For 1st grade, how often do you/would you do these subjects?

[melissel]

I'm finalizing my lesson plans for August-December, and I got involved in some research here that has me worried now that I'm not doing some subjects often enough. I was surprised to find that lots of you seem to cover history 4-5 days per week. That's what started me second-guessing my plan. Can anyone weigh in on whether you think I'm planning for the right frequency in the following subjects? (My current plans are included.)

 

Formal Lit. Analysis/Suppose the Wolf Were an Octopus: 2X a week (one selection from SWWO per week to discuss, and tons of extra reading that we'll do more casually)

SWO A: 2X a week

Language Lessons for the Very Young: 2X a week

HWT: 2X a week

RS Math: 4X a week

REAL Science Life: 2X a week (I'm limited on this one, because I'm running it as a co-op that only meets on Tuesdays)

SOTW/History: 3X a week

Foreign Language: 2x a week

 

TIA for any insight you can offer!

[jennyt]

Hi,

 

I've just done history 3 times a week for the past few years, starting in grade one, and it seems fine for us. My second dd is in grade one at the moment - we're halfway through the school year in Australia. However, having been trying to teach my dc's a foreign language for the last five years, and reading a number of books on foreign language learning along the way, if there's anything that needs to be done daily, it's your foreign language. In my opinion anyway, it's a great skill to have with lots of benefit from it, but it's not really worth doing unless you do it daily. We do at least half hour every second day, playing games together with the language that we're learning or revising, and the dds do their own course work as well every day.

 

Whatever you do anyway, it'll be great, and I'm sure you'll make adjustments as you go along. I always do - start with a plan, but when you realise it's not going well, be able to adjust it.

 

Cheers,

 

Jenny

[StephanieF]

We are concentrating on the very basics. Handwriting, maths, reading (OPG plus early readers) 5 times a week. Handwriting is 2 sessions of 5 mins a day but I think it should be done daily. He listens to audio books when he is having a break.

From Sept we will also do history and science probably 2 times a week for each, I'll see how it does and I'll start FLL and possibly WWE. My ds is also 5 yrs

Stephanie

[Plaid Dad]

We did Latin, math, and copywork/penmanship every day, and the "subject" areas (history, science, geography, literature, religion) once a week. I can't see doing more than 60 or 90 minutes a day with a 6yo, so this schedule kept us focused.

[Haiku]

We are using Mosaic Intro to World History I. It uses SOTW and the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History as spines, and it schedules history every day. It seems to move pretty swiftly, though, and because we do school year round, I may slow it down a bit.

 

We are also using RS for math. I noticed you are doing math 4 times per week. Does that mean 4 lessons from the lesson book per week? We are doing math on T/Th. I have found that my kids do best if we do less math with more time in between lessons to really wrap their heads around the concepts. There is so much content in RS that I think my kids would be overwhelmed by four days of math each week.

 

Tara

[melissel]

Thank you all. I agree about getting handwriting/penmanship done every day. I know LLFTVY incorporates copy work. I'll have to see about coordinating that with our HWT work.

 

We are using Mosaic Intro to World History I. It uses SOTW and the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History as spines, and it schedules history every day. It seems to move pretty swiftly, though, and because we do school year round, I may slow it down a bit.

 

We are also using RS for math. I noticed you are doing math 4 times per week. Does that mean 4 lessons from the lesson book per week? We are doing math on T/Th. I have found that my kids do best if we do less math with more time in between lessons to really wrap their heads around the concepts. There is so much content in RS that I think my kids would be overwhelmed by four days of math each week.

 

Tara

 

Tara, I saw the other post about Mosaic last night. I'm intrigued, but didn't have a chance to really look into it. Someone else here offered their full schedule for SOTW (including activities, planning notes, etc.) that was arranged for five days a week, which got me wondering and researching. I'd love to use something like that; I just never thought about doing it every day, and I started to worry I was missing something! We school year round too, so maybe that's a factor.

 

About RS, I have it scheduled for M-T-Th-F, but that's for two lessons spread across the four days. We used RS A this past year, and DD did so much better when we spent a little less time on math each day, but did it more often. She struggled with remembering the concepts when we skipped days. She loves the math work and often wants to push on past the half lesson because she's enjoying it, but then she's very easily frustrated and distracted when we do that. A half lesson is just the right length for her--or has been, at least! If we need to tweak it, we will, of course. That's why I'm only planning through mid-December. I know how quickly things change, especially with kids this age!

[melissel]

Hi,

 

I've just done history 3 times a week for the past few years, starting in grade one, and it seems fine for us. My second dd is in grade one at the moment - we're halfway through the school year in Australia. However, having been trying to teach my dc's a foreign language for the last five years, and reading a number of books on foreign language learning along the way, if there's anything that needs to be done daily, it's your foreign language. In my opinion anyway, it's a great skill to have with lots of benefit from it, but it's not really worth doing unless you do it daily. We do at least half hour every second day, playing games together with the language that we're learning or revising, and the dds do their own course work as well every day.

 

Whatever you do anyway, it'll be great, and I'm sure you'll make adjustments as you go along. I always do - start with a plan, but when you realise it's not going well, be able to adjust it.

 

Cheers,

 

Jenny

 

Thanks Jenny. You know, as I was typing my plan out, I realized the exact same thing--that 2X a week isn't going to cut it for the foreign language. As eager as DD5 is (actually, they both are) about learning French, I have a feeling that one is going to fall by the wayside for the year. Maybe I'll start it slow, and if she's enjoying it and not pushing back on it, we'll ramp up the frequency.

 

Darn! Just when I thought I had everything in place... :lol:

 

Thank you :001_smile:

[kls126s]

We're doing first grade right now, and we school year round too. One of my goals is to be done with school in about three hours, depending on when we begin. Certainly before lunch. My dc are 6 and 3, so free playtime is still a big deal to me.

 

With that in mind we do Math (~30-40 min, depending on how long she piddles on her worksheet), Spelling (~10 minutes), Handwriting/Copywork (~15 min), and Grammar (~20 min) every day. (You can see our curricula in my sig.) Then we do History on Monday and Wednesday and Science on Tuesday and Thursday. We spend about an hour and a half on the content subjects, including read alouds, notebook pages (maps, narrations, coloring pgs), extra library books, and projects. Friday is for extras like nature study and geography and cooking.

 

We do math and LA stuff daily because I feel like that's the priority for this year. History and Science are kind of gravy, and some days we don't get to them because we're in a hurry to get to the pool or go to the zoo, and that's OK. She's only 6.

[Langhaven]

I look at it a bit differently. I like to look at when I want to end school for the summer and work toward that. By April or May, we are SOOOO ready to end our long winter and be outside. So, during the dark, snowy season, we work each day and end at noon. We are able to accomplish most subjects in that time, with history of some kind or a read aloud or project in the afternoon, which is pleasurable. We are usually done or winding down in April or early May.

 

Just my opinion FWIW--

 

Pam

[jennyt]

There is a real push towards keeping language-learning abilities (neural connections are lost, believe it or not) open in children by starting to learn a language before they are 7. I didn't learn any languages before 7 but learnt fluent Japanese in 2 years as an adult living by myself in a small town in Japan where that was all I spoke, and, though I initially was helpless without a dictionary, it was amazing how quickly I did pick it up when I was forced to. However, some Europeans that I knew living in other cities, who already spoke several languages from birth, picked up Japanese far faster and more accurately than I did. Ever since then, I guess I've felt language learning wasn't just about the language itself but a certain ability. And it's a very "social" ability - it means such a lot to people when you can actually speak their language or even pick it up quite quickly.

 

I started by not having it as a part of my school day at all, but as flash cards that we did after dinner or vocabulary memory games played as a family. It's sort of always been associated with fun. Just thought I'd mention that as you're doing your schedule, because it's easy to forget that some things don't have to be desk work or in "school time". I know some people look at the learning continuum and try not to be structured at all, but I'm an ex-teacher who works better with structure. However, over the years I've come to see Bible studies and language learning as something to be enjoyed as a family. dh learns our foreign language with us so if God ever grants us the opportunity to live there, he won't be the one with no idea. Less idea than the kids and I probably, now that they're doing it in "school time" as well, but better than starting from scratch.

 

That was a bit of a ramble but I've definitely been where you are now - all the things that you could do and never enough time. Actually, it seems to be always like that, but, as you said, some things do just have to be left till later.

 

Cheers,

 

Jenny

[brehon]

We did Latin, math, and copywork/penmanship every day, and the "subject" areas (history, science, geography, literature, religion) once a week. I can't see doing more than 60 or 90 minutes a day with a 6yo, so this schedule kept us focused.

 

:iagree:

 

What are your concerns about not doing history more than 3x/week at this age? Think of this year as more about exposure and less about retention in the history/science/geography/lit analysis/et al. I promise your dc won't be "behind" in anything. My 1st grade ds's day lasted a little under an hour, even factoring in the teacher dealing with other unruly children. :D

[FO4UR]

I plan on doing the 3R's daily, and Bible daily. Everything else will be once or twice per week. For 1st grade, history and science are just going to be an extension of read-alouds with extra's if we have time/interest. I will use history and science readings for copywork and narrations.

 

History - MON, WED

Science - TUES, THR

Art - FRI

 

I am going to work in a FL too. I plan on using RS, and doing it in the evenings when dh can "play" too.;)

[momtolgd]

My upcoming 1st grader will focus on the basics 4 days a week (we have co-op 1 day a week). History and science will each be 2 days per week along with her older brother.

 

Reading, writing, and math are the most important things in the early years for us, and sometimes the other stuff gets pushed to the side sometimes in order to get those things in order.

 

4 days per week: math, phonics, reading

3 days per week: grammar, handwriting, song school latin

2 days per week: history, science, music

1 day per week: co-op classes

 

We will also watch videos (discovery streaming) and read books on history and science topics whenever we can also, but 2 times per week is devoted to each of them. I think that is plenty for this age. :001_smile:

[mycalling]

With my oldest ds last year in first grade, he did math, ETC, copywork, and reading with me daily. Rarely he did some handwriting worksheets as issues came up in his copy work. That was plenty and he learned a lot.

 

This year we're keeping with that (MCP Phonics2 instead of ETC and a new math program) and adding logic in daily and American Sign Language at his leisure.

 

We're going to do 8 weeks of Science and History exploration throughout the year. I still don't see a need for a formal curriculum in those subjects but they would be fun to delve into without the skill subjects getting in the way.

[Titus.Two.Five]

We school 4 days per week, here is what we do:

 

Bible - daily

Math - daily

Phonics - daily

Dictation - daily

Reading - daily

Social Studies - weekly

Science - weekly

Art - weekly

[melissel]

Thank you all! I see that it's simply a matter of priorities, as usual. I think that's how I arrived at the decision to do history three days a week in the first place! I'm still not sure what I'll do, but as a PP said, I'm sure I'll end up tweaking it in the end anyway :lol:

 

Thanks!