Educating a child is definitely not an easy task, and those with kids know better.
But, it can be easier and more enjoyable when you use the right tools and resources.
The child starts to produce the first words and put together the first letters. There is a long way to go before they learn properly on their own.
And parental support is essential in this phase full of discoveries and challenges in the child’s learning process.
But if you have a young child, you’ve probably already felt a little lost about where to start. Even more, if you don’t work in the education area, right?
Since the start of the pandemic, everything changed, and some kids were forced to study from home for security reasons.
New ways and valid alternatives were developed to educate children, and homeschooling became the only way out for the children to learn.
Many are asking themselves, “how to homeschool a first-grade kid?”. We’ve compiled tips to help you teach a kid at home. So, keep reading to find out.
How to homeschool a first-grade kid? See simple tips and tricks.
One of the most striking phases of childhood is when our little ones are in literacy. We get emotional when we see them putting each syllable together until they form a word.
The role is not just for school purposes but for everything in general.
Table of Contents
Ways to Homeschool a First Grade Child
Create the Best Reading Environment for Your Kid
Actually, this is an imperative first thing to do. If you’re educating your kid at home, there has to be a space set aside for studying.
Teaching should be done in a proper space not to cause damage to health, creating problems in vision and posture.
Planning a space at home, with adequate lighting and furniture, makes the activity even more enjoyable.
Plan Yourself
The sheer volume of material and methods available can be overwhelming for a younger mother.
Identifying your approach will help make things simpler. (For example, people who use don’t use school typically have a wide variety of resources for teaching their children but no formal curriculum.
Authentic classical education involves teaching reading, thinking, and speaking at a mastery level.
There are many resources to help you navigate the maze of ideas. Libraries and bookstores have books on proven homeschooling methods, experiences, and curricula.
The internet is an endless source of information such as background information on many subjects, online curriculum, in-depth studies, articles on methodologies, support groups, and public school curricula.
The internet also has free classes on most subjects, given by teachers, other home educators, and even from television programs. Research, read, and plan what you want to teach and how.
Determine your education style.
Examine your own intentions and motivations. Why do you want to educate children at home? What do you consider a “good” education? What do you think about children, teaching, and learning? How do your children seem to learn best?
These questions can help you determine what approach to take and help create a learning environment that will be best for your family and children.
Give your best
Trust your knowledge and instincts about your own child. Not only are you the only person responsible for guiding your children’s education, but you are often the only person capable of recognizing what they need or don’t need.
Hear tips from others who want to help you, but trust your own instincts when it comes to what your child needs to learn and do in their educational progress.
Tailor activities to the child’s age
Needless to say, the interests of every age change dramatically. So, adapt your “school” routine to the needs of your kid.
Building with blocks, fitting figures, drawings with chalk, collage with cloth are superb ways to teach your kid.
Sensory activities – such as mixing edible ingredients, messing with paints and essential oils, mixing different colored liquids, etc. – are also stimulating young students.
Storytelling is also recommended to maintain vocabulary expansion and contact with the text.
Be creative!
One of the main advantages of homeschooling is freedom. So research, talk and develop everything your way, creating moments of learning and lightness and fun.
Many parents are not educators, but raising their children and being in touch with the children’s universe makes them have a great intuition about what works and what doesn’t.
If it didn’t work, change it and create another path.
Snack and break
Breaks to eat and play are just as important as activities aimed at developing a certain skill – in addition to giving parents and children a break throughout the day.
Make your child feel interested
Make your children realize that you are interested, committed, and attentive to their learning, and, above all, you appreciate it when you see that they are doing the best they can.
There’s nothing more frustrating than dedicating hours to challenging research or story, and mom or dad doesn’t even read it, right?
Encourage reading everywhere
Cookie recipes, signs on the street, words on the packaging of food she loves, a sign at the supermarket: any space and time is a good time to encourage children more and help them to read.
Stimulate indoors
But also take a few minutes a day to sit with her and stimulate them seriously and away from distractions.
This is even a way to teach your child to study, making him get the practice and not have a hard time doing it later.
Set the example
Young children have a great tendency to imitate their parents.
If your child notices that you are interested in reading, he will show curiosity and motivation to do so, which are essential stimuli for him to engage in the learning.
Go to the library with your kids.
Weekly library visits are a great way to spark interest in reading and learning.
There are many good books for children, and the library is an excellent source of additional materials to complete their study cycles.
