I’m late to the party, but wanted to ease your mind about spelling. I just retired from teaching first grade for the past ten years (I homeschooled my three kids from 2003-2013 and my oldest is dyslexic). Spelling is not the focus in first grade. The focus is on phonics. That is the key to reading and what she needs most. When I taught first grade, we didn’t do spelling lists or tests. We did phonics and reading. Teach her phonics now and she’ll have an easier time spelling later. UFLI is good, but moves quickly. Explode the Code is a good, easy way to start if she’s reluctant. I used All About Spelling with my son, plus Orton Gillingham methods. It is very time consuming. Have you heard of The Secret Stories? Google that if you haven’t. They have a really great “Better Alphabet Song” that’s really good. My non-readers always learned their letter sounds quickly with that. Gayle

I would love the first grade one. I can't seem to figure out how to find it with the links above.

Our planning meeting was today so I just wanted to give an update about what we chose. I'm very happy to say that we're going with Singapore Primary Math! I think it was a good choice and I'm excited to teach something proven to be effective. Thanks so much for everyone's help and insight! Gayle

That's what I do, too. I have documents on my computer for airplane packing list, toiletries packing list, car packing list, beach packing list, etc. I also have one for the dogs' directions :-) . It makes life so much easier when I don't have to think of everything! Hope you have a wonderful time! Gayle

I've used BJU science from 3rd grade to 8th grade with my kids. The TM is integral to the program, I think. It adds so much depth and fun! It's easy to find it used. The kit might be helpful to you, but I don't recall needing anything that was too hard to get. I guess it depends on if you have time to gather things or want it all put together for you. Gayle

Meshing with the upper grades is a very good point. When I was first given EnVision to look at, I really wanted to like it for the sake of continuity. Once I looked through the program, though, I knew it was not a good choice. Whatever we end up picking we want to make sure the students can transition well to the third grade curriculum. I do think that Singapore Primary Math is probably our best bet, along with various other supplements like the C-rods. We're meeting about the decision on Thursday. Hopefully we'll all like Singapore! Thanks so much! Gayle

Grades 3-4 are going with EnVision. Grades 5-6 are already using that, but grades 7-8 use something different. I think the reasoning behind that is that EnVision is good for the middle grades but not for the early or late grades. I appreciate all of the responses. There were a few programs that I've never heard of but will check out. McRuffy is new to me, but sounds interesting. I love MUS Alpha for how they teach adding and subtracting. I might end up incorporating that, but not use it as the only thing. I think Singapore might be the best choice for the various reasons mentioned. I think parent buy in would be a lot better with this. Miquin might be a good complement. I'll have to get the Liping Ma book. I've not read it before, but it sounds very good. Thank you again for all of the helpful responses! This is such a big decision and I want to make sure we investigate all options before deciding. Gayle

Would love to hear from all the other math gurus out there :-)

Thank you for those suggestions. I've never really looked at Miquon before. Very intriguing. The scope and sequence doesn't show place value or word problems being covered in 1st or 2nd. Do you know if that's the case? MEP looks interesting, too. I'll have to really dig around that site. Many thanks for your thoughtful response. I'd love to hear more about these programs and others, too. :001_smile: Gayle (who sure wishes she could make paragraph breaks! I'll have to use Firefox next time!!)

First a little background: I've homeschooled my children for the past 10 years and will be going back to teaching in the fall. I'll be teaching in a private school that is currently 5th-12th but will be adding 1st-4th in Sept. I'll be teaching a 1st/2nd grade combo class with a maximum of 15 children. Because it's a new program, we are designing the curriculum from the ground up. All the other subjects have been pretty easy to map out and determine materials, but math has been tough! We've looked at several different programs but none seem to be a great fit for what we hope to accomplish. Our goals are to provide a rigorous well-rounded math education which has a good mix of spiral and mastery. We want lots of hands-on and developmentally appropriate games and activities. I'll be utilizing math work stations in which the students work in pairs and groups while I work with small groups. Two curriculum's that we've considered are EnVision and Math in Focus. EnVision seems confusing and disjointed. I like Math in Focus better, but leadership looked at it previously and didn't like it. They're willing to reconsider, though. Bob Jones and Abeka are out. Singapore is a posibility, but I've never taught it. I like the looks of Right Start and may suggest that at our next meeting. What else would be good? I could try to just teach from a scope and sequence, but would rather have a book for guidance and to help keep me on track. Obviously the math needs for the school are different than they would be for a homeschool, but my feeling is that homeschoolers have been much more successful than public schools. I'd rather emulate what works than what doesn't. :laugh: So does anyone have some wonderful math wisdom to share? I would love to hear about curriculums that we should look at further. Any help is much appreciated!! Thanks! Gayle

I placed an order with Sonlight last Wednesday morning. It's been over a week and it's still not been shipped! I can't believe that it takes so long to ship an IG and 5 books. When I contacted them they said it takes 7-10 days to get an order ready to ship. I've not ordered from them before, but I'm very disappointed in waiting so long. Are they always this slow? Are that many people really ordering in September? I sure hope it's worth it, or it will be my last order with them.

In my state, homeschoolers can access anything at the public schools. My two older kids have both done multiple sports at the middle school. It's been a wonderful experience for both of them. For us, it's the best of both worlds. My dc are very athletic and do travel sports as well, but the school teams have had great coaches and I've seen a lot of growth in my kids, both athletically and maturity-wise. I'm very grateful for the opportunity for my children. Gayle

I am in that position. I really need to get a job. Prices are crazy and my husband's business is down because of the economy. He's a Chiropractor and has gotten insurance reimbursement cuts every year. So many patients have lost their jobs or their insurance has been cut. No one can afford out of pocket payments. It's getting hard to stay afloat. He owns his own business so we have to buy our own insurance. We pay almost $1,000 a month plus a $10,000 deductible. That's the cheapest plan we can get in our state. We just can't afford it any more. I was in tears the other day at the pharmacy after paying a $141 payment for a one month supply of meds that my son needs. I plan on going back to teaching if I can find a job. I just need anything with benefits. It's sad, because we have never had to worry like we do now. I wonder how things will end up for folks like us. Gayle

Good point. They said they would accept the credits from Tri City Christian, a private school with a homeschool transcript service in our state. I am assuming that they would transfer in like any private school, but you never know.

We wanted all honors classes because of the type of student in them. We would rather have him with students who may be more serious about school. I don't think putting him in an honors English class would help, though. We would just have to be fine with the regular class. Our high school also has a great Career and Technical Ed. department. There are multiple programs that give Running Start credits. It's definitely a draw for us. Gayle