MotherOfBoys Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 Can you help me decide if what I have looks like it will work? You can see in my signature what we did this year. We quit Climbing to Good English 2 half way through because we needed a break. It's too dry, I think, was the problem. We do ALOT of readalouds. My son comprehends 3rd and 4th grade readalouds and is almost finished with 2nd grade readers. He has recently taken a liking to real books so we put the readers on hold. I would rather he reads real books from the library. We loved WWE1 for narrations and copywork plus we wrote letters to people on Fridays. We switched to MM from Saxon (K, 1, and 1/2 of 2) because of the price. My son misses the easy Saxon sometimes but it was making him too confident (arrogant). We block schedule Sotw during the first 12 weeks and Science after the New Year. Next year: Math: MM3 and Beast 3, 5 days a week LA: English Lessons Through Literature 1, 3 days a week Song School Latin 1, 2 days a week WWE2(I know ELTL1 has some copywork but not much and we really liked the cut and dry WWE1) , 4 days a week Pathway 3 (but prefer to keep reading real books, I need to find a list of ideas though), 5 days a week Block Schedule: History: Sotw2, with one project a week this year (last year we only read because I'm not a crafty person) Earth Science: A Child's Geography Vol 1 and Usborne Encyclopedia of Our World Astronomy: Maybe Apologia or nothing I was going to try to add in Art and Music next year. It could be a big fail though. Discovering Great Artists (library copy) and Music for Little Mozart's (already bought). I would rather out source this but our coop is in limbo right now. I am considering signing them up for classes an hour away at the Community Center in a bigger town once a week. It would be pricey but I think they would enjoy the other kids, time out of the house, and skills. Do any of you do this? We could take math and reading (Fridays stuff) with us to do during lunch or something. My younger son will be 4 and I would like to slowly teach him some letter sounds next year with Pathway's Learning Through Sounds. I'll probably pick up a cheap numbers book to keep him busy. So what do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 Your 1st grader seems to be working above level in some areas...so I'm confused about what your question could be? If your 1st grader can truly handle that level and volume of math and language arts..well go for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotherOfBoys Posted June 4, 2014 Author Share Posted June 4, 2014 Sorry, I should be more specific. Math is a do the next thing at this point. He does that on his own. I will add that Design a Playground or the CM run your own pet shop thing in future years but right now we are good there. Do you know of a place I can get a 2nd -3rd grade book reading list? Would you still use the Readers? If so, how often? Is there something I need to know about doing WWE2 and ELTL1? I have heard WWE gets harder quickly so I'm prepared to wait a year on WWE3, if necessary. This is one reason we are not doing the SpellingWorkout C that I've already bought. Would you drop the music and art at this stage? Spend the $$ on two community center classes? Should I wait on that because of the hour drive and $60 a semester cost? We would only do it in the first semester. Or would you wait because it's not worth it at this age? Is there another extra I could add to give him more depth instead of going farther in the stuff I've got? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellie Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 Can you help me decide if what I have looks like it will work? You can see in my signature what we did this year. We quit Climbing to Good English 2 half way through because we needed a break. It's too dry, I think, was the problem. We do ALOT of readalouds. My son comprehends 3rd and 4th grade readalouds and is almost finished with 2nd grade readers. He has recently taken a liking to real books so we put the readers on hold. I would rather he reads real books from the library. We loved WWE1 for narrations and copywork plus we wrote letters to people on Fridays. We switched to MM from Saxon (K, 1, and 1/2 of 2) because of the price. My son misses the easy Saxon sometimes but it was making him too confident (arrogant). We block schedule Sotw during the first 12 weeks and Science after the New Year. Next year: Math: MM3 and Beast 3, 5 days a week LA: English Lessons Through Literature 1, 3 days a week Song School Latin 1, 2 days a week WWE2(I know ELTL1 has some copywork but not much and we really liked the cut and dry WWE1) , 4 days a week Pathway 3 (but prefer to keep reading real books, I need to find a list of ideas though), 5 days a week Block Schedule: History: Sotw2, with one project a week this year (last year we only read because I'm not a crafty person) Earth Science: A Child's Geography Vol 1 and Usborne Encyclopedia of Our World Astronomy: Maybe Apologia or nothing I was going to try to add in Art and Music next year. It could be a big fail though. Discovering Great Artists (library copy) and Music for Little Mozart's (already bought). I would rather out source this but our coop is in limbo right now. I am considering signing them up for classes an hour away at the Community Center in a bigger town once a week. It would be pricey but I think they would enjoy the other kids, time out of the house, and skills. Do any of you do this? We could take math and reading (Fridays stuff) with us to do during lunch or something. My younger son will be 4 and I would like to slowly teach him some letter sounds next year with Pathway's Learning Through Sounds. I'll probably pick up a cheap numbers book to keep him busy. So what do you think? I haven't been able to look at the samples of ELTL, but doesn't it do everything based on good literature? So isn't there overlap with the Pathway reader? I'd drop the reader in a heartbeat, not that it's bad but that I just don't think the overlap is necessary. If your ds enjoys reading it, and it's lying around and he picks it up, that's fine, but I wouldn't make it part of the schedule. Ditto with WWE. Or drop ELTL. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotherOfBoys Posted June 4, 2014 Author Share Posted June 4, 2014 I haven't got ELTL yet. It should come in the mail this week. I thought I read the stories to him in ELTL. Oops. Then yes, I will drop the reader. He loves the stories till just recently but I find them so boring. I'm glad he became distracted. We read Paddington Bear today and Mike Mulligan yesterday! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdventuresinHomeschooling Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 I think you could go to real books vs. readers when the child is ready. Maybe have him read aloud every so often so you can evaluate his reading. WWE2 is not too different from WWE1 except that the dictations and passages get a bit longer incrementally. I just have the teacher's guide and not the workbooks and choose my own selections, so it is really easy to tailor to your child if he's not ready for longer passages yet. As to the art and music, only you can answer whether or not your child needs it this year. My oldest is very artistic and musical. We organized a group of homeschoolers and approached a local private school art teacher to teach a class for us after school. Worked out really well. We are moving away next year, and I am going to do some things with him on my own for a year and then find a class. A year off isn't a huge deal. We haven't started his formal music lessons yet because a family member will provide them once we move. Think about how much your child will enjoy them. It sounds like you don't really want to teach them these subjects so it will probably be good. Although that drive sounds long too. I don't think there's a wrong decision here in first grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pitterpatter Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/517020-list-of-quality-literature-for-second-graders-to-read/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 Would you drop the music and art at this stage? Spend the $$ on two community center classes? Should I wait on that because of the hour drive and $60 a semester cost? We would only do it in the first semester. Or would you wait because it's not worth it at this age? It depends on your child. You could listen to audiobooks on the hour's drive though. Mine liked the summer sessions for Art classes because they are more intensive and longer duration per class. They love the ceramics/pottery classes which is why we outsource Art. My kids like Music for Little Mozart at that age and they could follow the books pretty much independently. We drop readers in kinder and just use non-fiction books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanikit Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 Your child is working ahead if he is just starting in first grade. I see he is 5 years old - when does he turn 6 and how is his handwriting? I found with my DD6 who started first grade in January that her handwriting picked up quite rapidly this year and her stamina for writing increased so I just adjusted what we were doing based on that. It is usually the dictation that causes problems in WWE as it can get long and also you have not mentioned much about your child and spelling - how is his spelling and what are you using - sometimes being able to spell to a certain extent can help when the dictations are longer (WWE dictations are not there to teach spelling, but having numerous words they have to ask you how to spell can become trying for some children). I would stop the readers (I am not keen on readers actually) - look at various book lists (I know Sonlight and HOD have a list of books for younger readers) and if you can examine some of the books you will be able to find more at the same level that are suitable for your child. It also makes it easier to gradually increase their reading level if you can find books that gradually go up in level (I now use Scholastic's search function to find the reading level of books we have around the house and ones I have bought so that I can judge when to use them as a reader for my child - she chooses her own books for independent reading and I choose for her to read to me) Personally I have found SOTW2 harder than SOTW1 to have regular projects - I am not a very crafty person, but SOTW1 seemed to lend itself more easily to regular projects - there are plenty you can do with SOTW2, but many of them to me seemed to be linked to only a few chapters in the book (I am sure many people will disagree with me here - but if projects stress you out, just leave them and do what makes you and your child happy). I had plans of doing Art and Music this year - we have not got around to it regularly - we may block schedule something short, but it would never be a full subject here. I also tend to link Art and Music to the read alouds we are doing - whenever something gets mentioned we look it up and discuss it depending on my child's interest. This is the first subject to drop if there is a problem in my house. How much different are your plans this year from the previous year - while this is first grade it looks like you covered most of first grade last year which means you are a seasoned homeschooler :) and therefore unless you are making huge changes you should be just fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotherOfBoys Posted June 4, 2014 Author Share Posted June 4, 2014 Thank you all! He will turn 6 in a few weeks. His handwriting is fine. He switched to cursive a month ago and is now doing all copywork in cursive. We did Spelling Workout A and B this year. I don't feel like he really learned anything. I bought Spelling Workout C for next year but I feel like copywork is what's teaching him more spelling. Spelling Workout taught him crosswords... Thank you for the reading list pitterpatter! I will look into Scholastic's webpage. I would love to use the books we already have but what order is the problem. Maybe that will help. ELTL just came today in the mail. Level one is really easy. I don't see a problem with it and WWE2 at the same time. I'm thinking he could read the AESOP