Need First Grade Help!

[TinaBlue]

This is my first year of full time homeschooling. (DD attended preschool part time last year and did a relaxed kindergarten at home.) We'll be doing first grade this fall.

 

Last year, we finished MM1A and a good chunk of 1B and worked on OGPTTR on and off. She's progressed a lot in her reading/phonics by reading with me and independently. We also did some copywork.

 

I could use some suggestions for materials for this year. I want secular curricula, which narrows it down quite a bit, but I'm still finding it really tough to decide.

 

I have a busy 3yo and a getting-busier 6mo, so I also need to make sure I'm not getting myself in over my head when it comes to prep work.

 

Math - Will continue with MM.

 

Phonics - Will finish out OPG

 

Spelling - Should we finish OPG first, or start now? She's a good reader, but doesn't seem to be a natural speller.

 

Grammar - GWG? FLL? KISS? Something else?

 

Writing - WWW? WWE? Something else?

 

Handwriting - We have some Kumon handwriting and cursive books, but she hates the repetition. The writing part of math makes it drag out forever because she gets careless, makes reversals, etc. and gets upset when I ask her to make corrections. Not sure how to make this fun, but she really needs the practice.

 

Science - I'd like to do BFSU (maybe on the weekends when DH can assist) along with Life Science/Bio studies (animals, plants, human body). I've looked at RS4K, REAL, ES, but I think a textbook may be easier...or should I just try to pull something together on my own?

 

History - I'd love to do Ancients this year, but I'm having a tough time getting on board with SOTW.

 

Geography - Evan Moore? I'd like an overview of map skills, world geography, and the 50 states. (I'm sure I can put together the 50 states part on my own, but she'd probably like something with activities/worksheets/coloring.)

 

Anything else that I've missed?

 

Thank you!!

[Aurelia]

Spelling - finish OPG, then do something like AAS, which will also help with her reading and, if you have her write the words, her handwriting.

 

Grammar -I'm not a big fan of formal grammar at this age, but if you really want to do it (though this would be the first thing to drop if the younger kids are too distracting) FLL is a good choice. We did the grammar portions of Jolly Grammar (it has grammar and spelling) about that age for a gentle intro. There was plenty of coloring and a worksheet for every lesson.

 

Writing - I like WWE1, the copywork will help reinforce the handwriting.

 

Handwriting - do as much of the Kumon books as she can do perfectly. Don't let her get sloppy. If it's one line, fine, praise her and put the book away. She doesn't HAVE to do the whole lesson in a day.

 

Science - If you have the time to read and organize the lesson and supplies for BFSU, go for it. If not, read science books from the library and get a couple of experiment kits. Go for a nature walk once a week. Talk about what you see and how things work. It will really be fine.

 

History/Geography - Why not try something like Galloping the Globe? She'll get a little bit of history of each country if you want, plus you can substitute some of the Christian-based books for secular resources and get science (mostly biology, with animals around the world) that way. At least at my house, history is going much better with waiting a couple of years to do it formally. We did SOTW1 for Ariel's first grade year and it was ok, but she really started enjoying and retaining it when she started doing third grade work. Prior to that we read books and watched videos. It went so much better than trying to have her memorize the Egyptian pharoahs in chronological order or even remember anything about Alexander the Great other than he had a horse; by reading biographies and watching things from different time periods, she's got more "pegs" to hang her formal history lessons on. Now I get "OH, I remember THAT!" versus "Um, I don't know."

[Ellie]

This is my first year of full time homeschooling. (DD attended preschool part time last year and did a relaxed kindergarten at home.) We'll be doing first grade this fall.

 

Last year, we finished MM1A and a good chunk of 1B and worked on OGPTTR on and off. She's progressed a lot in her reading/phonics by reading with me and independently. We also did some copywork.

 

I could use some suggestions for materials for this year. I want secular curricula, which narrows it down quite a bit, but I'm still finding it really tough to decide.

 

I have a busy 3yo and a getting-busier 6mo, so I also need to make sure I'm not getting myself in over my head when it comes to prep work.

 

Math - Will continue with MM.

 

Phonics - Will finish out OPG

 

Spelling - Should we finish OPG first, or start now? She's a good reader, but doesn't seem to be a natural speller.

 

Grammar - GWG? FLL? KISS? Something else?

