Your 1st grader's day

[StaceyinLA]

Can you share what your 1st grader's day looks like? What's your schedule? What are you using? How many hours are you doing school?

 

My daughter is wanting to get in a better routine, and is hoping for some ideas. I'm going to be helping her teach dgs this year, and would just like us to be able to find something that will work for both of us.

 

Thank you in advance!

[nixpix5]

I have two 1st graders and a 2nd grader right now but I will just cover 1st...

 

They all get up, eat breakfast, take showers and get ready. We start at 9am.

 

We all meet on the couch for some combination of History reading/bible/science reading and our lit book for ELTL. We don't do every subject every day. We tend to spend about an hour together reading and discussing.

 

Around 10am we break. One 1st grader sits with me for his math lesson, phonics lesson, reading outloud to me, narration and grammar lesson while the other first grader grabs his phonics workbooks, math pages, copy work and spelling you see workbook. He works on those while I give lessons. He is free to ask questions if need be as we all are in the living room.

 

Then we switch. The other 1st grader does his written work and I give the same subject lessons to the other 1st grader. At the switch we grab a snack to munch on while we work.

 

The boys are done with all core work by 1130 to noon roughly. We all break for lunch and play. Later in the afternoon we might art, a field trip, nature walk, science experiment, coding, music study etc. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we leave after lunch to our choice school to do piano lessons, theater, cooking class etc.

 

On Monday we throw geography in before breaking for cores. It doesn't add too much extra time. They each have for written work 2 phonics pages each day, 2 math pages front and back as I have them in 2 different maths each. A copy work from ELTL, one day of spelling you see work. Grammar is oral (FLL1). They may also have a geography page to do or something simple for history. If depends. I throw other stuff in occasionally to keep it fresh. (They also do simple science lab notebooks during experiments but it isn't too heavy).

 

So 9-12 is roughly our day with snack breaks and switching up. The rest is fun to them. We may still be doing one or two things later that are "learning" but they don't notice. They think it is all fun. We school year round so if we need to randomly skip a day of work to go on a field trip etc we can.

Edited September 1, 2017 by nixpix5

[MeaganS]

One first grader here, although she's a bit ahead in most subjects, this is the same schedule she'd have in whatever level she was in and similar to what her sister did at her age, although with different resources. 

Around 7:30 am- Independent reading for 30 minutes to the timer, then write/illustrate a journal sentence about what she read.

About an hour of math

About 20 mins of piano practice

About 45 mins of writing/grammar/spelling

This all happens before lunch. She's usually done around 11ish but as late as noon is we are lagging. She takes breaks between different subjects and also waits for me until I have a chance to help with various subjects. You can see in my signature what resources I use with her.

 

Science and History are more unschooled here. We do a lot of both, just very informally and in fits and spurts and rarely during school hours. Things like Mystery Science, Kiwi Crates, Snap Circuits, programming apps, Liberty's Kids, SOTW Audiobooks, Junior Rangers, Bug Collecting, CNN Student News, etc. She also listens to about an hour and half of audiobooks every day, between bedtime and quiet time. I hate reading out loud and this has been my solution to that.

[vaquitita]

I have a first grader, as well as two older kids, and a preschooler. He already reads fluently.

 

He wakes up around 7/7:30, makes his bed, wipes the bathroom sink, and then plays till breakfast. After breakfast he takes out the recycling and then runs off till I'm ready to start.

 

School starts somewhere between 8:30-9:30 depending on the day. The older kids get started on their math/copy work/science on their own. My 1st grade son sits at the table with me. He has a weekly checklist just like the big kids, but I sit with him and help him go down the list and do his work.

 

He does a page of Thinking Tree's brain games, math, HWOT (once this is finished he'll pick up where he left off last year with spelling you see B), EM Daily Science, and then we buddy read the 2nd grade Pathway readers. This takes 30 minutes, tops. Then he gets a recess.

