A Quiet Growing Time-Kindergarten With The Peaceful Press

Kindergarten homeschooling is an exciting time! When parents make this decision, they often try to do all the things and keep up with the public school content, or feel paralyzed by fear. We hope the following information with help guide you to a more life-giving option. 

Give your child a quiet growing time. 

Charlotte Mason shared this in her book, Home Education,

“In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mother's first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet and growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it, for the most part, spent out in the fresh air.”

This doesn’t mean you just ditch all the plans for academics during kindergarten. If we look more carefully into the concept of what Charlotte Mason recommended, and furthermore, the needs of children in general, we learn that there were still academics. However, they were part of this growing time and very gentle. 

Whilst you can certainly ease up on the ABCs and 123s when compared to the modern expectations of five-year-old children, you still want to be encouraging a love of learning and even teaching your child essential skills for learning. 

Let’s follow a day in the life of my Kindergartener

Around 7 am my little guy wakes and he cuddles with me on the couch for a few minutes. After some cuddles, he often grabs a banana, then scurries to his mud kitchen outside. I begin breakfast, and he plays for around an hour in the fresh air. Out of breath, he races indoors with a specimen, “Mom! I think this is a beetle! He is HUGE! I found him on that rotten wood behind the house!” We find our golden nature guide for insects and he locates a photo of his capture. It is a beetle! He runs back outside to find more and show his brothers. 

I call him in for breakfast, and during our meal, I read some tall tales, play a hymn or folk song, and practice a memory verse. He also participates in our artist, poet, and composer studies by listening and maybe drawing a picture during the discussion.

After breakfast, he makes his bed, helps tidy the dining room, and brushes his teeth. (Grab our Chore and Routine Pack and set up a daily routine for your children)

Then he runs back outside. Around 11 a.m., I call him in and read him a picture book. We laugh and enjoy the book while I point out some letters he knows or ask him about his favorite part. Since we use many materials from The Peaceful Press, I have a recipe that correlates with our book, and we head to the kitchen to bake together. 

We listen to a Spanish podcast at lunchtime that helps guide his second language learning.

We also like to sing the months of the year or days of the week. After lunch, we often pack up as a family and hit the trail. We hike 2-4 miles and then the kids can play uninhibited while mom reads a book or crochets. As they tire, I pull out another book from Nourishing Nature Kindergarten and read while they eat a snack (one my kindergartener helped make). 

We head home around 5pm and dinner is waiting (thank you crock pot). My kindergartener browses some nature picture books in his book basket and draws a picture of something that interests him. I ask him about it, and he provides a detailed narration of the pictures in the book and why he drew what he did. At bedtime, my kindergartener brushes his teeth, washes his face, and helps his little brother do the same. We sing our hymn and folk song and then I read aloud from a chapter book. 

Kindergarten homeschooling is all about thoughtfully living life together.

Can you find the hidden learning in our day? What literacy skills did my kindergartener glean? He is learning to narrate during our discussions. He listens to books and sees pictures with vivid imagery and beautiful language. He practices math skills as he helps set the table for meals and bakes with me. He is doing science as we spend inordinate time outdoors – he identified a beetle and its habitat without any adult assistance. Life skills are embedded throughout his day as he helps his little brother, tidies his spaces, and contributes to home life. 

Peter Gray is known for his research and understanding of childhood and the need for play, he says,

"There is no need for forced lessons, lectures, assignments, tests, grades, segregation by age into classrooms or any of the other trappings of our standard, compulsory system of schooling. All of these, in fact, interfere with children’s natural way of learning." 

Likewise, in this quiet growing time, we can be free from the compulsion to replicate a kindergarten classroom at home. While children need to have some learning during their kindergarten year, it can be gentle and flow with their general schedule. 

Using The Peaceful Press nature guides for kindergarten homeschooling.

We would be remiss if we did not emphasize the importance of finding ways to incorporate both fine and gross motor skills and teach preliteracy and numeracy skills. These motor skills feel like play to our children, but they reinforce brain development, visual tracking skills, and pencil grip, which lays a strong foundation for academics. That is why The Peaceful Press created the Nourishing Nature Kindergarten. These monthly resources include living books and literature-based learning in a holistic manner that respects the child as an individual. 

In each Nature Guide, you will find a book list, math, science, phonics, life skills, and more! These month-long studies have been carefully curated to fit nicely into your days and include the essentials without bombarding your students with workbooks. 

These resources will help cultivate a beautiful and treasured year of kindergarten homeschooling and will prepare your child to be the creative and well-developed learner essential for a rapidly changing world.

Guest post by Sarah Ruth Owens.