 

Writing - WWW? WWE? Something else?

 

Handwriting - We have some Kumon handwriting and cursive books, but she hates the repetition. The writing part of math makes it drag out forever because she gets careless, makes reversals, etc. and gets upset when I ask her to make corrections. Not sure how to make this fun, but she really needs the practice.

 

Science - I'd like to do BFSU (maybe on the weekends when DH can assist) along with Life Science/Bio studies (animals, plants, human body). I've looked at RS4K, REAL, ES, but I think a textbook may be easier...or should I just try to pull something together on my own?

 

History - I'd love to do Ancients this year, but I'm having a tough time getting on board with SOTW.

 

Geography - Evan Moore? I'd like an overview of map skills, world geography, and the 50 states. (I'm sure I can put together the 50 states part on my own, but she'd probably like something with activities/worksheets/coloring.)

 

Anything else that I've missed?

 

Thank you!!

 

• Do OPGTR.

• Do FLL.

• Don't do spelling, don't do WWE.

• Do something more purposeful for handwriting, like Handwriting Without Tears, or Zaner-Bloser, or whatever. I don't think Kumon is enough.

• Don't do anything formal for science. Some library books, plant beans in wet cotton balls in a glass, put a mushroom on a dark piece of paper with a bowl over it for a night and in the morning look at the spores scattered on the paper...IOW, just do some very simple hands-on activities, plus checking out books from the library on things that look interesting.

• Don't do history *and* geography, unless you do something that all the dc can participate in, like the Sing Aruond the World geography songs.

 

[alisoncooks]

My 6 yr. old DD will be in first this year. We also did a preschool outside of the home (2 days/wk) and a VERY relaxed Kindergarten year.

 

Our plans for this year:

Reading: OPGTR + ETC + BOB books

Bible

Math: Singapore

Spelling: no formal spelling this year (had AAS and sent it back, we'll probably do R&S next year)

Grammar: no formal grammar this year*

Writing: no formal writing this year*

*we're doing an Evan-Moor Writing/Grammar workbook

Geography: Evan Moor Beginning Geography

Art: How To Teach Art to Children

Science: we're following TWTM recs (animals, human body, plants)

 

I had a much more involved plan (with WWE + another writing, FLL, Miquon in addition to Singapore) and I had to have a reality check with myself. I decided I'd rather start small, succeed and build....than to start big, crash and burn. :)

[chepyl]

I used Spelling Plus and the dictation book for my first grader last year. It can be your handwriting, writing, and spelling all in one. We did a list of words one week and did dictation the next week. The dictation includes work on spelling and basic grammar and punctuation; I emphasized his penmanship with dictation.

 

We did SOTW and that had enough geography for first grade. We had done continents in Kindergarten.

 

I liked RS4K science because there was not much to it. It jad good information, but 10 chapters and labs made it easy. We added other fun little things here and there. We made an edible cell with a giant sugar cookie, we have a lot of gardening going on, but he got the basics of biology with little time. We were able to really memorize the info since we took a year on the short book.

 

More is not always better, sometimes it Is just more. For firat grade, with two little ones; lots of reading together and playing games will make life easier. We drilled math with bingo, yahtzee, and monopoly; dd played along with some help and DS learned his math facts.

[lilybrooke14]

My daughter is six, and this is our first year too. She went to PS kindergarten, where she mostly just learned bad habits.

 

We're using Sonlight Core B with the first grade readers. I think I'm going to order Explode the Code too. She's a bit of a reluctant reader, so hopefully those will be fun. We have AAS, but we haven't really started using it yet. I got the Sonlight Science, and we're doing nature walks with a nature notebook as well. She really likes science, so I'm looking forward to that. We've also started Saxon 1 and Artistic Pursuits.

 

I was thinking of ordering Zaner Bloser for handwriting. So far I have just been printing off handwriting sheets Online with her copywork and the weekly words from her Sonlight readers. She kind of hates that though, and I think she might like the workbooks better.

 

I have Drawing With Children in my Amazon cart, so we can both work on learning to draw, and thanks to this board, the Magic School Bus DVDs as well. I am still trying to figure out how to work music and PE in too. We can't really afford any music lessons for her, so we were thinking of getting a kid's guitar or keyboard and a learning course to go with it. We'll probably just count playing outside as PE until we get her in a regular sport. She's having trouble picking one.