craftyerin
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Posts posted by craftyerin
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We won't consider ourselves officially in 1st until January, but here's what I've got planned, assuming things go well between now and then:
Five in a Row
phonics (hodgepodge of stuff)
handwriting
Singapore 1A-1B
We'll start spelling and maybe FLL when I feel like we're ready.
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My three blew through the Zaner Bloser K workbook, and are still doing a lot of "How do I make a ___?" So I bought a different publisher's K handwriting workbook and we're doing that one (we weren't ready for the smaller lines, etc of the 1st grade ZB book). Once we have letter formation down, I'll be comfortable moving to copy work, but we weren't ready after one workbook. so, I'd say it depends on the kid.
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We are actually participating in kindergarten graduation with our homeschool group! Maybe ask around and see if anything like that exists in your area?
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I have never seen volume 4. I have it mentally penciled in for 2nd grade here. Or we may move on from FIAR altogether and start a four year history cycle. I'd love a peek at volume 4, but you're right--of all the people I know who use (or have used) FIAR, I know no one who has used vol. 4.
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I just want to clarify the age ranges....
Before Five in a Row is appropriate for two-four year olds. (Preschool)
Five In A Row is appropriate for five-ten year olds. (K-4th gr)
Beyond Five In A Row is appropriate for ages 9-13 year olds. (4th-8th gr)
HTH! :)
Their website says 2-4 for Before, 4-8 for FIAR, and 8-12 for Beyond. I did shoot a little low in my age groups off the top of my head. That's probably because I can't imagine doing FIAR with 8yos. I tend to think it's absolutely perfect for PK, K, and 1st, but struggle to see it being "enough" beyond that. I know many disagree and continue to use and love it, though!
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FIAR is a literature unit study program for 4-7yos. There is also Before Five in a Row for 2-4yos, and Beyond for 7+, but I have never used those. We use FIAR here and LOVE it. Each unit is stand-alone, so you can do them in any order, and covers five different subjects from one story book. The manuals give suggestions for what topics you can discuss or activities you can do for each of the following five subjects: social studies, language arts, applied math, art, and science. The idea is that you'll pick a book per week, read the story every day, Five (days) in a Row, and then do one subject.
The manual may offer anywhere from 1-5 ideas for each subject, so you can choose the one that interests you and your children the most. Some activities are more suited for the younger end of the age range (4-5yos), some for the older end (6-7yos). Some people, like me, work mostly from the manual. Others rely heavily on lapbooking (there are some good free resources for FIAR lapbooks) or additional ideas from pinterest, blogs, and the like.
We keep our "rows" pretty simple, but we find they are plenty! I blog about our adventures in FIAR if you wanted to see how it looks for our family. It's a program that is flexible enough that it can look really different from one family to another. http://lookwhaterinm...arch/label/FIAR
We do phonics, handwriting, and math separately, and then FIAR for "all the rest". It works so well for us!
editing to add: I see that you have triplets that you're bringing home next year. My own kids are "Irish triplets"--a singleton followed less than 12mos later by twins. FIAR is AWESOME for doing all the fun stuff together as a little group. Really, we have a great time. I think you could add math, reading, and handwriting to FIAR for a wonderful first year at home with your kids!
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We read through the Sonlight P3/4 list when my twins were 3. So many wonderful books. It's not much of a curriculum, though. It's pretty much just a book list. At about 3.5, we added AAR pre-level and they LOVED that. It was perfect for them as they were learning their basic letter sounds, how to write the upper and lower case letters, etc. We used HWT's PK materials (the manipulatives, not much actual writing) along with AAR pre-level. When we finished that (at ~4.25) they were ready for phonics and learning to read, along with a kindergarten handwriting book. After we finished the SL list, we went on to FIAR (shortly after they turned 4), which we are still using. So far, we've been thrilled with all of those choices!
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Explode the Code workbooks for sure. Book 1 is all work on CVC (three letter, short vowel) words. Working through that book helped two of mine make BIG leaps in their decoding ability. Book 2 is still all short vowels, but adds consonant blends to both the beginning and end of words, so you will encounter longer words like swish. Two of mine are now in this level, and they are still really enjoying it. One of mine will need some time in 1 1/2 before he's ready for 2, I suspect. The 1/2 books are review/extra practice for each level, if needed, but can be skipped if you don't. Book 3 (which we haven't gotten to) introduces long vowels, I think.
