Random questions re: 1st Grade

[mary.margaret]

My oldest, Joshua, will be in 1st grade this fall and I'm trying to make sure I'm pulling together an adequate but not overly eager curriculum for him. :) We're mostly using recommendations from TWTM. I'd love any input.

 

First, my random questions:

 

1) Is there anything superior about the new Spelling Workout books? I got Spelling Workout A with the bike on the front free with some other books and will use it unless there's a benefit to buying the newer version, i.e. it won't connect as well to future new Spelling Workout books.

 

2) How important is it to buy the text for Writing with Ease if I am buying Workbook #1? Someone told me the workbook really has all I need in it for a first grader. Is this true?

 

3) Can I do all of these things for Language Arts and not overwhelm my 5/6 year old son his first year of serious homeschooling?

-finish OPG to Teaching Reading

-Spelling Workout A

-Writing With Ease Workbook 1

-First Language Lessons 1 & 2, 1st half of the book orally

-Pentime Penmanship book 1B

 

The above seems like an awful lot of material to cover just for LA. Right now for K LA he does a page of penmanship practice most days (though it's a struggle, and I'm thinking of cutting down to 1/2 a page) and a lesson in OPG... even those seem to get tedious depending on the length of a particular lesson. Will penmanship be covered in some of the copywork? How does that all mesh together? Will narration be overkill when combining all this with SOTW 1?

 

In addition to the LA I listed above, we're planning on doing the following starting in the fall:

 

Rod and Staff Math 1

Story of the World 1 w/ Activity Guide

Science/Biology (Animals/Human Body/Plants as in TWTM)

Draw-Write-Now activities once a week for art

Classical Music listening

Reading aloud, of course

Summer swim lessons for phys ed, maybe soccer

 

Here's my sample schedule, in progress, with 7 short blocks per day:

 

Bible/Scripture Memory every day

Math every day

Phonics every day

Penmanship or Spelling every other day (?)

WWE 2x/week and FLL 2x/week and Art 1x/week

SOTW 3x/week and Science 2x/week

Read Aloud every day

 

Does this sound reasonable? Should I rearrange anything? History 2x/week and WWE 3x/week? Can I alternate penmanship and spelling like that or should we do that every day? Should I cut it down to a 4 day week to give us some flex? If so, how?

 

I'd love any input. FYI, Joshua will be 6 in November so he will be a young 1st grader. I don't want to discourage both of us by being overly eager, but I also want to give him as much opportunity to learn as I can.

 

Thanks so much!

Mary-Margaret

Edited February 3, 2009 by mary.margaret

[Lovedtodeath]

If you do copywork from WWE one day, then don't do the penmanship that day.

 

You can really skip FLL, if you are wanting to drop something, and just start grammar in 3rd grade. The only thing you'd really miss out on IMO is poetry memorization, and since you are already doing memorization, then you could just go with poetry appreciation from another source.

 

I am waiting until we get OPGTR done before starting spelling, it's just simpler to write out a couple of words from OPG instead of doing a separate program.

 

You may find that some weeks science and history are too much, especially if you are doing other read-alouds. We typically do either read-alouds or our culture study (which I don't have listed in my sig b/c we are almost done with it). So our culture study with hands-on is more of an every other week deal. You can try doing it all, of course, but just wanted to let you know what is normal for us.

 

Don't stress. I did not consider DD a first grader until this month (six and a half) as far as expectations. She was reading and doing simple math at 3, but she is a little energetic child who likes to have time to play with her brother. Good Luck!!

[brehon]

My oldest, Joshua, will be in 1st grade this fall and I'm trying to make sure I'm pulling together an adequate but not overly eager curriculum for him. :) We're mostly using recommendations from TWTM. I'd love any input.

 

First, my random questions:

 

1) Is there anything superior to the new Spelling Workout books? I got Spelling Workout A with the bike on the front free with some other books and will use it unless there's a benefit to buying the newer version, i.e. it won't connect as well to future new Spelling Workout books.

 

Can't answer this as I don't use this program.

 

2) How important is it to buy the text for Writing with Ease if I am buying Workbook #1? Someone told me the workbook really has all I need in it for a first grader. Is this true?

 

See above :)

 

3) Can I do all of these things for Language Arts and not overwhelm my 5/6 year old son his first year of serious homeschooling?