 

Around 10:30/11 everyone meets together for our morning basket stuff. This takes two hours and includes: Bible, picture books, Brave Writer Arrow read alouds and discussion or a BW writing project, Beautiful Feet history or geography. He plays quietly while I read, but he does do a scaled down version of BW and history notebooking.

 

Then is lunch. After lunch, he has to check the dogs water and then do his independent reading. Which is two books, assigned by me. Right now it's a section in a vintage science reader and a Billy and Blaze book (he usually takes two days to read one of those).

 

So technically his school day is 3 hours, but those 2 hours of morning basket he's mostly playing and listening to me read.

 

Outside of our school hours, he will take a 45 minute early music class, a private drawing class with his siblings and one other family, and we do poetry tea and nature study each once a week.

Edited September 1, 2017 by vaquitita

[Ellie]

Can you share what your 1st grader's day looks like? What's your schedule? What are you using? How many hours are you doing school?

 

My daughter is wanting to get in a better routine, and is hoping for some ideas. I'm going to be helping her teach dgs this year, and would just like us to be able to find something that will work for both of us.

 

Thank you in advance!

 

When my little people were six, we got up around 8 and had breakfast and got dressed. On our Official School Days (Monday and Tuesday) we were usually ready by around 9-9:30. We usually did arithmetic and any formal English/reading instruction, then whatever else we felt like doing (often involving crafty things, or playing). We had lunch around noon, then I read aloud from a good book, just one chapter. Afternoons were free. They could watch TV in the morning after they were dressed and had breakfast; it had to be off by 9, and they could watch it again in the afternoon, but it had to be off at 3, and they were usually too busy. :-) On Wednesdays, we went to the library after breakfast, hung around until we were finished, then came home and read our books and had lunch. On Thursdays, we left the house for a field trip. On Friday we cleaned house, including the laundry, and did a monthly park day with our support group.

[Jackie]

We were first grade last year. We are *not* morning people. We had very flexible schedules. DD craves academics and doing a good bit calms her down. There's all my disclaimers.

 

Before 10:00 - get up, morning chores including eating

in the day:

- 2.5 hours of schooling, including 1/2 hour each of LA, Math, Foreign Language, 2 rortating child-led topics

- 1 hour lunch, which she helped prepare at whatever level was appropriate

- some out of the house activity (planned EC like gymnastics or simply a park day, kid needs the social interaction)

5:00-ish - end of the day chores, then free time

7:30 - family read aloud

8:00 - get ready for bed, then read silently in bed

10:00 - lights out

[PeterPan]

This is sort of different, but I can address the angle of trading between workers. I had that this past year, because I brought in workers for my ds who has autism. For my ds, it worked best to have a consistent order and consistent routine across workers. So whatever order one worked in, we ALL worked in. That way he knew what to expect and people could interchange. We also use a checklist on the whiteboard, so no matter who is working with him, the plan is visible.

 

What we landed on that works really well for *us* is a file folder system where we alternate worksheets in file folders and more preferred things like read alouds. It gives him a visible way to know ok, I have 3 file folders today or 6, and I'm going to have very fun/preferred things in between, and then I'm done. Some people use drawers or bins or vertical dividers on the desk. Lots of ways to do it.

 

Having that consistent structure then allows us to change out what is IN the file folders but still have it be a consistent, predictable structure. So whether you like a drawer tower or hanging file folders or whatever it is you like, that kind of structure can give him consistency and predictability across the person working with him but still allow you to be spontaneous and fun. :)

 

My ds, because of his autism, *function* in many ways like a 1st grader. He has a morning routine of responsibilities we are working to expand. So if you're working with him, his routine might start when he wakes up:

 

-make bed, pick up floor, get dressed. For my ds, we add morning exercises, sensory input.

-listen to Mom read Bible, take vitamins, eat breakfast

-free play for 10 minutes

-begin work (3-6 folders with preferred activities between)

-eat lunch

-finish work

-free time

 

We aren't exactly early starters, lol, and we're typically at 1 1/2 hours, maybe 2 a day. I try to keep it clipping. That would be a typical range for a 1st grader.

