craftymama Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Having recently decided to overhaul our school program I am looking for thoughts on what I might be missing. My son is 6 and is in the "first grade." I am reviewing all reading rules from the beginning (though we are going quickly) with The Ordinary Parents Guide... because while he can read books he doesn't seem to really retain the ability to read. So if a word is in one book but not the second and then in the third we have to relearn the word. Side note - his language focus has been German in the German culture for most of his life. I would also like to start reading more advanced books to him. In a few weeks we will start a spelling program. Either HTTS or AAS. Writing is a big question mark at the moment. Math is not getting changed. I don't use a curriculum and he's doing well. It helps that we both love math. We are going to continue with geography (Europe at the moment) one day a week while adding in history with The Story of the World two days a week. I will also be using this for reading comprehension for the time being. Science is also not being changed since I'm not that far off of what WTM recommended and he's doing well and he loves it. I am a craft and project addict of sorts so art is fine. He'll continue practicing his glockenspiel from Germany and listening to both English and German music. We'll keep making up PE as we go until he gets into either swimming or ice skating or both. What am I missing?? Writing and... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 I think you have all the basics covered if you find something you like for writing/handwriting/basic grammar (such as capitalize the first letter of the sentence, put a period at the end for first grade). It does seem that teaching reading should be the main focus. I found that my kids didn't really get phonics until they started a spelling program, so I think you have a good idea about including that. If you are American, you may want to include something about beginning American history or civics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craftymama Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 Do you have any suggestions for writing programs? I'm looking at First Language Lessons which people seem to like. I'm not sure about WWE for the boy. I think he might hate it. And yes, we are American. We've spent most of the year up to this point studying cultures and the geography of North America to help his transition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Memory work: poetry memorization, etc. Living Memory by Drew Campbell, from lulu is excellent. We love IEW's Linguistic Development thru poetry. Classical Conversations has CD's of memory work in 6 subject areas. SOTW CD's. Also, lit. We have on-going read-alouds. Books on tape from the library, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Do you have any suggestions for writing programs? I'm looking at First Language Lessons which people seem to like. I'm not sure about WWE for the boy. I think he might hate it. And yes, we are American. We've spent most of the year up to this point studying cultures and the geography of North America to help his transition. I am very happy with Rod & Staff English starting in second grade for grammar, but I have yet to find my favorite resources (especially grammar) for first grade. Here are a few ideas you may like to consider: I have not used FLL, but I do use WWE once or twice per week mostly for listening comprehension rather than for writing. As a disclaimer, I don't fully agree with the "classical" writing theory since I am more of a traditional person in that regard. I think WWE is a nice program for improving listening comprehension, though. I like Winning with Writing which is a very traditional-style writing program, though I have not yet used the Level 1 materials. I have liked Levels 2 and 3 very much. This company also has Growing with Grammar, though I haven't used it. I tried CLE grade 1 for grammar, and I think it has a lot of great things. The main problem is that I *HATE* the phonics. The whole program gets under my skin becuase of their phonics rules. Maybe if I just crossed those exercises out, I would like CLE. It really does have many good things in it. You may also want to consider copywork for writing if your son doesn't read well enough to do one of the other programs. I am going to order some copywork books from Memoria Press for next year since they look like they are good quality. I just ordered Language Smarts Level B from the Critical Thinking Co. since we are going to run out of things to do after CLE gets finished in a few more weeks for my first grader. I am looking forward to getting this one. These are the things that seem to be good quality for writing/grammar for first grade which you may like to consider. I hope you have a good year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted February 26, 2012 Share Posted February 26, 2012 Writing with Ease. Fantastico!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craftymama Posted February 26, 2012 Author Share Posted February 26, 2012 Why do I feel so confused??:confused::confused::confused: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Twain Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 Why do I feel so confused??:confused::confused::confused: Why don't you tell where your son is in writing and grammar now, which writing philosophy you would like to pursue (i.e. classical/Charlotte Mason, or traditional, or something else), and what your goals are for writing for him during first grade. Then people can tell which programs would fit your situation. Would that help? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErinE Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 If he's in first grade, don't worry too much about his writing skills. Have him read passages to you, summarize them, and write down what he says. If you prefer, have him do as copywork one sentence from his narration. The important thing to remember about first grade is most children are finishing up reading so writing will be a delayed compared to his reading Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PookieMama Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 (edited) Writing is a big question mark at the moment. If you wanted to try WWE for the writing, there is a sample of the first (and 10th) week of the workbook on the PHP website at http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/media/downloads/pdfsamples/wwe1sample.pdf. You could try the first week w/ him and see how he likes it. I've used it for 2 dc so far now, and they both love it. I feel like it's really helped my 7yo dd w/ her listening skills and comprehension, and I am using it as an opportunity to point out grammar to her. She's fairly solid on starting proper nouns and sentences w/ a capital, and ending sentences w/ a ./?/!, just from the copywork and me pointing things out. I have a GWG level 2 book that I will have her do next year for direct grammar instruction, but this has been a gentle intro for her. Edited February 27, 2012 by PookieMama Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloggermom Posted February 27, 2012 Share Posted February 27, 2012 I consider Writing With Ease 1 (WWE1) and First Language Lessons 1 (FLL1) to be "must-haves" for 1st grade. I also HIGHLY recommend Explode the Code (ETC). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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