Jr K and 1st Grade Help

[mamafin08]

I am thinking of getting Memoria Press JR K for my 3 yr old to do over 2 years and 1st grade for my almost 6 year old. I am struggling because I owned 1st grade but sold it because it wasn't the best fit for my now 3rd grader and I will admit Memoria Press is hard to do with a bunch of students. I still really like some of their products and I've heard their new spelling is awesome. My rising 1st grader is picking up really well and already finished AAR1. I own AAR2 and that's what we used with my rising 3rd grader because Memoria kindergartner wasn't working. I could keep on trekking with AAR with the 1st grader and AAS but I think she could handle a little more. The appeal is I own AAR and AAS but I also like the set for Memoria and this daughter could do it. Thoughts? Does she even need more phonics? Has anyone hated Memoria Jr K or 1st. I heard the story times are amazing in Memoria for Jr K and similar to FIAR but a little more open and go. 

[mamafin08]

I already for the R&S 1st grade math and while it's not my favorite I may go ahead and use it since I have it. 

[wendyroo]

In your shoes I would use AAR and AAS with the first grader because...

1. AAR is working (don't fix things that aren't broken) and you have AAR and AAS
2. It seems likely that phonics skills will either be repeated or skipped (or both) if she moves from AAR 1 to MP 1
3. If she does need "more" than AAR and AAS then you could just let her move through the materials more quickly
4. If she picks up on reading really quickly, and AAR 2 gets to be ridiculously easy, rather than switch to MP I would be tempted to see if your library has Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading or Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons or something similar.  Those are no-frills, get-r-done curricula that you could fly through to make sure she has the concepts even if she is already reading well above that level.  Plus, if your library had one then you could finish up phonics without buying anything else.

I would not buy any curriculum for the 3 year old.  In my experience life will get in the way and the curriculum will just sit around unused...which I am actually A-Okay with because I think sit-down book learning is a horribly ineffective, inefficient way for three years olds to learn.  Instead I would have to 3 year old do busy bags and puzzles and bubbles in the sink.  If the three year old wants "school work" then I would print off some of the thousands of perfectly good (FREE!) preschool worksheets available online.  You can easily find letter of the week, counting, pre-writing, simple animals crafts, cutting and pasting skills, etc.

Wendy

[ExcitedMama]

FWIW I love AAR and I added in MP FSR. With my oldest writing along with AAR was helpful for him so I’m doing it all over now with my youngest. They sell a phonics guide that incorporates other workbooks and readers. I did MP Enrichment with my oldest and thought it was great. When DD was little she would always want to answer the questions I was asking her older brother when I did it with him so I got her MP Jr. K. She was so excited to have her own books and questions...but as a complete program it was tricky. She was not all ready for the way they structure writing. It was beyond her ability at the time and moved too fast, but eventually she caught up and it was too slow. I did like the workbooks and the the little poems to remember which way to form the numbers. If you are ok skipping around it’s fine but if you would find that annoying it’s not great. You could always have the older do the Enrichment and the younger participate too.