Do you skip in FLL?

[OregonNative]

I am using FLL1 w/my 1st grader. I'm wondering what is OK to skip as far as lessons go. So far we've covered proper nouns and like WWE, FLL has a lot of redundancy. If your child gets the meaning of Proper Nouns and how to identify them, would you skip past lessons that keep teaching it and move forward to the next section ?

 

Secondly, does anyone find doing grammar an optional subject for 1st grade. I'm wondering if it's overkill with the other things we are doing.

Edited November 23, 2010 by OregonNative

[ELaurie]

and I also abbreviated them to eliminate redundancy.

 

Some people skip FLL in first grade, and them combine FLL 1 & 2 in second grade.

 

I covered the grammar in FLL 1, but let my dc skip a lot of the writing and a some of the poems. It took us just a few minutes a day to do it.

[Ali in OR]

I don't typically skip whole lessons, but sometimes I'll skip some sections of a lesson that I think are more repetition than we need. And anything that says repeat 3 times, well we usually don't. We're not trying to finish at a faster rate than our current pace, so I don't feel a need to skip lessons entirely. If a lesson has a lot of review we have an easy day of it.

 

Oh and I do usually skip copywork and dictation since we're doing WWE.

[cathmom]

Just realize that even a child who gets it may not remember it two months from now. Children usually need lots of review.

[Little Nyssa]

Not skip, because I think the lessons are probably there for a reason, but I do abbreviate. Some lessons are, for us, just one sentence. For example: "The name of our city and state are also proper nouns, OK? next chapter!"

[texasmama]

I skip some but not much. Mostly, I skip the writing parts of FLL. It is such a simple program, and it takes about five minutes on average per lesson. My kids loved memorizing the poems, taking great pride in reciting them. I would have hated to miss that.:001_smile: My goal in doing grammar at this young age is to expose my kids to the concepts now so they are familiar with them later. If the program frustrated them or took overly long or was difficult for me to do, I would skip it...but it's not.:001_smile:

[Ellyndria]

Granted, this is my first time through FLL1. Granted, we are only almost a third of the way through it. Granted, I'm using it with a 5 year old (5 3/4 now).

 

Yes, he memorizes things easily. Yes, he doesn't really like repetition or practice of anything really. He doesn't mind grammar, it only takes about 5 minutes. He had the definition of a noun down the second time we did it. However, I am still making him say the definition of a noun. I can see the beauty of the lessons...the repetition of the definition or poems, then later skipping it for a day or two or few, then coming back again and reviewing it, which is what makes it stick. I can tell he is going to have that definition of a noun in his head forever, and he will be able to draw on it (and presumably the definition of other parts when we get to it) way down the line. Also, at first it seemed he got the difference between a proper and common noun... the next time we came back to it, he started confusing the propers thinking some of them were commons. With repetition, the problem has mostly cleared up, but after the first day I might have thought he didn't need any more work on it, but he did. Maybe with an older child, you wouldn't need as much repetition, but I think it's probably great for the age it's meant for, first graders. (And it is good for my K-er too.)

[Guest mrsjamiesouth]

I only skip the writing but do all the review. I thought he had the Caterpillar poem totally memorized so we skipped reviewing it a few times, but when we got to the 3rd poem and I asked him to recite he had forgotten most of it. With review he was able to recite it again, but I think we need to keep the review for this reason.

[cathmom]

. However, I am still making him say the definition of a noun.

 

You can also say, "Give me an example of a noun" and see if he can do it. My second grader is just about done FLL1 and I have a list of the grammar concepts covered. At the beginning of each lesson I tell him, "Give me an example of an action verb/proper noun/etc" to make sure that he can really use it.

[catz]

We are on lesson 99 of FLL 1. Yes - we skipped and/or combined quite a bit. I think it depends on the child. You can kind of sense where your child is at with the concepts and go from there.

[KrissiK]

No, I don't. One thing we need to remember is that we are adults, we've had this stuff, things that bore us don't necessarily bore our children. I know my kids need the review and so I do every lesson, whether I like it or not, because I am not the one being taught, they are. They don't seem to mind it. I think as parents we really need to be careful not to project ourselves and how we feel about the lessons on our children, especially in the younger years when they really do need it simple and lots and lots of review.

[hsbaby]

I don't skip. I figure the review (though it can seem like A LOT!) is there for a reason. After using FLL1 last year, and FLL2 this year, I can see how the constant review pays off. There is no way my kids will forget the definitions of proper nouns, common nouns, etc:) Even my 3 year old is able to repeat many of the definitions. She is especially proficient at the helping verbs chant. I am sort of a by-the-book type person though. I guess I figure that if I knew better than the author than I would likely have my own best selling grammar curriculum:tongue_smilie:

[happyhappyjoyjoy]

I have skipped one or two lessons. What I prefer to do is to combine several lessons in one day. Yesterday we did two lessons in a row. They were on unrelated topics. If they are on the same topic, I don't do that. We are going through it quickly and will do both Level 1 and Level 2 this year. I like the repetition, because I think it will help cement the ideas in his mind.

