Hi Everyone - I think I have narrowed down our curriculum for next year. I was wondering if I could get some feedback on it from all you veterans! Since this is our first year, I am concerned about missing something or overdoing a subject (English!). I have three DDs - age 8, grade 3; age 7, grade 2; and age 4, grade KG (will be 5 in July). DD, age 8, grade 3 Rod and Staff English, gr 3 Horizons Math, level 2 and 3 Handwriting Without Tears, cursive Abeka Health Wordly Wise, 3 Sequential Spelling, bk 1 DD, age 7, grade 2 Rod and Staff English, gr 2 Horizons Math, level 1 and 2 Handwriting Without Tears, gr 2 Abeka Health Wordly Wise, 2 Seq. Spelling, bk 2 DD, age 4, grade KG Horizons Math K Handwriting Without Tears Explode the Code- Ready, Set, Go Various Abeka workbooks (crafts, phonics) All together: Mystery of History, corresponding read-alouds Awana Apologia - Astronomy/Botany Five in a Row Gym - baseball, taekwon do, etc Music- possible lessons in piano/drum/or guitar Art - various crafts/ Drawing with Children by Mona Brooks Also - how often should I do handwriting, wordly wise, spelling?? how often do you do science and history at these grades? Thanks!!!! ~Jessica
This looks good, but remember, you don't have to be a school at home! Young kids need time to play and use their imaginations. So don't push the bookwork too much, especially with your 4yo! They have soooooo many years of schooling ahead of them. You may want to take it light for your 4yo, and let her be a kid a little longer!
I have already started hsing my 1st grader and some days I feel like I am not doing enough with her b/c I let her play - she has such a great imagination. But I worry (and my husband does too) about her getting behind. So thanks for the reminder that kids should play!! For my K - she will be 5 in July, so I am trying to keep her on track for KG. The Abeka wkbks are just b/c she likes doing them - the craft activities and coloring. I am mostly concerned about the older girls - I am wondering if the R&S English, Wordly Wise, and Seq Spelling are going to be redundant. But I am thinking about breaking them up - spelling one week/ vocab the next? Thanks! ~j
I think breaking them up sounds good! And if they get overwhelmed with it, just back off it for awhile, and continue back in later. I wanted to mention something about R&S Grammar. It's GREAT, you made a WONDERFUL choice there!!! What I tell people that haven't used it before is this: They are advanced, so if your child starts struggling with their Grammar, and seem frustrated, DON'T give up on R&S! It's too good of a program! Just go back a level. They cover the same ideas, just expand them each year. And for your peace of mind, there are a LOT of people (including me) who have children in the R&S Grammar books one or more levels behind their grade level! LOTS of people that have struggled to find a good program, so their kids don't have a strong background, do this! Now, your kids are starting young, so it may be just fine, but just thought I'd throw that in so you know. We didn't start R&S until last year--my kids were in 5th and 8th then. They're doing GREAT with the levels they are using though! Please try not to worry about young kids wanting to use their imagination, and maybe not doing a big load of schoolwork! HONESTLY, because they are at home while schooling, they get one-on-one attention that ps kids do not get. They get positive interaction, and they have a teacher or two (if dh helps) that love them more than any other kid. You just can't get that in ps. So kids that are homeschooled, especially starting at young ages, tend to learn quicker and better! So you don't need long school days! PS days are that long because it's a large number of kids in one classroom, so they have to allow time for getting in line umpteen times a day, waiting for everyone to be quiet, bathroom breaks, etc. That all takes a long time, and really, the amount of time they sit and do schoolwork is less than the time they spend in lines and waiting for everyone to be quiet and ready to do the next thing! Just some things to "chew on" as you get going! By the way, WELCOME!
