Awesome thanks! :D

Thank you all so much for the help! Here is what we are going to do for now: WTM rec's: Kingfisher First Human Body Encyclopedia; DK First Animal Encyclopedia; Green Thumbs We bought a plastic skeleton, lady bug farm and the human body floor puzzle out shopping today. I'm going to use the free sample labs from Real Science Odyssey Life and see if we want to keep going with it. Then using some free printables online for worksheets and library books to go along with that week's topic. If I find its too much of a hassle to plan it all out, I'm considering Elemental Science. Thanks again! :grouphug:

Our choice for music is not working out for us. We chose to use a book about composers, basically a biography of famous ones and a sample of their music. However, dd6 has had no other music introduction and she doesn't know what a composer is, what certain instruments in an orchestra are, etc. So I realized that she needs a basic introduction to music. Can anyone recommend a good, beginner music curriculum that would work for 1st grade level? Something that tells what music is, different types of instruments, etc. Thanks in advance! ;)

My dd really loves the RSO samples - we did the rain guage and a few others from the Earth Science a few months ago. I'm so torn over what to get - I did order the encyclopedias of the animals and human body but want lab/worksheet material to go along with it so RSO seems to be the one that would work. On the RSO, have you done the Life one? If so, how expensive is it for the materials to go with the labs? I was looking at the list and it had snails, worms, etc in there. Thanks for the help! ;)

What book do you use with the reproducibles? Thanks!

So you are doing the WTM rec's and you made your own plan? I was wondering how much work it will be for me if I plan it all out myself. :confused:

Since so many people had mentioned Elemental Science, I went back to look at it. I had no idea it was an already laid-out plan for the WTM recommended books and I like how it added in the experiments with Jan Vancleave's books. I was wondering why Elemental Science used another plant book instead of the WTM recommendation of the Green Thumb's book? Still thinking of what to order......

Thank you all for the many responses!! I looked up several and liked a lot of the recommendations. I really like Real Science Odyssey and we have tried some labs from that a few months ago. Has anyone tried the WTM way for science using the animal and human body encyclopedias? I was hoping to hear how that works for others.

We started Apologia's Astronomy for K last year, and it was like pulling teeth but I loved how it fit our beliefs so I continued on making it easier to understand for my dd by changing some of the wording. This year however, we are trying to finish up (we only did 4 chapters last year), and I'm finding I don't have the energy to bring it down to her level. They say the elementary series is for grades 1-6 but I find its too much for my dd6. So we are looking for another science for this year. Any recommendations on something that is SIMPLE with fun things to do? Thanks in advance! ;)

We are doing SOTW1 with my dd6. We always do the tests, and she only misses 1 or 2 usually. Here is how we do it: Read chapter Narrations Question & Answer Worksheets - maps, color pages, etc Test Projects/crafts Library books or encyclopedia; Videos Most of the time, I read one part of the chapter and then we do the narration and then we do the next part, narration, etc. As I'm reading to her on the couch, I make sure she is paying attention by asking "What did I just say?". She also knows she will have Q&A and a test so she has learned to listen. When reading, I try and make it exciting and interesting by changing my voice up a bit - not monotonous! We also listened to the whole SOTW1 audio on vacation trips this summer. Sometimes she listens to the chapter on audio before the test if she didn't do well on the Q&A. We also add in videos online or from the library, lots of library books and sometimes we use the Usborne encyclopedia. HTH!

In general for first grade, the child will be 6 and turn 7 during the school year but of course that is only for average. Here are average ages for the trivium: Grammar Stage - grades 1-4 (age 7-10) Logic Stage - grades 5-8 (age 11-14) Rhetoric Stage - grades 9-12 (age 15-18) My daughter is 6 and will be 7 next month and is 1st Grade in the state of Washington.

