In order for me to get school done, I need to have a strict and/or structured schedule. I can be flexible with that schedule, but I still need one. I know that a lot of you just say at this age read, read, read, and read some more and play, but for different reasons, that I can’t explain, we have to have more than this. So, if there is anyone else this way can you tell me what curriculum you use for your Kindergartener/1st grade?
I started with an Abeka complete kit, but it didn't work for us. It might work for you, I don't know. I went in several directions last year. We ended up doing ETC for phonics (a lesson or two a day starting with book 3 to finish the series by xmas), Early Reading Comprehension from Varied Subject Matter books A & B and Spectrum Reading book 2 (for comprehension... 2nd semester only). Math was several different things because I couldn't find anything I liked until this year. We're doing Miquon now, usually a page a day, but it depends on what the topic is. Handwriting is/was Handwriting w/o Tears... a page or two per day. Science is/was Apologia, one book per semester, so about a lesson per week. Social Studies was Abeka last year, but we've switched to Mystery of History this year. We're just doing an overview at this level, and sometimes we'll do the youngest activity listed. Sometimes we don't. We usually end up doing 3 stories per week with history. Health is/was Abeka. I like it, but it's very simple, so we do it during the summer. I don't know... I'm like you. I need a little structure or else I'll pull my hair out. Last year for K/1st, we did appx 30-60 minutes per day. I kept everything fun and simple, but I needed a schedule for my own sanity. I needed to know that ___ pages needed to be done to finish ____ by a certain date. Know what I mean?
Well, I'm still a newbie, so you can take what I say with a grain of salt My dd is in first, but learned nothing really in ps last year. What I did was take the scope and sequence from World book, and broke that down into months. I also have the 'What your first grader should know' book, which I read stories from and occasionally use for mini-lectures (dd is auditory so the more talking and discussing we do, the better). I also bought a bunch of cheapy workbooks at Wally World, and we use a specific step-by-step phonics program. Because I know what she'll be learning every month, I break that up into weeks. I do 4 weeks schedules at a time. I don't get very specific on the schedule, Just enough to know what we will be covering. I'd thought about doing further ahead than that, but this way I have more flexibility in case we don't get to something, or she needs more time on a concept. I also print a lot of stuff off the internet- games, worksheets if we need them, 'lectures' if we need them, fun stuff she can do while I'm reading outloud. It sounds confusing, but because I have the weekly schedule (on a sheet), I can get everything together on Sunday night, and in the 'daily folder' for the week ahead. And I NEED that sort of orgamization- with me, I have to fight not to bog dd down with too much info (I have a head full of jeopardy questions :roll: ), so the schedule helps me not to go way too indepth, and yet we have plenty of time to cover what she actually needs to know. It isn't perfect- but dd is learning at a good clip and the schedule is keeping me in check.
Thanks for the reply Meghan. I have to have someone else plan it out for me more than that. I tried your way, this year, by gathering up my own stuff, getting stuff off the internet, etc. and then making a plan. But I never could get it all put together and it started to stress me out and then go by the way side. If that makes any sense.
I use the Charlotte Mason method. The link for first grade is almost exactly what I did for first grade. Here is a first grade book list http://www.charlottemasonhelp.com/2009/07/year-1-program-and-books.html and the schedule to go with it http://www.charlottemasonhelp.com/2009/07/year-1-schedule.html Kindergarten list http://www.charlottemasonhelp.com/2009/07/kindergarten.html and K schedule to go with it http://www.charlottemasonhelp.com/2009/07/kindergarten-program.html
What kind of activities does your child enjoy? I like making up my own things for some subjects, but I do have a schedule for each subject. I just listed everything I planned to do chronologically at the beginning of the school year and we check it off as we go. I started homeschooling with Sonlight and really enjoyed it. It was a bit too rigid of a schedule for me though. I liked more flexibility, but it can be adapted to suit your needs. Everything is planned out for you though.
