Guest Candeepal Posted January 22, 2008 Share Posted January 22, 2008 I am currently using A Beka with my 4 year old son. We are working on K5. I just read most of the Well Trained Mind and loved it. The thing is I am thinking about putting him in 1st grade in Sept. He is an advanced reader. I was wondering if anyone can recommend what I should do for next year. Is the history program suitable for the attention span of a younger child or should I wait until he is 6? If I do that I would like to start him on the reading level and maybe wait to do the history until he is 6. Do the readers go along with the history books, I am getting the impression they do. If so could I still have him doing reading a grade ahead and history on grade level? I'm sorry I am pretty confused. He's such a smart little kid, but he's also much a typical active little boy. Also he doesn't care for handwriting, would that make a difference in 1st grade. He can write and spell, but I hate fighting with him to do it. Thank You! Candee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chai Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 I am currently using A Beka with my 4 year old son. We are working on K5. I just read most of the Well Trained Mind and loved it. The thing is I am thinking about putting him in 1st grade in Sept. He is an advanced reader. I was wondering if anyone can recommend what I should do for next year. Is the history program suitable for the attention span of a younger child or should I wait until he is 6? If I do that I would like to start him on the reading level and maybe wait to do the history until he is 6. Do the readers go along with the history books, I am getting the impression they do. If so could I still have him doing reading a grade ahead and history on grade level? I'm sorry I am pretty confused. He's such a smart little kid, but he's also much a typical active little boy. Also he doesn't care for handwriting, would that make a difference in 1st grade. He can write and spell, but I hate fighting with him to do it.Thank You! Candee I'm not sure if you are asking specifically about the Abeka program. I can't help you with that. A five-year old certainly could do 1st grade history if he has a good attention span and good comprehension. Only you can be the judge of that. My dd was ready at that age and we had a wonderful year of history. It is still her favorite subject. At that age, history was mostly read-alouds, projects and narrations. Many of us have allowed our children to move ahead with subjects that they can comprehend even if they can't do a lot of handwriting. I did this with my dd. I did much of the work orally and wrote down her answers for her. I will say that you need a strategy to gradually work in more handwriting because the transition can be difficult. In my experience, spelling is best left until your child is writing regularly. We did a few starts and stops until I realized that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Candeepal Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 Sorry for history I was referring to "The Story of the World". And The Reading, the WTM recommended readers for the 1st grade. How are the stories with a shorter attention span. Thanks Candee Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kokotg Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 I had this same situation when my son was 5; we did SOTW that year, and honestly I wish I had waited. It's pretty easy to find readings that coordinate with whatever reading level he's at when you start (in the activity guide, it usually tells what level each book is appropriate for as a read aloud and what level for independent reading). If I had it to do over again, I would have had him do mostly the first grade recs for grammar and math and then maybe done some unit study type stuff for science and history (or whatever his interests were) for the year. He would have gotten a lot more out of SOTW if we'd waited a year. Of course, I'm sure it depends on the kid. You could always give a try and see how he does with it, and be prepared to put it aside for a year if you need to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeanM Posted January 23, 2008 Share Posted January 23, 2008 I waited until my older ds (now age 8) was in 1st grade to do SOTW, but that was because he was (and is) very sensitive and I thought some of the topics would upset him. SOTW is great and my older ds LOVES it, younger ds tolerates it. Personally, I'd say go ahead and get it if you want to. You can always take it slowly, take time to read lots of extra books and process it. As far as handwriting goes, my oldest had major issues and I did a lot of writing for him in math and other topics. He finally does almost all of it himself, although he still would prefer for me to do it. I wouldn't hold him back because of handwriting issues, but that is just my opinion. Good luck, Jean:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sara Mac Posted January 25, 2008 Share Posted January 25, 2008 If attention span is limited then I would definitely wait until 1st grade. Bear in mind that just because they might be able to read on a higher grade level than the go-along books level, it doesn't mean that they won't enjoy them or get anything out of them ;) My dd7 happily reads a lot of books that are on a higher grade level than her age-grade, but she also enjoys reading simple picture books to her younger brother (and to herself :D ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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