First Year/grade: Please critique

[sagira]

Ds will be six in September, and he knows how to read (level 3 readers now).

Here are our materials for First Year. Please critique.

 

Math:

 

MCP Math Level A

Miquon Math Orange Book

Calculadder drills

Living books in math as needed to reinforce a concept

Abacus, cuisenaire rods, blocks, flash cards

 

Geography:

 

Maps and Mapping

Tanglewood Geography (program included with my planner, 36 weeks)

Kingfisher's Children's Atlas

Usborne's Peoples of the World

 

History:

 

The Story of the World: Ancient Times and Story of the World Activity book

Usborne Encyclopedia of World History

Tanglewood’s Book of Centuries

Supplemental historical books

EyeWitness series, library books such as Magic Treehouse research guides

History in the Woods timeline figures

 

Penmanship:

 

Italic Handwriting Series Book B (Getty Dubay)

Twice a week; the rest in copywork across subjects

 

Natural Science:

 

Handbook of Nature Study

North American Wildlife

Field guide

Nature Almanac for children with blank pages to journal

Nature Crafts for Kids

The First Human Body Encyclopedia

Science in Ancient Rome

Science in Ancient Mesopotamia

Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding K-2 (12 weeks)

 

Study of Trees, Birds, Weather & Climate (special attention to hurricanes -- we live in Florida) and the Human Body (Intro Biology) with accompanying books, including from the Young Discoverers Series.

 

Virtues:

 

The Children's Book of Virtues

The Children's Bible in 365 Stories

 

Poetry:

 

Emily Dickinson (Poetry for Young People series)

Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses

 

Copywork:

 

Books in use and Living Memory

 

Reading:

 

Literature, in history and science readers (5 min. aloud daily)

 

Spanish:

 

KidSpeak Spanish computer program 1X week and read aloud in Spanish 1X week

 

Literature:

 

The Five Chinese Brothers

The Littles

The Raggedy Andy Stories

Follow my Leader

Little House in the Big Woods

The Boxcar Children: The Mystery of the Missing Cat

Heidi

Charlotte's Web

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle

Pippi Longstocking

Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book

 

Art Appreciation:

 

El Greco and Botticelli (Getting to Know The World's Greatest Artists)

 

Music Appreciation:

 

Bach and Mozart (Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers)

 

Phonics:

 

Spectrum Phonics Grade 2

 

Art:

 

With dh once a week -- either dh's own curriculum or Artistic Pursuits

 

Health and Safety:

 

Included curriculum in my planner

 

Music:

 

Piano (outsourced lessons; practice daily)

 

Physical Fitness:

 

Tennis lessons with dh, biking, hula hoop, horseback riding, swimming, dancing, playground and Wii Fit

 

I may forego Spelling at this age. No formal grammar until Second Year.

 

That's all, folks! :D :bigear:

Edited April 14, 2009 by sagira

[sagira]

Nobody likes me.. :( (pouting lips)

 

(LOL)

Edited April 15, 2009 by sagira

[Aurelia]

It looks like a lot, but it also looks like fun!

[Tree House Academy]

That seems like a LOT to me. I posted to your list on another thread. WOW. A lot.

[dragons in the flower bed]

I'm having a hard time visualizing how your weeks will look. Could you post a schedule?

[laylamcb]

Ditto Aurelia: Looks like a lot to me, but you know your kid. :001_smile:

 

My only suggestion would be in the lit department. I'll duck right after saying this, but...well, especially since you have a strong young reader, I just don't see the point of reading The Boxcar Children aloud. (Even Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is something to fit in any ol' time and not bother scheduling. It's cute and fun, but that's it. Or perhaps I misunderstood and that was a list of books he's going to read himself?)

 

Those are DEFINITELY books to hand a kid to read himself at a later date. Save your time and throat for the good stuff. Check out Ambleside's Year 1 selections; they're mostly awesome, and some of them are really challenging and raise that vocabulary and comprehension bar tremendously. Just my $.02. ;)

 

I'll go hide from The Boxcar Children and their adoring fans now. :leaving:

[sagira]

Thanks for the feedback! :) I forgot to post we're doing things Charlotte Mason style, so 15 minutes per lesson and four days with Firdays for enrichment. This way we can cover a lot in a relaxed manner and a shorter time.

