Language Arts for 1st grade

[Alice]

When do you start FLL (or another grammar program) and spelling?

 

Ds is about halfway through OPGTR and I'm guessing by the beginning of 1st grade we'll be about 2/3-3/4 of the way through depending on how fast we go and if we do it in the summer.

 

I remembered an article on the WTM main site that talked about when to start FLL but I coudn't find it again. My thought was I'd start both grammar and spelling in the fall but wanted to see if that's what others do.

[Ummto4]

My son was 6.5 years when he started his first grade and he was reading ELSON first reader by then. We finished our phonics (Reading Made Easy) at that point and he was reading well on one-syllable words plus some easy two-syllable words (the one with er, ing, etc). We picked up Webster speller on Nov to get him to be more acquainted with syllabification and it's been great. So once you finish OPTGR you may want to pick up the Webster speller just to get your dc to read at a higher level and add a variety of readers (we use old graded readers from googlebooks for school and library readers for independent reading).

 

For spelling, I started him on Spelling Plus Dictation on January which works great (we did SWR before, but it got too cumbersome). Before then, we did copywork once a week from AESOP fables (hannah's free download) after he narrated it. We still continue with this, but I also get him to take on more copywork or dictation for his history caption after his narration. I tried to get him to do science/animal notebooking, but he hated it, so I just jot down his narration facts. FYI, my son narrates everyday across curricula, so we don't use Susan's WWE. But if you don't incorporate narration in other subjects, you may want to get Susan's WWE.

 

Handwriting - my son does cursive twice a week.

 

Grammar - none, but next year, when my son is on second grade, we're going to use PLL (primary language lesson) which is a bit like FLL - but it stresses on usage rather than grammatical terms.

 

HTH

[Ali in OR]

My youngest will be first in the fall--an older first grader (7 next December) and reading well. I've gone through first grade with her big sis, so I'm pretty comfortable with the following plan:

 

FLL 1

R&S Spelling--2nd grade (big sis did SWO A but I now prefer R&S)

Finish Phonics Pathways by Christmas

Reason for Handwriting--finish A (~2 months) then RFH Transition

Very well may do WWE--wasn't around for big sis so this is new for us

 

I think you'll be fine starting grammar and spelling. FLL is very gentle. If there's trouble, just slow it down or take a break for awhile--there's plenty of time.