You can see some good samples here: http://www.christian...6EX|928696|1016
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Rosie has a video about the plastic vs. wood ones. The issue is really minor. Some secret OCD part of me was bothered by it though.
same here. We own a set of each. I prefer the wood. In reality, it doesn't matter at all, so long as they're not notched. If you have any kids of toy gnawing age, get plastic. The wooden ones are really quite soft.
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We have and love Jerry Pinkney's, as well. :thumbup1:
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4.5 and 5.5yos here. We all like Uno, Go Fish, Old Maid, memory, What's Gnu, Zingo, Snap It Up (phonics card game), other DIY phonics games, and simple domino games.
We've mostly outgrown but still like Bunny Hop, Uno Moo, and the Cat in the Hat "I can do that!" game.
They like, but I never did, the following: Elefun, Cootie, Candy Land, Hi Ho Cherry-O. I avoid those, but still get roped into them occasionally.
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When my dd was learning phonics and we would run across words like that I played a little game with her. I would say this is a naughty little word who doesn't obey rules. She would get a kick out of that and then later she would tell me about words that were being bad and disobedient. Hehe
Yep. My kid gets a kick out of swatting the naughty words with a fly swatter, and explaining to it why it's naughty. This past week, "You should be spelled mutch, because you have short vowel u, but you're not. You're a bad word! We spell much m-u-c-h." Seems to stick with him.
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Well, I don't have AAR 1, although we did do pre-level and loved it. I just bought and organized/prepped Happy Phonics and I'm overjoyed about it! We've been using a mash-up of Phonics Pathways, ETC, and easy readers (I see Sam and Bob). That is working GREAT for my twins, and they're reading pretty well, especially for not-quite-5yos, but my oldest is struggling and needs more FUN. I started with the blending games in HP today and they were an enormous hit. I'm really hopeful that this will be the right approach for him.
I think you're right that you can't really go wrong, although I don't think you probably need them both, especially alongside SL core A. Doesn't it cover letter sounds, etc, too?
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I have nothing organized for FIAR on pinterest, but I blog our FIAR rows. Link in my signature.
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I have three working at K-ish level and we love Five in a Row (which your 3yo could tag along with) plus the 3Rs. We're doing a mish-mash of phonics and handwriting, Explode the Code, and Singapore Essential Math.
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There are some good printable readers here: http://www.funphonics.com/index.php
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Do pre-level for sure. Mine all knew their basic sounds from the frog before we began AAR pre-level at ~3.5, and yes, letter recognition and sounds are a large part of pre-level but the real meat of the the pre program, IMO, is the phonemic awareness activities and games. You may want to do pre-level fairly quickly, but I definitely don't think you should skip to level 1 with a 3yo.
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I have 3 working at K-ish level. We're using:
FIAR
Singapore Essential Math
Phonics Pathways, ETC, and various easy readers
this and that for handwriting
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I'm using Singapore Essential math K with my 4 and 5yos right now. It's going really well and I love having the structure of a curric to help me know that I'm being thorough and covering what I need to be. That said, it's all pretty easy stuff that woudn't be hard to cover without curric. ;)
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This little book that is part of the AAR pre-level 1 curriculum package is full of wonderful poems for the 4-6yo set. My kids loved it.
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I think a cute nickname for Persephone is Seph (Sef), but that would probably be heard as Steph.
:iagree: I love that.
Persephone is a completely awesome name. It's along the same lines as Penelope and Phillippa and Clementine that I suggested and my husband quickly shot down. He has no guts when it comes to naming children. :lol:
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Hazel still sounds little old lady-ish to me. It hasn't become modern yet.
It's getting there! My daughter is Hazel, named for my great-grandmother. I've heard it on the playground at least twice.
popularity graph, showing (slow) comeback
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I debated the same last year, and chose not to join. Almost all of the homeschoolers I know here are in CC, and I really feel like we're going to continue to struggle to find community without joining CC, but i just don't like their approach. Sigh. I'm thinking about it again for next year, even though I'm 99% sure it wouldn't be a good fit academically for us.
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Yep. Most vowels in unaccented syllables are going to sound like a short u (called schwa) unless you specifically pronounce them for spelling.
Crazy things my teacher did (s/o bringing placenta to class)
in The Chat Board
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I had a high school chemistry teacher who refused to distinguish between me (Erin) and the boy named Aaron in my class. He insisted that he said them differently enough, and that if I were listening carefully, I'd know who he was talking to. That was a long year. :glare: