What Age to Start Homeschooling
A lot of people ask, “at what age should I start homeschooling?” The answer to this question could greatly vary and really depends on exactly what one means when this question is asked. The simple answer is: Whenever your child is ready!
Sometimes when people ask this question they are really asking “at what age do you sit your child down and begin formally teaching them?” while others might mean something like “When should I start teaching my kids basic concepts like, body parts, colors, shapes, letters, counting, and numbers?”
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What Age to Start Homeschooling
To answer this question I will go over some concepts to start teaching your children and at what age. Know that you are not limited to the lists below and you can teach whatever you think is important. These lists are simply to give a general outline on what I think you can begin teaching at what age. Hopefully this will help answer the question “at what age should I start homeschooling my child?”
Newborn – 18months (roughly)
From the moment your child is born you begin teaching them! During these earliest times you can begin teaching them tons of things: from tummy time and contrasting colored patterns to reading stories and learning to walk and talk. You can even begin things like baby sign language from an extremely young age.
But when do you actually begin teaching them more structured academics? I like to start around 2-3 years of age.
18 months – 3 years (roughly)
When you notice signs that your child is ready to begin learning more complex concepts you can start teaching them! Whether that is 12months, 18months, or 3 years old totally depends on the child.
For these beginning concepts I recommend teaching the child through play, conversation and everyday life interactions.
Here are a few concepts to start with:
- Body Parts “Where is your nose? Can you point to mommy’s nose?”
- Colors – “Would you like to wear the blue shirt or the green shirt today?”
- Counting – Count things in everyday life “your chicken nuggets are ready, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5! You have 5 Chicken nuggets!”
- Weather/Seasons – “It is a hot summer day today! There are clouds in the sky, but it is mostly sunny. Soon, all these green leaves on the tree will turn yellow, orange and brown and begin falling off so that the trees can get ready to go to sleep for when it gets really cold outside. Let’s enjoy the nice weather before cold winter comes in a few months.”
- Other: You can also start teaching your child basic life skills such as: Picking up their toys, wiping down the table, getting dressed, covering their mouth when they cough or sneeze, etc.
3-5 years (roughly)
This is the time when I truly begin sitting my kids down to do some more structured learning. With that being said, the sit-down portion of our learning usually only takes 30minutes give or take.
Remember to be mindful of their age and their abilities, you don’t ever want to make learning something that they dread doing. These years are the foundational years to help instill a true love of learning within your child that will serve them well throughout their academic journey.
Make learning fun and exciting with lots of engaging activities and positive encouragement.
You can use a curriculum if you’d like but I have found concepts at this age to be easiest to teach through play and conversation. Here are some of my most frequently used learning activities to teach preschoolers letters, numbers, shapes, and more!
Concepts to teach during this age:
*remember to approach these as the child is ready to learn them. You wouldn’t begin teaching your child to write down your phone number before they can even recognize their numbers.
- Letter Recognition (uppercase and lowercase)
- Letter Sound Recognition (short vowel sounds and hard c+g sound)
- Counting 1-10 or higher
- Basic Shapes
- Number Recognition 1-10
- Writing Numbers 1-10
- Name Recognition
- Writing their Name
- Verbalizing their Name
- Scissor Skills
- Sorting Objects (by size, color, shape, etc.)
- Home Address
- Parent’s Phone Number
- Weather and Seasons
- Days of the Week
- Months of the year
- Comparative words (big/small, tall/short, hot/cold, etc.)
- Prepositions (above, under, in, out, behind, etc.)
- Gross and Fine motor skills
- Other: Following multistep (2-3) directions, taking turns, using manners, etc.
5+ years
Once your child is ready for Kindergarten material it may be time to begin truly “homeschooling”. Many children are ready to start this around age 5 while others may benefit from waiting until around age 6 or 7.
From this point forward I personally like to use a pre-made curriculum. Especially since having multiple children to homeschool, I don’t see having the time or energy to make my own curriculum. Of course there are more options to homeschooling besides using a curriculum so be sure do your research to find what homeschool method will suit you and your family best.
Here is a little guide on how to get started homeschooling.
Here is a look at our curriculum picks for 2023-2024 (3rd, 1st, pre-k and toddler). *I do use a couple curriculums loosely for pre-k but they are by no means our main source of learning for that age.
What Age to Start Homeschooling
I hope I’ve answered some questions for my readers. Also, I hope I’ve encouraged you to start homeschooling whenever feels right to you and your child! Good luck on your homeschooling journey!
Join our brand new Facebook group!
Help build and become part of a community of homeschoolers where you can share resources, ideas, and advice!
Other articles you might be interested in:
Ways to Socialize Your Homeschooler
Favorite Learning Manipulatives for ages 2-5
Homeschooling Myths and Misconceptions
Montessori Toys and Manipulatives
Pros and Cons of Homeschooling
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