fortheboys Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 (edited) I get it...I am totally sold out to the classical method of homeschool. My DC will really do well with this type of approach. Now what do I do? My DC are 5 and 6 year old boys. DS5 is a typical K'er and DS6 is pretty advanced. We have been homeschooling for about a month and we use now: Moving Beyond the Page-which we hate and are willing to dump! Handwriting without tears-which is OK for DS5 but not challenging enough for DS6. Explode the Code-which I really really like for DS5, DS6 finished book 2 in a little over a week. RightStart Math-which again we hate and are sooooo going to dump! We also do calendar and Bible everyday. We also do some reading together everday, DS6 does about 15 to 20 minutes independent reading as well. Right now we are doing very little to nothing for science, geography, or history. I feel like we are barely covering the basics, with little real learning going on. DS5 know all his letters, their sounds, how to write them. He is doing VERY well with cvc words, but I am at a loss as to where to go from here. DS6 needs to be challenged more then he is being now. We work through our states distant academy so they help with the purchase of curric. I am thinking about using Saxon math, or Excel math. But I am not sure what else to do. I know that we need to tackle spelling and grammar. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! eta: We are going NOTHING for art and music, but the boys do not enjoy coloring or crafting. I think that they would enjoy picture studies and the like, but not the actual producing of art. They are both interested in learning the guitar, so I think that we are going to lightly pursue that at home (we alread have a guitar for them.) Edited November 16, 2008 by fortheboys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Governess Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 Welcome! I also have little ones, mine are even *littler* than yours. My curriculum is in my footer. We are loving everything so far. I think though, that once we are done with HWOT's kindergarten workbook I am going to switch to Zaner-Bloser's first grade workbook and some copywork. If your ds6 is already reading very well, I think the first few ETC books are going to be too easy for him since they are basically just covering blends. We just finished book 3 and I started there with dd4 because she was still having a bit of a problem with silent e. After going through this book she has improved quite a bit. Book 4 looks much more intensive, they teach about syllables, and how the type of vowel sounds in the word tell you where the syllable breaks are. It also covers word endings. I'm using ETC as our spelling right now since at the end of each lesson they are required to write out the words independently. I'm not going to start a spelling program until we're through all the ETC books. I'm planning on using Tapestry of Grace for history, but it's a pretty intensive program and not for everyone. A lot of people here use the Story of the World books by Susan Wise Bauer and love them. I will probably use these as a read-aloud and incorporate them into our TOG curriculum. I'm sure you'll get a lot more helpful responses from those who are already teaching first grade! I would encourage you to search the curriculum board for first grade curriculum choices - you will probably get some great information. Have fun! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughing lioness Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 I would throw in memory work, poetry, read-alouds, history. There is soo much great stuff on tapes and CD's now. We've really really enjoyed Christian Studies from MP this year, LOVE SOTW CD's, IEW's Poetry Memorization. Timberdoodle has some great geography puzzles. We also memorize VP history cards- 8 a week, and then the presidents. Of course, TWTM lists subject areas and recomendations by grades. You could follow that or build your own. I always "start with the end in mind. What are the goals for my kids in each subject area and what will I use to get there? Have fun:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blessedfamily Posted November 16, 2008 Share Posted November 16, 2008 Welcome From visiting this forum you will get a feel for adapting WTM and classical homeschooling to your boys' needs. I think you may find resources here that you've never heard of before. I have. It's unbelievable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 The resources I'm using for 1st is in my sig. For K5 I finished up Early Bird math, used ETC, Plaid Phonics, Phonics and REading Pyramid, The Bob Books, Every Body has a Body, Mudpies to Magnets and covered "prehistory", like ice age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fortheboys Posted November 17, 2008 Author Share Posted November 17, 2008 I was able to finally get the wtm book from my library. I read it... I think that for now I am going to follow the book as closely as I can. I have phonics pathways (I had it for my oldest but he didn't need it...he just READ). I am going to use if with my youngest. He is really firm in short vowels and is doing great in cvc words, he enjoys bob books so I think that phonics pathways will work for him. I really like the looks of Excel math, and I can get it from the distance academy. I have mixed feelings about the usborne series...I will have to just take a look at it. Can someone fill me in on the Story of the World? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 I was able to finally get the wtm book from my library. I read it... Well, you still have to pick a math program. Have fun!