Tuesday, July 31

First Grade at Home...



I am in the midst of preparing for our second year of homeschooling!  Last year, we went with Sonlight K, and while it was a good program, we found that it didn't really fit our family.  So, for our first grade year, we are planning on doing things a little bit differently.   I have chosen the books and tools that we are going to be using and we are eagerly awaiting their arrival. Once they come, I will begin to plan out the year probably using a color-coded progress list similar to Sarah's.  Here is our curriculum:

Math:  Horizons 1


Language Arts:  Daily Language Review, Explode the Code 1 and 1.5, Daily Journal Writing

Handwriting:  Draw Write Now 1

Read Alouds:  Complete Little House on the Prairie Series ( we are currently reading By the Shores of Silver Lake), Charlotte’s Web, Henry Huggins, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, Understood Betsy, The Year of Miss Agnes, Boxcar Children (the first few books), Little Pear, Homer Price, The Magic Tree House (the first few books), Ramona Books (the first few), The Secret Garden, and more!



History:  Kaya, Felicity, Josephina, and Addy Books as well as extra books and activities for each time period and Wee Sing America

Geography:  State Notebook Pages (still fleshing this out!)

Art: Drawing from Draw Write Now and Knitting

Gym: Swimming Lessons and Daily Outside Time

Music: Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, and Stravinsky (Music and Books on the Composer)


I am sure that we will have to tweak things here and there, but we are all hoping for another happy year spent learning at home!

18 comments:

Rosie said...

Our family highly recommends the Ramona books on CD.They are so well read and lots of fun to listen to.Our girls would get them out even as teens because they were so fun!

Maria said...

Sounds like a wonderful plan, especially the read alouds.

vicki said...

I just want to share a wonderful reading resource! I have used the approach described in "Teaching a child to read using children's books" by Mark Thogmartin PhD. I found this resource by chance in the Rainbow Resource catalog. I have used it to teach 4 of my children to read...are different learners but all read above grade level and most importantly, they LOVE to read!!! It is a very common sense, child driven approach. It reminds me a lot of what I see on your blog! Feel Free to contactme if you have any questions, I would welcome the opportunity to share with you as you have shared so much with me over the years on your blog! In Christ, Vicki

priest's wife - S.T./ Anne Boyd said...

If you have friends that homeschool, someone might be able to lend you the songs for 'sing spell read write'- the entire program is spendy, but the songs are great! I recommend them

Katy M. said...

:) Good for you for putting together your own program! Looks great!

Rebeca said...

Hope this year is wonderful! I'm always impressed at how organized people are with their plans. We're going into our fifth year of homeschooling and I seem to get less organized every year. I guess that's maybe because when I started I only had two kids and I've doubled that. The toddlers sure add a level of crazy to the mix.

MamaBirdEmma said...

Hi Rosie! Are those the ones read by Stockard Channing? I thought that they looked good! Thanks for the recommendation!

MamaBirdEmma said...

Thanks, Maria! We're excited!

MamaBirdEmma said...

Thanks for the suggestion, Vickie! I will definitely check that book out!

MamaBirdEmma said...

Thanks for the recommendation, Priest's Wife! I'll check around!

MamaBirdEmma said...

Thanks, Katy!

MamaBirdEmma said...

If you've homeschooled for five years, Rebeca, you're a pro!

Shana said...

Have you looked into the konos curriculum? I have always pieced our homeschool curriculum based on the classical model. konos works in a unit study fashion, and you can pick and chose from all the ideas- and there are tons of ideas! Plus, you can get it on ebay pretty cheap :) You have a great plan- I know you are all excited to get started this year

MamaBirdEmma said...

I don't think that I have head of Konos, Shana! I will check it out!

Matushka Anna said...

I think I wind up planning less every year like Rebeca. (We've been doing this...7 years?) As the children get older the next year's subjects get a little more obvious although there are still variations (for example - Father gave the the option of trading Grammar for Latin this year). Most of our curriculum sources have been cemented as they've worked for several children although even there we're still working on it. I've noticed how much the children learn simply from reading and we encourage LOTS of reading. If the ceiling fell down the house would be held up just by the books. I have a new kindergartener this year and I am looking forward to that. (: He's already started reading a little so it will probably be one of those K/1st split years.

Have fun this year!

MamaBirdEmma said...

Thanks, Matushka! I would love to read a post by you on some of the reading that your children do for Science and History.

Dany said...

What, no Rachmaninov?

MamaBirdEmma said...

Not yet, Dany!

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