I am stumped on what to use for science, history, geography, and such. Could you please share what you are using, going to use, or used?
For kindergarten/first grade science I usually do little nature units I make up myself from coloring books, library books, internet resources, etc. Things like birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, insects and spiders, fish and sea creatures. For social studies I usually do things like Helpers (family and friends), Helpers (community, and jobs), things about our state, maybe holidays, stuff like that. Obviously, if we do this for K, I do different things for 1st. OR sometimes in the second half of the 1st year I use Christian Light workbooks. In first grade they talk about colors and shapes, pets, God's World, the earth and energy, and music. For social studies they talk about communication, feelings, North America, school and community, and "the world".
I use Sonlight Core 1 for history, geography, reading, language arts, Bible. I also use Sonlight Science 1. I love Sonlight for first grade and dd is enjoying it alot too. We also use Horizons for Math and Phonics and then Handwritting for a Reason for our handwritting. I also got a book on critical thinking exercises which dd does the occassional couple of sheets out of and a Spanish book from Sam's Club where we learn some of the basics of Spanish from.
I'm still trying to figure it out! LOL! Right now, I'm leaning towards Story of the World for History/Geograpy and Apologia Astronomy for Science. We will probably keep moving on in Saxon- we like it and it's working with tweaking from me. I'm thinking First Language Lessons for grammar/writing with journal writing thrown in. For reading, we are going to read, read, read, and read some more. For Bible we have Awanas and then daily Bible reading. This is just tentative and I'm still looking at some other things so it could change!
We arent really doing history and science formally. I did get a Health and Hygeine book and we do that hit or miss. We also like to do unit studies that incorporate science. We are doing Madeline right now and have talked about the appendix. I wouldn't worry about doing too much formal stuff with history and science right now. For our stuff we use Abeka Math(for now) 100 Easy lessons-reading Purposeful Design- Spelling ETC-Phonics
Last year, my first grader used: Hooked on Phonics (finished at Christmas of that year) and continued in Explode the Code....plus reading all the Magic Treehouse books (his choice) Horizons Math 1 Spectrum Lang Arts 1 (Mercer Mayer edition...which was so cute) Apologia Zoology 2 Swimming Creatures (did this with his sisters and used the free notebooking pages....the lower elementary ones) Abeka History Grade 1 and Grade 2 (he loved to read them and they are short) A Child's Geography Vol 1 (with his sisters) A Reason for Handwriting (level A) This year for 2nd, he's doing Sonlight Core 1+2 with his 9 yr old sister. He could have done it last year but she was using something else that she loved (Abeka History 3) so I waited and opted for the 1+2 this year....which is working out great for them to do together.
For 1st grade, we just make up as we go. We have lots of books and read them. I like doing hands on crafts and such. They like it. We have been listening to books on tape in the car...like Story of the World.
I used www.learningpage.com (free subscription, you just sign up and get access to the member area). They have 6 units for Science. We'd use that as a starting point, and usually used the extra library books. They have free workbooks for each grade level, too. That was fun. We took 3 or 4 weeks on each unit....I expanded with whatever I could find. Craft kits, experiments, freebie stuff from online.
It has been a while since Ems was in 1st but she used A Beka. If I had it to do all over again, I would mix and match. Still, it worked for her.
We just use Cub Scouting for those "extra" sorts of things, and focus on the basics for 1st grade. MUS Alpha OPGTR, ETC, phonics readers FLL Bible story book (they listen and color while I read aloud) Novel (they listen while I read, then narrate and/or projects to go along) A lot of our science revolves around animals, since that's what they're into. My younger son is mostly still doing K, and that book has a ton of great "extra" resources in it, based on the letter of the week. A to Z Animals by Monday Morning Books has been fantastic for us, and now that I know, I will never buy another Kindergarten program.
for science we really liked our Life Pak s science they took you through the basics and the kids learned from that first year to love sceince!
I use THe story of the World for History Science workbooks and Time4learning.com for science Handwriting without Tears for penmanship First Language Lessons for the Well Trained mind for LA BOB Book and Abeka Books for Phonic/reading Spelling-a list of Dolche sight words....she gets 5 spelling words a week gymnastics for PE Piano lessons for Fine Arts Math is a collection of 2nd grade math workbooks as well as time4learning.com >>>> am i forgeting anything
We did Bob Jones for language, science, history, and Bible. We did Saxon for math [my daughter ended up doing first grade math a second time using Bob Jones the second go-round]. I think we used Handwriting without Tears for handwriting. We used time4learning.com as a supplement to everything. Once we got to 2nd grade, we then went very eclectic as I felt we had a better grasp at that point of the kids' learning styles, and I had a better sense of what direction I wanted them to go in terms of science, history, literature, etc.
When my dd was in 1st, Science & Social Studies (History, Geography, & Cultural studies) was mostly hands-on projects. We studied Ancient Civilizations, Maps & Globes, dinos, ice age, etc. I'm not really sure of all the topics we covered that year. We built pyramids, made mummies, dug up dinos, did cave drawings, etc. We borrowed a lot of books, DVDs, and software from the library. For Music, she learned about Folk Music & Patriotic Music, instrument families, classical music, and listened to a variety of music. For Art, I started introducing her to different types of Arts & Crafts and various mediums. For ds, next year, I'll be doing things slightly different. Art & Music will be similar to what we did for dd. He's really into Ancient Civilizations, so we'll be studying Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. I'm ordering hands-on kits for those topics. We'll also borrow books, DVDs, & software from the library. Plus, I have magazine issues, from Learning Through History, for those civilizations. We'll also start his timeline. For Science, I'm basing it all on The Magic School Bus. We have a lot of the books. I'm ordering kits & Literature/Science units to go with the books (I found them at RR). We have some episodes on DVD and I've found many other episodes online. So, 1st-3rd grade Science will be Magic School Bus based. We'll use other books, DVDs, and software related to the concepts, as well, but the main part will be MSB. My kids are really hands-on. So, especially in lower grades, I include as many projects & activities as I can. My kids would get bored very quickly if their Science & Social Studies was mainly (or only) textbooks & workbooks. For Language Arts, we'll continue to focus on reading & handwriting. I won't make him start Grammar & Writing until 2nd grade. We'll continue using Mastering Mathematics for Math. We also play a lot games (computer, board, card, etc.) for practice & review. We also use various materials I've picked up over the years, (like the Activity pages & units from SchoolExpress.com and other pages from similar sites) and materials I make myself. Can you tell we're a bit eclectic?
