Can we talk first grade?

[ByGrace3]

I am doing my research for next year and dd will be in first grade. For Kindergarten we are using:

Saxon 1

ABeka Phonics

Handwriting without Tears

Usborne books for science (occasionally)

Heroes for early readers (YWAM) for history (once a week)

Bible -- I am doing my own, but would love suggestions for anything great out there!

We throw art in here and there, but would love to add more of a structure with it next year.

DD also takes gymnastics, piano lessons, and all 3 do music together so that rounds out her week

 

I am thinking we will do Saxon again next year . . . but not positive. I like the way they teach, but I do find it very time consuming. Anything hands on/ that teaches similarly but maybe less time consuming (math takes 1-1.5 hours a day)

ABeka phonics-- its ok, I know it works but it is very repetitive and S.L.O.W.

We love HWOT so plan to stick with that.

Science-- I want to keep it light and easy like this year, but would love some suggestions! We are thinking to add something like Lyrical science as the song aspect definitely works for her. Also, my kids seem to do pretty well with unit studies/lapbooking etc.

history- we love what we are doing and will continue through the books we have, but would love some suggestions for other curricula like it.

English-- very torn. FLL, Shirley Eng, definitely need help!

Spelling-- need suggestions

 

Would love suggestions and to know what is working/not working and why. Thanks!!!

[Guest]

Sounds similar to our current year and what we are planning for next year.

 

We will continue with Saxon math. I have found breaking it up into sections over the day helps. I still am pretty sold on Saxon, for the moment.

 

Abeka phonics - my son has done 2 levels of Letters & Sounds and after looking at Letters & Sounds 2, there isn't much new stuff, it's mostly review. What level are you on? I think Abeka 1 is worth doing, if you've started.

 

Science - we're going to do interest-led, experiments

 

Sounds like you are set with history, we are going to do A Living History of Our World: America's Story, Volume 1 It's a Charlotte Mason history for young children. It looks like it lines up beautifully with our Truthquest guide that we already have, so I think it will make a great spine! (I know you already said you have history, but I am SO excited to have found this. :))

 

We are going to also do FLL1 & WWE1. We may move onto a different grammar in the future, but I think we'll start the year with FLL.

 

For spelling, we are going to do Spell to Write and Read. It was either that or do Abeka Letters & Sounds 2 with Abeka spelling. (Those were my two choices.)

 

Looking forward to a fun year!

[boscopup]

For phonics/spelling combined, I highly recommend All About Spelling. We are totally loving it with my first grader.

 

Math... You can really add math manipulatives to any program. 1-1.5 hours is a LOT of time for a math lesson! I am a Saxon hater (for my son ;) ), so that colors my opinions somewhat. We're enjoying Math Mammoth, and I bring out manipulatives if they're needed, though they usually aren't. Math takes us 15-20 minutes tops.

 

Grammar... I'm using R&S English 2 (orally), but next year, I'm going to try FLL2. I didn't do FLL1 because I didn't think *I* would be able to handle going over what a noun is for 100 lessons. :lol: But that's my own hangups. Given how inexpensive it is (like $11 on Amazon), it's certainly worth trying, especially since it's non-consumable. R&S is ok. It gets the job done and works well. It is a textbook though. I figure if we don't like FLL, we can always come back to R&S in third grade and not have missed anything. ;)

 

I don't see Writing in your list (composition). I love, love, love Writing With Ease. It's not exciting for the kid, but it gets the job done, and it's fairly simple and quick to do. I listened to the audio lecture from SWB on how to teach writing in the elementary years, and it made so much sense to me. I love her philosophy. Listening to that lecture helped me understand where WWE was going, why we were doing it, and how to properly use it. I really highly recommend listening to that lecture. It was a great purchase.

 

We've been happy with HWT, and I think that's a great handwriting choice. Throw in copywork too. The HWT site has a section where you can make your own handwriting pages. I used the StartWrite demo to make a bunch of copywork at the beginning of the year (they have the HWT font). I'm going to buy the software soon. It works really well. I still use it to make story paper and such too. :)

 

For science, we're using Elemental Science Intro to Science this year. It's very easy. I think it's more a K level, or maybe my son is just more sciency... He usually already knows what's being taught. But if your daughter isn't a science geek already, it might be a good choice. It's light. Another option is just to go to the library and get random science books. I think that's perfectly fine!