 

As far as what work, I find that where I am in life I gel more and more with some of the common sense parts of ps methodology. Some of it is total bunk, but some of it is really good! We use a lot more busy work and worksheets this time around than I did with dd. With my ds, that "busy work" is actually really, really beneficial! But the reason I like it, besides the fabulous SKILLS he needs to work on (it's only busy work if you don't need it, kwim?), is that it gives him a way to work independently or at arms' length a minute. Sorry, but I'm 40. You might be 40 or 50. You might be going whoa, I don't want to race to keep up with a 6 yo, kwim? So I'm much more matter of fact, like you sit here and work on this word search while I file my nails or knit or sip tea or whatever, kwim? 

 

I try to have 30 min LA and 30 minutes math, and I try to hit the math 3 ways, so that we're hitting a couple modalities and also getting in a math game. This is just me, but I put the LA things in the folders and sometimes math in folders as worksheets and other times math as the preferred breaks. For us, math with motion, math with a game, this is all highly preferred.

 

The other thing I do is have a math topic for the week so that we can be flexible how we're doing it. When you're sharing across workers, you can either make it idiot-proof (open and go), or have a topic and give creative people flexibility. So if our two topics of the week are time and money, then you can pick anything you want from the shelf to work on time and money, so long as it gets done.

 

My workers weren't so high level as a veteran homeschooler of many years, so with them I taught them a game and told them to play it every session that week, done.

[HomeAgain]

Bear in mind I had youngers at my house during first.  Our day went like this:

Breakfast

Chores

Morning Activity (park, library, outside play, free play indoors)

Copywork/dictation/spelling play

Music/art

History

clean up

Lunch w/read aloud

Math

Science

Outside play/indoor play

Clean up

Dinner

Bedtime routine

Reading

Bed.

 

 

[StaceyinLA]

Thanks for all the good ideas! Feel free to post more. I love reading what people are doing, and I know dd will appreciate the input.

Edited September 1, 2017 by StaceyinLA

[Elizabeth86]

We are currenyly doing a 4 day week and dh will have sat and sun off for the next bit, but when his schedule changes so does our.

 

Mon, Wed and Friday we take the smaller 2 to library storytime. My first grader has to tag along and he doesnt mind at all. Neither does the teacher because she used to be a homeschool mom too. There is another homeschool family there and her kids do wwork, but ds isnt big on being independent yet.

 

On Monday we come home and start on Abeka Language Arts. Hopefully baby naps after lunch and we do a lesson fro. Singapore Math. On Fri we visit with my parents after library. My parents play with the little ones and ds does school with me. On T and Th we try to get Math and Language arts done asap because we cannot count on nap any more. We have soccer in the evening. i never wake my kids as I feel this is a benefit to homescool, getting all the sleep you need. My first ds is just like dh and they both. have a terrible time falling asleep. If we arent goin anywhere we dont get dressed. We wear comfy clothes. Wed is a day off. After I get to feeling better we are going to start history, science and geography on o e dh's day off. Thats about it.

[Bonsai]

When we are home for the day, ds7 gets up around 7:30 or 8:00. He makes his bed, has breakfast and helps dd13 with feeding the dogs, chickens, sheep and pigs. We play board games or work with manipulatives for numeracy, read together, and work on projects. After lunch, we walk the dogs and he plays - inside or outside. He's usually in is pj's all day when we're home (Th,F). Mondays and Tuesdays we're home in the morning, Wednesdays we're gone all day.

 

We aren't using any formal numeracy or literacy programmes. He loves Bob Books, Willems' Elephant and Piggie series, and Sparkle Stories. We lean heavily on our library, visiting three different branches every week. He hates to write, but I've been able to sneak it into his projects. This year, he wants to make his own pop-up book (he adores Reinhart & Sabuda). He also wants to make a Mouse Trap-ish style board game and learn about bones (he collects skulls and teeth). The only other curricula purchases I made were the 1st Grade Star Wars workbooks and Smart Start story papers and board. He takes Meet the Master classes 1x/mo with a coop.

