If you were going you transition your kids to CW in 3rd grade, what would you do with them in the meantime?
I already plan on copywork and working on narration skills. My dd who is in K will do some phonics review during 1st grade, but she is already reading on a high 2nd grade level. My ds is currently in 1st and I don't feel he needs phonics anymore since his reading level is 4th grade and he reads on his own without effort.
I am pretty laid back with little ones and we've been mostly unschooling- we've played around with parts of FLL and SL LA 1 and 2, but mostly I read aloud to them everyday and they read something to me everyday. We also have a sustained silent reading period everyday.
Other than that, we play math games, we play outside, and kind of do whatever tickles our fancy at the time. My ds though has a personality that is happier with structure, so we have gone back to doing explode the code and a math workbook everyday too. (He is picking it back up with ETC 5, which is really review for him but good handwriting, spelling practice too).
If you're still with me :), what I want is to slowly transition to more structure without being overwhelming for them and still having plenty of time for free play and board games together, time outside, or whatever we want to do. I want to lay a good foundation right now for writing and reading on a deeper level starting in 3rd grade.
So on the Classical Writing website, they recommended for 1st and 2nd grade:
copywork
beginning dictation
spelling
reading and phonics
What is a good resource for good copywork passages that I could have on hand?
Dictation in 1st and 2nd grade- really? (We do this informally when they ask me how they would say something or spell something and I dictate and they write in in their notebooks, so can I eliminate this formally? trying to keep it simple.)
Spelling. Again, really? I've never believed spelling is necessary until 4th or 5th grade, then they've read a lot and built up a mental "word bank." Is there something they'll be missing by not doing spelling? Should I stick with ETC? Try a spelling workbook?
Reading we have covered, and phonics.
TIA!