1st Grade curriculum help!

[Guest turrie1314]

Hi all! I am a homeschooling mom of three. My oldest daughter is 6 years old and is just finishing up with Kindergarten at home. My middle daughter is 3 1/2 years old and will begin PreK work in the fall. My youngest son is 7 months old and just chills while we work. :) We were members this year of a local Classical Conversations Community and LOVED it. We will continue that next year with my oldest moving into Apprentice class and my middle daughter in the Abecedarian class. So we will use the CC curriculum to cover fine arts, history, science and basic memory work. BUT I am struggling majorly with what to do for my oldest "first grader" and PreKer. This year we did Saxon Math K and were completely done with the entire year by November (starting in late August). We were not trying to be super speedy with it, but my daughter just seems to "get" math and would fly through a lesson in 10 minutes flat. She would be begging to do more because she was bored with what just one lesson covered. My three year old is pretty advanced in math as well as she can count up to 100 and is amazing at making patterns, knowing ordinals, counting individual items, etc. SO I have been going back and forth on what curriculum to use for next year. We plan on participating in Challenge (CC) in 7th grade, and they use Saxon 65 Math. So I know I will end up back on the Saxon train before it is all overwith, but I am thinking of jumping ship to either RightStart B or Singapore 1A and 1B for next year for my 6 year old. Any thoughts on which curriculum is "better" and which would flow more easily back into Saxon for 65. Or should I just tough it out and stick with Saxon to make the transition less painful when we do end up back with it in 7th grade? I am literally having a war with myself so much so that my husband said "just buy all three and figure out it later." Uh...NO! My head would explode if I had all three sitting in front of me...and I'm a CPA...I'm WAY to cheap to buy stuff that expensive and not USE it! *Sigh* Any and all help would be GREATLY appreciated!! Also any tips on what to start my almost 4 year old with would be appreciated since she is BEGGING to do "real math". She does not read and is just starting to write her letters and numbers, so "workbooks" wouldn't be a good option for her.

 

Second question is regarding language arts. I started off the year doing The Writing Road to Reading (with the teacher manual). We got almost all of the phonograms memorized and were starting to spell, which my daughter actually really enjoys doing (until I test her...then it's all tears and "I can't dooooooo it!" She has a flair for the dramatic, much to Mom's chagrin!). I, on the other hand, was almost in tears everyday because I just didn't "get it". I guess I should preface by saying that I NEVER had English Grammar as a child (switched public schools between 8 and 9th grade and due to different curriculums missed grammar COMPLETELY.). So English has always been my most dreaded subject. Therefore, I will be learning all of this WITH my daughter...yippee! I know everyone says to just keep reading the WRTR and it will eventually click. I've read it 3 times and it's still not clicking. SO, in January I switched to The Phonics Road which I loved at first because it gave me DVDs on HOW to teach it...BRILLIANT! This was the "missing" link for me! We've been mucking through it since then and she has just started "reading" with the early readers included with the series. But now I seem stuck again because I have had the hardest time finding an hour each week to sit quietly and take copious notes on the DVD lessons. Between three kids, helping my husband with his business and all of our other extracurricular and homeschool activities I rarely have time to just marinate in the lessons to truly get it and then be able to teach it. SO...I have looked into All About Spelling/Reading and it seems to be on the same general track as Phonics Road, but made more "teacher friendly?" HELP! What is the best way to pull myself out of this muck?! Should I just suck it up and stick with Phonics Road, should I jump ship AGAIN to All About Spelling/Reading?! I'm so confused! Also, I do truly love the way that the phonograms and spelling rules teach spelling and reading together, but I dread having to start all of this over again for my 3 1/2 year old. Does anyone have recommendations for what to do with her so that I am not in this same situation?

 

I really feel like I was holding my daughter (6 yo) back this year by my lack of skills in the lang arts area, so any advice would be GREATLY appreciated! :) We also plan to use Essentials with CC starting in 4th grade for writing. So if I switch to AAS/AAR would I also have to include a writing curriculum until we start up in Essentials?! AAGGHH! My head is about to implode thinking about all of this! :crying:

[mrs.m]

I think you are thinking too far down the line. Do what is best for your kids now and worry about Essentials and Challenge later. Your DD will be just fine when the time comes as you seem like a very diligent and loving mother! You do not have to use Saxon now in order for her to be able to use Saxon in Challenge and that is partly because they start at PreAlgebra (Saxon 87, not 65), so your goal should only be that she is prepared for PreAlgebra before she enters Challenge. Almost all of the children in my DD's Challenge A & B class never even cracked a Saxon text. Those parents weren't planning for Challenge A until they enrolled a couple weeks before. ;)

 

Right now for writing, pick up something easy to implement such as WWE 1. The best thing is focusing handwriting, spelling, & copywork. You can even have your DD copy some of the memory work sentences when she gets older.

 

I didn't really love AAS because it was so time consuming. I ended up using Spelling Plus but at the time I switched both my boys were reading and we were way past phonics. I used CLE to teach my youngest to read and my middle child learned to read in PS with some lessons at home using Teach Your Child to Read.

[wapiti]

I agree with the PP that it's too soon to worry about middle school. Use what works best now and cross the middle school bridge when you come to it. You don't even know what math level she might be in when she gets to 7th.

 

(As an aside, I don't know what the program is, but requiring Saxon would be enough for me not to go in that direction. There are lots of choices for math-talented kids, and Saxon wouldn't be on my list.) For the meantime, I think your inclination toward Singapore or Right Start is a good one.

[Michelle My Bell]

Be careful, you are falling into the trap that many new homeschool moms do... switching curriculum constantly. It sounds like Saxon was a good fit for your daughter so I would stick with it. It is unlikely she will continue at her current pace but if she does then do you really want to hold her back so she can line up with CC in the future? That is a long time down the road and you might not find it to be a good fit or you could move, the CC community to close down, so much could happen. Take it one year at a time.

 

As for the Phonics, this can be tricky because there are so many programs out there. I sorta think that you should just stick with the one that has given you success and make the time to watch the videos. I would NOT switch to All About Reading or Spelling if you are having time issues, because they are both time and teacher intensive. If you really want to switch, I would go with something simple like:

 

Explode the Code

Phonics Pathways or Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading

Rod and Staff Spelling Grade 2 (or wait a year on this as Explode the Code does some spelling work)

Lots of library trips, and/or Bob Books or other beginning readers.

[kiwik]

For the middle child. My son liked workbooks where you drew lines between the question and the answer or circled the answer at that age.