It makes complete sense As I said, I struggle not to give out WAY more info than my dd is ready for (and probably needs) so I understand. We all have to compensate for our own.. umm.. personalities too!
I need the structure and I need a curriculum that is all set up for me. I looked for a curriculum that says.. Do this... then do this.. and then do that... My 5 yr old is doing 1st grade work. She was very insistant that she wanted to "do school" and have workbooks like her older sister. After trial and error I went with CLE 1st grade Math (thanks to some smart moms on this board!) CLE Social Studies and CLE Science, we love it. The math is excellent! The CLE is set up in daily lessons. It has a teachers guide that walks you through each lesson. My daughter has no problems getting through one lesson per subject each day. Just a heads up, the Social Studies and Science depict traditional male/female roles so some working moms don't like it. I also use Explode the Code workbooks and some Lifepacs for LA and Bible. I'm not really lovin' the Lifepacs, but we have them so we are using them. We won't use them again next year though. My daughter really loves workbooks and worksheets. I was going through a ton of expensive ink in my printer last year, so this year I decided that going with a curriculum would be less expensive in the long run. For next year I have bought the CLE LA and Learning to Read as well as the other subjects we currently use. We spend maybe 1.5 hrs on all of her work and she still asks for more. ETA: I also have A Reason for Handwriting and she enjoys it too. Very short daily lessons that take about 5-7 minutes to complete.
I am using Abeka with my kindergartner (started kindy 2 weeks ago b/c she was ready and wasn't before that). I am doing the phonics and math workbooks as well as the handwriting sheets (manuscript). I am using the Handbook for Reading (Abeka) right now to teach her to read along with the Bob books. When she is ready we'll do the Abeka kindy readers. So, our day looks like this (basically): Breakfast Watch a little Super Why or something Sit down and read with me (her reading) Do 2 phonics sheets, 2 math sheets and a handwriting sheet while I work with her brother (2nd grade) Color, cut, create, tape, etc--but she is a big artsy craftsy girl so I just leave out the stuff all the time and she makes it up on her own. If she wasn't I'd give her arts and crafts activities to do. Cutting, coloring, tracing, etc. We usually go have lunch with my husband. She naps almost every day at 2pm for about an hour (she is 5 1/2) In the afternoon she and her brother play together, have playdates or have some kind of lessons. I read aloud to both of them at bedtime. I hope that helps. Carla
Ok, that's it, that is so me and what I need. I am looking into CLE and like what I see and hear about it, but are there curriculums out there that do this that might not be so many worksheets. I would love for my son to like worksheets, because I do, but I don't think he is going to.
I used Bob Jones K5 when my kids were little; they also have K4 curriculum. Basically, it had a math workbook and then 2 language arts books [1 strictly phonics and 1 with phonics and social studies/science types of things]. We did our studies in the morning and the kids could play a bit on starfall.com in the afternoon. The curriculum also had craft/project ideas, so we'd do stuff like that in the afternoons, too. I tried to use some stuff from websites that had little exercises to teach using scissors, tracing letters, etc. That helped keep mine occupied. And, honestly, that was the big thing for us. My kids --- my son, mainly --- had a LOT of energy and needed to be focused or chaos ensued. All of us were happier with structured activities than we were without.
Mom24boys, you may want to start with the ABC Readiness Series. It includes a book for each letter A through H, including B Bible Stories to Read and Bible Stories to Color. With this one, you can read a story aloud one day and introduce a Bible verse, and discuss using the comprehension questions, then the next day you can reread the story if you like or review it orally, review the verse, and color a picture about the story. If you do about two stories each week, it will last the year. The other books A-H are about shapes, letters, numbers, color-cut-paste, prehandwriting and handwriting, matching, sorting, patterns and sequences, and all that preK/Kindy stuff. You can do one or two (or whatever number you choose) per day (the instructions for the teacher are at the bottom of the page), at the same time as doing the Bible story two or so a week. I have done these (tearing out the one or two pages I wanted to do) alongside CLE's Learning to Read for Kindy and it worked out just great! Sometimes I have broken up the Learning to Read lessons into half in the morning and half in the afternoon, or just half a lesson a day, and other times we did a lesson and a half in the morning, depending on how the child was responding that day - it IS set up as a lesson a day, but it is easy to be flexible - just pick up where you left off. The Learning to Read lessons are very well scripted, telling you just what to say and do. The TM is written for a CLE church-school, but it is very adaptible to use with one child - and it works just fine to use "alone" and not begin the LA and Math and the rest of the program according to the schedule you'll find in the front of the TM.
