CLE K or First?

[Paige]

I'm considering homeschooling my K student. She always wanted to go to Kindergarten but we are not happy so far with what's going on. After 2 weeks, she is already wanting to come home. :( I'm just exploring my options now. I would want something very open and go, planned for me, and quick and easy. I don't want something that thinks I'm going to be pulling off all kinds of crafts and shiny projects all week. I was thinking CLE could be a good base program because she likes workbooks. In the previews, however, it looks very basic and more like preschool, but there's only 1 preview per light unit. She is not advanced, IMO, but already knows most of her phonograms and can sound out CVC words and is starting to branch out into more difficult words like CVC words with suffixes and VCE words. She can add and subtract combos of 1-10 in her head and do higher ones with blocks, and she's solid on her more/less concepts and place value with ones and tens. She can write well when she wants, but it is still largish and tires her to do a bunch.

 

Would she be better in K or 1st with CLE?

[alisoncooks]

Hmmm, I think that -- given her abilities -- she's more advanced than the CLE Kindergarten II program. I have CLE Kindergarten II right now, and I *had* CLE 1st (but returned it after having looked at it in person).**

 

My only concern would be that if you began CLE 1st grade, there is a decent bit of writing required (filling in letters/words/etc.), and I think the content/pace picks up pretty quickly after the first few units.

 

**ETA: I purchased CLE K for my youngest to do next year, however I now think we'll probably begin it after Christmas (she'll be 4.5). I bought CLE 1st for my oldest but she hates writing (even ETC workbooks bring out the tears and complaining.) We ended up buying Hooked on Phonics for her for her reading instruction....

Edited August 20, 2012 by alisoncooks

[mrs.m]

I don't think a K'er should do CLE 1st. They take into account that a 1st grader will be developmentally ready and it picks up pace fairly quickly and starts making some leaps. There is a huge jump into the 1st grade reading and LA once Learning to Read is finished. I do think a K'er might be able to do the math. 2nd grade is when that starts to make leaps.

 

 

Of course this is mostly my opinion other than CLE saying it is for 1st graders ;). I know some have done it successfully for K.