[sagira]

Ditto Aurelia: Looks like a lot to me, but you know your kid. :001_smile:

 

My only suggestion would be in the lit department. I'll duck right after saying this, but...well, especially since you have a strong young reader, I just don't see the point of reading The Boxcar Children aloud. (Even Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is something to fit in any ol' time and not bother scheduling. It's cute and fun, but that's it. Or perhaps I misunderstood and that was a list of books he's going to read himself?)

 

Those are DEFINITELY books to hand a kid to read himself at a later date. Save your time and throat for the good stuff. Check out Ambleside's Year 1 selections; they're mostly awesome, and some of them are really challenging and raise that vocabulary and comprehension bar tremendously. Just my $.02. ;)

 

I'll go hide from The Boxcar Children and their adoring fans now. :leaving:

 

Thank you so much for this, laylamcb. I'm going to check out the selections in Ambleside and do those instead and have him read these either now or at a later date. I didn't grow up here and don't own the books (yet), hence my inexperience with the selections. I do own The Little Princess, and I may include this one instead. I love this board.

 

Update: Looks like I'm on track as far a Little House in the Big Woods and the Blue Fairy Book. Here's where I got my lit selections from.

Edited April 15, 2009 by sagira

[Spy Car]

Why MCP Math with Miquon, rather than Singapore with Miquon?

 

Bill

[sagira]

Why MCP Math with Miquon, rather than Singapore with Miquon?

 

Bill

 

I need more hand-holding than Singapore provides me, and something simple, yet thorough, solid but not overly challenging. Math has never been my strongest suit (to put it lightly), and I know Singapore gets more complicated in a few years. I also happen to like MCP Math and how it's taught. Another selling point? Uncluttered design, not too many colors. My ds is easily distracted.

 

I will be alternating the two: 1 day MCP, the other Miquon. This way I hit two sides of the brain and keep it interesting.

[sagira]

I'm having a hard time visualizing how your weeks will look. Could you post a schedule?

 

I'm still wrestling with the schedule, but the only daily lessons (15-20 min) are:

 

Math

Penmanship or Copywork

Reading

Math drill (takes 5 minutes -- Calculadder)

Literature

 

4 days a week:

 

History

Science

 

1X a week:

 

everything else

 

Oh, and Physical fitness is not scheduled perse, it's more extracurricular and a matter of trying to get ds on a regular, almost daily habit of physical activity.

[Lovedtodeath]

Geography:

Kingfisher's Children's Atlas

I have this and it is excellent, but I would recommend it for 4th grade and up. There is a lot of descriptive text that I think would serve better in a higher age range. Disney Learning's Our World is wonderful for 1st grade. I switched to it.

 

History:

 

The Story of the World: Ancient Times and Story of the World Activity book This also has some things that are more appropriate for an older age range, so just be aware of this. Feel free to ask for suggestions if you need a picture book, shorter book, etc. for some specific chapters.

Usborne Encyclopedia of World History

Tanglewood’s Book of Centuries

Supplemental historical books

EyeWitness series, library books such as Magic Treehouse research guides

History in the Woods timeline figures

 

 

Literature:

 

The Five Chinese Brothers

The Littles

The Raggedy Andy Stories

Follow my Leader

Little House in the Big Woods

The Boxcar Children: The Mystery of the Missing Cat

Heidi

Charlotte's Web

Mrs. Piggle Wiggle

Pippi Longstocking

Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book

 

I would have a very hard time doing history (which includes literature) and science and this list. I would cut it down.

 

I may forego Spelling at this age. No formal grammar until Second Year.

Good idea.

[Amber in AUS]

It does look like a lot but in saying that I can see your point about CM short lessons so it wont take too long to get through. It looks better when you lay out what you are planning for each day.

 

Have a strong reader too I am tending to leave those 60 to 150 page novels for her to read on her own over the next few years. I am only going to read aloud those 150 + books that really would be too challenging until she is about 12 or so.

[dragons in the flower bed]

So, if you're going CMish, is the science going to be done outside? I would hesitate to assign a six-year-old two and a half hours of school every day. If you keep to twenty minutes for each subject, that's about what you'll have. But if you're going to do some of it as bedtime reading and the science is a nature hour, it might be possible.