 

He's an active guy. Exercise is critical to his/our sanity. He takes classes in taekwon do (2x/wk), speed skating (1x/wk), and gymnastics (1x/wk). We also do activities as a family - swimming, rec skate, rock climbing, curling...

Edited September 1, 2017 by Bonsai

[wendyroo]

My kids are early to bed, early to rise.  They start waking up around 6 or 6:30am, but are not allowed out of their rooms (other than a bathroom trip) until 7am.  So, they all start their days with 30-60 minutes of free reading or listening to an audiobook.

 

Breakfast is at 7, and while they eat I read aloud.  After breakfast, tidying and teeth, my first grader starts on his handwriting and Explode the Code.  When I have a couple free minutes he reads to me from something in his book bin (I choose what is in there, and he chooses what to read on any given day).  This chunk of his work takes about 30 minutes.

 

Once I have the younger two kids cleaned up, dressed, and busy at the table, then the big boys pause whatever they are doing to do science as a group.  This takes ~10 minutes on days we are just reading, and about 20 minutes on days we are doing a project or experiment.  

 

After science, the toddler goes to play in her room, the preschooler either plays by himself or does "school" at the table, and I sit between the big boys to help them through the rest of their subjects.  The first grader does Spanish (Duolingo), writing (WWE) or spelling (AAS) on alternating days, some type of problem solving math, typing or coding on alternating days, and then some type of drawing or art.  This chunk of his work takes about 45 - 60 minutes.

 

This brings us to about 10am.  We have a snack and then go to an extracurricular most days: art, Spanish, gym, speech therapy, etc.  We get home, eat lunch, do math (Math Mammoth for about 15 minutes for the first grader) and then have quiet play / rest time for a couple hours.

 

Wendy

[barnwife]

Our kids are 7 yo, 5, 4, and 8 mo.

We do phonics/reading, maths, writing and RA every day (at least 4 days a week, often 6). We use Progressive Phonics. Maths is CSMP, Miquon, and random workbooks I've bought. (He is allowed to choose which he wants every day.) We use random workbooks for handwriting and whatever I choose on the spur of the moment for copywork.

As for schedule...we are slowly transitioning. They were getting up pretty early. We'd do some RA and eat breakfast. Then we'd go for a walk. Then it was either table time (handwriting and maths) or phonics time. I allow him to choose. Then there's some free play time. Then we do whatever hadn't been done.

Somewhere in there lunch would happen, as well as more RA.

Lately they've been sleeping in. But it's still generally breakfast, walk, maths and writing, small snack, free play, reading, lunch, more free play.

I do RA a lot. It serves as a nice transition from activity to activity and cool down option when they get on each other's nerves.

We go to the library once a week. Currently it's noon here. They've built with Legos, gone for a walk, and done writing and maths. They are currently playing nicely together. When it seems they need a break, we will do phonics. That will probably be followed by lunch and RA. We might go to a park this afternoon.


 

[mykidsrmyjoy]

We have an 8, 6, 5, 3, and 1 year old with one on the way.

We eat breakfast together at 7 and then do Bible reading with Daddy before he leaves for work. All that takes about an hour. 6 year old is in first grade, and after breakfast/Bible time she has to clear the table, brush teeth, make bed and get dressed. We all sit down at the school table around 8:30 and read various read-alouds and do Morning Time until around 9. Then I sit with the first grader and do about 30 minutes of CLE language arts. After that she does a 1/2 lesson of CLE reading. After that, she will either take a little break or we may forge ahead into math. She does one lesson of R&S math each day. At this point I move to the couch with the 6, 5, and 3 year olds and we read aloud for 15-30 minutes. That's pretty much the schedule she follows each day, except for Wednesday when she replaces language arts with a short history lesson in Bede's History of US. She also does a science lesson with Mystery Science once a week.

