I have two first graders this year ds 5 and dd6. Can you look over what I have and give any suggestions about what I need to add or change? Math- Saxon- daily (this was given to me, so I will use it and if I don't like it I will switch to MUS) Reading- Alphaphonics, ETC, Five in Row- Daily Draw-write-now- 2x a week FLL- How often should I do this since there is only 100 lessons? SOTW- I got the Vol. 1 given to me but I don't have the activity book. Do I need it for first grade or should I just use it as a read aloud? How often should I use it? Journal writing, nature walks-2x a week Science will be incorporated with FIAR and lots of read alouds, nature walk, etc. We are going to do a monthly composer study which will include books from the library and music about that composer. Bible will be daily and probably what I make up or if anyone has suggestions for an easy cheap curriculum for this age, suggest away! Can you think of anything I am missing? I want to make sure I cover everything, but also don't want to overwhelm the kids. I don't think any of this will take more than 2-3 hours a day with lots of breaks in between. Any help or suggestions are appreciated. TIA!
Sounds like a good plan. We just started first grade this week and we're using a lot of the same things. We do Saxon daily and so far I really like it. We use SOTW and I think you could probably get away without the activity book but I like to have all the suggested reading in one place, plus all the maps and coloring pages together in a book. I think it's worth the cost personally. We also use FLL and I use it 2-3 lessons a week. I alternate days with our spelling curriculum but sometimes the lessons are really short and we do 2. We've been spending about 3 hours a day on our curriculum and that includes the assigned and free reading that my daughter does on her own. I thought it might overwhelm her but sometimes I get to the end of our school work and think, "is that all?" I'm sure that won't last long. LOL! Good Luck! Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions about the curr. Amy
Looks great. I would agree FLL can be done 2-3 times a week. For Bible, try http://children.calvarychapel.com/site/curriculum.htm (free, except for printing, and you can use the "worksheet" just as a guide for discussion, and have your kids color the coloring book. FREE Also, you could adapt www.characterjournal.com and use a trait/verse each week and follow suggestions for additional study that's age appropriate. FREE again Also, if you want to BUY something there are some good resources at www.karynhenly.com She's got some great stuff. For language arts...you've got a lot of stuff there! Consider www.starfall.com for them too. FREE...games, downloading, etc. It's how my 2 oldest learned to read and I'm about to start with my 4 year old. Looks like you've got a great plan, though! Good luck!!!!
you look like you have a good plan, science and social studies could be two to three times a week, I also like the calvey chapel bible stuff. I also have another site that has free sunday school currilua, but it is great for bible lessons, just google "the apostolic faith church" I don't agree with all the say but they have lots of activities for there bible lessons, pictures , crafts, etc. just something else to look at. my kids also love the key for kids bible studies.
Sounds good... We are doing FLL daily, only because I want/need to get through the whole book this year. DS is technically in 2nd but we need to redo 1st grade LA because he missed a ton. Science - we are doing 2 days a week SOTW - we are doing 3 days a week Reading, Math and Spelling will be daily also We will be doing art projects 3-4 days per week with art history 1 day a week Bible will be two days a week Handwriting will be 3 days a week
Ds is 7, so he would have just finished 1st. My advice is to read, read, read. No matter what else you do read a ton. We did a lot of Magic Tree House, Magic Scloolbus and Little House books this past year, and it's amazing what he's learned! And he's an incredible reader himself, not a bad bonus!
I think your plan looks great. We are doing first grade now and the only thing I have not dealved into like I planned on is science. We are going to focus heavily on nature study and she loves birds. That is going to have to wait until fall though because it is and has been over 100 degrees here for weeks with high humidity. Not exactly the kind of temps we want to go play outside in.
I would do FLL two times a week. For SOTW, I got the audio cd's and played them in the car. I have the activity guides, but I found it too cumbersome to follow in a week by week fashion. So, I would pick various activities, as we had time, and do them. I wanted to keep history fun. It has paid off. We now love history here. And the way it was presented, my children seemed to have retained so much of it. We rarely did the activities. I got a maps skills book to teach map skills outside of the SOTW. I would put up a world map and from time to time, point out where various things were taking place..have the children find it on the map, that sort of thing. Keep it low stress and fun and it will really pay off in the end.
