Discover Summit Homeschool Academy!

     Congratulations on making an awesome decision to homeschool. At Summit, you’ll find a local community of families to encourage and celebrate with on this amazing homeschool journey. You and your child will be connected with friends so that relationships can grow beyond the classroom and playground.

     We often have families ask about how to prepare their child for our homeschool collaborative. We believe children only have one childhood, and that the primary form of learning Pre-K is creative play and lots of reading out loud. This alone will grow the imagination and spark curious questions. It is in this play and reading time that children begin to familiarize themselves with colors, begin counting "things" and memorize the order of 0-100. They may begin recognizing some letters in print and even begin associating sounds with those letters!

     Once that begins, it is the perfect place and time to begin Kindergarten...

     At Summit, Kindergarten has 1 classroom teacher and a structured environment of reading and math. The class size is small, with a maximum of 10 students. Their highly experienced teacher will lovingly plan activities and crafts to reinforce the lessons being taught in the classroom with them, and plan your year with a pacing guide for the lessons to be taught with you in your at-home classroom. Your student's Teacher is your Trail Guide! They can help you use the materials and even give you some tips and tricks on different ways to teach that may inspire your child's unique learning style. They will teach 2 days of Reading and Math, spending about 75 minutes on each subject, and you will teach the other 2 days of lessons at home in each subject. This makes it enjoyable for your child to learn in both a classroom environment part time, and in a 1-on-1 learning environment. This is the highest quality of learning that will equip them to operated in a group, while meeting each child where they uniquely and individually are.

     If your child has already mastered their letters and sounds in print, and if they understand the basic principles of grouping by 10 and number bonds, they may be ready to skip Kindergarten.

     To prepare for Kindergarten English, begin familiarizing yourself with the pedagogy of the reading curriculum and resources available to you as a homeschool family. We use Logic of English, which is Ortin-Gilligham based, and it assumes that a child doesn’t have a background in reading. You do not need to prepare your child formally to participate, but may be interested in taking their online Master Teaching course. It's an online self-paced training for $99. Or, you can wait for our Training at the beginning of your child's first year. We will teach you how to use the Teachers Guide, how to assess your child, how the Student Guide, Readers, flashcards and game cards all work together, etc. It will be as thorough and practical as a 3-hour training can be, but, it will not be as in-depth as the Master Teacher online course.

     If your child is ready to begin to learn how to read prior to enrolling at Summit, you can begin by teaching them Foundations A or B, the materials that will be taught in Kindergarten. If you don't know if you should begin with A or B, use this assessment as a Guide, or use this tool. Once Foundations B is completed successfully, your child will be ready to begin at Summit in 1st grade and learn Foundations C and D. 

   Another simple resource that can help your child be successful in learning to reading is "Leap Frog Academy. They have fun games and and videos. The Hands Down! best product is the simple video called Letter Factory. It's available on YouTube and is a really fun way to teach all of the letters and their sounds. Remember not to take learning too seriously for your newborn - 5 year old and to just find games or songs that your child enjoys; learning about numbers and how to read through play.

     To prepare for Kindergarten Math, you can begin to familiarize yourself with the math curriculum. We use Singapore Math - Dimensions. It uses a metacognitive approach that is both mastery-based and spiraling. This means that your child will learn what math is, how to do it, and also the conceptual understanding of why it works. This incredible feat all begins in Kindergarten to build a strong foundation. This is accomplished with both lessons, worksheets, activities and manipulatives (math toys). 

       Buy a set of ten frames, some linking cubes, number bond flashcards and have some using the online adaptive logic games. If you're feeling ambitious, you could even order level PK A and PK B to get a head start and join the party early. If your child has already completed level K math before they enroll, they may be equipped to begin in 1st grade!