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Help planning first grade, particularly LA


Xahm
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I'm having trouble envisioning what next year should look like. My first thought is to to "More of the same, just with higher expectations," but that doesn't make it much easier to imagine. My husband isn't much use for planning because right now, he's away for a month of training and next year he will likely be deployed for pretty much the entire school year (and following summer). Right now, every day we do read-alouds that cover history and literature, math (Finished BA2A, flying through MEP 2 with enjoyment), writing (mostly dictations I've made up that focus on spelling and punctuation), and reading (usually silent reading, but I make her read aloud sometimes.) With reading, she prefers picture books to chapter books. She can pick up most picture books and read them aloud to her younger brothers with appropriate expression on the first read-through. When we are at the zoo or science museum, she can read the signs and later tells me information she learned from them. She resists anything like narration. She will talk about what she read, but later, on her own terms. I haven't been pushing it because it's only Kindergarten and she's clearly learning, but at some point output should be required, right? 

 

Her play and our daily lives are fairly "enriched" but laid-back. She imagines many wonderful things, plays games that involve writing up signs or menus, and practices things like cartwheels and skipping rope. She'll sometimes grab a workbook and happily give herself assignments for an hour or two. We go on frequent field trips to the science museum and zoo, as well as other local places (lots to do in our area). We do science experiments, cook together, build and make things, and have lots of conversations, especially in the car. One recent conversation was about genetic problems that could come from marrying your brother. Another was about how a hero like George Washington could be okay with slavery (that thread comes up in many conversations) We also do some French, but that's better with dh around since he knows it much better than me.

 

Next year I plan to continue on with MEP and BA because they've been working well. I don't plan to stop over the summer, just slow down some. We'll likely join the Y and work a lot on swimming. I'll probably sign her up for the monthly homeschool class at the zoo (and let little brother join after he turns five). I plan to start some logic, probably pieced together unless I find an awesome curriculum that fits (suggestions?) It's really the Language Arts stuff that I'm unsure about. Should I assign more reading? If so, how much? What should I do about writing? We'll keep dabbling in French, but it's not likely to get our full attention this coming year.  She'll also continue weekly music class at church, which is fun but a real music class, not just cute kids singing.

 

If it helps the child in question turns 6 over the summer. She has a brother who will turn 5 around Christmas (he works on reading and math, but mainly needs to improve his attention span) and a brother who turns 2 in the fall (who is a fairly easy kid but a bit of a wild card due to age). I'm a stay-at-home mom. We have money to meet our needs and many of our wants, but we prefer not to spend when possible. (Police officer/military salary supporting a family of 5). I'm good at being resourceful, and we live in an area with plenty to do.

 

ETA: I'm grateful for any curriculum suggestions or suggestions of any kind, but what I'm hoping for most are resources that will help me create a road map of goals, or just ideas based on what goals you had for similar children at similar ages.

Edited by xahm
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We really like the FLL and WWE combination for language arts.   You might call to see if they have some still in stock from the scratch and dent sale they had a month or so ago.  It is very gentle and scripted.  FLL (level 1&2) are non-consumable.  The WWE1 book that we bought has the teacher guide in the front half, and tear-out student pages.  I sort of wished we'd gotten the PDF for the student pages.  We only have one child, but tearing out pages from a nicely bound book upsets me, even if that is as designed.   
We started WWE after FLL, and that was my misunderstanding.  

 

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Thanks to those who've replied so far, and I'll look into those titles (actually I just pulled FLL off my shelf!), but I'm really looking for help in goal-setting for an accelerated young child. She can take a couple of sentences of dictation with decent spelling and correct punctuation. She reads fluently. She can write a sentence or two of her own. If she were older and doing this, I'd be wanting to work from sentences towards paragraphs, but she's young. I don't want school to become a bunch of essays. When I look through first, second, or third grade stuff, so much of it would be boring because she knows it. I'm fine with picking and choosing and pulling things together, but I need help with a roadmap so I choose the right stuff. I'll probably re-read WTM, but do you have any resources that are specific to the development of gifted/asynchronous learners? Like how Kitchen Table Math has sort of a map of which skills develop first, which are based on each other, etc.

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Our writing output in 1st grade was mostly copywork, with dictation-based spelling thrown in toward the second semester.

 

I don't do goal-setting for an asynchronous child.  I have a series of steps we work through so that he is writing on his own by around 4th/5th grade for part of instruction:

 

copywork

dictation

oral narration (started at the same time as copywork)

written narration (when spelling is decent and writing comes more easily

paragraph work

independent writing- introduction to styles

 

So it's slow and steady and has nothing to do with how he can read, but only what step he's ready for next.  We're using ELTL 3 this year in 2nd, which focuses on the first 4 skills (oral narration for the first part of the book, building to written narrations about every two weeks after that).  We modify it to do only part of the copywork and still do our own cold dictation at his request rather than the prepared dictation in the book.

 

Here is one woman's take on the process of writing - https://blog.allaboutlearningpress.com/language-arts-in-my-household/  It is similar to ours.  I strive to keep writing at a level that is smack in the middle of his comfort zone.  I don't want it to be a chore or frustrating for him.  Interesting, yes, but I expect small, quality bites of work rather than focusing on quantity.

Edited by HomeAgain
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Thanks! I'm going to be reading that blog later when the kids aren't playing "Mr. Bucket" next to me (try to put balls into a bucket that is moving around and spitting balls out of it's mouth). I guess I should probably push the oral narration. She can do it, but doesn't usually want to. Still, she's good about going ahead and doing it if I say it's for school.

 

Our writing output in 1st grade was mostly copywork, with dictation-based spelling thrown in toward the second semester.

 

I don't do goal-setting for an asynchronous child.  I have a series of steps we work through so that he is writing on his own by around 4th/5th grade for part of instruction:

 

copywork

dictation

oral narration (started at the same time as copywork)

written narration (when spelling is decent and writing comes more easily

paragraph work

independent writing- introduction to styles

 

So it's slow and steady and has nothing to do with how he can read, but only what step he's ready for next.  We're using ELTL 3 this year in 2nd, which focuses on the first 4 skills (oral narration for the first part of the book, building to written narrations about every two weeks after that).  We modify it to do only part of the copywork and still do our own cold dictation at his request rather than the prepared dictation in the book.

 

Here is one woman's take on the process of writing - https://blog.allaboutlearningpress.com/language-arts-in-my-household/  It is similar to ours.  I strive to keep writing at a level that is smack in the middle of his comfort zone.  I don't want it to be a chore or frustrating for him.  Interesting, yes, but I expect small, quality bites of work rather than focusing on quantity.

 

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Would she prefer to skip straight to written narration rather than oral? She writes it down, you read it back to her and ask, "Is that what you wanted to say and how you wanted to say it?" Provide the opportunity for her to adjust her words if she wants to (I wouldn't require it, at least not at first). 

 

Another option: If she doesn't want to narrate but doesn't mind talking about the piece otherwise, maybe try asking other questions:

* What do you think [item/character/place] looks like?

* What was the silliest part of that story?

* Would you do things the same way [character] did? Why do you think that was a good choice OR What would you do differently?

* How do you think the story would change if [the main character were actually a frog / such-and-such item were magical / etc.]?

 

That could engage her thinking a bit more. Then (if it seems appropriate) you could say, "I love how you expressed [part of her answer]! I'm going to write your words down and let that sentence be your copywork."

 

I understand your concern about school becoming a bunch of essays, but you're in charge - if she's ready for essays at a young age, you can control how often she needs to write them. Even high school kids still have paragraphs and sentences to write for various assignments, and even single-word answers for things like fill-in-the-blank items on tests. It's not all essays, all the time, once you know how to do them, KWIM? You can give her what she's ready for in the amount she can handle. So if she seems ready to move on to paragraphs*, don't stress about teaching them to her.

 

* I would actually say to work on being able to produce a greater number of sentences on her own (you said she can do 1-2) before proceeding to structuring the sentences into paragraphs. 

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