some people have done bad things in the past and that it’s important to learn from the mistakes they did so that we don’t do them again.

Kindergarten Geography Curriculum:

Your child will learn about geography when studying social studies and history already, but having geography as a separate subject will further enhance their awareness of the world around them.

It helps familiarize themselves with their neighborhood and hometown, and it’ll also make them realize how vast the world is and how rich it is in culture, traditions, and stories.

Geography Learning Objectives

By the end of the year, your child should be able to:

Use simple directional terms such as near, far, up, behind, left, and right to describe the location of objects relative to one another
Know the difference between a map and a globe
Point out bodies of land and bodies of water as well as physical features on a map like mountains, lakes, rivers, and roads
Locate their address on a local map, their state in a national map, and their country on a globe
Point out other relevant places on a map such as where their parents work, where their grandparents or other family members live, the beach or amusement park they usually go to, etc.
Draw a map of their neighborhood that includes their house, friends’ houses, grocery stores, churches, and parks
Know that if it’s daytime on their side of the world, it’s nighttime on the other side of the world

Geography Worksheets and Resources

Here are 7 free resources and websites that can help you with the objectives listed above:

Geography Tips for Parents

Use colorful maps or maybe even pop-up books for a more engaging learning experience.

When talking about cultures from other countries, you can have them experience what they’re learning by exploring the food they eat, folk music from those areas, traditional dances, and how they dress.

Kindergarten End-of-Year Checklist

We made a checklist containing all these learning objectives, so you can evaluate how your kid performed this year.

Tick all the boxes of the things they’ve learned and be proud of you and your child’s accomplishments.

If they didn’t do so well in some areas, don’t worry too much.

These are all skills, and they can be learned.

If your child is having a hard time, just be patient.

They’ll get the hang of it.

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