We love All About Spelling! :lol:

Here are the "average" times recommended in "The Well Trained Mind": Kindergarten 1 hour 20 minutes First grade 3 hours 49 minutes Second grade 4 hours Third grade 4 hours 52 minutes Fourth grade 5 hours 34 minutes Fifth grade 6 hours 41 minutes Sixth grade 6 hours 51 minutes Seventh grade 6 hours 51 minutes Eighth grade 6 hours 58 minutes Ninth grade 7 hours 33 minutes Tenth grade 7 hours 33 minutes Eleventh grade 6 hours 21 minutes Twelfth grade 6 hours 21 minutes Remember, these times also reflect the child's reading time in the afternoons, etc. We are first grade and do school 3 days a week - for 3 hours each of those days. Then Friday is projects, crafts and experiments, etc. In the evenings, my daughter does her 30 minutes of reading and that is counted to our "time" for first grade.

We are doing AAS 3 times a week and only for 10-15 minutes each time.

As if I needed another reason to go to IKEA but you have given me one lol! I'm an IKEA nut, thanks for the ideas! ;)

Looks awesome! I too love looking at school room pics. :lol:

So exciting!! :party:

I bookmarked it, thanks! My daughter already loves the games there and I'm loving the lesson plans and free stuff! ;)

Have you read the Well Trained Mind book?

My dd6 LOVES the whiteboard!! It made it that much more fun for her when I wrote the words on the board for her to read instead of reading them out of the book.

OPGTR works all by itself - you don't need anything else. If you or your child want some extra reading, they have put together a handy guide to show you when to introduce what Bob books and other readers here: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/readers-guide?___store=default

We got ours last week and it is HUGE! We put it away till we get around to US History in a few grades.

The elementary Apologia sciences have packages you can buy that go along with each book that have the supplies for the experiments/crafts.

We started Saxon 1 for Kindergarten last fall and my dd was 5 at that time and had no problem with it. We have gone really slow however so we wouldn't be too far ahead. She had no math before Saxon 1.

Here are the recommendations from the welltrainedmind website for when to start spelling, grammar, etc: "My child is using The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading. At what lesson number do I begin a spelling program, a penmanship program, and First Language Lessons Levels 1 and 2 (the grammar and writing program)? Jessie advises teaching reading, writing, and spelling separately from one another, as they are three separate skills. You don’t want to slow a child’s reading progress just because her fine motor skills are not yet fully developed. And a child always does better spelling words he can easily read and recognize. Reading instruction can begin before spelling and penmanship. Most four- and five-year-olds can learn to read. There is no set lesson in The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading at which the child should begin her spelling and penmanship instruction. Generally, the child should be about half-way through the lessons (around Lesson 115). At that point the child can read words with the most common patterns for short-and long-vowel sounds. The words in her spelling and penmanship program will therefore be familiar to her. You need to be more precise when deciding to start First Language Lessons, since the child is asked to do copywork exercises. The Ordinary Parent's Guide is structured so that the child applies most phonetic rules to single-syllable words (Lessons 1-177). Lesson 178 and following in The Ordinary Parent’s Guide are all multi-syllable words—these lessons reinforce the patterns taught earlier. A few new phonetic patterns are introduced in multi-syllable words, but those patterns are not as common as the patterns taught in earlier lessons. Once the child has completed Lesson 181 in The Ordinary Parent’s Guide, he knows how to read most phonetic patterns, how to sound out the parts of multi-syllable words, and he has been introduced to the schwa sound. He is fully capable of doing copywork. First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind (Levels 1 and 2) is mostly oral work, although copywork exercises begin in Lesson 42 (and dictation exercises begin later). So by the time the child reaches Lesson 42 in FLL, he should be on or past Lesson 182 in OPG. If you are looking for a lesson by lesson comparison (and you do the same number of grammar and reading lessons per week), you can start FLL when the child in on Lesson 140 in OPG. Following this suggestion assumes that the child has been practicing penmanship enough to copy names, words, and short sentences. If she can't do the copywork at the end of Lesson 42 (and subsequent lessons where she copies short words and sentences), delay beginning First Language Lessons until her penmanship skills prepare her for this."