5 Hikers Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 My youngest will be 4 in May, and I am looking for a 1st grade curriculum for her for next year. She is reading short and long vowels, and learning compounds right now. She completed Singapore Earlybird Math, but I am looking at RS or MUS for next year. She can also write fairly well, we started copywork. She also ran through the R&S I have 2 other kids, the boys have dyslexia. My middle child is advanced in math and science, he will be in 3rd grade. I am looking at SOTW vol.1 with him, TT5 math, and a few different things for science. He sees a reading therapist who is writing his LA curriculum for next year, but we managed to get him reading on grade level. I plan to use FUFI with my oldest. Adding in history supplements, TT7 for math, and R&S 6 for Grammar. My dd loves arts/crafts and I would like something that appeals to her. She has excellent fine motor skills, along with great logical thinking. Is there something fun, but challenging out there? Please don't tell me she's young to just play. She begs to do school, and honestly it keeps her out of trouble too. She is constantly making messes and destroying things if I don't keep her occupied. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 You might want to look at the Sonlight cores and see if one of those is a good fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rbsmrter Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 My youngest will be 4 in May, and I am looking for a 1st grade curriculum for her for next year. She is reading short and long vowels, and learning compounds right now. She completed Singapore Earlybird Math, but I am looking at RS or MUS for next year. She can also write fairly well, we started copywork. She also ran through the R&S I have 2 other kids, the boys have dyslexia. My middle child is advanced in math and science, he will be in 3rd grade. I am looking at SOTW vol.1 with him, TT5 math, and a few different things for science. He sees a reading therapist who is writing his LA curriculum for next year, but we managed to get him reading on grade level. I plan to use FUFI with my oldest. Adding in history supplements, TT7 for math, and R&S 6 for Grammar. My dd loves arts/crafts and I would like something that appeals to her. She has excellent fine motor skills, along with great logical thinking. Is there something fun, but challenging out there? Please don't tell me she's young to just play. She begs to do school, and honestly it keeps her out of trouble too. She is constantly making messes and destroying things if I don't keep her occupied. I'm in the same boat you are and I've been disappointed with boxed curriculums; they just never fit our needs. I've ended up having to piece together things that work for us. It was hard for me to find a first grade level curriculum that was appropriate for our situation. My DD (4) needs second grade level math, but reads on about a K level, which presents some difficulties. With your daughter just starting short and long vowel sounds, she'd probably need a phonics program geared towards K with read alouds geared towards a higher level. Most of the individual curriculums at that stage are open and go, so you might be able to use the programs you love and fit them into a schedule that works for you. Good luck with your search! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Do you have a strong preference or requirement for: Christian; other religious; secular; young earth; old earth? For Christian, first grade, bright child, you might look at Easy Classical or Milestones Academy. Easy Classical has schedules for history, science, and all-encompassing. The history is strongly young-earth/6-days of creation; it's not quite out-of-the-box, but everything you need is listed on the site and you could order from Amazon or the other sites a box for yourself :). There are free samples of all the schedules. Milestones is an LDS (Mormon) Charlotte Mason site and so the religious-specific text could be omitted if you are not LDS, but the program feels very ecumenical to me. Milestones uses many resources that give an academic (ie, non-Creationist) view of origins and alerts the parents to them. You could also try Ambleside Online but I think Milestones is easier to implement. You could easily try Milestones over the summer first; and it would also be easy to create-a-box online. For nature study, you could box it with a Little Professor kit, maybe nature study or ecology, or astronomy. They are all-inclusive, but about $100 each. I have not found an umbrella secular program of any sort that I like. :( eek! cleanup hour again! I must go. one parting thought: could you "box" it yourself by subject and be happy? that would also let you maybe start a subject, figure out what works for y'all, then move onto the next one so nothing is too sudden. If you use MUS please look at MEP to supplement. It's terrific, and if you use MUS you needn't feel guilty about doing just the MEP worksheets and skipping out on the full lesson plans ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2smartones Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 I'm not going to tell you she's too young! My boys both started at 3. :lol: Seriously, though... boxed curriculum wasn't a good fit for us. I tried it when I was first getting started because I was completely clueless. It only took 2 weeks to realize I simply couldn't make it work. Money out the window! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5 Hikers Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 I'm not going to tell you she's too young! My boys both started at 3. :lol: Seriously, though... boxed curriculum wasn't a good fit for us. I tried it when I was first getting started because I was completely clueless. It only took 2 weeks to realize I simply couldn't make it work. Money out the window! I hoped to make it work with #3. The boys are both dsylexic, and so their LA skills were behind the rest. I just didn't want to piece a 3rd totally different curriculum together. I am glad some people can understand starting early. I get frustrated with people who tell you they are so little they should play. She gets bored and into trouble when I don't have activities for her. She begs for math! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5 Hikers Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 Do you have a strong preference or requirement for: Christian; other religious; secular; young earth; old earth? QUOTE] Thank you for all the ideas. I do prefer Christian. I actually have EC Grade 1 on pdf. I bought it for ds7, but he couldn't handle it. I will pull it back out. I looked at Milestones and it is very similar to AO and Charlotte Mason Help. I also do own LBC grade1. I was hoping to find something more hands on with crafts and games. I don't like WP or HOD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whereneverever Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 I'd look at Sonlight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 (edited) Do you have a strong preference or requirement for: Christian; other religious; secular; young earth; old earth? QUOTE] Thank you for all the ideas. I do prefer Christian. I actually have EC Grade 1 on pdf. I bought it for ds7, but he couldn't handle it. I will pull it back out. I looked at Milestones and it is very similar to AO and Charlotte Mason Help. I also do own LBC grade1. I was hoping to find something more hands on with crafts and games. I don't like WP or HOD. What about Oak Meadow? which comes to mind for hands-on. And you could bump up the math with the RightStart games, regardless of the math curriculum you choose. (ETA: Some folks with gifted children have liked Tapestry of Grace, which I think would suit theologically if EC did. It wouldn't be my first thought for you b/c it takes so much time to set up (relative to a true "boxed" curriculum) and you have several other children to educate and care for (though you could do TOG with everybody if you loved it). You can purchase the books (those that you don't borrow from the library) by quarter instead of by year, and then it is easy to adjust things up a level when you want to -- this is what TOG suggests doing esp. for a gifted learner. There's enough hands-on to satisfy, though you'll be collecting materials yourself.) An aside on science, one of my personal interests: one of the CM adaptations made by Milestones, which I liked, was the use of Apologia Science. You can purchase the texts as well as complete supply kits at Rainbow Resources, and they also have Junior Notebooking pages available. This might be a good box-style science curriculum for a bright child, though it depends on her level of interest; if you are going to do science, I myself would strongly recommend going with her own interests b/c she'll be motivated to follow a higher level of writing. -- I haven't tried the Little Professor Kits I linked above, myself, but they receive uniformly high reviews; they are much more expensive for a full year of science, though, since you'd need a few kits if you want to do science weekly. Oak Meadow does include science so this may not be an issue. I'm just a bit science-crazy and had to add it :) Edited February 16, 2012 by serendipitous journey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 It really depends on whether your child is working at roughly the same skill level across the board. My kids are too asynchronous for a boxed curriculum to work. I find that I have to adapt materials quite a bit because what is cognitively challenging enough tends to have output requirements beyond their physical writing ability. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5 Hikers Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 It really depends on whether your child is working at roughly the same skill level across the board. My kids are too asynchronous for a boxed curriculum to work. I find that I have to adapt materials quite a bit because what is cognitively challenging enough tends to have output requirements beyond their physical writing ability. She can do copywork and write out math problems as well as doing them. She can cut out all shapes perfectly and glue in the right spot. She colors totally in the lines, using different colors for different things in the same picture. She colored a pair of socks earlier today, they were pink with the heel part blue. She colored a sun yellow with the rays orange and the clouds black. She can form all her letters perfectly. I was looking at WWE level 1. My middle son loved FLL level1, so I thought I might try it with her. She memorizes super easy. She can recite prayers, scriptures, poems, and some books. Like Everyone Poops and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Thanks for the Sonlight ideas, but I heard they are not hands on and there are problems with the maturity of the books. She is already younger than what it is written for, I don't want to talk about issues that might give her nightmares. I have looked at Oak Meadow many, many times. I just don't know. Where would I place her in it? Reading wise she is on Semseter 2 of Grade 1 right now, but I imagine she will be further by August. Her math skills are strong too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleIzumi Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 Do you have a strong preference or requirement for: Christian; other religious; secular; young earth; old earth? For Christian, first grade, bright child, you might look at Easy Classical or Milestones Academy. Easy Classical has schedules for history, science, and all-encompassing. The history is strongly young-earth/6-days of creation; it's not quite out-of-the-box, but everything you need is listed on the site and you could order from Amazon or the other sites a box for yourself :). There are free samples of all the schedules. Milestones is an LDS (Mormon) Charlotte Mason site and so the religious-specific text could be omitted if you are not LDS, but the program feels very ecumenical to me. Milestones