 

BTW, we school 4 days a week.

[SilverMoon]

.

Edited October 30, 2022 by SilverMoon

[StaceyinLA]

More great ideas!! Thank you!

[boscopup]

It's looked different for different kids.

 

Kid #1 (when I had a 3.5 year old and an 18 month old): SOTW, library book science, Math Mammoth (which he was accelerating through), AAS, FLL, WWE... Most of that didn't take a lot of time. I think we spent about 2 hours on school? It mostly was me trying to work around toddler and preschooler nap time. I remember going to nurse the toddler to sleep and telling my oldest that he needed to read from the library book basket for the time I was gone (about 20 minutes).

 

Kid #2 (ASD, though not diagnosed until age 10): Singapore Math, Phonics Pathways, Handwriting Without Tears, and we may have done FLL? I can't remember. He wasn't ready for history and science really, so we didn't do those. School with him was short and sweet. Still is now in 5th grade! :p

 

Kid #3 (precocious little thing): I think that was the year we did TOG Year 4 for history, he did Singapore math... I'm blanking on his language arts. Wheeler's speller? And I can't remember doing grammar with him... might have done WWE. Wow, how am I remembering my oldest better than my younger ones? :lol:

 

In general, I work with them one on one and try to keep things short and simple, because 6 year olds often don't have a great attention span. If they do better with a break between subjects, we do that. If they do better plowing through and getting everything done in one sitting, we do that. We do not school all day. They are usually done in a couple hours (at that age), including me reading aloud to them.

 

I'm not a project mom. I sometimes do them, but it's just not something I do a LOT. Obviously, if you do projects, that will add time, which is fine. :) When there are younger siblings involved, I try to do a lot of our school during nap time. Thankfully, all of my kids have taken good, long naps as toddlers. :) In fact, right now with grades 3 and 5 homeschooling, I work with my 5th grader first thing in the morning before my toddler is out of bed. The 5th grader needs to not have distractions, particularly for language arts. So we knock that out first.

 

 

[LMD]

We are 2/3rds through first grade, my son just turned 7.

 

We do:

Morning time - bible (he reads and does copywork)

Art - we all do a short watercolour

Singing - russian, latin and preschool songs (for the 4 year old)

History - I read and then scribe his narration

 

Then he reviews his memory work and does a Draw Write Now picture while I work with the 4 year old.

 

Then we do some math.

 

Then he has a break while I work with the olders. Usually he plays outside (we have lots of land), often with his little brother. Maybe an hour?

 

At some point we sit down for LA. We do reading practice, spelling/phonics and WWE.

 

Then violin practice and that's it.

[Spryte]

Our days vary a bit, and my current 1st grader's day looks different from the previous first graders.  At home now, I have an 8th grader and a 1st grader, so I go back and forth between them.

 

Kids get up and play (they are early risers, and get up together around 6 am).  They usually do art together at the breakfast nook table (today they used "how to draw" books - manga for the 8th grader and birds for the 1st grader), or they'll do some other maker type project. They have specific rules about nothing sharp, hot, no paint before there is adult supervision on the same level of the house.  This sounds a bit odd, but it's just how things have worked out here - they are very into making and creating, and the quiet house time is inspirational to the 8th grader, and he's good with the little one tagging along.

 

About 7:30 or 8:00, we have breakfast and chores.  They get dressed and ready for the day, and we chit chat and talk.  I drink coffee drinks and they show me what they've done.  They have a bit of free time until we're ready for school.  

 

We start school around 9:30 - 10 am.  We watch CNN10 - again, mostly 8th grader, but 1st grader tags along.  

 

We start with math - we are using Mathematical Reasoning, Level B, and she's flying through it, but we also do a lot of extra math games (physical) and Prodigy Math online.   She'll play math games on Starfall, or we'll do some file folder games to practice specific skills.  I have a lot of file folder games leftover from previous kids, so this is just a fun extra for her.

