A Glimpse Into Our First Day of Homeschool Kindergarten

As a chronic over-planner, I tend to either pack our days tight or plan nothing at all. When it comes to the first day of school, there are a few things I like to include. I want to capture the memories and be sure to make the meals a little special. Other than that, I prefer to let the day sort of come to us. If I don’t I usually segment the day too thoroughly and end up making the kids feel sort of rushed.

Another homeschool mom shared this little checklist with me, so I am sharing it with you. If we can shift my focus to these simpler tasks it usually helps me get out of my own way in this homeschool journey.

goals in each homeschool day

• read something
• make something
• help someone
• do something hard
• practice a skill
• go outside
• have a conversation
• laugh
• love on each other

what my kindergartener did on the first day of school

Bug wakes up around 6:30 am every morning and goes straight to wash up. By the time she has prepped herself for the day I am usually wrapping up breakfast. She helps to set the table or helps her brother get dressed. She doesn’t like to sit around in the mornings so she’s usually with one of us and just naturally lends a hand.

Since the first day of school is a special occasion around here, we had a “special breakfast” of fresh baked cinnamon rolls and ice cold milk. We got our morning dose of protein and fruits for “second breakfast” a couple hours later. Over breakfast we discussed our goals for the day and made a rough plan of how we’d like it to progress. We talked about the weather and made our plans around that.

After breakfast we usually read our devotionals and if she’s in the mood, which she was today, we’ll sit and do our Morning Menus. I basically printed off a few re-usable worksheets and let her practice on them with marker that wipes clean.

Once we are all ready for the day we almost always head straight outside. Because it gets hot pretty early in Hawaii I tend to try and have us heading home right as it’s really heating up. We play at a playground, go for a walk, jump in the trampoline, or just read outside. Today we went down the street to a nearby marsh and walked the trail feeding the ducks some stale food.

Our most solid chunk of instruction follows this. We came home and cooled off a little while Bug practiced her handwriting. Chunk brought over some pattern blocks for us to play with for a few minutes. So I made a pattern or two for them to recreate and the kids to it. After that, I read aloud to Bug and Chunk while they worked on their All About Me Coloring Pages, and then I made lunch.

Related: All About Me Coloring Page

After lunch we have a quiet hour—that usually turns into a nap—and then head back outside. I use this (the hottest part of the day) for our bigger and/or messier projects. Today we drove our cars in their “parking spots” by matching the lowercase and uppercase letters. As we played with these we realized some of them were pretty gunky, so I set up a car wash station outside for them. I propped up a table with two bins, one for washing and one for rinsing, and then a car drying station. They stayed outside playing in those two buckets for far too long so I prepped dinner while they enjoyed themselves.

Muddy from their “work” I ended up showering the kids early, before dinner. We held a little back-to-school party with finger foods, decorations, and a special dessert. Since we had shut down sort of early I ended up putting on the documentary I planned for later in the week. After the video we read a couple of books from our unit and we just ended our day cozy together on the couch all snuggled up.

recommended hours of instruction

Our state does not have hard requirements for hours of instruction per student. Below are the averages we plan to work around in our homeschool. These are daily totals, and ballpark numbers for us right now.

Preschool: 15 to 30 minutes

Kindergarten: 30 minutes to 1 hour

1st & 2nd Grade: 45 minutes to 1.5 hours

3rd & 4th Grade: 1.5 to 3 hours

5th & 6th Grade: 2.5 to 3.5 hours

7th & 8th Grade: 3 to 4.5 hours

High School: 3.5 to 6 hours

Everybody sort of decides what is best for their family on this one. These numbers felt reasonable and do-able for us, but we’ll likely adjust as we learn our homeschool style.

Our first day of homeschooling was a blend of learning, exploration, and fun—a true reflection of the kind of experience we hope to create each day for our Kindergartener. Sharing this real-life example, I hope you were able to pull some ideas or inspiration for your own homeschool journey.

Every homeschool day doesn’t need to be perfect, but with a clear plan, reasonable expectations, and a focus on what truly matters, it is already proving to be a rewarding experience for our whole family.

How did your first day of school go this year?