1st Grade Plans

Tomorrow morning is the "official" start of Aubree's first grade year.  Summer has been fun and we enjoyed our country studies, but we got more and more lax as the summer progressed.  The last few weeks I've heard a lot of, "I'm bored...what is there to do?"  I think we're more than ready to be back on a schedule and in school-mode.  

This year will be quite a bit different than Aubree's kindergarten year.  We've got a lot of fun things planned - just like last year - but the biggest difference this year is that Aubree is enrolled with two different school districts through their homeschool outreach programs.

Through district #1 we receive a reasonable yearly financial stipend.  This stipend can be spent on education-related activities, curriculum, and lessons.  For starters, we'll be using the money for weekly gymnastics lessons at a local gym (counts as "PE").  The trade-off is that I have to submit lesson plans and make detailed weekly reports.

Through district #2, Aubree will be able to take a couple of classes.  Once a week we'll go to the school and she'll take an hour long Hands-On Science class and an hour long Writing/Illustration class.  She's extremely excited to take these classes.

In addition to these classes, we'll be participating in our weekly homeschool co-op again this year.  This year promises to be a much better fit academically for Aubree, though, since she'll be in a group of kids ages 6-10 (instead of kids ages 2-6 like last year).  At the Co-op, Aubree will have an hour long Anatomy class, an Active Literature class (art & activities based on specific books), and a half-hour of Game Time (a variety of board games).  Perfect!

At home, I've decided on the following curriculum choices:

Scripture Study: I found a Book of Mormon scripture journal on Discover the Scriptures that I love.  It correlates to the church-published Book of Mormon scripture stories.  I printed the pages out and spiral-bound them and added a bunch of blank lined pages in the back.  The current plan is for Aubree to read the scripture story independently, then we'll read and discuss the actual scriptural text together.  Then she will write a little in her journal (summary of the story, something she learned, personal application, etc.) and (usually) include an illustration.  The blank pages in the back we'll use to discuss "friends and enemies" we read about in the Book of Mormon.  For example, we might choose Nephi and discuss his characteristics and background and choices and what we can learn from him.  Or, we might choose Laman and Lemuel and go through the same exercise.  I imagine we'll complete 2-3 chapters/characters a week, but I'm sure we'll tweak the process as we go.

History: Story of the World, Volume 1: Ancient Civilizations with the accompanying Student Activity workbook.  I'm really looking forward to this part of our studies.  Of course, I'm biased because I love history, but this program seems to present information in interesting and understandable chunks and the activities suggested are fabulous.

Grammar:  A friend suggested the book First Language Lessons and I think it will be a great fit for Aubree.  It includes copywork, narration, picture study and learning the rules of grammar.  I think it will be more fun than it sounds...

Spelling: I'm not too worried about Aubree's spelling at the moment, but we will be doing a weekly spelling list from a website I found, with the accompanying activities.  

Reading: This is another area I'm not worried about, since reading is Aubree's passion.  That being said, I have put together a list of read-alouds for the year and Aubree will be keeping a log of all the chapter books she reads.  Once a week we'll also complete a story-mapping activity together.

Math:  This is the area that's given me the biggest headache.  I've made up my mind and changed it 327 times.  The plan for now is to use Math U See - Alpha.  The problem I'm running into is that, in reviewing first grade math curriculums, I think Aubree's current math level is mid-to-late first grade.  So, I'm most standard first grade curriculums are too easy, but she's got some holes in her knowledge and isn't quite ready for a 2nd grade level.  Math U See gets great reviews and allows us to move at our own pace, so hopefully it will work well.

Those are the subjects I've got planned for now.  As the year progresses, I'm sure we'll make adjustments and, once we get into a nice routine, maybe add in a few electives.  For example, Aubree's asked to learn cursive and embroidery/basic sewing.  We might also start piano lessons.