I have my older three kids ready to go next month but can't for the life of me figure out what I want to do with my 1st grader. What has/will you 1st grader been doing. I'm thinking these subjects.... Reading/LA - no idea Spelling- most likely just find a list or two online and use spelling city and paper Writing - Thinking of journal work and bible verses Math - no idea thinking either Horizons or MUS Science - two days a week but no idea what History - two days a week but no idea what Art - not sure but once a week PE- playing outside, bowling, jump rope ect daily Thanks for the help.
My daughter is using CLE for math, Language Arts and Bible. My daughter also does Explode the Code for phonics. Horizons for Spelling and Penmanship. This year we are going to use R.E.A.L Science Odyssey for Science and for History we are studying the US States with unit studies.
My first grader is almost finished with his school year. I don't use curriculum for many subjects. Math - Singapore Phonics - Rod and Staff Spelling - Finished Evan Moore book and started Rod and Staff Writing - Not a curriculum, but writing to a pen pal has been great practice. Real Science 4 Kids is a great curriculum for that age.
CLE Language Arts combines spelling, handwriting, phonics, punctuation, grammar all in one and has been working GREAT with my 2 six year old boys. We use Rod and Staff for reading and reading comprehension. We also use MUS for math, now in Alpha, and they are liking it and doing well in it also. For history we are about to begin History for Little Pilgrims to be followed by History for Children. For science, we are about to begin God's Wonderful Works to be followed by ACSI's Purposeful Design and then to be followed by Christian Kids Explore (teaches physics, earth/space, chemistry, and biology on an elementary age level).
My #2 is half way through first grade. He is doing: Phonics - he is just finished "second grade" phonics. He reads expressively, which always surprises me, but gets lost if he doesn't keep his finger under the words...which of course, he resists. Reading - he is reading Harriet Taylor Treadwell's First Reader and McGuffey's First reader. Math - subtraction. He has "reverted" to counters, which I do not believe he needs, but he likes. Time - can read on the hour, half past, and quarter past, we're working on quarter to. Money - can tally pennies, nickels, and dimes in combinations. Spelling - slowly working our way through McGuffey Speller. Handwriting - even more slowly - he hates it but needs the practice. I have him do a little about 3-4 times a week. Music - he practices simple chords on the guitar daily and plays songs on a lap harp (music aside, the guitar is helping develop fine motor skills and the lapharp has really helped with the left to right issue...and now he just likes it) Gymnastics -once a week. "Projects" Right now, he is constructing a town made of cardstock. He cuts out the pieces, assembles, and glues. These are fairly complex, so each piece really is a week long project for him. Bible. We listen to Bible readings daily together (often during breakfast). History. We listen to about a chapter of history together (usually during lunch) and/or mark a map or coloring page. My son generally spends this time acting lie he's not paying attention so he can ask me a pointed question later to catch me off guard.
My first grader (who is beyond excited to be a first grader this year! LOL ) is going to be doing: First Language Lessons for L/A A Reason for Handwriting A CLP Nature Readers for Science Horizon's 1st Grade Math (well, she'll be finishing 1st & starting 2nd when she finishes, she got through almost the first half of it in Kinder). Ancient Civilizations & the Bible Elementary Guide (her siblings are using the older book, so I'm going to fit her in as much as possible). I also have plans to do some standard social studies kind of things with her, community helpers, etc.
My 1st grader is still learning to read. We also school year round, so our schedule is a little off the norm. -LA: Finishing up HOP kindergarten, then moving on to Leap Frog Phonics. -Handwriting Without Tears. -Math: Our province uses a mental math curriculum (Math Makes Sense). They don't have a textbook for it until 3rd grade, and I haven't found a published curriculum that uses it, so I'm venturing into the unknown and making it up as I go My SIL is the math coordinator for the district, so she's helped me a lot. I used it with my 9yo last year, and I'm seriously amazed at how much more quickly he picks up math concepts using this type of math, as opposed to the old borrowing/carrying type of math we were doing before. We'll be doing lots of hands on work, manipulatives, dot cards, five- and ten-frames. Focusing on adding and subtracting to 10, and number knowledge to 100. -Science: Together with my 4th grader. Finishing up Apologia Astrology then moving on to Apologia Botony. -History: Together with my 4th grader. Mystery of History Vol.1 -Social Studies: Together with my 4th grader. Provincial Unit Studies/Lapbooks. -Music: Together with my 4th grader. Stories of the Great Composers. Possibly starting piano lessons if we can fit it in the budget.
