Many childcare providers offer a preschool learning program for their daycare children. Parents love it when their children enter school already familiar with some letters and numbers. A child who enters school knowing how to print his/her own name has been set up for success.
Offering an academic program in your home daycare is a wonderful service to provide but it can also be exhausting to create and difficult to deliver. Many home daycare providers have multiple aged children and most have babies and toddlers that keep them busy all day long. It can be challenging to manage toddlers while also teaching early reading and math.
Some daycare providers care for school age children from when school ends to dinner time. If those children have sports activities after dinner then that leaves very little time for homework in the evening. A child who needs extra practice with spelling or multiplication tables might be too tired before bed to focus effectively on their work. A 30 minute time slot in the late afternoon while they are at the daycare provider’s house would be an ideal time to practice math facts. However, how does a daycare provider manage that tutoring time along with all the rest of the children?
One answer is a great online program called, “K5 Learning.”
K5 Learning asked me to review their program and after reading through their website I was intrigued to check it out. I’m a former teacher and have also spent years tutoring children (privately and through two popular company programs). I provide my own preschool learning program to my daycare children and I homeschool my own two children. I have always been fascinated with how children acquire knowledge!
I was very impressed with how the levels and activities were laid out in the program. Each one built on the last one and there wasn’t too much repetition (which tends to get boring when you are doing math drills). The instructions were straightforward and the whole set-up of the site was easy for kids to navigate through.
My children LOVED the program. My daughter asked to do her math each day using the K5 games because they were, “so fun.” The children’s enthusiasm for a program is key in choosing a good curriculum for our homeschool learning. The activities kept her interested, were not too difficult or too easy (children complete an initial assessment to level them) and she enjoyed the little fun games at the end of each section.
My only personal downfall of the program is the fact that it is online and I therefore consider it ‘screen time’. Yes, I realize that having the program online makes it accessible, fun to use, adaptable, and it fits our current society’s preferences for online learning.
However, I limit my children’s screen time because they are still young and I want their minds to grow organically during this important stage of their development. It’s simply a personal choice at this time for us.
On the plus side, I was amazed at how easy it was to homeschool and care for multiple children with the use of the computer. The children could use the program independently and it allowed me to focus on other tasks while they worked. There is a parent section you can go into and check through what activities your child has completed and how they scored. It is very well laid out and is built with the busy parent/caregiver in mind!
I also discovered a great new resource on the K5 learning site. They offer free printable worksheets for letters, numbers, shapes and colours. All kinds of great worksheets to compliment a daycare preschool program or as extra practice for school age children (grammar, cursive writing or math facts). K5 learning offers a free 14 day trail so you can try it out and see if you like it.
Thumbs Up K5 Learning! I love a program that has my child saying, “Please Mommy, can I practice my math subtraction facts on the computer today?”
I’m a former elementary school teacher, and homeschool mother of two, who runs a Waldorf inspired home childcare/preschool. 
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Hi I am a mom of a 3 year old and one year old I need help of where to start teaching them and making it fun. I want to do a schedule for them to learn. I know you home school your children, I would like to know what do you do
Hi Melissa,
Here is a blog post I wrote about our homeschooling methods,
https://www.howtorunahomedaycare.com/articles/the-balancing-act-running-a-home-daycare-and-homeschooling/
I would suggest the most important part of setting up a learning schedule is to establish a ‘circle time’ or ‘learning time’ (or whatever you want to call it) into your regular day. I find it works best for us mid-morning, after their long unstructured play time, then we tidy up, have circle and then go for snack. Circle time for your age group (1-3yrs) would include a short action song or poem, maybe a picture book or a short interactive game (hop on the coloured squares) or throw the numbered bean bags into the basket. If circle time is full of fun and not too long, then the children will look forward to this special time with Mommy. You can fit in a ton of learning during circle time but remember to not have high expectations at first, just have fun, no learning goals, let the kid’s attention and interest decide what they do with the stuff you introduce. 2 minute learning bursts that are fit into the natural events of the day will be extremely effective for early letter learning and early counting. You can pack in geography, history, science, literacy, music, etc. just by slowing down the day and taking 2 minutes here and there to explain and answer their questions. I’m sure your 3 year old has questions! Follow their interests and the learning opportunities will come up constantly. Email me directly if you would like more info! Good luck. Jana
Thank u so much I really really appreciate your help