makes total sense to me! I find some people LOVE having things scheduled out, and then others don't. I'm a don't! I have to be in control! lOL The ones I know that have true schedule, teacher guide type thing are Abeka, Sonlight, My Father's World and I think Winter's Promise? Others seem to have by a subject - like Lifepacs - you can do it at your own pace but you could say "Do 3 pages today" or whatever in each subject. So you're SORT of in control, AND you control what you supplement with, if you decdie to supplement. We're using MFW Exploring Countries and Cultures this year, and I love it. Well. I love the content, but I'm not thrilled with the schedule, so I've had to redo the schedule for my own tastes! LOL i'm thinking of going back to my own thing next year. Hope you find what works for you!
That's funny, because I like being in control too, but a scheduled curriculum helps me feel in control. Thanks to everyone for your input. Keep it coming, please.
For 1st grade we used CLE (christian light education) it's a great program especially for first grade. For us the lessons were a perfect fit and it rarely took more than 20min each subject. I have most of the 1st grade lightunits and Teachers guides if you are interested. We ended up skipping most of the 1st grade so they are unused except for a couple.
Oh, I might like that, if you can give me a chance to look into it, I could let you know. Do you know what we are talking about as far as price? I am getting excited now. Thanks.
I have the TM's(2 of them Math and LA) for $9 and the lightunits(Math and LA) I can sell for 2.50 brand new unless it was written in( I erased the few that had markings and you can hardly tell it was even written in) the used ones for a dollar. I am not at home now but I have to go and see which LU's I have available since we went through a couple trying to find out where to place her. I'll get back to you with an exact list of what I have. I kind of just filed it all away since we weren't using them.
Here's what our 1st grader is doing. We do not do it all everyday of course, but its what we have to choose from to do for the year : Headsprout (3-5 lessons per week) Reading games Read aloud and discussion (talk about new words, science or geography links) Copywork (3-5 times a week, taken from Draw*Write*Now) Drawing lesson (same as above) Bible Story and Daily Scripture, character developement (discussion) Math (Horizons from AOP) (3 times a week) Math games Math worksheet, 2 times a week (printed from the internet, like a color by numbers addition or subtraction or maybe a timed drill be- cause she likes to do what her older sibs are doing) Science (Noeo Science, Loosely based because its a little above her) Books from the library about animals, weather or other science subject Experiments Social Studies (Head of the Class topics take about 10 min to discuss and watch video) Spanish (practice and introduce a new word, also Head of the Class, takes about 5 min) Music (Head of the Class, introduces instruments, then we hit You Tube to see someone playing the instrument and hearing what it sounds like) Art (an art instruction book from the library maybe once a week. She starts an art class at the gallery in town next week, though) I have these all available and just kinda play it by ear to see what she's up to. I only have the goals of reading/Headsprout and Math to do as a minimum daily and usually get those done.
I want to add, if you do buy CLE used, make sure you get the Sunrise edition. This is the newer, improved version.
I think Sonlight is great. It has structure. It's academically rich without being high pressured. While the entire package is pricey, if you have a library nearby, you can simplly purchase the guide and the math and then just borrow all the literature from the library. My Father's World is also good. Lots of reading, not a lot of pressure, but a checklist to give you a visual of just how well you really are doing.