-finish OPG to Teaching Reading

-Spelling Workout A

-Writing With Ease Workbook 1

-First Language Lessons 1 & 2, 1st half of the book orally

-Pentime Penmanship book 1B

 

The above seems like an awful lot of material to cover just for LA. Right now for K LA he does a page of penmanship practice most days (though it's a struggle, and I'm thinking of cutting down to 1/2 a page) and a lesson in OPG... even those seem to get tedious depending on the length of a particular lesson. Will penmanship be covered in some of the copywork? How does that all mesh together? Will narration be overkill when combining all this with SOTW 1?

 

That is a lot of LA for a little guy (at least I think so; others may differ). How well is your son reading? I honestly wouldn't worry about a formal spelling program until he's reading well/finished with the bulk of phonics instruction. After all, if you think about it, spelling is another version of phonics.

 

I can't answer directly to using both WWE and FLL at this age as I don't use either of those programs. It seems to me that you'd want to concentrate on the 3 R's (quite literally) right now. The other two seem like too much, especially given that you'll also be doing history narrations. However, you know your son best.

 

In addition to the LA I listed above, we're planning on doing the following starting in the fall:

 

Rod and Staff Math 1

Story of the World 1 w/ Activity Guide

Science/Biology (Animals/Human Body/Plants as in TWTM)

Draw-Write-Now activities once a week for art

Classical Music listening

Reading aloud, of course

Summer swim lessons for phys ed, maybe soccer

 

Here's my sample schedule, in progress, with 7 short blocks per day:

 

Bible/Scripture Memory every day

Math every day

Phonics every day

Penmanship or Spelling every other day (?)

WWE 2x/week and FLL 2x/week and Art 1x/week

SOTW 3x/week and Science 2x/week

Read Aloud every day

 

Does this sound reasonable? Should I rearrange anything? History 2x/week and WWE 3x/week? Can I alternate penmanship and spelling like that or should we do that every day? Should I cut it down to a 4 day week to give us some flex? If so, how?

 

I'd love any input. FYI, Joshua will be 6 in November so he will be a young 1st grader. I don't want to discourage both of us by being overly eager, but I also want to give him as much opportunity to learn as I can.

 

Thanks so much!

Mary-Margaret

 

I'd do Math, Phonics, Penmanship, and Bible every day (in addition, of course, to reading aloud). Hopefully, someone else will give you advice on the WWE/FLL combo. I simply don't wish to give you erroneous information. Phonics should take about 10-20 minutes per day and Penmanship should take around 5-10 minutes.

 

Other than that, don't sweat history and science (says this history and science loving mom). Really. I'm not saying don't do those subjects; I'm simply saying he's 5 years old (6 in November), take it easy and don't worry about finishing either SOTW 1 or your science in one year. I'd even do history and science 2X/wk, especially if you keep WWE/FLL.

 

And that, in sum, is my advice (for what it's worth). Take it easy...on him AND on yourself. You don't have to teach everything in his "first grade" year. :) My general rule is an hour (or so) of school (by which I mean sit down, formal seat work) per grade year (i.e. first grade is around an hour's worth of written work, maybe a wee bit more). I cross-my-heart promise he'll learn things. Check out lots of library books on whatever interests (or you think may interest) him and read them together. Let him explore, play, build and destroy things (within reason, of course :lol:). Have fun. You/He won't be "behind". Again, I promise. :001_smile:

[mary.margaret]

Thank you, Carmen! I really appreciate the input. So maybe WWE should alternate with penmanship instead of with FLL. Then FLL and Spelling could alternate, unless I just throw a few spelling words in with OPG which is a great idea.

[mary.margaret]

I'd do Math, Phonics, Penmanship, and Bible every day (in addition, of course, to reading aloud). Hopefully, someone else will give you advice on the WWE/FLL combo. I simply don't wish to give you erroneous information. Phonics should take about 10-20 minutes per day and Penmanship should take around 5-10 minutes.

 

Other than that, don't sweat history and science (says this history and science loving mom). Really. I'm not saying don't do those subjects; I'm simply saying he's 5 years old (6 in November), take it easy and don't worry about finishing either SOTW 1 or your science in one year. I'd even do history and science 2X/wk, especially if you keep WWE/FLL.