 

I don't know what your history is now, but we're enjoying SOTW (actually Biblioplan, which merges SOTW with Bible history). It's been pretty easy to do.

 

For art, we're just doing Draw Write Now once a week. There are several art programs that are good though. Check the art thread on the first page of this forum right now for some good recommendations. ;)

 

Hope that helps! We're having a good first grade year. :D

[ByGrace3]

Thanks for the responses. I have looked alot at Math Mammoth and considered buying it to use over the summer to see how we liked it (maybe even some now to try it out). I like the simplicity of it but am not sure about the method. DD might need a more spiral approach. She doesn't always get it the first time we go through it but a few times in, she has it down.

 

Literature and writing are 2 things I didn't list separately, but for literature I have looked at Beautiful Feet and Progeny Press.

 

I am adding in a K4er next year (plus a 1 yr old) ;) so am trying not to overwhelm myself!

 

For Phonics, we are on the first letters and Sounds. Just going through K. It is slow and I know I could push her so much faster, so it is frustrating at times. . .

[Guest]

 

For Phonics, we are on the first letters and Sounds. Just going through K. It is slow and I know I could push her so much faster, so it is frustrating at times. . .

 

Well, by the time you go through the first grade Letters & Sounds, they'll pretty much be reading anything and everything, if that makes you feel any better. :)

[Skadi]

I wholeheartedly suggest Elemental Science, either the Intro to Science or Biology for first grade. :)

[MomsintheGarden]

My "baby" is in 1st grade this year. He is such a joy to teach, and homeschooling him is a welcome break from the more difficult job of helping my olders. He learned to read in PreK and K so YMMV.

 

Here is what we're doing. All of this is tried and true for us:

 

Math: ABeka. We like the colorful, thorough approach and use it K-6th. It covers everything I want in an elementary program without a lot of mom time. If he has a new concepts to learn I teach them with Math-U-See manipulatives (used to use MUS with the oldest two dc) and a Learning Resources geared clock. I also help him by drawing pictures, using stuffed animals, jumping up and down the steps while skip counting, and all the bouncy ways to do things that 1st grade boys like.

 

Spelling: He is studying words (with me) for our local junior homeschool spelling bee and also using Spelling Workout books A & B. When the bee is over we'll pick up Spelling Power again. I teach phonics rules on an as-needed basis (Spalding method), but we covered the basics in PreK & K. When we do spelling, I drill him orally. We stop after he's missed 4 words, and he practices them in a Spelling Power practice book.

 

Grammar and Writing: FLL, mom-directed dictation and copywork, and three narrations dictated to mom as SWB teaches on her writing lectures. We some of this most days.

 

Handwriting: HWT.

 

History: Tagging along with SOTW Volume III with his 3rd grade brother & sister about 2x/week. He reads books to go along with the history chapter of the week. He is really into this! Yesterday he read George Washington's Breakfast. Today he will read the 1st half of D'Aulare's George Washington.

 

Read to Mom: He reads a story from a Pathway Reader and a 2-page section from Every Day with God to me on most days.

 

Science: 2x/week we're doing Apologia Land Animals with big brothers & sister. We keep this simple. They color pics of animals I print out from the Enchanted Learning website while I read the text to them. Sometimes we do experiments or activities.

 

Computer Drill: Some Quarter Mile Math and Typing Instructor each day. This is quick.

 

Read Alouds: At night before bed, with all 5 of my youngest. We finished By the Great Horn Spoon last night. Tonight we'll start Mr. Revere and I (not in the right historical order, but who cares). Before that we read Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (they thought it was very strange, but loved comparing it with the movie).

 

The only thing I wish I had time for right now would be art and music. We read about famous artists and composers as they come up in history using the Wheeler or Venezia books, but I need to get out Discovering Art and Melody Lane and actually do them. I also have Cornerstone Curriculum's Adventures in Art and would love to do a picture study with my dc once a week.

 

He is a busy, active guy, and I just keep feeding him things to do.:) He also gets plenty of playtime.

 

HTH,

GardenMom

[Tarreymere]

My first grader is using Math Mammoth (we switched from Saxon) and we really like it. We have also been using FLL and that has worked really well too. We have been using WWE, and while it hasn't been exciting it is okay, but it is an area I plan to look around and maybe change.

We like SOTW and Song School Latin. For literature we are just reading through children's classics like Winnie the Pooh, ect. and talking about them.

We just read the Golden Children's Bible for Bible. We have been going through the Phonics Road level one and that covers spelling and phonics really well for us, and I am hoping that level two will help us with the writing and grammar too.

For science I am sort of doing my own thing. DD expressed an interest in animals, so we started with the defination of living things and what they need and went from there into vertebrates and nonvertebrates, to different kinds of vertebrates with a unit study on one example of each category to habitats, ect.

For art I get books from the library that are written for kids that look interesting and we look through them, we are now getting into looking at specific artists.

For music we have Napster and we listen to different genres, I am hoping to maybe get into specific composers but right now DD can tell blues and jazz and rock and whatnot by the sound of the music, which is good as far as I am concerned. We haven't done much classical yet. We have been doing some drumming (for rhythm) and singing, and we do hands on arts craftsy stuff.

[boscopup]

Literature and writing are 2 things I didn't list separately, but for literature I have looked at Beautiful Feet and Progeny Press.

 

There's no need for a literature guide (like Progeny Press) at this age. Just read, read, read, and discuss books lightly. We are doing a narration a couple times a week on the story he's reading, but it's done lightly, and we're not going into any kind of deep analysis. Mostly, I just have him read a chapter out loud, then he can read as much of the book as he wants to himself after that. The third day of doing this, he read 3 chapters total (one out loud and 2 to himself), which THRILLED me because he'd previously only read one chapter at a time from any book. Then this weekend he read through an entire Star Wars chapter book in one morning (yes, it's twaddle, but he was READING :D). I'm so glad we ditched the "reading program" and just went to reading good books and lightly discussing them, occasionally throwing in a simple narration (written by mom).

 

I don't plan to do any literature analysis until logic stage. I do ask some leading questions for our narrations, like after reading the first chapter of our chapter book, I asked who the main characters were. But we aren't discussing what we read every time. I want him to enjoy reading. One thing I hated about school was analyzing literature, and I think part of that is because we analyzed things to death so early that it just killed my love of reading. There is plenty of time to learn literature analysis!

[MomsintheGarden]

There's no need for a literature guide (like Progeny Press) at this age. Just read, read, read, and discuss books lightly. We are doing a narration a couple times a week on the story he's reading, but it's done lightly, and we're not going into any kind of deep analysis. Mostly, I just have him read a chapter out loud, then he can read as much of the book as he wants to himself after that. The third day of doing this, he read 3 chapters total (one out loud and 2 to himself), which THRILLED me because he'd previously only read one chapter at a time from any book. Then this weekend he read through an entire Star Wars chapter book in one morning (yes, it's twaddle, but he was READING :D). I'm so glad we ditched the "reading program" and just went to reading good books and lightly discussing them, occasionally throwing in a simple narration (written by mom).

 

I don't plan to do any literature analysis until logic stage. I do ask some leading questions for our narrations, like after reading the first chapter of our chapter book, I asked who the main characters were. But we aren't discussing what we read every time. I want him to enjoy reading. One thing I hated about school was analyzing literature, and I think part of that is because we analyzed things to death so early that it just killed my love of reading. There is plenty of time to learn literature analysis!

:iagree:

SWB specifically warns against doing lit analysis for the grammar stage. She says it often turns children into little analyzing robots who only care about getting the right analysis answer and who don't know how to enjoy books anymore. If you get a chance, I highly recommend purchasing and downloading her 3 writing lectures and 1 lit analysis lecture from PHP. They are cheap and chock full of information and encouraging advice.

