How Much Does a 1st Grader Really Need?

[Bloggermom]

In a lot of signatures I see people doing so much more for their 1st graders than I am. Anyone mainly just concentrating on the 3Rs?

 

Here is what I am doing:

CLE Learn to Read

CLE Language Arts 100

CLE Reading 100

Primary Phonics Storybook Readers

Dreambox.com (for Math)

Various Read-Alouds from Mom and Dad

 

I bought AAS1 and plan to start that in a few months.

[Miss Marple]

Honestly, my feeling is that in first grade, 1 hour of structured "classwork" is plenty. The rest of the day (or several hours) should include hands on, fun learning (nature videos, nature walks, etc.). None of my boys had much attention span at that age so we changed things around FREQUENTLY and did a lot of fun stuff - field trips, cooking, creative arts, music, etc. They had 1 hour of computer/gaming time per day (oh, that was a lovely age).

 

Basic reading (including phonics), basic math, fun science and fun history (both of which can be incorporated into reading) - that's really all they need at that level IMO. And mine have done pretty well for themselves :)

[Kathryn]

I don't think much more is necessary beyond listening to good literature, learning to read and write, and arithmetic at the first grade level. However, as you see from my signature, we do a lot more. DS thrives on curriculum. He begs for it. And I comply. It does give me a feeling of insurance to feel like I have my bases covered, but I'd be just as happy if he were more content to run around exploring nature. Unfortunately, if he weren't doing "school," his next choice would be video games. :glare:

 

ETA - even with all I have listed, we spend 1-2.5 hours per day on academics.

[chepyl]

The only reason school tales longer than 1-1.5 hours for us is if DD is interrupting or if DS is being slow (usually because the mathis too easy).

 

R&S teammates takes 5-10 minutes, our memory work practice takes 5-10, spelling 5 minutes most days, 20 for a new work list and rule. For history we listen to the cd and he colors. We do a quick narration and we are done, Friday's we do an activity amd a worksheet. Science is similar to history. Math takes the most time. He does 15 minutes of quiet reading, reads his grammar lesson aloud and most days we do a read aloud at bedtime. We do a lot, but in small chunks of time.

 

As long as you feel your child is progressing at a rate appropriate for him or her, you are fine. Some kids need to be pushed and some just need to work the basics. It depends on the personalities.

[MinivanMom]

At the beginning of the year we were still concentrating on the 3 R's, but ds6 is reading very fluently now and moving into Singapore 2A so I feel like it is time to add a little bit more. I don't think that there's a right or wrong at this age. If your child still needs to build a foundation, then waiting on extras like history, science, foreign language, and art is absolutely fine. If your child has already mastered those basic skills and is clamoring for more, then that's fine too. My personal measure is those basic skills. I focus on phonics, reading, handwriting, and math until a foundation is laid. Once they are reading chapter books fluently and have mastered some basic arithmetic, I start adding in additional subjects. My oldest hit that level midway through kindergarten, but I made her wait until 1st grade to add in more. My current 1st grader hit that level about a month ago, so we have been transitioning to more subjects and a longer school day over the last couple weeks.

[boscopup]

If my first grader were still learning to read, I'd put most of my focus on that. When I had a first grader last year, he already read fluently, so we were able to move beyond the reading focus and spend some time on history and science. Kids read at various ages, and you may be seeing some of those early readers in there.

 

Also, some people use history/science to encourage their children to do the 3Rs. For example, you can get one of those early reader books from the library that focus on a history or science topic. Or you might use history or science to give them something interesting for copywork. Sometimes I'll just use history/science as a reward for getting the 3R's done: "When we're done with writing, we can do history!" :D

 

My middle son will be doing a lot (maybe all) first grade work next school year, and he will NOT be focusing on history or science. At the moment, he's still learning to read. He's not light years ahead like his big brother was at this age. So our focus will be getting his reading going. That's our focus right now as he does "K" sort of (he's technically K next year, but he asked to start when he turned 5... he's on the older side of his grade level). We have math, phonics, and handwriting. That's it. He can sit in on science stuff. I don't really have him sitting in on history right now (he's not ready for it). I don't plan to require history from him until we start back in Ancients when he's in 2nd grade (actual 2nd grade - age 7, about to turn 8). If his reading takes off before then and he's ready for more, I'll include him more in what DS1 is doing.

[Kathryn]

That's a good point about reading fluency. Kindergarten was very phonics-intensive here and he ended kindergarten reading at a very strong second grade level at least. He reads upper elementary chapter books to himself now. So, we aren't doing phonics at all besides the ETC books, which we only do because he loves them and had a fit at the thought of stopping them. When we were focusing on phonics and introducing math concepts, not much else was happening. And I wouldn't have added in components like grammar and spelling until we were finished with phonics.

[FairProspects]

There are a lot of different reasons and circumstances.

 

Some of us have to report every week on every subject because of charters or virtual schools. Personally, with a kid with LDs, content subjects are a great way to keep him "literate" and hearing sentence complexity and vocabulary while he is building the reading/writing skills that may take him years to develop. :)

[MissKNG]

We do quite a bit because dd is such an aggressive learner. This month though, we are concentrating on Bible, math, reading and lots of Christmas crafts.

 

She is a such math/science nut so we go heavy in those areas.

[LittleIzumi]

We don't feel like we're doing a lot at all, but it certainly makes a long list! We don't do everything every day, either. Grammar and logic trade off, history is only on Fridays, that sort of thing.

[Mommy22alyns]

We do more because Sylvia is a fluent, high-level reader. She also begged for SSL and logic books.

[go_go_gadget]

We don't feel like we're doing a lot at all, but it certainly makes a long list! We don't do everything every day, either. Grammar and logic trade off, history is only on Fridays, that sort of thing.

 

This is us, too. Our list is long, but half of it's things we only do one (science, logic, Latin, geography, spelling, art, music) or two (history) times a week. Math (either lessons or drill), reading, and penmanship happen every day, and writing happens three times/week (but two lessons are combined for one of those days, so it's four lessons per week). Short days are 1.5 hours, long ones 2.5 (unless people are tired or unfocused).