We’ve made adjustments to our 1st grade curriculum over the last month. I wasn’t quite sure how to work this year as we were moving and I thought we’d have more space and then, rather unexpectedly, my Mother-In-Law died and then we were not moving… It was a heck of a summer! Anyway, here is our updated Curriculum.
Also, I have about 70 posts in drafts right now so over the next few months I will be publishing reviews of tools we have tried in the past.
School days are Wednesday-Saturday with Sunday, Monday and Tuesday being reserved for classes out of the house, field trips, and activities. We work for a total of about 4 hours a day (sometimes more, sometimes less).
Reading
- Explode the Code Workbooks: (Daily) – Mya loves these workbooks and they are extremely easy for her. We decided to use them because she was so enthusiastic about them and ultimately, I love that they are constant reminders of the basics. We will complete 1-8 this year as she is doing roughly 2-3 lessons at a time.
Supplement(s):
- The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading
: (Daily) – While Mya knows how to read and is pretty comfortable with phonetic sounds, I wanted to teach her a bit more of the rules. This not only has great ways to remember the different sounds, but it also features fact about how one makes the sounds with or without his/her tongue. I probably should have used this last year but I don’t think she would have enjoyed it at all.
- Five in a Row: I like this because of the book selections but I will not being using all of the activity suggestions given.
- Independent and Required reading.
- Various Read-alouds.
Spelling:
- All About Spelling Level 2: (Daily) – We both really enjoyed using AAS last year and we will continue to to use this one daily.
Writing
- The Complete Writer: Writing with Ease: (Daily) – We started this last year but Mya wasn’t ready for it and it really didn’t go well. However, this year she is really enjoying it so far.
- Various Copy-work
- Guided free-writing exercises
Grammar
- First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind: Level 1: (Daily) – We have almost finished this. I wanted to use it just in case I had forgotten to cover anything last year…
- Growing with Grammar Level 1 (Daily) – I just ordered this but we will definitely use this every day.
Vocabulary
- Wordly Wise 3000 Print Edition: (Daily) – This is just a fun vocabulary program. We try to complete 2 lessons each day but some days we can do more. Mya loves the bright images and the simplistic approach to learning vocabulary.
Math
- Mathematics Enhancement Programme (Year: 1): (Daily) – We really like this and recently joined the Yahoo Group which has tons of information.
- Math Mammoth: Hopefully this will help solidify the concepts taught in MEP.
American History
- A Young People’s History of the United States (Enhanced Omnibus Edition)
: (Daily) – He’s my favorite historian of all time!!!!
- Adventures in America – Just purchased this but I love the simplicity of it and the Activity book.
World History
- Mosaic Introduction to World History: (Daily)- So far I have been very impressed with this curriculum. It using SOTW as a spine, but after reviewing SOTW I have decided that I can revise the religious stuff as needed.
- The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child: Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor, Revised Edition
with Workbook
: (Daily) – After going back and forth, I have decided to use this in conjunction with several living history text.
Science
- Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum for K-2
(Daily):We are tackling this. I love the program but I find it almost too difficult to included the preliminary reading to prepare each lesson as I am so busy.
- More Mudpies to Magnets: Science for Young Children
(1 day weekly): I am not very scientific so I need all the help I can get when planning experiments.
Health
- Everybody Has a Body: Science from Head to Toe
: We are going through this book one activity/topic at a time. Couple with what I call life skills, I think this will get us through the health requirement for our state.
- Family Time Fitness Physical Education Program
Art
- Meet the Masters: This will introduce us all to the greats and provide more formal art instruction.
Foreign Language
- Rosetta Stone to learn both SPANISH and MANDARIN.
Extracurricular
- Modern Dance
- Soccer (Fall), Basketball (Winter), Swimming (Spring)
- Capoeira (Brazilian Dance Fighting)
- Cooking Class
- Guitar and Recorder Lessons
- Type 2 Learn