[kristavws]

I skip all writing assignments (we are using WWE too), and all memorization lessons. I have put together our own memorization "program" utilizing Living Memory. I sometimes combine lessons in FLL as well.

 

Krista

[SilverMoon]

With my kids using FLL at grade level, no, I don't. I'm not in a rush to be at the next level. If a particular lesson is redundant for that child I nip it short and consider it a freebie day. They only do three lessons a week, too. FLL already has them ahead of the game in grammar.

 

If someone is using it behind grade level, to get caught up, I would skip and double lessons. One of mine couldn't wrap their brain around grammar until third grade. Then she did the whole 1/2 book that year, and started on the 3 book towards the very end of the school year.

[Jayne J]

I skip like mad. However, I am combining FLL 1 and 2 into one year. We didn't do any formal grammar in 1st grade. We did copywork that I chose myself and we discussed nouns, verbs, capitalizing the first word of a sentence, and ending punctuation. This year he already knows most of those well enough for me to I skip, largely doing definitions, memorizing lists (pronouns for example) and hitting odd topics like abbreviations. I'll flip though what we've finished and randomly ask questions, and so far he is retaining everything better than I'd thought he would. However we are also doing Prima Latina this year which is helping to cement many grammar concepts, and WWE 1, which reinforces the lessons too.

[Cindyz]

No, I don't. One thing we need to remember is that we are adults, we've had this stuff, things that bore us don't necessarily bore our children. I know my kids need the review and so I do every lesson, whether I like it or not, because I am not the one being taught, they are. They don't seem to mind it. I think as parents we really need to be careful not to project ourselves and how we feel about the lessons on our children, especially in the younger years when they really do need it simple and lots and lots of review.

 

 

:iagree:

 

No, I do not skip. While it goes over the definition of a noun in several lessons, it's focusing on different parts of the noun. So first you focus on people (common and proper), and then you focus on places (common and proper) and then things and then ideas and finally a review of them all. My son could repeat the definition of a noun almost immediately, but did he really KNOW and understand what it meant? He had come across the definition of a noun from other places, and at first argued that an "idea" was actually a noun because he had never heard it included before. It was very helpful to go through the lessons about ideas to teach what it means.

 

I am enjoying going through the lessons with him. I also enjoy a lot of the extras like learning address and phone number and learning what an aunt actually is, etc.

 

Last month when my son was still 5 years old, he was given an assessment test as part of a neurological assessment. He was handed a piece of paper that said:

 

Full name: _______________________________

Parents:_________________________

Address: _________________________________

_________________________________________

Phone number: _____________________________

Pet's Name: ________________________________

 

He filled in the entire paper (in cursive) including his first middle and last name, full address and parents' real names (not Mom and Dad). The person giving the assessment was flabbergasted and said they had never had a child of his age (and even a bit older) be able to fill in all of the blanks. In fact, the purpose of the paper was to see how the child would deal with the frustration of being given a task that they did not know how to complete. They wanted to see if he would ask for help or become frustrated or give up. Yes, I was proud, and yes I silently thanked FLL for helping me to teach my son this type of information (along with OPG for teaching him to read the words :) ).

Edited November 23, 2010 by Cindyz

[Crimson Wife]

I skip a fair amount in the first half of the book but not so much in the second. JW included a bunch of lessons in FLL 1 that I consider pre-k material (days of week, months of year, etc.) If I know my student knows the information, then I don't bother doing those lessons. I also skip the copywork & dictation in FLL because my kids are ready for the grammar before their physical motor skills are up to the writing. I use WWE at grade-level for that.

[OregonNative]

"Give me an example of an action verb/proper noun/etc" to make sure that he can really use it.

Good idea:)

 

I skip all writing assignments (we are using WWE too), and all memorization lessons.

Krista

I like this idea. It seems like the writing is overkill at this point.

[OregonNative]

I don't typically skip whole lessons, but sometimes I'll skip some sections of a lesson that I think are more repetition than we need.

 

This is what I was trying to ask about:001_smile: I have been having some brain issues lately:tongue_smilie:

 

For example: "The name of our city and state are also proper nouns, OK? next chapter!"

Def. what I wanted to know:001_smile:

[Jyniffrec]

I did FLL with my first dd only halfheartedly and now regret it. Now that I am using it again I don't skip but I occasionally combine lessons. My children love the memorization and say it is the best part of the school day; I even had to add in more memorization.

[Testimony]

"Repetition is the mother of learning." I don't know about skipping. I never did FLL 1/2. I don't do grammar at such an early age. However, I have heard mothers, in an old co-op I went to, complain about why a child needs such repetition of nouns. I realize now that nouns are almost everywhere. Nouns are used as direct objects, indirect objects, objects of preposition, and subjects. A child needs to understand nouns.

 

I would not skip.

 

By the way, I started my younger son with FLL3. I enjoyed that program. I am glad because it was a nice program.

 

Blessings,

Karen

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony