What Should My Child Be Learning?
For part of 2025, I have decided to do blog posts centering around frequently asked homeschool questions. I have been asked these questions or seen them in various online spaces. Some people question about what they should be teaching their children when.
When I first started homeschooling, I was scared of what to teach and when. My girls were eager to learn, but yet they were so tiny that it seemed like so much. It was a delicate balance of them being ready and knowing we had thirteen years' worth of school into which to fit things.
Many curriculums can help with the what and when as they lay things out in levels or grade levels. But if you forgo the curriculum route, how do you know? A lot is knowing your child, and the other is knowing the logical steps to learning. Take learning to read. You first learn letters; then you learn their sounds. Then, you take that knowledge and begin blending the sounds to form words, and so on. I have found that building basic foundational steps is essential within all learning subjects and life.
I have a personal belief that society has begun to push academics way too early on three to five-year-olds. In my post-Why Establish a Foundation of Reading in Your Homeschool, we discussed our choice to delay grammar and writing until around third grade. I have instead wanted to lay that foundation I was talking about and lay a foundation of reading before talking about big concepts like grammar and sentence structure. It has worked really well. When our girls started grammar and writing, they were ready, and they didn't struggle. We have also approached learning through mastery versus advancement by grade level each year for our core subjects (Math, Reading, Spelling, Grammar, and Writing). This is where a child continues on a topic until they have mastered it. Mastery is a quick recall of how to do something without having to think and process the information and then use it and apply that information.
Finding what you are supposed to do is hard if you don't have an educational background. As I have mentioned, my background was for middle school and high school levels, so the foundational things were new to me as well. There is a book series I used as a quick reference guide when I started. What to teach your child… based on grade levels. I needed a general direction to go, and these gave it to me. Once I decided on a few curriculums, though, I was able to use them and go along with how they progressed at each age and level.
Indeed, you can also follow the lead and be interested in your children. Suppose you have a child interested in all things space. In that case, you can undoubtedly introduce them to astronomy at three, but at an appropriate level, and so forth with their learning interests. These interests can also intertwine with how they learn basic foundational information. You will see this more in us next year as we are going to take a shift in our curriculum and will be doing a more unit study approach next year (more on this later this year).
I hope this post has answered any questions you may have about what your child should learn and when. If not, feel free to comment under this blog post or contact me via our Facebook Page or Instagram. If you want more in-depth conversations, check out our Facebook Parent Group.
Remember that this post is part of a series of FAQ's regarding homeschooling. This is the proposed schedule of past and future topics:
How do I start?
Am I even qualified to Teach My Child?
Who Holds You Accountable?
But What About Graduating and Issuing a Diploma?
What Should My Child Be Learning?
How Do I Choose Curriculum and What About the Cost?
How Long Does It Actually Take?
But What About Socialization?
What is the Hardest Part?
What Types of Schooling Are There?
What Do I Need to Homeschool?
How Can I Be Around My Kid All Day?
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