 

And that, in sum, is my advice (for what it's worth). Take it easy...on him AND on yourself. You don't have to teach everything in his "first grade" year. :) My general rule is an hour (or so) of school (by which I mean sit down, formal seat work) per grade year (i.e. first grade is around an hour's worth of written work, maybe a wee bit more). I cross-my-heart promise he'll learn things. Check out lots of library books on whatever interests (or you think may interest) him and read them together. Let him explore, play, build and destroy things (within reason, of course :lol:). Have fun. You/He won't be "behind". Again, I promise. :001_smile:

 

This is really helpful. I know he will learn things even with minimal seat work! I guess my question is then, should I make next year a K year instead of trying to do 1st grade? How does it work, in a 4 year cyclical approach, to skip or do minimal history and science? If I don't try to finish SOTW or Science (which I realize is a very good possibility) then do you just go on to SOTW 2 or ? I am a literalist so I have to have a "plan" for the following year otherwise I will think at the beginning of this year that I am already behind! LOL

[Lovedtodeath]

DD only does about 15 minutes of written work. One hour of work total including what we do orally. Then you can tack on science experiments or hands-on to that. :)

 

WWE and FLL are very short and sweet. 5-10 minutes. But I would probably wait on FLL, and just do WWE at first.

 

I have the WWE teachers book and it has helped me with my expectations. I was trying to get DD to give me main points in her narrations and then I read over the year one and two direction in the teachers book and found that the children start to learn how to give the main point in the second year. I was expecting too much. For WWE 1 just any complete sentence that has to do with the selection is fine. So my point is... it is good to have the WWE book, not just the workbooks. Plus, you may find that for year 2 or 3 you can find your own selections and not buy the workbook. I started out that way, and now that I have even more examples to copy from the workbook, I bet I won't need the workbook next year.

[Lovedtodeath]

Consider him K. Then he will be brilliantly ahead if he does first grade work and right on track if he doesn't. It changes your mindset just enough to take some stress off. Trust me. BTDT.

 

If you want to start SOTW and 1st grade science go right ahead!! Just finish them up next year. You can start SOTW 2 and Earth Science in *gasp* January or March. You don't have to line things up with school years.

[usetoschool]

The newer version of Spelling Workout is not significantly different than the older version. It is a little more modern looking and has a different theme. The review at the end of every five units has a long list of correctly spelled/misspelled words and the child is supposed to find the misspelled word in the lists - some people don't like that. You can switch between them without any trouble but the older ones are still available if you want to stick with those.

[mary.margaret]

You can start SOTW 2 and Earth Science in *gasp* January or March. You don't have to line things up with school years.

 

;)

[mary.margaret]

DD only does about 15 minutes of written work.

 

So if it takes him 20 minutes to do one page of penmanship right now, I am either asking too much of him or starting too young, right? He can do it in 10 if he tries, but he gets distracted!

[LadyAberlin]

My little boy will be six in Dec and in my state that is K. But we will be doing some of the same things as your son. We are doing OPGTR right now as well as FLL 1. We will do part 2 next during K. We are waiting to do WWE 1 until 1st grade. Someone on here did tell me that all you need is the workbook. You can see in my siggy what all we are doing now. I need to change that we are using OPGTR instead of Dancing Bears. Next yr for K we are doing:

Bible:A Child’s Garden of Torah

Math: Horizons1 with rainbow’s manipulatives kit/ MUS beta

Handwriting: Pentime 1A

Spelling: Spelling Workout 1

Grammar: First Language Lessons 2

Writing: Write shop primary A

Reading: Sonlight readers 2, Elson readers primer

Science: Sonlight Science K and 1

History: 1st semester, Stories of Great Americans for little Americans, The American Story, The Pioneer Sampler, Little House on the Prairie Books,The Child’s book of America

2nd Semester: Easy Classical History

Art: Harmony Fine Arts 1

Music: God Made Music k

Geography: 1st 7 weeks:Kingfisher Young Discoverer’s Maps and Mapping, Me on the Map, The Once upon a time Map book, There’s a map on my lap, My Town, Ways to Find Your Way. Rest of the Year we will do A Trip Around the world.

