Home is where reading love begins
You read to your children at bedtime. You answer their endless questions. You notice what lights them up.
That connection — that warmth and trust — is exactly the foundation great readers are built on. So when they ask for the same book, read it again and again until they know it by heart.
Those well-loved words build fluency with language, and they grow into a young writer’s voice. Nellie Edge's approach to kindergarten homeschooling was made for homes like yours.
It has helped children in classrooms across the country for more than thirty years. It was always designed to go home with families. You don’t need a teaching degree. The Masterclass seminar videos will show you what to do, in what order, and why it works.
Start with songs, signs, and stories
Sing together every day. Learn to fingerspell the alphabet side by side. Practice handwriting with your child's name, then “I love you.” Draw pictures together, staple the pages into Little Books, and listen as your child reads them aloud to grandma.
Then let them play
Some of the best literacy learning happens away from the table. Children build language, focus, and confidence when they play outdoors, cook with you, and learn to help with real chores.
Measuring flour is math. Following a recipe is reading. Telling you about the beetle they found is the beginning of a story they'll write and illustrate.
Nellie Edge offers a developmentally appropriate, research-based homeschool literacy curriculum designed to meet young children right where they are: curious, creative, playful, and eager to learn.
Research backs this up. Stanford researchers found that children who had an extra year of early childhood before starting school showed much stronger attention and self-control years later. Play isn't a break from learning. It's how young children get ready for it.
Your voice. Your hands. Your kitchen table.
As a parent, you can slow down and use these homeschool kindergarten free resources for quality time, growing closer to your child as they discover the joy of writing and reading. A special 30 to 60 minutes of focused, joyful literacy each day is all you need.
The rest of the day is for climbing, digging, cooking, and wondering, and for collecting the adventures your child will write about tomorrow.
Your kitchen table is the best classroom in the world
I watch seminars with parents who are learning to homeschool and teachers who are new to early literacy. Your seminars are very important to me!”
- Elizabeth Lindsley, Bilingual Educator
A hands-on approach to learning at home
A dedicated time to spark joy
Meaningful learning takes time. Dedicate a space and time for your child to practice and write and illustrate and receive feedback. That way learning occurs throughout the day. Sing the word, sign it, write it. Repeat. Because it's meaningful, active learning, children ask for it — you won't have to chase them down.
No worry, no curriculum gaps
Writing-to-read Heart Words work alongside anything you're already doing. Whether you follow a structured program or a more relaxed approach, these songs and strategies enhance all early literacy learning — and make everything else click faster.
It doesn’t feel like school
Children are more likely to love writing and reading when it starts with a song, a laugh, and a hug. Nellie has spent a lifetime building lessons that feel like play — because for young children, playful and creative activities are how real learning happens.
Every child feels successful
Start with ABC Phonics and Fingerspelling guide. Teach good handwriting. Introduce the color-coded Heart Word sets that give each child a clear path at their own pace. Your fast learner races ahead. Your little one takes extra time. Both feel proud, both feel seen — and both feel motivated to keep learning!
Six things homeschool families love about Heart Words and the Nellie Edge program
1. Start with a free song on YouTube
Every Heart Word has its own catchy spelling song. Watch Nellie sing "L-o-v-e Spells Love" on YouTube for free — then try it with your family tonight. That's really all it takes to begin.
2. Signing makes it unforgettable
Each word has an American Sign Language (ASL) sign that children learn as a part of the song. Fingerspelling while singing fires up memory in a way that sitting still and staring never can.
3. Children write notes — real ones
The first Heart Word is “love” … the first sentence is "I love you." Children write it on a small piece of paper and go hide it for someone to find. That moment — when writing first feels real and meaningful — changes everything.
4. Your child draws and writes to make their own books
Once a few Heart Word sentences are learned, children start putting their words and drawings together into little books — about pets, adventures, families, dreams. Illustrating and reading them aloud is pure joy.
5. Works for every kind of learner
Singing and signing opens doors for children who learn differently — kids who struggle with sitting still, English language learners, or any child who needs to feel a word before they can read it.
