1st grader and questions on type and amount of curriculum

[daisylou]

This is my second year homeschooling my kiddos and the first time I've had a 1st grader.  I think we might be going overboard on all the curriculum we use and I'm hoping I get some great advice here.  The subjects we are hitting are Reading (Abeka and other simple readers), English (Shurley), Spelling (switched from Abeka to AAS...Abeka was not working for him), Math (Saxon), Phonics (Abeka), and we are reading on composers as well as trying to get in History and Bible.  With all this I am having a hard time finding the time & energy to snuggle and read great books to him.  Where am I going wrong and what can I do?  I'm wondering if I can drop the Abeka phonics since we are doing AAS.  And does he really need English at this point?  I also have a 4th and 5th grader at home.  Thanks in advance!!!

[wendyroo]

My oldest is finishing up first grade.

We do school 4 days a week.

 

We do 30 minutes of a read aloud to everyone during breakfast.

Right after breakfast he reads from an assigned book for 10ish minutes and then does WWE 1 (2 days) or AAS 2 (2 days) for another 10ish minutes.

Math (either Math Mammoth 4 or Beast Academy 3) takes 15-20 minutes in the afternoon.

 

Everything else is done during "together school" time with the 4 year old:

Phonics - Explode the Code 5 independently while I do Logic of English with the 4 year old (10 minutes)

Loop 1 - Grammar (Evan Moor), Problem Solving (Mind Benders), Poetry (various), Map Work (Charlotte Mason-ish) (10 minutes)

Loop 2 - Science* (Mr. Q), Art (Home Art Studio), Science*, Lap Booking (Hands of a Child) (30 minutes)

*We did history in these slots during the first semester and are now doing science for the second semester

Computer/Tablet school - Typing or Spanish (10 minutes)

 

Overall he spends about 90 minutes a day "doing school" plus 45ish minutes reading to himself and 45ish minutes listening to read alouds.  Plus all the miscellaneous learning: a nature documentary during lunch, trips to the library, googling what fire flies eat, spending hours building with legos and cavorting outside, etc.  Since we only do school 4 days a week we also have lots of time for zoo trips, park days, educational trips to the DMV to renew my drivers license...that's learning about community helpers, right?  :P

 

Wendy

 

[againstthegrain]

This is my second year homeschooling my kiddos and the first time I've had a 1st grader.  I think we might be going overboard on all the curriculum we use and I'm hoping I get some great advice here.  The subjects we are hitting are Reading (Abeka and other simple readers), English (Shurley), Spelling (switched from Abeka to AAS...Abeka was not working for him), Math (Saxon), Phonics (Abeka), and we are reading on composers as well as trying to get in History and Bible.  With all this I am having a hard time finding the time & energy to snuggle and read great books to him.  Where am I going wrong and what can I do?  I'm wondering if I can drop the Abeka phonics since we are doing AAS.  And does he really need English at this point?  I also have a 4th and 5th grader at home.  Thanks in advance!!!

 

Though every child is different, I think everything you listed is too much. Why? Because 1st grade is about foundation more than long term retention. First graders do not have the mental development to learn spelling rules productively (we wait until 3rd/4th as do many others) and Language Arts instruction should really be gentler than Shurley in my opinion -- mostly because nearly everything they learn will need to be reinforced and retaught due to the age level. 

 

At first grade level, read to him. Read to him until you go hoarse. Read him history books with pictures, not history curriculum (If you lived when.... you wouldn't want to be books}. Read to him literature like Little House books, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the list goes on. Read with him actively with his phonics and reading using books that are geared to his interests. Abeka is absolutely fine - but by gearing the phonetic readers to his interests he'll blossom. 

 

Remember, this is just MY opinion. ;)  We have a mix of classical and CM methods, but it keeps the first grader from being overwhelmed, overworked, and on pace to enjoy school as well as time dedicated to be one-on-one with me... while still having tons of time to be a kid.

 

My 1st grader this year:

HISTORY: Read aloud SOTW, do some fun map work, coloring or experiment to go with the chapter. Work on narration. (1-2 a week)

MATH: Singapore (your Saxon is great)

READING: Phonetic step readers (1 a day)

PHONICS/GRAMMAR: Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading (1-2 lessons a week)... when we finish we move into the older 1/2 version of First Language Lessons

COPYWORK: We are using Rod & Staff 1st grade printing books (1 lesson per day)

SCIENCE: Nature study (notebooking as items are collected, trees rubbed) with lots of resources handy to research together (local tree/weed/flower/bird/tracks/scat/etc guides)

 

To summarize, my first grader spends 60-90 minutes of sitting work total daily (not all at once, of course)

Edited February 24, 2016 by againstthegrain

[Momto6inIN]

Last year for my 1st grader went like this:

 

4 days/week

Participated in our "morning meeting" - sing a hymn, read & discuss a poem, read a lesson from the manners book - every so often choose a poem to memorize & recite

Listened in to our MOH lesson and colored a picture

Spent 5 minutes going over the calendar together - different ways to write the date and abbreviations

Spent 10 minutes on Xtramath.com addition facts

Did a 10-15 minute lesson from AAR

Read a chapter of a short chapter book out loud to me

Read to herself for 20 minutes

Did 1 lesson from MM1

Did 1 page from HWoT

Watched a Magic School Bus video or did an activity from a Magic School Bus kit

Did about 10-15 minutes of AAS

Wrote a short copywork assignment from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Listened to a read aloud at lunchtime with everyone else

 

ETA: All this took about 2-2.5 hours/day tops, including read aloud time and morning meeting

 

1 day/week

Art, Music, PE

Edited February 24, 2016 by Momto5inIN

[SporkUK]

I'd drop English and Spelling unless they really enjoy it to give more time for reading and talking about books and things. 