uses many resources that give an academic (ie, non-Creationist) view of origins and alerts the parents to them. You could also try Ambleside Online but I think Milestones is easier to implement. You could easily try Milestones over the summer first; and it would also be easy to create-a-box online. For nature study, you could box it with a Little Professor kit, maybe nature study or ecology, or astronomy. They are all-inclusive, but about $100 each. I have not found an umbrella secular program of any sort that I like. :( eek! cleanup hour again! I must go. one parting thought: could you "box" it yourself by subject and be happy? that would also let you maybe start a subject, figure out what works for y'all, then move onto the next one so nothing is too sudden. If you use MUS please look at MEP to supplement. It's terrific, and if you use MUS you needn't feel guilty about doing just the MEP worksheets and skipping out on the full lesson plans ... How did I not know about that one?? I am LDS and very CM. Hmmm..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5 Hikers Posted February 16, 2012 Author Share Posted February 16, 2012 Thanks for bringing up Easy Classical. I went and looked, I'm going to go with K and let her move at her pace for the rest of this year. I already own the majority of the books, so it works great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Brightandbusy Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 We are just finishing up sonlight grade one with our 4 year old. The language arts was awesome very busy our girl breezed through the first quarter as she could read already but it started things like defining words and spelling. The science was not quiet enough for her but she is very science minded it was easy to just add a bit. We loved the core and bible. We started out with right start but it required to much mommy time and she was quickly bored of it. So we switched to math u see and love it. Our daughter is moving through the books fast so i will start adding to her math soon. Hope that helps good luck choosing. As a side thought if you girl is as busy as our you may want to start another language soon we plan to start latin or greek this summer/fall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rbsmrter Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 It really depends on whether your child is working at roughly the same skill level across the board. My kids are too asynchronous for a boxed curriculum to work. I find that I have to adapt materials quite a bit because what is cognitively challenging enough tends to have output requirements beyond their physical writing ability. :iagree: I'm so glad that I'm not the only one that ran into this problem! It can be really tough when the writing ability is right on track and developmentally appropriate, but the cognitive ability far surpasses that level. I found that I was making so many adaptations and substitutions that the intial attractiveness (ease of use) was no longer there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisa in the UP of MI Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 (edited) I agree, boxed curricula don't fit my family either. Not only are my kids on different levels in different subjects, but I would end up tweaking them too much for it to be worth it. Your dd sounds more advanced than mine, but this is my current plan for next year for my will be 4.5yo for next fall: Along the Alphabet Path (Great stories and fairies! So fun for a girl.) http://www.ebeth.typepad.com/serendipity/along-the-alphabet-path-1.html HWT K AAS 1 (I start with spelling instead of reading.) & some pre-reading/reading games RightStart A (I think) Otherwise, she'll tag along with her older siblings as she wants. Edited February 17, 2012 by Lisa in the UP of MI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommy_of_4 Posted February 16, 2012 Share Posted February 16, 2012 We tried a box curriculum to begin with and DS was so bored with it. This year I am just piecing everything together. Thanks to all the suggestions on this board I am now brave enough to do it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5 Hikers Posted February 17, 2012 Author Share Posted February 17, 2012 We are just finishing up sonlight grade one with our 4 year old. The language arts was awesome very busy our girl breezed through the first Hope that helps good luck choosing. As a side thought if you girl is as busy as our you may want to start another language soon we plan to start latin or greek this summer/fall. Thanks for the review of Sonlight, those were some of my fears on using it. We already did SongSchool Latin and she loved it. I was hoping SSL 2 would be out soon. I may go with the Greek. My other thought was Clase Divertida Spanish. I bought this years ago, but my oldest was 8 and he thought it too young. Anyone use Muzzy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Thanks for the review of Sonlight, those were some of my fears on using it. We already did SongSchool Latin and she loved it. I was hoping SSL 2 would be out soon. I may go with the Greek. My other thought was Clase Divertida Spanish. I bought this years ago, but my oldest was 8 and he thought it too young. Anyone use Muzzy? I have heard unhappiness around Muzzy; which is too bad, I had high hopes at first. Don't know about Clase Divertida, but many people like L'Art de Lire for French. It's not too expensive but seems to be a one-woman show subject to shipping delays, so orders sometimes take a few months to show up. We have Song School Greek but I think the format must be different than SSL. It focuses on learning the Greek alphabet first (that's fine, for sure) and then has detective stories written in English words using Greek letters. The students practice reading the stories to gain familiarity with the Greek alphabet before moving on. Our problem was that the detective genre is completely unfamiliar to Button, and so the stories would have been confusing even in our standard alphabet, so we've put