[SunshineMom]

I would add in spelling and spend ten minutes a day with it. I would also add in more read alouds from E.B. White, Ronald Dahl, and Beverly Clearly. We have loved participating in local science classes/museums in addition to our science programs for 1st grade. I would recommend Singapore for Math along with various math games teaching simple addition/subtraction, telling time and money awareness. Have fun this next year!

[sagira]

So, if you're going CMish, is the science going to be done outside? I would hesitate to assign a six-year-old two and a half hours of school every day. If you keep to twenty minutes for each subject, that's about what you'll have. But if you're going to do some of it as bedtime reading and the science is a nature hour, it might be possible.

 

I'll most likely stick to 15 minutes, which is what I've already been doing with him for K. In K we're doing about one hour and a half a day. Yes, Daddy reads the literature part at night before bedtime and science is partitioned like this:

 

Day 1 Nature walk and sketch/identification

Day 2 Read an entry in the encyclopedia or field guide

Day 3 Read a book

Day 4 Write in nature journal or do an activity or nature craft

 

Ds loooooves to be read to, so I know this won't be a problem. I may get hoarse, though ;)

[sagira]

 

History:

 

The Story of the World: Ancient Times and Story of the World Activity book This also has some things that are more appropriate for an older age range, so just be aware of this. Feel free to ask for suggestions if you need a picture book, shorter book, etc. for some specific chapters.

 

What chapters are you thinking of? The bloodiness of it is what you mean? I read the whole thing a while back, but don't remember anything that was not appropriate for a six-year-old, but I may be wrong. Could you please elaborate? Thanks!

 

I would have a very hard time doing history (which includes literature) and science and this list. I would cut it down.

 

Good to know. I'd just rather over schedule in case we fly through books like we did this year. We could always drop some mid-year or reassign them.

[dragons in the flower bed]

Ds loooooves to be read to, so I know this won't be a problem. I may get hoarse, though ;)

 

I see. This is the innate problem with these sorts of critiques. Homeschooling is so individual. There are so few rules that apply to everyone. For sure, it sounds to me like you know your kid and have made up a thoughtful plan.

[Lovedtodeath]

I see. This is the innate problem with these sorts of critiques. Homeschooling is so individual. There are so few rules that apply to everyone. For sure, it sounds to me like you know your kid and have made up a thoughtful plan.

:iagree:

 

What chapters are you thinking of? The bloodiness of it is what you mean? I read the whole thing a while back, but don't remember anything that was not appropriate for a six-year-old, but I may be wrong. Could you please elaborate? Thanks!

 

SOTW itself is fine, IMO. I meant some of the suggestions in the AG. Some of the read alouds are very, very advanced... "The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt" is more for logic stage, IMO, and "Ancient Egyptians and their Neighbors" I would say 9 yrs old and up. (Others have agreed with these in particular.) Plus, with my DD we do mostly picture books (like The First Painter as opposed to the Magic Treehouse book, Sunset of the Sabertooth.) But, YYMV since your DS likes readalouds. :) My DD, not so much. We are reading aloud Princess Diaries Cleopatra, Daughter of the Nile though. Silly girl. :) I think that some of the projects are a bit much for a first grader too. We got Usborne's Egyptians Kid Kit, I can't recommend that one enough.

[sagira]

Thanks for the info, LovedtoDeath. I will keep that in mind. Dh has already read the Mummies in the Morning (Magic Treehouse) to ds. Dh loves ancient Egyptian history.

 

You're right, maybe some picture books like Ancient Rhymes will be better. Off to look at selections again :auto:

[Lovedtodeath]

DD is asking for more on Ancient Egypt. I didn't think of Mummies in the morning. I'll be sure to pick that up too.

 

She loves Adventures in Ancient Egypt (Good Times Travel Agency) and You Wouldn't want to be a Sumerian Slave, You wouldn't want to be a Greek slave and You wouldn't want to Work on the Great Wall of China. Lugalbanda and Rimonah are good literature and have pictures. She really likes the Illustrated book of Myths from DK too. Oh, Tutankhamen's Gift and Seeker of Knowledge were excellent. The Great Alexander the Great by Joe Lasker is the best book, my #1 don't miss. Let me know if you find any, also. :)

Edited April 20, 2009 by Lovedtodeath