Health: Abeka 1

Character: Lights along the Path - Jewish Folklore Through the Grades – K-6th

Spanish: Springboard to Spanish, Play and Learn Spanish

Hebrew: Bilingual Baby, Sarah and David Hebrew

Jewish Studies: What’s so Jewish about Butterflies?

So that's the plan. As you can see he is doing 1st grade material on a lot of it, but I just consider him an advanced K. I don't want him graduating at 17. I also like hjim to be with kids his same age at the co-op we go to.

[mary.margaret]

My little boy will be six in Dec and in my state that is K. But we will be doing some of the same things as your son. We are doing OPGTR right now as well as FLL 1. We will do part 2 next during K. We are waiting to do WWE 1 until 1st grade. Someone on here did tell me that all you need is the workbook. You can see in my siggy what all we are doing now. I need to change that we are using OPGTR instead of Dancing Bears. Next yr for K we are doing:

 

Wow, that is a lot for K4! I have been figuring that we would try 1st grade next year and if we can't get through it all then we'd finish the following year. I was 16 for most of my senior year of HS so I don't have a big problem with him graduating early, but only if it seems right for him.

[brehon]

This is really helpful. I know he will learn things even with minimal seat work! I guess my question is then, should I make next year a K year instead of trying to do 1st grade? How does it work, in a 4 year cyclical approach, to skip or do minimal history and science? If I don't try to finish SOTW or Science (which I realize is a very good possibility) then do you just go on to SOTW 2 or ? I am a literalist so I have to have a "plan" for the following year otherwise I will think at the beginning of this year that I am already behind! LOL

 

Hmmm....the best answer to this question is one only you have the answer to...meet him where he's at and go from there. I live in a state that doesn't require any reporting, so I'm simply unconcerned with grade level. If you are required to give a grade level for your ds for an official report, go with what he'd be in public school in your area. In my state, he'd be considered a K'er. If you aren't required to file any paperwork with a grade level listed, then don't worry about. [Of course, that being said, you may (at some later point) have to contend with the inevitable question, "So, young man, what grade are you in?" When this happened to my son, he looked at me rather puzzled and said, "I don't know. Um...maybe...uh...Mama?" Great homeschooling moment, that.:lol:]

 

What many people do (and what I've done myself with history) is to keep on keeping on, if that makes sense. IOW, we've kept plowing through SOTW 1. I may decide to consolidate some chapters later on (or even *gasp* skip some); but, we'll continue on and start SOTW 2 when we've finished 1. By the by I school year round (taking breaks when needed/wanted) and am not bound by a 180 days requirement.

 

As far as science, I'm not following TWTM for this. However, my answer is the same as for history. Just go until you reach a natural stopping point. Or perhaps a natural transition point into the next topic is more appropriate.

 

It's great to have a "plan". What I'd recommend to you is to plan more generally; IOW, by [insert time/date/whatever here], I'd like to have covered X. Then work backwards from there to give yourself a rough timeframe for what should be covered when. Do this for each subject. And always remember to make your plan work for you. You aren't bound by the plan and should feel free to modify as needed/wanted.

[Lovedtodeath]

Well, I think one hour of seatwork is too much, unless you are counting hands-on stuff. For handwriting, I would cut what you are currently asking of him in half, so that it takes 5-10 minutes.

 

If I have DD do spelling, handwriting and math in one sitting (which never happens, but it used to every once in a while) it takes anywhere from 20 minutes to 45 minutes. That is with me in the same room helping/reminding and generally giving her all of my attention.

 

Then if you count read alouds and etc. Our total school time is an hour to an hour and a half. If we have some really good picture books we can stretch it to two hours, but that is broken up throughout the day. I don't count hands-on projects in with my total school time because they are fun and we take forever to get those done.

 

Here's my deal with FLL. I love the first half of the book. Love it. We learn what we need to learn in order to write sentences. Capitalize proper nouns, etc. I think the second half can be too much. Memorizing helping verbs and etc., is a lot of pressure for a six year old. I would rather concentrate on writing skills and save the lists of grammar terms for seven and a half or eight. Just my experience. (I think Jessica in Trivium Academy thought FLL2 was stressful too, she switched programs.)

Edited February 3, 2009 by Lovedtodeath

[FO4UR]

My ds just turned 6. I am gradually moving him from K work to 1st grade work as it feels natural to do so.