fable to me each day. I do want him reading to me each day. I would like it to be about a fable in length but increase in difficulty over the year. How much different is my plan from this year? Well, this year was supposed to be Saxon Phonics K and Saxon Math K. We changed drastically from the start of the year to the end. He's gone from k to 2nd in reading and math. It was expensive and exhausting. I, and my dh, want next year to be simple, cheap and steady. I think he's evened out now. For the last few months we've been twiddling our thumbs and increased our readalouds till I lost my voice yesterday. He had me reading Deltora Quest. I had no idea it was 8 books long for just the first part alone! :crying: I told him I had to stop after the first 8. I have never read a series that is that long in my life. He's outside right now acting out the story with his brother. They use easter eggs as blisters. I am learning the more spines with library books I do the cheaper the course. Workbooks are not going as well as they used to. He either speeds through them or gets bored and refuses (Climbing to Good English and Spelling Workout). MM is problematic but we do it on my tablet and the whiteboard instead. Yea, the first thing to go next year will be art, music, and Sotw projects. I want to be the fun mom but it's just been hard holding on this year. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CherryBlossomMJ Posted June 4, 2014 Share Posted June 4, 2014 For reading lists: Memoria Press Literature Veritas Press Literature Sonlight Read Alouds and readers Ambleside Online Book Lists Seton Supplemental Reading List MODG book list Google IB Book list Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanikit Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 Don't count on him having evened out yet - he is still young and they tend to go in spurts and starts for quite a while. It can get expensive when your child is running through curricula - that is when reading real books helps. I do my own spelling for my child since it works out cheaper for us - mostly it is via dictation and a phonetic overview of the most common words (separating the lists of common words into their phonetic spelling does take time and is additional work, but it has saved me a lot of money in the end and also spelling is now basically open and go for us until she has all those words mastered - then we may move to working with roots, prefixes and suffixes as she will have all the phonetic spelling possibilities down by the end of those lists. Because our library is not very good and it is far to travel and like you I am going through endless read alouds, I am now using free online sites to borrow digital copies of books and read those to my child. There are sites where you can borrow many modern as well as classic books if you sign up. This has also saved me a fortune, made it hard to pick what to read and means that I am always running at least 3 read alouds with my eldest child at once since I also like to read to them from genuine books (the younger child does better with real books now as she is still very young). Sounds like you have kept up with your child well this year - just keep adjusting as necessary. Your plans look good - if it goes faster than you anticipated just reevaluate and adjust. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hellen Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 For the last few months we've been twiddling our thumbs and increased our readalouds till I lost my voice yesterday. He had me reading Deltora Quest. I had no idea it was 8 books long for just the first part alone! :crying: I told him I had to stop after the first 8. I have never read a series that is that long in my life. He's outside right now acting out the story with his brother. Thank you! You might want to look at audiobooks to preserve your voice. There are lots of audiobooks out there. Even the Deltora Quest books are available as audiobook. Your library may not have them but hopefully they do have something interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MotherOfBoys Posted June 5, 2014 Author Share Posted June 5, 2014 Thank you! I would love to do spelling myself. I'll look into that. We have done all the audio books in our library from the kids and juniors section, that are appropriate.. I have interlibrary loan though. We listen to an audio book before bed. I still want my kids to hear my voice though. I'm feeling pretty good now about our stuff. Thank you. I will look into spelling and readalouds for him and me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CardinalAlt Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 I've used this site for free spelling lists, k12reader.com, and am still using it occasionally if she doesn't find enough words to study in her weekly copy work/dictation. I let her pre-test until we have a list of 12-15 words... You sound like you're doing great - your child is self-propelled :). One thought that might reduce stress with the history projects... Does he like them? Could you move more to letting him decide how to respond to and communicate what he's learned? For my dd, that often looks like creating games, a few times she's chosen to do book reports, once she let me interview her on video as a person in history... Much less parent driven, so less stressful for me. I support instead of driving the responses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korrale Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 We loved ELTL initially. And it is a great program but we found it too simple with the grammar component. But mixing in WWE 2 should be a good mix. The book selection is good. And the copy work is nice. My son is not much of a writer so using Draw Write Now and various spectrum books have been a good fit. For reading lists I highly recommend the following blog. She has lists for all kinds of circumstances. There are classics and contemporary books mentioned. Thus far for us the selections have been spot on. http://www.whatdowedoallday.com/books-for-kids Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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