 

HTH,

GardenMom

[MelanieM]

For 1st grade science TWTM suggests animal study, human body, and plant study. Basically you open the recommended encyclopedia, read a couple of pages, discuss and answer a couple of questions about what you've read. Add in experiments as interesting ones come up. I think that's a nice, relaxed approach and one you might enjoy. You could also do something similar using a lapbook approach. There are lots of great lapbook guides at http://www.homeschoolshare.com

 

For math, we really love Math Mammoth. My daughter (turned 8 in Dec) does this on an interest-led basis, so sometimes she will sit and do pages and pages, and then other days she skips it all together. But if we did it a lesson a day it wouldn't take anywhere near 1-1.5 hours. That sounds like a lot for 5 yrs old! In fact, I would think a whole day of school could usually be done in that amount of time at that age... unless your kid is loving it, of course. As I said, I have one that will sit for that long by choice, so I totally get that it happens!

 

For history, we absolutely love SOTW. Ancients is so much fun, and if you use the activity guide I think it is a really good fit for families that like a hands-on, unit study approach.

 

My daughter also loves WWE for writing. I've been quite impressed with this program overall.

 

For spelling we use Spelling Workout. Again, we do this interest-led, and my daughter will sometimes sit and do several lessons at one go. She really loves it. But it's arranged so that it's easy to work through the book by doing a lesson each week (a page a day over 4 days) in just minutes each day.

 

My son will be doing 1st next year and we'll do all of the above with him as well. :)

[Karen in CO]

For First Grade next year, my plan is to continue Phonics Road (handwriting, phonics, spelling, reading, writing), Continue BJU math along with Kitchen table math, and use Memoria Press Primary whatever it is called for everything else. She'll probably also start Song School Latin once she is reading well.

 

My older will be going off on a tangent with Eastern World history. I won't start history with this youngest until later (except what is covered in biographies that we encounter).

[ByGrace3]

thanks for all the insight. I have been looking at alot of the ideas/links mentioned. Question about phonics/language arts. I do think we will continue with Abeka phonics, but as far as the rest of LA, how much else is necessary? I was thinking to add FLL1. What else? Spelling? WWE? Do most first graders implement each component of LA?

I really like the look of Elemental science, and love that they have a 2 day a week option.

Also, I keep toying with the idea of a Sonlight core. Anyone done Abeka phonics with Sonlight read alouds? I have not been a big fan of the Abeka readers and have mostly been using Bob books this year.

one thought would be to use Sonlight core w/

Abeka phonics

Saxon 2

FLL1

elemental science

HWOT

Bible

 

Does that seem way off? what am I missing? Thanks!

[Ellie]

Spalding for reading, spelling, penmanship, simple composition and capitalization/punctuation. You wouldn't need to add anything else for English skills.

 

Miquon Math, unless you don't think she needs manipulatives, in which case Rod and Staff's Beginning Arithmetic.

 

I like KONOS for everything else, although it isn't, strictly speaking, classical or WTM.:)

[Soror]

We are stradling k and 1st here, technically I would put him at k this year and 1st for next our tentative plan:

 

HWoT- he generally loves this and we will likely be on the 3rd grade cursive book by then

Math RS B- will still be working on this I am sure

REading- I See Sam- not sure what level by then

Writing- WWE1

Grammar- will be starting w/ one of the Google texts, haven't picked one for sure

Spelling - AAS1

History-SOTW1

Science- Informal Nature Study and I think doing it the WTM way

Religion- Childs Bible, Bible History, Catechism, story of saints

Lit- Hodge Podge of various classics reading lists, I would like some comprehension and such to start with- not for everything we read but to introduce some ideas.

[Georgiana Daniels]

I agree with the PP's that Abeka phonics picks up in first grade AND the readers get better. (Still cheesy in some ways, but good quality.) Second grade phonics seems to slow down again, but honestly my dd who is doing 2nd grade can read like a champ, and my dd who is doing 1st grade Abeka phonics is well on her way.

[sbgrace]

That's an incredible amount of time per day for math! It sounds like Saxon fits you well though and if she's enjoying it I'd certainly continue. We spent about 15 minutes a day on math in K and not much more than that so far in first grade and I feel great about our math basis.

 

For read alouds why not just use book lists (Five in a Row, Sonlight, etc.) to find great read alouds? I'd use the library and amazon purchases rather than buy a Sonlight core based on what I saw in the 1st grade sonlight core especially given you're already Abeka.

 

Do you have anything for writing (WWE?) That's been a "hole" here that I'm looking to fill in some basic way.