My DS mentioned yesterday the possibility (however remote! because they live an hour away) of DGS coming to our school to do first grade this year. (I'm not holding my breath, but just hoping...) I'm also talking with another dad from our church who has one same age as DGS who is starting K a year later than most, about the possibility of him starting with us too (this kid and DGS are "best buds" when DGS is here visiting). IF any of this comes to pass (praying!!!), I'll start them both on CLE first grade stuff. Since CLE doesn't "believe in" Kindy, their first grade starts at kindy and finishes at ending-first-grade. I'm not convinced that DGS learned a whole lot in public kindy last year, and the other kid hasn't done kindy yet, so I think it would work for either or both. We'd do Bible, Learning to Read followed by Reading 1 and LA 1, and Math 1 -- science and social studies I'll plan to do little "unit studies" with library books and stuff off the internet and stuff I've collected through the years. I'll probably also include some of the ABC Readiness series for cutting, pasting, tracing and copying, matching, patterns, and so on, and maybe the first grade Art With A Purpose kit. We had DGS for a few months when he was 4-turning-5, and we taught him how to write his first, middle, and last names with decent penmanship without copying or tracing, quite a few of the other letters of the alphabet and their sounds, colors and shapes, counting to 20 and adding to 10, how to color (mostly) smoothly and within the lines and appropriate colors (no purple and green faces), the Pledge of Allegiance, and I can't even remember what now. And he loved books and being read to. After doing public kindy last year, he can't remember how to write his whole name (only a 3-letter nickname) and what he does write is mostly illegible, he doesn't color well, only counts to 20, and although he's supposed to finish kindy reading he can't/won't read any sight words I know they had. He hasn't wanted to be read to on visits in months, and is just now starting to ask us to read again. Not only that, but he's told us (and presumably his parents) about being picked on by some first graders (knocked down and hit on the playground). He had a birthday party in April, and ONE girl from his class came... so much for "friends in school", eh? PRAYING they work this out so we can teach him!
We are new to homeschooling - we are in week 3 of our 1st year with a 3rd grader and 1st grader...here is what our 1st grader is doing: -Phonics - MCP Phonics -Spelling - Zaner-Bloser (a dear friend who teaches 1st had an extra copy) -Handwriting - Zaner-Bloser (DD has improved so much so far...the program in her K at school was too gentle and we have to play catch-up now) -Math - Singapore -Reading - McGraw-Hill/SRA decodables (did I mention how much I love my teacher friend, lol?!), BOB books, Step 1 books...we are working with reading issues, apraxia, and language issues, so still a bit behind most -PE - Gymnastics, play time, riding bikes, "recess" -Music - we may add in piano at some point, but not yet -Art - Usborne Art - each lesson reviews a famous piece of art, then has the children create their own in the same style -Science - REAL Science Life -Social Studies - Success with Maps (Scholastic) and my own curriculum comprised of DK/Smithsonian's Children's Encyclopedia of American History, History Pockets for Native Americans, tons of books, and even more field trips all around us, ranging from Valley Forge and Philadelphia to Bull Run and all around DC) -Religion - Seton for Young Catholics (if I can keep my eyes open long enough - I am going to supplement since it is well, dry) -Grammar - Growing with Grammar Lindina - sending prayers that everything works out with your sweet little DGS - what a disappointing year for the little fella!