Hey Jess, Looks good. I haven't used Sequential spelling but just printed off the sample from Sonlight yesterday to see if it might be a better fit for one of my kiddos (I'm thinkin' you got the books switched on your list just in case you're printing if for your records...not because I enjoy "editing" posts :lol We do Wordly Wise about twice per month (over a day or two.) The 2nd grade book has about 15 Lessons (so if you alternate every other week or two, you can get one book done per school year). The older kids have more. I can't remember how many my 4th grader had...I'm thinking 20 lessons. I have the TE for ETC Ready, Set, Go if you need it. Holler. Wish I'd have known and I'd sent it with the Horizons K (as a freebie). My K'er spends probably 30-45 (or less) on the 3 R's and other extras are hit or miss. He plays alot and does his computer time. He'll have more "bookwork" next year but still in spurts....he's too wiggly to sit and do more than a bit at a time. Rhonda
I will give a suggestion on spelling. I give the child the words the first day. They correct mispelled words and write these a couple times, sounding them out as they go. They next day Alpha Omega has writing activities to go with the words...understanding them in sentences, word searches, etc. The third day we do Jumpstart Spelling with the words and the fourth day is the test. The test is retaken on Friday if they did not get a 100.
Looks fantastic here! My oldest just completed 3rd grade, and I have one that will be 5 this month and another who will be 4 in August. Your schedule looks almost exactly like ours. About the language arts: First, I whole heartedly agree with what Deena said about R&S! Second, I don't know much about the spelling program and if the vocab would be redundant with it, but we're also using two separate programs for those and none/neither is repetitive of R&S material. I think you're probably fine there, and I agree about breaking them up and staggering.... I did find with R&S that if you 'break it up' too much, it will take entirely too long to finish the book! There are 125 lessons, plus 2 reviews and a test for each of 5 units. This allows for about 6 weeks per unit - IF you do it EVERY DAY at the pace of a lesson a day - and 5 units would put you at 30 weeks of schooling. Personally, since my son is a grammar whiz, we're doing the review lessons first and not bothering to cover any lessons in which he already knows the material. We skip about 3/4 of the material this way, at least for now. To anyone who couldn't or didn't feel comfortable doing it that way, I'd suggest doing it every day, or at least 4 days per week. I'd sprinkle in spelling 2 or 3 days a week, and then take an extra week between each unit for vocab... or some schedule similar to that. Our schedule will include the R&S 3 days per week, the vocab studies the other 2 days per week, and spelling will likely be a short lesson EVERY day. Or some such conglomeration of that schedule. Anyway. It all looks fantastic! Thanks for posting it, and welcome to the Spot!
OH, and with my 4th grader, we do history 4 days per week (ala the recommended MOH schedule... only not exactly LOL), science 3 days per week, and handwriting specific practice 2 days per week plus a daily journal. With my youngers, we do science 3 days per week (because they're interested in it), history twice... maybe (if I can get them interested in the project, and this might change when we add HOD soon), and handwriting... maybe 3 times a week but only in very, very short spurts like a single word or a letter 5 times within the context of something else going on. Mine are boys and I'm not going to push the handwriting issue right now.
We always alternated the Science and History days in the early years. I put them in the same time slot on my written schedule ( yes I actually followed it then too!) And Spelling - ours has a daily thing, 4 days of work and one is test day.
Man, you guys make me feel like a lazy lady... I have just finished 1st grade...We used Explode the Code. But does that count as spelling? He's reading Chapter books, so I'm not worried. I definately reccommend 100 top picks by Cathy Duffy...It has had some great recommendations--based on both your teaching style and their learning style... More over, it is important to remember that workbooks and worksheets are what they use in school because the teachers don't have the time to teach one on one. It is merely a fast way to teach the masses. But filling in the blanks doesn't teach problem solving, research, or encourage curiosity. It is fast food for the brain. So don't beat yourself up if you don't finish it all everyday. I promise they are learning more getting the chance to ask you questions and discover for themselves the "Why?" Good luck in your first year! And enjoy the ride! Stacie
You know, at the end of each lesson, the child has to spell the words from that lesson, so I think it certainly could count. I have done spelling with my 1st grader, but if we are having a short week, I leave it out.
