amyc78 Posted August 22, 2014 Share Posted August 22, 2014 We are 2 weeks into our school year and my 'trial and error' phase is wrapping up- time to make some decisions for DD5! Here is what I am thinking... LANGUAGE ARTS: AAR 1 at whatever pace suits us ETC 1, 2, 3 Sight word activities from 1+1+1=1 Various handwriting activities (no formal curriculum) Creative expression assignments from SL K Supplemental readers- BOB books and I See Sam MATH: No formal curriculum but various manipulative games and apps to teach place value, addition, subtraction, etc plus some Kumon workbooks on telling time, measurement and money EVERYTHING ELSE: We do Bible, CC, history, science, geography, arts and crafts, field trips, tennis, gymnastics and Readalouds as a family My goal for her this year is to build a solid foundation in reading and math concepts so that she is ready for 1st grade language arts and Math U See Alpha next year. Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amyc78 Posted August 22, 2014 Author Share Posted August 22, 2014 I should add that we won't do all of the above every day, we do kindergarten 3-4 days a week for about an hour, then spend the rest of our time on other subjects, free play, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 I wonder if using both AAR and ETC isn't overkill? I'd be inclined to choose whichever of the two she is most drawn to and just do that one. Otherwise, looks like a good mix of stuff! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie_0801 Posted August 23, 2014 Share Posted August 23, 2014 I See Sam introduces sight words as it goes along so I wouldn't bother with extra activities. If anything, drill on open syllables instead. If you like quirky maths, take a look at CSMP. You might find some fun stuff in there. (I'm finding it immensely valuable here, but I do skip a fair few lessons.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted August 25, 2014 Share Posted August 25, 2014 This is very, very similar to how we always do kindergarten. It probably took me 30 minutes a day to "teach" kindergarten. My number one priority is just to get them reading, read books to them and enjoy learning. And my youngest really liked the Explode the Code workbooks. It looks good to me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted August 25, 2014 Share Posted August 25, 2014 We are 2 weeks into our school year and my 'trial and error' phase is wrapping up- time to make some decisions for DD5! Here is what I am thinking... LANGUAGE ARTS: AAR 1 at whatever pace suits us ETC 1, 2, 3 Sight word activities from 1+1+1=1 Various handwriting activities (no formal curriculum) Creative expression assignments from SL K Supplemental readers- BOB books and I See Sam MATH: No formal curriculum but various manipulative games and apps to teach place value, addition, subtraction, etc plus some Kumon workbooks on telling time, measurement and money EVERYTHING ELSE: We do Bible, CC, history, science, geography, arts and crafts, field trips, tennis, gymnastics and Readalouds as a family My goal for her this year is to build a solid foundation in reading and math concepts so that she is ready for 1st grade language arts and Math U See Alpha next year. Thoughts? Well, just IMHO, I would not do AAR and ETC. AAR is wonderful and is PLENTY for phonics. I would also not do sight word activities as I believe it is detrimental to teaching reading via phonics. AAR will introduce some words as "leap words" which is like sight words, only you will learn the rules for them later. I think mixing phonics approaches can be confusing. I would just stick with AAR and be done. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amyc78 Posted August 28, 2014 Author Share Posted August 28, 2014 Thanks for all the feedback!! I *think* my final decision is: AAR 1 (we already own AAS for DS8 and we've done AAR pre, she likes it, no learning curve for me, minimal prep and we can move as fast or slow as necessary) Literature based packs from 1+1+1 (these cover reading, literature, basic maths, games, crafts, etc and DD loves them!) Creative expression assignments from SL K I See Sam and BOB books readers The only thing I'm stuck on now is handwriting. ETC has a decent amount of writing but AAR doesn't… I plan on having her write some of her AAR words because I think it helps with reading. Do I still need to add something like HWOT? She's a lefty if that matters Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 I know HWOT is popular, but it would be so much overkill for us. I ended up getting StartWrite software so I could make my own handwriting worksheets related to things we were reading/learning. Otherwise I would have gone with something simple like the Getty-Dubay workbooks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amyc78 Posted August 28, 2014 Author Share Posted August 28, 2014 I'm just starting to look at Getty Dubay, I actually think DD would like it better than traditional HW programs since it seems to be easier for her to curve and slant letters than to draw straight lines, not sure if this is a left-handed thing or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acsnmama Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 We do AAR and ETC, my daughter loves both, so she would be disappointed if we didn't do both! However, you don't need to. I do like how ETC helps them with handwriting. My daughter can write short sentences because of ETC. I love AAR so far, but ETC does have the added writing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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