 

Our Y1 looks like this (and Y2 is pretty similar this year due to M's difficulties):

I start an audio book in the morning for everyone to enjoy while I finish breakfast and get my laptop set up. I ask what happened last time starting with the youngest and going up and then they all listen. I tend to start lessons with a Y1 student while it's still going, the older kids are required to start independent work when it's done while I work with the youngest doing formal lessons. 

 

Phonics sat on the couch together with a big whiteboard across both our laps. We work on a sound or dipgraph a day, I write out a word sound by sound and after reading they write their word next to my word. I start using Don Potter's Blend Phonics and then get word lists from other places for trouble areas. I used to do Essential Spelling here but it was more trouble than it was worth at this age. 

 

Penmanship and reading - we have a lap whiteboard that is lined on one side. We start writing the alphabet (or as much of it as they can) and picking up to 4 letters to do a line of. We started with one letter, then us each picking one letter, then they pick 2 and I pick one to each of us picking 2. I then write them out like fxg and they do a line lower case, then I'll write FXG and they'll do a line uppercase. If they really struggle on a letter or to introduce a new letter or connection I'll use the blank side to practice. Break to work on a reader for a few minutes, starting with the Blend Phonics stories and moving onto I See Sam books. I'll pick a sentence as a guide to writing a sentence for copy. After they write out the sentence, they pick a number and write one big and one little down for a line (so one that goes up to the top and one that stays below the middle dash line).

 

Maths. 

 

After the big kids are done, we have a weekly rota of music and art and mindfulness and such that I ask them to try their best at. That's all I require. I include them in all reading alouds and documentaries and discussions but the above is their "lessons". 

 

 

Edited February 24, 2016 by SporkUK

[UCF612]

My 1st grader does:

 

Right Start Math 4 days a week, 1 day of "fun" math (RS games, sometimes we shoot baskets and for every one he misses he has to answer a math equation, board games, whatever we want that is mathy).

 

AAR daily - He struggles with reading.  We're getting him evaluated for possible mild dyslexia or working memory issues.

 

AAS a few times a week (he LOVES spelling so far but we're only level 1 and still at the CVC word point so he's doing well with it)

 

Writing in a "journal" - this is his free writing time.  He draws a picture and writes a sentence to go with it.  This is his to do with as he pleases. I don't evaluate it at all unless he asks me to.  He spells very phonetically in this. He does this pretty much daily.

 

Writing with RFP Aesop's Fables book.  We do a fable a week.  The content varies greatly.  Sometimes it has grammar stuff, this week for example we did letter writing.  He enjoys these.  They are very gentle IMO but cover a variety of English related topics as an introduction.  Any writing in this is either scribed by me or I write it and he copies so he sees the proper spelling and punctuations.

 

1 page of cursive with Pentime 3 (probably 3-4 times a week on average).

 

We do science and history with his brother.  Science is super fun, it gets done about 2 times a week..  History gets done very rarely (bad mom! but I'm more worried about skills right now).  

 

Literature - We do literature units with lapbooking from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  They are both loving this so far.  I get read aloud time in, and my oldest gets more literature study type work in while my 1st grader tags along and enjoys the lapbook component.  Lots of birds with 1 stone.  We also always have an audiobook to listen to in the car.  We all love it and can't wait to drive just to listen to our story!

 

So I probably do too much in some people's eyes and not enough in others but it works well for us.   We still have a ton of free play time in the afternoon before evening activities (sports/theater/church) begin.

[RKWAcademy]

I have first grade twins.  We spend maybe two hours tops doing school in the morning.  They are working on the same things for the most part.  We do reading (AAR3 - just finished finally), spelling (AAS1), Explode the Code workbooks (2 pages daily, they love this, and it's good review of AAR), and math daily.  Most days, we also do a bit of FLL 1/2 or WWE1.  We fail miserably at getting Science (RSO Life), Art (Home Art Studio), and History (a favorite, lots of different books and Adventures in America) most weeks.  Oh well.  We read after dinner.  I also fail at making them read to me later in the day or at bed.  They're still doing well and I'm happy with their progress.

[UCF612]

I will say my 1st grader this year is doing more seatwork and very different work than my now 3rd grader did at his age.   When my oldest was in 1st my younger son was in preschool half the day.  With both home I find it easier to give the first grader more so they are both working solidly for a good part of the day.  He is one who enjoys school work and I try to make curriculum choices that he'll enjoy and not feel bogged down.  He has never complained about the amount of work he has.