 

Next we do reading and phonics.  We're using OPGTR - I like to do 2 lessons in a day, but right now we have slowed down to one per day.  She is struggling a bit, so we are adding in games (board games, card games, file folder games), and sometimes some little worksheet type things to practice. 

 

Later in the year we will add FLL1, probably after OPGTR.

 

After that, we read aloud.  Right now it's the Tale of Desperaux.  And a bag full of library books.

 

We working our way through a geography workbook, and we'll usually do a bit of that after reading.  It's lots of coloring and some stickers, and just generally fun.  

 

We'll break for lunch whenever seems appropriate.  We'll listen to an audiobook with lunch or watch a semi-educational show.  And relax a bit before cleaning up.

 

Then after lunch we do some HWOT.  A couple days a week she'll choose a picture from Draw Write Now, and do the picture and the copywork.  

 

Depending on the day of the week, we'll do science (RSO Life) or History (Adventures in America this year, we're doing SOTW Vol 1 for 2nd grade).  

 

Art gets sprinkled in through every day, and weekend.  We are a big art and project family.  

 

Afternoons are for play and structured activities as they are scheduled.  So, either we'll have friends over for outside play (lots of neighborhood kids here), or we'll do a meet up at the park, or whatever.  

 

We have activities on Mon and Fri, weekly, and park time after on those days.  We hit the library once a week, usually on the weekend.  

 

That's really it for now.  Sometimes we vary the order of subjects.  I don't really care about the order in which we do subjects, as long as they all get done.

 

We don't do quiet time or naps, though I sure see the benefit of a structured quiet time.  If I could do it all over, I'd work that in, for sure.  :)

[cagirlintexas]

Currently I have a first grader (6 years old) and 3 year old at home.  Our currently plan is Right Start C one lesson a day, book shark science, history and read aloud, Handwriting without tears, and possibly copy work.  Besides that he plays soccer 3 times a week with his team.  He also practices soccer with me about an hour a day for fun.  Last year he was reading off and on maybe 1/2 hour to an hour a day for fun.  As long as he continues that we wouldn't work on reading.  My guess is school work should take us about an hour and then we do an hour most days of playing soccer at the park.  Besides that we do card games and then the rest of the time he is off playing.

[Lori D.]

When we started homeschooling, we had a 1st and 2nd grader. Pretty much everyone needed me for everything, so I had to figure out ways of keeping one busy while I worked with the other one-on-one, and then switch. (I used things like: 30-minute educational computer game turns; "fun pages" (mazes, beginner word searches, critical thinking puzzles, sticker book pages, etc.); geography jigsaw puzzle; work with a math manipulative and a go-along supplement booklet; educational video; solo art or science kit; audiobook; sidewalk chalk drawing time; etc.)

 

DS#2 had mild LDs, and was a slightly delayed reader, and struggled with math, spelling, writing, and the physical act of handwriting, so a lot of extra time was needed for one-on-one. Between those two factors, our homeschooling took longer than it would have for many other families.

 

Roughly, our homeschooling schedule with a 1st & 2nd grader looked like this 4 days a week:

 

9:00-9:40 = together time (Bible/family devotional, and miscellaneous "circle time" things)

9:40-11:40 (with 5 minute breaks every 20 minutes or so) = Math and LA (reading, handwriting, phonics, spelling, grammar) -- and often started History/Geography

11:40-12:40= lunch

12:40-1:15/1:30 = finish History, Geography; Science

daily, in 2 sessions that were each 30-45 minutes long, in the later afternoon and again before bed, we did family read-alouds of picture books, classic children's literature, and fun fiction

 

Fridays we did lots of educational board games/card games together, and sometimes an Art project, and we went to homeschool support group. The group was fantastic -- each month we rotated through 4 different activities: 1 field trip; 1 presentation day; 1 park/play day; 1 day for co-op class activity or a guest speaker or special end-of-semester event (Thanksgiving Feast, Medieval Day, Roman Day, Japanese Culture Day...)

