Over the years, many families have asked us how to homeschool their elementary-school children from ages 3-8. I have two answers to this question. The first is that this is a rich time for parents to restore parts of their own education in preparing to teach their children at home. It’s a good time to dive into the parent resources at classicalconversationsbooks.com. The second answer is to establish the family atmosphere.
Homeschool Hacks for Elementary-Aged Kids
Make sure to have a rhythm 
of praying, playing, reading, working, and serving together each day. Fill your home with books and good music, play indoors and outdoors, read lots of great books together, teach the children how to do chores around the house, and serve others in your church and community by running errands, cooking meals, and babysitting. Pray together daily for your family and community. Let the little ones help fill up the prayer list. In order to get inspired, read 10 Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child by Anthony Esolen or download Echo in Celebration by Leigh Bortins (for free)!
As the children need table lessons, we have a host of resources for you. Remember to keep it short and simple as you lay the groundwork for future studies. Do you need help teaching your child to read? Grab a few friends and head to the park. Read and discuss The Writing Road to Reading together while the children are playing.
Does your beginning reader need reading practice with all of the different phonograms? Dive into the American Language Series. The charming stories and pictures will give them lots and lots of practice with letter combinations and sounds. When he or she finishes a reader, the whole family can celebrate the amazing accomplishment!
Does your beginning writer need handwriting practice with rich content? Check out our PreScripts books. The orange books are for the youngest writers, then progress to red, and then green. Your littles can learn Scripture, math terms, and important events from history while they practice cursive writing. These books include fun drawing lessons, too!
As you read, do you want to find things on the map? Check out Trivium at the Table placemats for geography. Draw around countries with a dry erase marker or call out locations and have your children place a small snack on them. Then, they get to eat their correct answers!
Want to learn some fun and silly Latin songs? Check out Song School Latin 1 & 2. These provide 15-20 minutes of Latin vocabulary each day for littles.
Want to celebrate God’s creation together? Go outside with your Nature Sketch Journal and observe. Bring colored pencils or crayons and draw a picture of an earthworm or a robin or a frog. Older students can use the lined paper to write a few sentences to record their discoveries. Parents can write down younger children’s finds.
This is such a rich time in your child’s life, enjoy it together!
Jennifer Courtney and her high school sweetheart have been married for 20 years and have always home educated their children in the lovely pioneer state of Oklahoma. Jennifer currently serves as Content Development Manager of MultiMedia and as a Challenge II tutor in her local community. In her free time, she enjoys reading, reading and more reading, and biking and traveling with her family. Her secret guilty pleasures are Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and British mystery novels. You can hear her weekly on CC’s Everyday Educator podcast.
