1st Grade Curriculum

I am clearly not a very consistent blogger.  I have made a conscious decision not to let keeping a blog become another "to do" item.  Therefore, I only write when I feel really inspired.  Well right now... I am inspired!  I have spent the past few weeks researching homeschool curriculum and finally placed all my orders last week.  (In my defense, I have a baby coming in 3 1/2 months, so I have a good reason to plan so far ahead. : )  You have to be a teacher to truly appreciate the anticipation here.  As my sister says, when those new books arrive it feels like Christmas!

Although I like the idea of a Charlotte Mason type approach to schooling (learning from first hand experiences, reading "living" books, etc), I know that I function better with some structure.  Creativity is not my strong suit.  I feel better having textbooks to follow, while knowing that I have the freedom to skip assignments and add activities as I see fit and as time allows.  Miss L's curriculum for next year is quite the eclectic combination of styles and publishers.  Here is an overview of what we will be doing for 1st grade...

Reading/Spelling

I have been so happy with my choice for L's Kindergarten reading/spelling that I am sticking with it for 1st grade.  Once again, I ordered the All About Spelling program and the readers from the All About Reading program to go with it. (This time, level 2.) This is a solid phonics based system which is super easy to use.  I love the philosophy of learning to spell and read simultaneously.  I opted to skip this publisher's reading program because of the overlap in material with the spelling program, and I just bought the readers instead.  (They are fantastic, by the way.  Most readers I have seen include sight words - which usually aren't even true sight words - from the very beginning.  That is a major pet peeve of mine.  Not so with these books.  They follow the phonics rules that L is learning in her spelling lessons, the stories and illustrations are clever, and she loves them.)  I love that students learn all the sounds for phonograms right from the get go (for example... "a" has 3 sounds).  I also love the magnetic letter tiles that enable L to spell words without having to be a proficient writer.  As a plus, the materials are non-consumable, which is great when you have several kids.  (Can you tell I'm a fan? ; )

Language

In addition to L's spelling and reading, I wanted to introduce a bit more language in 1st grade.  Most publishers don't start grammar/writing programs until 2nd grade (I am assuming because that is when students are more independent readers and writers). Therefore,  I chose First Language Lessons as our guide. I like that it utilizes a variety of classical tools (memory work, copy work, narration, & grammar) to teach language and that it supposedly only takes 5-10 min a day.  It is also age appropriate for her in that it doesn't require much writing.  The complaints that I have read regarding the program have to do with the overly scripted lessons, tedious review, and emphasis on rote memorization.  The way I see it, I will skip the boring stuff and use it more as a tool to broaden L's introduction to language use.  It was very inexpensive and is non-consumable, so I think it will be a good choice.

Handwriting

Since I am teaching L cursive first, there are limited options for handwriting books.  Most are geared for grades 3+.  (Why in the world would I teach her cursive first, you ask?  Here is a good explanation.)  I am currently using a handwriting program from Logic of English to teach letter formation.  By the time she finishes Kindergarten, L will know how to form all the capital and lowercase cursive letters.  Next year, I plan to do some simple copy work and notebooking with her to help her continue practicing.  I also purchased some fun pages from A Reason For Handwriting that have lines for copy work and different borders for coloring.

Math

We are currently using Horizons math, and we will stick with this publisher for 1st grade.  L enjoys the colorful workbook pages, and I use a variety of manipulatives to teach new concepts and keep it interesting.  (The most helpful of which has been an abacus. I love that thing!)  Horizons uses a spiral learning approach (i.e. lots of review), so for awhile I was feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of workbook pages we needed to get through (since we usually only do Kindergarten 3 days a week).  Once I gave myself the freedom to skip unnecessary practice problems, I found that we can easily get through 2 lessons a day.  This puts us on track to finish before the baby arrives in May.  All that to say, it's working, L enjoys it, and we're sticking with it for next year. : )  I have my sights set on Teaching Textbooks or Saxon in the future, but neither of those are good options until 2nd or 3rd grade.

History

I know several other families who are enjoying Story of the World, and it has rave online reviews... so we are jumping on the bandwagon.  These books are basically what they sound like - history written in a story form.  They are designed to be used with multiple grade levels.  I greatly disliked history growing up, so I am hoping that this approach will help make history more enjoyable for my kids.  I splurged and bought the activity book that goes along with the first story book (Ancient Times).  There are lots of additional readings and activities that we will skip at this stage, but I definitely plan to utilize things like coloring pages and reenactment activities.  I'm hoping that M will choose to join his older sister for this subject.

Science

I am super excited about science.  (I love science!)  After lots, and lots, and lots of research... I settled on the God's Design for Life series.  This series is also designed to be used with multiple grade levels.  The life series comes with three books: The World of Animals, The World of Plants, and The Human Body.  We will just go at our own pace and see how far we get in a year.  I plan to read the texts to the kids, and then we will do the activities and experiments together.  Again, I'm hoping M will want to join us.  Of course, we will supplement what we are learning with nature walks, trips to the zoo, and notebooking.  Yay, science!

So that is my plan. : )  (Here's hoping it turns out to be a good one.)

To those of you in the same boat... happy homeschool planning!