 

For bible for first grade the new materials put out by SWB look really neat to me. We use Karyn Henley.

 

For our first grade we're doing:

phonics for reading and then, when solid, moving to Phonics Road for spelling and the rest of LA as it comes.

Read alouds and narrations (I use lists as I mentioned for my read alouds)

RightStart and MEP math

Bible (Karyn Henley materials)

Handwriting Without Tears moving to copywork

Core Knowledge curriculum for history, science, art, literature, and music (one of those topics per school day--not all subjects each day)

 

The only thing I feel uncertain about at this point is that we're doing so much less writing instruction (composition) than public school kids.

[AngelBee]

That's an incredible amount of time per day for math! It sounds like Saxon fits you well though and if she's enjoying it I'd certainly continue. We spent about 15 minutes a day on math in K and not much more than that so far in first grade and I feel great about our math basis.

 

For read alouds why not just use book lists (Five in a Row, Sonlight, etc.) to find great read alouds? I'd use the library and amazon purchases rather than buy a Sonlight core based on what I saw in the 1st grade sonlight core especially given you're already Abeka.

 

Do you have anything for writing (WWE?) That's been a "hole" here that I'm looking to fill in some basic way.

 

For bible for first grade the new materials put out by SWB look really neat to me. We use Karyn Henley.

 

For our first grade we're doing:

phonics for reading and then, when solid, moving to Phonics Road for spelling and the rest of LA as it comes.

Read alouds and narrations (I use lists as I mentioned for my read alouds)

RightStart and MEP math

Bible (Karyn Henley materials)

Handwriting Without Tears moving to copywork

Core Knowledge curriculum for history, science, art, literature, and music (one of those topics per school day--not all subjects each day)

 

The only thing I feel uncertain about at this point is that we're doing so much less writing instruction (composition) than public school kids.

I love your blog. :001_wub:

[ByGrace3]

ok, thought I would update with what I am thinking now! :tongue_smilie:

 

Sonlight core

Saxon 2 (or possible mm)

LA: Abeka phonics, FLL 1, WWE, AAS

Elemental Science biology, Lyrical life science

Bible

HWOT 1

 

so, what do we thing???:bigear:

[boscopup]

LA: Abeka phonics, FLL 1, WWE, AAS

 

 

If you're doing AAS, you could drop Abeka phonics. AAS teaches all the phonograms.

 

I dropped the separate phonics program when I started AAS a few weeks ago. Even though level 1 is pretty simple, my son has started to sound out more of those 4th grade words that require sounding out. So in 3 weeks, he's already had improvement in his phonics. We finish level 1 today, and level 2 will have lots more great phonics.

 

Everything else looks fine! (though I'm a Saxon K-3 hater, so I vote MM :lol:)

[SilverMoon]

ok, thought I would update with what I am thinking now! :tongue_smilie:

 

Sonlight core

Saxon 2 (or possible mm)

LA: Abeka phonics, FLL 1, WWE, AAS

Elemental Science biology, Lyrical life science

Bible

HWOT 1

 

so, what do we thing???:bigear:

 

I would do phonics or spelling, not both at the same time. Otherwise, it looks great. :001_smile: I have my little ones continue phonics until they are on their feet running with reading. Then a phonics based spelling book takes over.

[Mama2two]

We are similar to most everyone:

 

Language Arts:

AO for literature read alouds

ETC and readers for phonics

AAS

FLL and WWE

 

Math:

RS B and MM1 combo

 

History:

American history using picture books

 

Science:

RSO Life

nature study

 

Music:

composer study

piano lessons

 

Art:

artistic pursuits

[Homeschooling6]

Oooh, how fun to chat about 1st grade plans. This will be my last year teaching 1st grade :(

What my Lance, will use (most will be scheduled via Easy Classical 1st);

Reading Made Easy or Saxon Phonics 1

MCP Plaid Phonics B (if he finishes A this year)

Spelling Workout B (once he finishes A)

Shurley English 1

Bob Jones Penmanship K

Bob Jones Math 1

Big Truths for Little Kids

Memory, copywork and literature-Easy Classical 1st Grade Main Schedule.

Science-Easy Classical

History- Easy Classical