6/11/2014 0 Comments Making progress...Well, at least in some areas over here! This morning brought the completion of the rough outline of the first grade curriculum I'm making for my upcoming little ones. If you look at the first grade page here, you'll see that I used My Father's World for my son during first grade. I loved the principles of it! I wanted a reading program that was Bible-integrated, and this sure was! However, I did feel that the pace moved a little faster than I would have liked for starting my son out. He did well with it, and now he's an excellent reader, devouring books just for fun! As my girls are coming up (and baby coming soon will also come behind them), though, I wanted to revamp the curriculum and put my own spin on it. I want to keep the Bible as a major focus, but I also want to slow the pace down a bit, especially at the beginning of the program, and set a bit more of a foundation off of which to build. I want to add in an extra early-reader that goes with the lessons, to prepare for the Bible reader that will come soon enough in the lessons! In talking with my mom, a teacher of first graders, I have also decided to add in more phonemic awareness activities (syllables, rhyming, etc.). My Father's World first grade also stops their formal phonics/reading lessons after the first 100 days of instruction (they have 4 formal days a week, and one "science day" that doesn't count towards the instruction days, so that's 25 weeks of formal instruction). I didn't like that so very much, as it went to just reading the Bible reader, without any review or new concepts introduced for the last 6 weeks. I would like to have at least some extra review and activities for the remainder of the year. The length is also another change. After first grade, we go to 36 weeks of instruction. I will be stretching out the first grade year to 36 weeks to be compatible with a typical school year with the older children. This way, the younger ones will be able to do their lessons alongside the older ones, for the same amount of weeks. Now that I have a rough skeleton/outline, I will soon move on to laying it all out and playing around with the order of introduction to reading concepts, as well as looking to add in fun activities that go along with it. I hope to rope the Principal into this as well! He's the artist of the family, so he will likely be the designer of all pictures in the workbook and readers! =) So, what does it look like when I began to plan one of my hare-brained ideas (Principal calls it "baking gourds." That story can be found here.)? Here's a look at what the Principal has tolerated on our couch off and on: Yep, there's the stack of materials that were cross-referenced (and will be many times more, I'm sure), and the notebook that's now been used as my initial layout planner. Time to dive in even deeper, and see where I'd like to tweak here and there... and where I need activity sheets or booklets or other goodies!
Now question time: What do you like to see in curriculum at the first grade level? Are there any particular activities that engage your child more than others? What would make life easier for you in teaching a little one learning to read? Please let me know your ideas! =)
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6/5/2014 0 Comments New Books!!!Is anyone else going on a curriculum-buying binge, or is it just me? I guess it's just that time of the year, with all of the sales going on!
I had actually bought almost all of Dude's third grade curriculum between Thanksgiving and the first part of the new year. Only reading and math had been left, in hopes of getting a sale from Math-U-See (apparently their only deal is free shipping at a convention...) and needing to make a trip to the northwest side of town to the homeschool store to get his reading curriculum for the coming year. He was quite excited when I bought that just yesterday! Today I found a great deal on Dude's instruction pack, used, for his next level (Gamma) in Math-U-See. That helped on the cost a good bit! =) If you don't follow them on Facebook or through their blog, I would recommend checking out the online curriculum sale that Hip Homeschool Moms has going on right now - so many great finds!! One new addition to the next year's schooling lineup was a surprise find at a local homeschool used book sale - Five in a Row by Jane C. Lambert. I have been looking at this for quite some time, as it was highly recommended to me by more than one person. However, I had not had a chance to actually look through the book, so I was quite hesitant to spend the money on a new book ($35 through Rainbow Resource). However, $18 was doable, and I was able to glance through the book before purchasing. I very much like the idea of focusing on one book in a week, looking at it through different "lenses" (art, social studies, language arts, etc.) each day. Great concept! As I was going through the book and looking at the suggestions. I liked it more and more. I have now purchased 18 of the 19 titles in Volume 1. I already had the last one. =) My plan is to use this for Monkey's kindergarten year. Our main learning focus will be on the alphabet, as well as continuing with numbers, as originally planned. However, this will add a great extra dimension to her learning, with a good number of books to learn from! I'm quite excited over this new addition, and already mulling over the purchase of Volume 2, as the first will only get us about halfway through the year. We'll see how things are going once we start with it and take stock closer to halfway through the book. =) Meanwhile, what are you all up to in planning for the next year? Have you bought everything, or are you still looking around, weighing your options? Have you changed direction from last year and decided to go off on a different course? I would be interested to know what everyone else is planning! =) |
Mother of Dude, Monkey, and Scoot... and a new one on the way!I think that about sums it up! :) Before shopping online, be sure to sign up for ebates and earn money back at many, many online stores!
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