_______________________

 

ETA: You also asked about specific materials used. We were homeschooling 1st & 2nd grades in 2000, so many of materials I might use if just now starting to homeschool a 1st grader weren't available to us. Things we used that worked well for us, with DS#1 strongly auditory-sequential and DS#2 strongly visual-spatial

 

math

- Miquon

- supplements: Complete Book of Math (gr. 1-2); pattern blocks, geoboards, and multi-link cubes with booklets; educational computer software: Millie's Math House, Mighty Math, Number Munchers

 

reading

Things that are now available that I would include, as they fit the child: Starfall website; Leap Frog videos; The Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading; Reading Eggs... What we did have and used:

- educational computer software: Bailey's Book House; Reader Rabbit; Word Munchers

- readers: I made some small vowel-controlled books for DS#2 as he was transitioning into reading

- readers: lots of stepped level books from the library

- read-alouds -- picture books, classic children's books, and fun fiction from Sonlight, Ambleside, and my own childhood favorites 

 

handwriting

- Handwriting Without Tears (used the teacher book ideas and adapted for slant cursive and on regular mid-line 1st grade paper)

- copywork (made it myself: single silly sentence focusing on a letter; or a 1 sentence riddle or joke)

- copywork: occasionally a paragraph from narration from History, copied one sentence at a time over 1-2 weeks

 

writing

JMO: I don't think many students are ready for a formal writing program until somewhere along about gr. 3-5. We used informal things in 1st/2nd grades:

- thank you notes for gifts

-  2-3/x a week: 1-2 sentence journal entry from a prompt

- occasionally: a book report, 1 sentence at a time, spread over 1-2 weeks

- activities from Games With Writing (Peggy Kaye)

- ideas from The Complete Book of Writing: Primary Grades (Majorie Frank)

 

spelling

Nothing worked well here until I started making our own. Today, I'd try All About Spelling, and I wouldn't worry about starting spelling until 2nd or 3rd grade with a delayed reader.

 

phonics

- Explode the Code

- some MCP Plaid Phonics

- supplement: Python Path board game

 

grammar

Another subject that's probably best for many students to wait until along about grade 3 before trying a formal program. Informal things we did in grades 1-2.

- Schoolhouse Rock: Grammar videos

- Mad Libs

- online grammar games

- English for the Thoughtful Child (done orally/out loud together in gr. 1-2 -- NO writing)

 

History

- lots of living books, hands-on activities, and educational videos; we did Ancients with DSs gr. 1 & 2

 

Science

- lots of living books, kits, hands-on activities, educational videos; we did Earth Science with DSs gr. 1 & 2

_________________

 

Things that worked very well for us with this schedule, and were of great benefit in our homeschooling:

 

- lots of educational supplements of different kinds was great "sneaky" support schooling when I was working one-on-one with the other child

- daily fun critical thinking puzzles really helped build thinking and analysis skills for later on

- meeting once a week with a small group (about 6-7 families total) with similar-aged children for some structured activities (monthly field trip Friday and presentation Friday) and some free park day play -- DSs could blow off steam, be with other kids, and I got emotional support, ideas, and fellowship being with other homeschooling moms of young children

- even if we had a bad day and set aside formal school, we would all curl up together and I would read, read, read, read aloud

_________________________

 

Two things I *wish* I had done:

 

1. daily after-lunch rest

have the routine of a 45-60 minute quiet time for everyone after lunch (and do that throughout all of homeschooling) -- can nap, read, listen to audiobook with headphones, do puzzle books, hand craft, whatever, but quiet solo activity so mom can recharge for the rest of the day ;)

 

2. weekly "poetry and tea"

once a week, make our together time (or schedule a 45 minute block of time) about a Charlotte Mason type of art/music/poetry appreciation, with some possible poetry memorizaiton -- a "poetry and tea" time

 

BEST of luck, StaceyinLA's DD, as you start homeschooling your own DC in the early elementary grades! :) Warmest regards, Lori D.

Edited September 4, 2017 by Lori D.