Hi there- I have been gone for awhile so that's why the late response but I did want to throw in what I decided to do: Language Arts: McRuffy (I went with them because it includes reading, writing, spelling, grammar all in one- which I like) Math: McRuffy (I really wanted to go with Horizons but went with McRuffy since they sounded like the lessons were shorter and we can incorporate more games and hands on stuff w/o overwhelming her) Science: Noeo Science- Physics 1 with 3rd grade brother Social Studies: Sonlight Core B with brother as well PE: swimming and ballet lessons and lots of hikes and bike rides Art: Group lessons And don't want to think of anymore since this is my first year and don't want to overwhelm myself too much! Good luck, hope you found some great ideas!
3rd time doing 1st, and again a different way. I will be using MFW's 1st grade and make it work for her. She's my most difficult child and I picked it because I am using MFWs Creation to Greek with the older 2. I am using Math U See Alpha, First Language Lessons and Explode the Code with her. Last year was the same as above but with Exploring Countries and Cultures for my son and he used Teach Your Child To Read in a 100 easy lessons. My oldest did 1st grade Life Pacs
Also teaching 3rd and 1st this year. We're starting next week, and God willing, here is what I plan to do for 1st: *Singapore Math *Spelling power (he spells fairly well, loves to write, actually) *Writing Strands level 2 (this book is backordered, so I havent actually seen it yet, dont know if this level is appropriate) *People and Places for social studies...it incorporates a lot of US history *History I'm going to just do study units, with resources from library and internet, starting off with dinosaurs, and then we'll see *Building thinking skills (a workbook meant to build logical problem solving skills, that sort of thing) This is my list right now, science and art and music he will do in the Friday school he'll be going to. I didnt prepare any handwriting and reading, but he reads with me every night, and he's learnign how to use a dictionary, I want that to just be a natural part of his recreational reading, and handwriting, he does a lot of writing on his own, like I said, so I just correct that, and sometimes make him rewrite stuff he wrote Good luck, and hope this helped!
For first last year we did. We had a rough year with way too many misses for us, but by the end of the year we figured it out. Also a lot that we ended up with at the end of the year last year we are continuing with this year. Math- McRuffy (do love the program, but there is just not enough practice for my son) We did end up switching to Saxon 2 toward the end of the year. Love it! LA- McRuffy (we loved K so I went with first grade. My son hated it, it was a fight everyday. I ended up dropping it and we went with Explode the Code, reading books, Ordinary Parents Guide to teaching reading (more for me to know where to go next). At the end of the year we also added in Writing with Ease 1 and First Language Lessons 1. Both had a rocky start but are working so we will continue with them. Science - McRuffy - Another miss. It was fun I will give it that, but there was not enough 'meat' to the program for me. I was constantly adding more and more to it. Toward the end of the year we added in R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey- life. We love it. Awesome program. History- Story of the World w/ Activity guide. We started off with this, but then changed to History Odyssey which still uses SOTW, but not the activity guide. We are having a blast with this also. Art - we just did a child led type art last year. If he wanted to do something we did it. I do not stress too much on Spelling at this age. Now if you want something simple and free there is the Zaner-Bloser one.
* McRuffy Phonics (because it is all in one-phonics/spelling/etc) *Horizons Math *Geography/Map studies *Copywork *Meet the Masters Art *Science (UNDECIDED) Either lapbooking or McRuffy Science Since I have 3 kids at very different age levels, I'm afraid if I go with lapbooking, I will be too loosy-goosy with it, skip weeks, etc. I feel like I need more structure that a set curriculum would provide. I used to do more self-designed things with my first two when they were young, but now unless I have set curriculum, things don't get done like they should.
We are using MFW 1st grade curriculum for L.A., Bible, Math and Science (Usborne). Also I'm adding in Now I'm Reading! level 1 and 2 readers b/c my DS loves them. For History we are doing History for Little Pilgrims and History Stories for Children. If we manage to squeeze in real art we will do Mona Brook's Drawing With Children.