[ScoutTN]

Keep it short and simple! No more than an hour of seatwork and that not all at one time.

 

Math - We like RS or another conceptual math, but if Saxon works for your child, great.

 

Phonics until they are reading well. After that lots and lots of real books.  

Spelling - not until they are reading well. I like rules-based spelling that reinforces phonics. 

Penmanship/copywork  

Grammar - We did FLL 1 orally.

We did a couple of narrations each week, very relaxed and informal.

 

We did lots and lots of of read alouds, hands on science and art fun stuff.

Story time at the library! 

FTs to the zoo, theater, science center, parks, museums etc.

Play outside! Play outside some more! Play outside some more. 

 

History was just RA for us.We used SOTW and zillions of library books.  

 

 

 

[73349]

I would not be doing reading and phonics and spelling and English, no.

 

The link in my signature will show what we did last year and at what pace, if you click the 1st-grade tab at the far right.

[Targhee]

 

Where am I going wrong and what can I do? I think you are doing a LOT of language work which probably has redundancies.

 

I'm wondering if I can drop the Abeka phonics since we are doing AAS. Yes. If you are reading and learning phonics through encoding (spelling) I think you're good. I wouldn't use any program for reading now either - read to the child and the child reads to you, plain and simple.

 

And does he really need English at this point? No. If by English you mean grammar, usage, mechanics, then no. Do you have a handwriting program? I would suggest using a handwriting program at the beginning of each year and then do copywork throughout the year.

 

 

The two I have had for 1st grade at home had language lessons that looked about like this:

Reading - read aloud to me about 10 minutes a day, silently to self about 15-20 minutes

Writing - handwriting for the first few weeks of the year, then copywork a couple times a week; AAS

Listening - family read aloud 30-40 minutes a day (or more if we got carried away!)

Speaking - recitation

 

There of course was also incidental language work in other subjects - small amounts of writing, oral questions/discussions, etc. The main chunks of time were AAS and family read aloud. The handwriting instruction at the beginning of the year took about 10-15 minutes only (Rhythm of Handwriting cursive). I allowed my 1st graders to choose copywork from what they had read (they just had to show it to me first). The copywork (and the reading, listening, and recitation) reinforce proper grammar and usage, fill the mind with rich vocabulary, and are well suited to the skills and attention span of most 1st graders.

 

My point isn't that my way is perfect or well-suited to your kids, but that you can teach language arts (all of them) simply and successfully and don't need a separate curriculum for every little thing. Best wishes!

[daisylou]

Thank you all so much!  I'm going to think over all the comments and might be back with more questions! 

I did forget the handwriting...he does Wring for a Reason...we do need more copy work...and looks like maybe less language work.

 

When would you add a formal grammar if not now?

[againstthegrain]

Personally, we move into gentle formal grammar after we have completely exhausted Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. We do the older 1/2 version and take our time... when it's done (usually by end of 3rd grade) we don't touch formal grammar instruction till we hit 6th grade (we use Queen's between 3rd and 6th, which is not what I call formal) but begin using written vs. oral narration to reinforce the concepts FLL taught.

Edited February 24, 2016 by againstthegrain

[SilverMoon]

On 2/24/2016 at 7:52 AM, daisylou said:

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2023 by SilverMoon

[rocassie]

Here is what we do with my 1st grader (well the youngest hangs around with us too):

 

AAS

Math

CLE LA

Handwriting/Fine Motor Skills

Read Alouds (she can already read pretty well on her own)

 

Each subject takes about 15-20min and generally I will do about a half hour of reading picture books.  As I'm reading, I will often ask questions or point out pictures and other things.  As for history and science, I try to get that into read aloud time as well as having a lot of resources on hand.

 

[Targhee]

When would you add a formal grammar if not now?

Formal grammar? Somewhere between 5th and 7th grade, study it intensely for 1-3 years (however long they need), and move on to rhetoric. We do light, informal things from mad libs and living books (Ruth Heller, Brian Cleary, etc) to the minimal grammar that comes up in PLL and AAS. However, mostly we use the idea of exposing them to "reliably correct and sophisticated language" (thank you Andrew Pudewa). For myself and my students it's better to just wait on formal grammar until they can understand it well (and more quickly) beginning somewhere in the 10-12 years old range. We can spend roughly a year on grammar at that age (using things like AG or MCT) instead of constant time throughout the five previous years.

 

Other people, who learn differently than they, do prefer the gradual and repetitive approach of things like FLL.

Edited February 24, 2016 by Targhee

[cmarango]

I echo the previous posters in saying that it sounds like too much language work.

 

We do:

 

Memory work: poems, bird identification, painting identification, some grammar terms, etc

I read aloud selections from a Bible and Famous Men of the Middle Ages (our history time period this year) and another book of my choosing (usually from Memoria Press' enrichment guide)

Reading from a Sonlight reader every day

Phonics: M, W, F

Spelling ( AAS): T, R (includes handwriting practice now that we have reached dictation)

Math: Rightstart level B

Languages: Spanish on M, Tu, and F with Latin on W and Th

 

All of this takes 1.5 hours tops, and one could easily ditch the language work.