 

You don't HAVE to start all of your LA pieces at the same time. I would keep penmanship and reading instruction and as those become easy for him, add something else - one at a time.

 

You don't HAVE to start 1st grade math in the same week you start a new LA curric.

 

You don't HAVE to wait until he's doing 1st grade level work to start doing read alouds via SOTW for history. I started my ds on yr1 and his first entries in his "history notebook" are coloring pages, and he narrates to Daddy by telling him the stories about the coloring pages. Our "lessons" are glorified story-time.;) (We are mostly reading Bible and library books - not so much the actual SOTW - I read it by myself though:tongue_smilie:.)

[brehon]

So if it takes him 20 minutes to do one page of penmanship right now, I am either asking too much of him or starting too young, right? He can do it in 10 if he tries, but he gets distracted!

 

 

In a word, yep. He's five. I'm sure there are 5 year old boys who are happy to sit and work on penmanship for 20 minutes or so. My son was not one of them. I'd consider (a) dropping penmanship completely right now and picking it up again later, i.e. after he's 6 [and keep repeating ad nauseum, he won't be "behind", he won't be "behind"] or (b) work on penmanship for a specified period of time, not a given amount of work. In other words, work for 5 minutes then stop, regardless of how much he finished on a given page.

 

Remember, his wee boy brain (and I say this lovingly; I have 2 of the creatures myself :D) and/or fine motor skills simply may not be ready for penmanship. Give him time and his development will happen AND he won't have negative associations with writing. Of course, all this was written with the assumption that your ds doesn't have dysgraphia or other type problems. That's a whole different ballgame.

[SonshineLearner]

I think you're doing a alot for a 6 year old, but that's just me. My 5 year old is pretty smart, but oral work is all we do. We do skip counting, multiplication, addition...memory work....jumping up and down....starting abacus work soon....tracing some letters...practicing reading books. (he's starting to read) Math books that are "living" books...And other fun things. Lots of reading, books on cds....

I'd have to strap him down...or buy more kleenex for all his crying...if I made him sit down for a long time.

And...he can sit still in church for an hour...but wow...just be gentle with yourself....

Carrie:-)

[Lovedtodeath]

Oh yeah, we do our flashcards with DD jumping up and down. ;)

[Ali in OR]

I would say that your planned workload is similar to what we did with my now third grader and I am planning a similar load for my K'er for next year when she is in first grade. She is a year older however, having just turned 6 this last December. I'm okay with stepping up expectations for first grade, but I also see no need to begin first grade before the public schools in our area (i.e. when dd is 6 on Sept. 1st). That said, we work at her comfort level and I'm sure that a lot of what she does is already a first grade level (handwriting, reading). But the extra subjects (FLL, spelling, history, science) will begin next year in first when she is 6.75 years old.

[brehon]

Well, I think one hour of seatwork is too much, unless you are counting hands-on stuff. For handwriting, I would cut what you are currently asking of him in half, so that it takes 5-10 minutes.

 

<snips mine>

 

Yes, I actually agree with you. When I replied, I was going by my experience -- my son was already 6 at the time and LOVED doing math. So, we probably spent more time on that than would normally be the case. Also, my son had his written work broken up by running around, piano practice, etc; so, he wasn't at the table for an hour straight.

 

Then if you count read alouds and etc. Our total school time is an hour to an hour and a half. If we have some really good picture books we can stretch it to two hours, but that is broken up throughout the day. I don't count hands-on projects in with my total school time because they are fun and we take forever to get those done.

 

quote]

 

I think we're saying similar things; but, yours is probably clearer than my ramblings. My dd (almost 6) does about an hour's worth of seat work (again broken up by running/piano practice); but, she's leading me on the time aspect. If she gets tired or whatever, we stop for the day. My ds (the one I wrote about earlier) is now almost 8; he does slightly more work, but we're generally finished in a couple of hours (including the aforementioned breaks and depending on prevailing attitudes). Like you, history readings/projects and science readings/"experiments" are not considered part of seat work. Mainly because the kids and I really enjoy these.