it off for a year or so. Maybe there's another set of SongSchoolGreek early activities and I am wrong about this; also maybe your daughter could follow the stories easily. We haven't had luck with Sonlight as a boxed curriculum, though I enrich with their language arts. I did have trouble using their 3rd grade independent readers with Button. They are largely historical and include references and logical jumps that prevented him from following the storylines. That said, reading's not his bailiwick (though he tested into their 3rd grade LA, that's why we used those readers); I haven't heard the same problem from other mamas. I edited an earlier post (I think!) to add Tapestry of Grace to the mix. Honestly it doesn't seem a good fit for your situation unless you use it for all the children -- way too much work for educating just one of them, IMHO -- but folks seem to have had luck adapting it to accelerated children. I'd have tried it but I teach a different early history (ToG is Creationist and teaches Bible history literally). if you do use Easy Classical, I hope you post your thoughts on it! I'm esp. tempted by the science schedules ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gracyomalley Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Tried Calvert when we started, dd 4 then finished Kinder in 4 months....Only "boxed" curriculum we have succeeded with is SL, and we use math and language arts at their different levels with Sonlight cores and readers, and more advanced science, plus add foreign language, art, tons of music, ballet and gymnastics... I do love Sonlight for getting advanced readers to make connections, analyze literature, see history as "real life" for people, etc...and I love the character studies they use - occaisionally "gritty" reality sinks in, as in when you study American History, people DIE....even people you have come to love through the books....and this is why many say that SL can be difficult to "overaccelerate". However, I found that for my most obviously gifted one, doing SL cores at the low end of the age recommendation was pushing enough content wise...the reading was still easy - but the subject matter challenged her. That being said, I would go with SOTW activity books at your child age....if she likes crafty stuff. My youngest tagged along with the olders through the first 3 SOTW books, doing his own mapping, coloring, etc, starting at about 4 years old. I like SOTW better than SL for the first history cycle, SL much better for American history (but not until at least 3rd and better at 4-5th grade subject wise). Then just pick and choose math and language arts. We had some success with McRuffy LA for a workbooky approach in the "phonics" age....youngest has done K-2nd, and its solid...we add R&S at the second grade level...and SL readers (they have tons of choices for cores A-C, so you can match readers to reading ability, not Core...however, from Core D (was 3) on the readers are historical and go with the core, that's why the poster who tried to use them felt they were out of context....there is a "readers 3" and "readers 4-5 " package that isn't historical, just good books for advanced readers with less intense subject matter... Anyway, don't forget to "go broad"....4 is a great time for art, dance and music lessons.... Erin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beaners Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Thanks for the review of Sonlight, those were some of my fears on using it. We already did SongSchool Latin and she loved it. I was hoping SSL 2 would be out soon. I may go with the Greek. My other thought was Clase Divertida Spanish. I bought this years ago, but my oldest was 8 and he thought it too young. Anyone use Muzzy? My children did not like Muzzy at all. I think my daughter was just under 4 when I tried it for French. I'm not familiar with Spanish curricula, but we ended up using Little Pim for our gentle introduction for French. I would check it out if your library has it. I don't think I'd buy it. My oldest is 4 and she enjoyed it, but we don't do much media so her tastes would probably run toward the younger end compared to a child with older siblings. I really like the background music. :blush: We moved on pretty quickly from there to more vocabulary, conversation and reading aloud, but it was a nice way to learn everyday household words. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
5 Hikers Posted February 17, 2012 Author Share Posted February 17, 2012 Thanks for all the ideas! I am going to use Easy Classical K for Lit. Pockets and the book list. I am going to use FLL and WWE1 along with continuing Phonics Pathways for Language Arts. We are in the middle of MUS Alpha, so I may continue her with that. I will have her tag along with ds7 for SOTW 1 and the activity book. I also am supplementing SOTW with suggestions from Guest Hollow's Ancient curriculum. For Science I am leaning towards NOEO Level1 Physics for ds7 and dd. Not sure yet about a Language. Glad to hear many didn't care for Muzzy, I don't want to waste money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaKinVA Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 You might try Song School Spanish or Song School Latin. It's fun, easy to implement... As far as boxed curriculum go, I've never been able to "do" one for K. My kids have always been all over the map, and it hasn't been practical. We've done K12, because I could pick and choose levels. That worked out alright. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abacus2 Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 If you are intrigued by Sonlight, you might try it with the Handle on the Arts supplement or with the SOTW activity book. Depending on how quickly her reading ability advances, you may be able to do P4/5 with her reading the books. The DEL workbooks are excellent, too, practicing very different skills from the typical preschool workbook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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