we appreciate all of the reples.

What kind of paper do you use for your first grader? Would love a link and especially if I can print it out, that would be awesome. Thanks!

love the DonnaYoung forms that I can personalize and love the idea that I can add and remove things we need! Just don't like the idea of having to print it all out! LOL Thanks for the posts everyone :001_smile:

I didn't read all of the replies but I can say we have been through this with several things. I stop where we are at and go back and review what it is my daughter is not confident in. Today I had to go back to review uppercase and lowercase letters because she had a hard time telling the difference when they were written without the lines. After doing some preschool matching worksheets and writing them out on the white board, she felt much better and did great on her assignment. Just sometimes it takes a little review. We can also become frustrated and when they feel our frustration they can become even less confident, like they are making us unhappy. Sometimes just taking a break from the subject that day and looking at it in a different way the next day can make a huge difference. I personally would not move forward until my daughter got it down. If I knew she could do it but wouldn't then I would come up with some reward system, like a stamp at the top of a completed page or a sticker, etc for a job well done.

thank you also, that planner looks really good, just wish I could find one a little cheaper hopefully. Open to more suggestions... anyone?

thank you for the reply with the link. anyone else care to share what you use?

looking for ideas for a planner/ organizer and what all you use it for. I would prefer one for school and home but if you use two, I would also be interested in the details. Thanks!

Thank you all for the wonderful replies. Yeah, so far things have worked well I just feel we need a bit more structure at this point. I have read the book but need to check it out again to refresh my memory of it. I had picked Horizons 1 for phonics and also horizons 1 for math. However upon receiving them I began second guessing those choices. After reading the posts on this site I realized these two programs were not best for us. After filling through the books I could see they weren't what we were looking for. I think when I read TWTM I felt a bit overwhelmed with everything and wanted to stick with the concepts but not fully use her schedule. Now I see I should have stayed with it just eased into it. Thank you for all of your kind words and suggestions. I am now searching for MM! It looks like a wonderful program that would work great for us. My dd likes to "play" with manipulatives just not do math with them LOL. She loves to read and does awesome when she wants to but I think I am asking to much of her and she has become frustrated. We will step back a notch and let her do more of the leading in this department. Thanks again! Off to begin new curriculum search and do a few returns as well!

Okay so I am getting planning underway for 1st grade for DD. I thought I had my mind made up until I found this site and now I am so confused. I am going to describe my DD to you and her abilities and frustrations and see what you can advise me. Thanks in advance for all of your help. Up until know we have basically done BFIAR and FIAR style learning. We used lots of games, activities, Leap Frog dvds, tons of reading, and various lapbooking activities to get where we are right now. My daughter is really good with sounding out words, even "big" words. I feel its time to find a good phonics program that will start teaching her the rules so she can become an even better reader. She can read great but she doesn't like to. She would rather me read everything when she knows how to do it and she will become frustrated when I ask her to read to me. However if we are playing a game like, I have a surprise, sound it out and you get it, she can read an entire sentence! We did bob books and she doesn't care for them. To boring for her. For math, we have really focused on understanding concepts more than writing out the facts. She can work out addition and subtraction through real life situations but when it comes to writing them and using manipulatives to help explain problems she gets frustrated and confused. She loves to write her own books with stories and illustrations, that is she loves coming up with the ideas for these books, but hates the writing part! She dreads having to write things, even copy work. She just doesn't like it. She needs some help in this area because sometimes her letters can fly around the page a little :) I would like to continue with FIAR and add a good phonics and math program and possibly a writing program. A little about me. I am a busy mama to two daughters. I need programs that works great but don't expect me to do a lot of extra work. I would like the concepts explained clearly to me so I can clearly explain them to DD. I don't like the idea of DVDs because well, if they get scratched like so often happens in my home, well I cannot afford to be replacing them. We are a family on a BUDGET so would like to get the best program I can for the $. Can you please HELP!!!