[LadyAberlin]

Our penmanship takes all of 5 min at the most. School takes about 2hrs total. We don't do everything everyday. Language Arts takes 5min for FLL, 10-20 minutes for Phonics, 5min for spelling. So at the most 30min. Math takes 10 min to do both math curriculum and I do a lot of it orally with him. He loves science and history and read alouds so he willing sits or jumps and listens to it. I'm very careful in that if there are tears we switch curriculums. I've found that the right curriculum makes a big difference. Oh and I thought about using the Draw write now for Art as well and decided that there was too much writing for their age and so I'm putting that off for a couple more years. The Watch Me Draw books are so much fun. I'd look at those for art.

[Lovedtodeath]

We used DWN with me trying to direct her. Bad idea. I gave her the book and let her pick the animal and left her alone. The results were almost as good, and there were no tears. I don't think there is too much writing, as long as you skip any other penmanship or copywork on the day you do the DWN page.

[Paula in MS]

I really don't think you are doing too much. (I have a first grader.) The curriculum that you have chosen is pretty gentle. WWE is really just copywork at this stage. (You really only need the workbook.) FLL will be oral. SWO A is fairly simple. It is not overkill. History and Science will not take as much time as you think. They are just read alouds and informal, mostly. Let him do science and history narrations orally. You can write them down. This is very doable. Just make sure to keep your focus on math, reading and handwriting. Do everything else, but keep it informal.

 

Paula

[Aurelia]

1) Is there anything superior about the new Spelling Workout books? No idea, we're going to use AAS since Ariel likes hands-on stuff.

 

2) How important is it to buy the text for Writing with Ease if I am buying Workbook #1? It's not. We just have the workbook and it looks like plenty. I couldn't imagine trying to use both.

 

3) Can I do all of these things for Language Arts and not overwhelm my 5/6 year old son his first year of serious homeschooling?

-finish OPG to Teaching Reading

-Spelling Workout A

-Writing With Ease Workbook 1

-First Language Lessons 1 & 2, 1st half of the book orally

-Pentime Penmanship book 1B

 

Honestly, I wouldn't do all those at once. I'd finish OPGTTR before starting FLL and SW and either drop the penmanship book (which is what we're doing next year) or do penmanship only on days WWE lists a narration and not copywork.

 

Will penmanship be covered in some of the copywork? Copywork is penmanship. The child is supposed to write the selection in his best handwriting, just make sure he knows how to form all the letters. Will narration be overkill when combining all this with SOTW 1? It might be, if you are using FLL, WWE and SOTW, since IIRC, all use narrations.

 

Here's my sample schedule, in progress, with 7 short blocks per day:

 

Bible/Scripture Memory every day

Math every day

Phonics every day

Penmanship or Spelling every other day (?)

WWE 2x/week and FLL 2x/week and Art 1x/week

SOTW 3x/week and Science 2x/week

Read Aloud every day

Does this sound reasonable? For the most part. It might be overkill on the LA if you try to do it all at the same time. Should I rearrange anything? Again, I'd wait on grammar and spelling until he's mastered phonics. Once he's reading well, he'll need to know how to spell and write. Can I alternate penmanship and spelling like that or should we do that every day? Should I cut it down to a 4 day week to give us some flex? If so, how? You can do anything that you feel comfortable with. :001_smile: My plan is to do spelling 2-3 times a week (alternating with FLL) once we finish phonics. We're already doing copywork for penmanship in K since DD already knows how to form her letters, so I don't anticipate any difficulty with that when we start WWE. HTH!

[Penelope]

If it were me, I'd keep him at the grade level he'd be in ps. That is what I'm doing with my own kids, including the one with a fall birthday. By that I don't mean that I would wait on all subjects. For phonics I would plow ahead as the child is ready. For math, I'd do informal math as he was ready, but wait on the workbooks until the official first grade. Again, just what I've figured out so far. Penmanship, absolutely do. I also don't think WWE would be too much once the letters can be formed well and as long as he's reading a little bit.

 

I would absolutely wait on FLL. We use FLL1 for first and it's very gentle, but by the end of the year it picks up a little bit and in FLL2, it goes into dictation.

 

I don't know much about SWO. We use AAS but I'm still figuring out my philosophy on when spelling should be started.

 

I don't think your list is too much for first grade. But, it would have been way too much for my son as a five year old. There is a huge different between almost 6, and 6.5. I hear there is another big jump at 7. There's no rush.