Furthermore, regular visits to the library will cultivate a spirit of self-learning, something that school children rarely develop.
This will also make the child cultivate a love of reading. You can be sure your child will thank you for it.
Use comics, booklets, and games to help.
Comic books are significant stimuli for children. Monica’s Gang, for example, is very successful and has followed several generations.
You also find benefits in alphabet games. Puzzles, memory games, and illustrated alphabet are good examples of fun activities that teach while having fun.
Teaching the Child to Read
Teaching a child to read is not always an easy task, but it is an essential step in literacy. And to pass on knowledge to the child, as parents, it is common to end up feeling frustrated to see that their children are not evolving as expected.
If you are also starting to teach reading and have also faced this same challenge, it is essential to keep in mind that learning to read is a gradual process.
Trying to force learning can make the child become disinterested and consequently lose interest in learning.
As parents, encouraging your child to read from an early age, and making this process dynamic and fun, is important for the child to be interested in learning.
Good ideas that can help the child read more easily are telling stories, playing games and playing with the letters, songs containing the alphabet, and other enjoyable activities.
Be a good example!
Parents are the main references in children’s lives. It may not seem like it, but their parents’ habits and attitudes very inspire little ones to develop their own interests.
Therefore, as a parent, one of the best ways to encourage your child to read is to maintain the habit of reading!
Gradually, seeing you read frequently, the tendency is for your child to become interested in the activity and create the habit of reading.
Teaching Your Child to Write
As well as reading, writing is also one of the pillars of the children’s literacy process. However, many parents and children face challenges at this stage of learning.
Teaching a child to write can be a fun process for everyone.
One of the first steps is to familiarize yourself with the letters of the alphabet. One of the most used resources to teach writing is pre-writing activities.
It makes the child develop their motor skills and makes it easier to hold the pencil, make the shape of the letters and recognize the writing process.
Gradually, through other activities and playful games, you can help the child to start writing the letters of the alphabet, his name, the name of his parents, and other words.
How to help the child in the literacy process?
The literacy period is a magical time in children’s lives. And as parents, despite the challenges and difficulties, it is possible to help in the literacy process by stimulating learning in a light and fun way, without this being an obligation.
Teaching to read by playing through activities, games, songs, reading, and other resources can arouse the child’s interest in learning.
How to teach the child to have more patience?
It is often possible to see reports of frustrated and upset fathers and mothers because their children cannot learn to read and write and end up losing patience to learn.
This is a new universe for your little one, full of discoveries and also challenges. There are children who will find it much easier to read or write their first words.
On the other hand, there are children who have different learning times. It is important always to emphasize that there is no exact time to learn to be literate.
In the child’s time, with games that teach patience, help from the stimuli that the child receives at home, and the school’s support, he will learn and be literate.
If they are receiving adequate stimulation but are not progressing with the support of teachers and the school, you will know when to seek professional support.
How to Teach Maths to Children
Mathematics is one of the most “unwanted” subjects for many children and adults alike. But did you know that it is possible to teach mathematics in a simple way?
As parents, it is possible to promote enjoyable activities that arouse children’s interest in learning using creative resources such as board games, puzzles, or even building blocks.
And help the child to assimilate everyday situations such as counting the number of houses on the streets, the prices of products, or how to give change at the supermarket.
In addition, participating in physical activities with friends calculating the number of participants and even the points earned can be a good way to teach math in an uncomplicated way.
How to teach religion to children
Religiosity is something important for children. A study carried out by the University of British Columbia in Canada points out that more spiritual children are happier and feel that their life has meaning.
Although each person has their own faith, nurturing spirituality in children and teaching children the way of the Lord from an early age can help them feel better and have greater self-esteem.
There are different ways of teaching religion to children, praying or praying together, through reading passages from the bible or religious children’s books, gospel songs, or their religion aimed at the children’s universe, among other practices.
How to Teach English to Children
You’ve probably heard that children have a much easier time learning another language than adults.
As parents, it is very worthwhile to encourage the learning of English at an early age so that the child will have an easier time and mastery of the language when he grows up.
It is possible to take advantage of the day-to-day activities of the child to stimulate the learning of English. Through YouTube videos, movies, music, and books.
How to Teach a Child to Draw?
What child doesn’t love to draw, right? One of the first contacts that little ones have with pencils, markers, or brushes.
Despite being something natural for children, the first “doodles” can be improved with the help of a mom or dad.
From early childhood, you can help the little ones by holding their little hand and helping them to be firm with the pencil.
You can also offer the child activities such as connecting the dots and even forming a picture. Or help you develop the shapes better.
Gradually, and with enough training, it is possible to improve the child’s skills.
What better way to teach coloring?
Just like drawing, coloring is something that is also part of children’s lives from a very early age.
While they are coloring, they learn to express their feelings and their creativity. The best way to teach your child to color gradually. Buying age-appropriate crayons or crayons.
Helping to hold them. Giving drawings to encourage them to color or blank sheets so they can express themselves freely. When they finish drawing, always encourage and congratulate the finished art.
When the kids are coloring
Right at the beginning, when they are learning to color, it is normal for children to end up overflowing their creativity and want to paint the walls, the floor, and other environments.
Be patient! With your help, little by little, they will understand where they can and cannot paint.
How to help the child to use the computer?
Technology is something that is part of our lives, and children’s lives too.
To maintain the safety of the little ones, as parents, it is important to monitor and teach the child the computer properly.
An effective way of teaching children to use the computer is to show them which pages they can use. You can create filters to prevent access to dangerous websites.
Also, show how the tool can be used, for example, how to play a certain game or how to watch a video on a YouTube channel. Always with supervision.
Benefits of Homeschooling a first grade
Homeschooling brings many advantages; generally, families that choose this modality seek education and even a lifestyle that is not based on standards or on a unique approach to learning.
One of the great goals of parents is to educate their children with excellence, and due to the many opportunities and freedom offered by homeschooling, it is understood that there is no better way to be an integral part of a child’s education.
Here are some of the many benefits of homeschooling a first grade:
1. Excellent academic adaptation.
Homeschooling can work with different types of children, whether your child is more creative or agitated, challenging, quiet, or extremely talented. Homeschooling allows you to tailor content individually to meet your child’s needs.
2. Parental choice for pace and approach.
You are responsible for their schedule, grade level, and learning approach. Some people still grapple with questioning about the format and recording of activities and how they can prove that their child has followed the chosen curriculum.
Parents should undergo proper preparation, execution, and archiving of the activities completed by homeschoolers.
3. Consistency.
Integrated and consistent education. Because a child’s homeschooling is managed by the same person over an extended period of time, such homeschooling can be consistent with a long-term plan in which each topic taught and experienced has ongoing benefits.
4. Warm family atmosphere.
The family is the best foundation for social development, as well as the development of values and character.
Because parents are intimately involved with the student throughout the student’s life, parents understand the child’s experiences and background and use this knowledge to design future educational activities.
5. Flexibility and creativity
Remember that one of the great benefits of homeschooling is flexibility, both in time and space.
Students do not need to sit at a desk for 5-6 hours a day. Also, be flexible with your Homeschool location.
Children can do schoolwork outside, at a picnic table, in the park, or at the kitchen table. Be creative and innovate.
6. Involvement of children in the community.
There is more time in your family’s routine to involve your child in community activities, volunteering, and entrepreneurship, children, love to be a part of it.
7. Efficient learning.
Unlike a classroom full of students, your child will have an individualized education, and as a mediator of knowledge, parents can efficiently lead students to make better use of their time.
8. Relevant Learning.
The homeschool student does not learn “just what will be on the test” but has significant learning that goes beyond the curriculum.
9. Time for extracurricular activities.
You can set aside time to play outdoors, create art projects, and do real science experiments.
10. Meets special situations.
Homeschooling works well for military families, traveling families, and families with a history of health issues or parents who have challenging work schedules.
Increasingly, parents are opting for homeschooling rather than sending their children to public or private schools.
There are thousands upon thousands of homeschooling families around the world, and their experiences and results in homeschooling vary, as do children enrolled in schools.
While homeschooling is not for every family, people from all walks of life, in many different circumstances, have found ways to incorporate the benefits of homeschooling into their lives.
They unanimously agree that every part of the Homeschool journey has its difficulties and challenges, and also its joys and rewards that make it all worthwhile.
Wrapping Up
A fist grade kid is no longer a baby and is about to start reading, writing, and all that. Time goes by fast, and your little one, when you least expect it, will go out there writing and reading everything he sees! To help in this new moment so important for parents and children, homeschooling can come in handy. A first-grade kid needs serious teaching since this is the stage in learning that will shape them properly. The tips above have helped you understand how to homeschool a first-grade kid. Ensure that your kid knows how to learn accordingly.