6. Choose your space, set up props and lessons
You don't need a formal learning space or a long block of time. Thirty focused minutes at the kitchen table — or the couch, or the backyard — is enough. Give them quality time, they’ll build learning memories. Let them spend a big part of their day playing outside.
Even your three-year-old is learning — they just don’t know it yet
One of the most beautiful things Nellie has seen is a toddler sitting in on their older sibling’s lesson — clapping, singing along, waving their hands in the signs — soaking it all in.
That little one isn't "doing school." They're just happy to be part of something the big kids are doing. But when their turn comes, they already know the songs. They already know some of the words. They arrive at reading full of joy, and with a head start .
With writing-to-read Heart Words, your whole family learns together — older children become the teachers, younger ones become the eager students, and the kitchen table becomes the most exciting room in the house.
This was very helpful to help teach writing. I homeschool my granddaughter and this was a perfect resource with little prep time.”
— Tamara R., homeschool grandparent
FREE: ABC Phonics Family Reference Chart and Skills
Teach your child letters and sounds the fun way! Singing and signing are the easiest way for children to learn the alphabet. This simple chart shows you how. Each letter pairs with its fingerspelling handshape, so your child can see it, say it, and sign it. More than 500,000 families and teachers have already learned to fingerspell with this Sign2Me video and our chart.
Keep it at the kitchen table or on the fridge for quick daily practice. You’ll be learning right alongside your child, and that’s part of the fun. This chart is the foundation for all Nellie Edge handwriting and fingerspelling materials, so it’s the perfect place to start.
Once you’ve signed up by using the form, the ABC Phonics Skills and Fingerspelling chart shown, and other free guides, will be ready for you to download, print and use over and over.
You’ll also discover more recommended curriculum bundles available to buy on Teachers Pay Teachers, in the Nellie Edge Kindergarten store.
Sign up and you’ll get instant access to the Phonics Chart and everything in our free teaching library.
Your link will appear right here, and we’ll email it to you too, so you can come back anytime to watch or download.
START HERE: Watch and learn from three Masterclass seminar videos
Every strategy. Step by step. At your own pace.
Watch Nellie Edge teach in three free Masterclass seminars. Then download seven free guides and Nellie’s song folders to use at your kitchen table tomorrow. This proven system is everything you need to start kindergarten homeschooling with joy.
You can try it together at your kitchen table the very next day. Your early learners will love this multisensory, meaningful path to learning.
Each seminar includes a printable Power Guide, so you can take notes, review later, and keep the strategies at your fingertips at the kitchen table.
Explore Nellie Edge resources on Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT). Every lesson, guide and printable is ready for you!
Buy once and print as often as you like. Not sure where to begin? Nellie chose these bundles especially for homeschooling families. They're a joyful, simple place to start.
Free guides plus curriculum bundles on Teachers Pay Teachers
Take a closer look
Want to see what joyful learning really looks like? Visit the Heart Words, Handwriting, and Writing pages.
They’re full of photos of children at work, from their first sentences to the little books they write and illustrate themselves. Then get to know Nellie Edge. Her methods grew from decades of action-research alongside master kindergarten teachers, and they’re backed by brain research on how young children learn best. Every idea you'll find here has been tested with early learners.
FREE: Family Learning Calendars
Spark joyful kindergarten homeschooling all year long! These 12 monthly calendars are filled with simple daily ideas for singing, drawing, writing, and reading together. Take walks, cook, explore nature, and build a love of words as part of your everyday family life. Ready to print and easy to use.
The Family Learning Calendars are in our free teaching library. When you sign up you’ll get access to everything.
Family Guide to Early Literacy (K–1)
Families can keep writing and reading alive at home. These guides aren’t worksheets. They're joyful invitations to draw, write, and make little books together. Parents learn how to coach handwriting, build pencil grip, practice name writing, and give encouraging feedback, all in step with what is taught in kindergarten classrooms
A-Z Kindergarten Handwriting, Sentence Writing, & Drawing Curriculum BUNDLE
Handwriting that grows writers, not just neat letters. Children practice letters inside real words and sentences from week one, with fingerspelling, phonics, and guided drawing woven in. A complete Teacher's Guide and handwriting training show you every step, so you can start tomorrow.