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fortheboys Posted November 17, 2008 Author Share Posted November 17, 2008 Start with the WTM recommendations. Have you looked into Singapore math? What are they memorizing? Do you have SOTW for history with the Activity Guide? It is great and you will love it! Are you doing nature walks and keeping a nature journal? I am not doing any of these things. The memorization thing is what really prompted me to look for a different way to run our homeschool. They want to memorize! I got hung up on the NEW way of doing things...ALL experiential and abstract, what my kids want is information, lots of it, to soak up. I didn't get it. Nature journaling...ala CM? I am interested in SOTW, I think that it looks great and I think that my boys would really like it. The WTM book suggests English for the Thoughtful Child, I have never heard of this. Any impressions/thoughts on it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free Indeed Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 First, go to http://www.triviumpursuit.com and read the article 10 things to do before age 10. Second, you are not looking at the newest edition of the Well Trained Mind. The recommendations have changed. Jesse Wise has written 2 books since then. First Language Lessons is language arts for 1st and second grade (it replaces English for the thoughtful Child) and The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading replaces Phonics Pathways. While those resources are good ones, I thought you might like to know that there has been updates as they wrote curriculum themselves to fill a need. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiku Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 (edited) I have a kindergartner and a first grader also. Here is what we do daily: *1/2-hour to 40 mins. literature read-aloud; my first grader narrates to me from what we read, but I don't write it down *History - Mosaic (a free curriculum that uses Story of the World and the Usborne Internet-linked Encyclopedia of World History as well as other supplemental books); we make a history notebook based on our readings; the kids narrate from history every day and I write it down and put it in the notebook *Phonics - my kids use Explode the Code and we are very happy with it. My daughter, who is in first grade, just started Book 3 today. I don't think it's a problem that your son did a book in a week. Keep going. It gets more challenging *Reading - My son, who is in K, uses The Reading Lesson and we work through 3-5 pages a day. My daughter uses Saxon and K-12 phonics readers as well as books we get from the library and my father's old first-grade readers (from the Alice and Jerry series) *Copywork - My daughter is currently doing copywork from the Simply Charlotte Mason website. After the new year I will start her in Writing With Ease I. *Memorization - Currently the kids are memorizing poems from A Family of Poems by Caroline Kennedy; I have also had them memorize math concepts, such as what the even and odd numbers are. *Science - Monday and Friday, we read a few pages in the DK First Animal Encyclopedia, and then the kids make a drawing or do a coloring page. On that page, they narrate something from what we read that day, and this goes in a science notebooke *Math - Tuesday and Thursday we do RightStart math. We love it, but I saw that you hated it. The only other math curriculum I even considered was Singapore, but I did not like it because I felt it moved too quickly and lacked adequate explanations for the kids. YMMV. So that's what we do. TWTM outlines everything you need to do. That's why I like it so much. :) Tara ETA: The website for Mosaic is http://www.bringinguplearners.com. I looked at the SOTW activity guide and I thought it looked boring and repetitive. Mosaic has lots of activities that you can do or not based on time and inclination, it has more variety than the SOTW AG, and it's FREE. Edited November 17, 2008 by TaraTheLiberator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted November 17, 2008 Share Posted November 17, 2008 Welcome! I have 5 and 6yo daughters, so we're in the same general situation. I spent months researching and preparing for this, our first year of classical homeschooling. And I've spent the past 2 months reevaluating and adjusting everything.:D We started with: Saxon and Calvert math (my 6yo was in the middle of Calvert 1) Sonlight Readers/LA 1 SOTW and Activity Guide with Kingfishers History Everything else was kind of freestyle Currently, we have: Saxon and almost-done-with-Calvert/moving-to-Saxon math SOTW etc. Explode the Code Sequential Spelling Reading from our home library Light handwriting practice (because they hate it) and a lot of drawing and discussion for each story. A bit of Writing Strands for the 6yo Some basic geography with the book Maps and Globes and Sing to Learn And I'm drooling over writing products at Great Source We're starting Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding today! Personally, I've found it frustrating to look for programs that meet my asynchronous kids' abilities, especially with their being so close in age, so we are doing a lot of tweaking. From the beginning, my focus has been on reading and math, but those are the things that come easiest to them! It's made me feel a need to re-prioritize our schedule and resources. Stay flexible. That's my biggest struggle!;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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