First Grade Curriculum

Here is the plan for first grade though it may change a bit more as we see where Ciaran's needs and interests lay.

Reading - lots of read alouds and self reading from the library and personal collection
Math - Miquon red
Phonics - Phonics Pathways and Primary Phonics
Language Arts - First Language Lessons and Explode the Code
Spelling - online age appropriate spelling list
Geography - Geography Matters
History - Story of the World Vol 3
Science - Christian Liberty Nature Readers, nature journal
Handwriting - Handwriting Without Tears My Printing Book
Bible - My Father's World bible reader - create illustrated bible
Music - Ultimate Encyclopedia of Classical Music
Art - How Great Thou Art

This is a mix of things we did with Rhiannon at this age, some that we feel are better resources for Ciaran and some that we are doing jointly with them this year. This years main emphasis once again will be on building the solid reading skills he needs and foundational math skills.

Ciaran will also have a few supplemental activities, field trips and classes from our homeschool cooperative. It appears his activities of choice right now are skateboarding, basketball and chess. And of course geo-caching - he would like to create more reasons for us to be out caching!

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Now playing: Sara Groves - Conversations
via FoxyTunes

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Now playing: Casting Crowns - Does Anybody Hear Her
via FoxyTunes

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Now playing: Sara Groves - Just One More Thing
via FoxyTunes

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Now playing: Sara Groves - Going Home
via FoxyTunes

3rd Grade Curriculum

Since I spent the last few days ordering and pulling together our curriculum for the year thought I might as well post it here for all its posterity and to answer that burning question - "What are you using this year?" Which is a much fairer question to ask any homeschooler since so many change from year to year.

Every year I look at nice boxed packages like Sonlight, My Fathers World, even Calvert and then I run away thinking I will feel too boxed and unhappy and instead take it upon myself to mesh together a variety of unrelated texts and approaches. Maybe one of these years I will change my mind as so many of my friends are happy with those programs. Here is what we are planning for third grade

Math - Singapore 3A and 3B
Grammar/Writing - Voyages in English 3
Handwriting - Cursive Success HWT
Spelling - Spelling Power
Science - Merrill Life Science grade 3 and Christian Liberty Nature Readers
History - Story of the World vol 3
Geography - Geography Matters
Latin - Prima Latina
Art - How Great Thou Art
Music - Ultimate Encyclopedia of Classical Music


In addition we will do our own bible memory verse and devotional time as well as supplemental classes, field trips and activities as chosen. Right now that is shaping up to include horsemanship, various skills learned through Keepers at Home, and whatever classes she selects in our homeschool coop. I am tired just typing it.

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Now playing: Casting Crowns - Stained Glass Masquerade
via FoxyTunes
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Now playing: Sara Groves - Cave Of Adullum
via FoxyTunes

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Now playing: Casting Crowns - Lifesong
via FoxyTunes

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Now playing: Antonio Vivaldi - The Four Seasons: Concerto No.1 'La Primavera' in E, RV 269: I. Allegro
via FoxyTunes

Explode the Code

We have done Explode the Code book 3 and 4 this year for second grade. We also did Book 1 and part of Book 2 for Grade K with Ciaran. We chose to skip the 1/2 books and move right into the next level as theyhad no difficulty at all with level 3 and were ready to move onto the next levels.

We will begin next year with level 5 for Rhiannon and pick up Level 2 where we left off for Ciaran. Both children really enjoyed these books. We typically did a lesson a week and they were very independent in this subject. I would introduce the topic Rhia would be studying and then she worked through the lesson at her pace. Most frequently she would do the whole lesson on Monday because she enjoyed this text and found it pretty easy. The only topic she struggled with even remotely was syllables and even those were pretty easy for her once we reviewed the concept.

As for Ciaran I read the directions to him each day and he typically did 1-3 pages at a time depending how much handwriting was involved on the particular pages. In the beginning we worked on them together but by the end he was reading more independently and was working on them at his pace and on his own.

I recommend these resources as they are pretty cheap 5.00 a book and easy to do. Easy to give the child freedom with to do at their own pace. They are workbook format though so if your child or you hates workbook style they may not be the resource for you.

We find them useful mostly because Rhiannon did not continue with a formal phonics program once she was reading well and these books review some of the phonics concepts that we want to be sure she has a foundation in. As for Ciaran they are a nice review of concepts we are doing and provide simple worksheets that let him work on phonics rules, reading and handwriting all in one place.

The books are simple and easy enough that both my kids enjoy them at their level. They also like the feeling that they finish school quickly as each worksheet does not take much time to do. The writing starts gently and increases at the higher levels but there is still quite a few circle or x pages. A simple easy to use foundational book. We will continue with the series next year for both kids.

Second Grade Review

Well it is that time of year to review the resources we used this year for 2nd grade. Some of them are repeat resources from last year and others are brand new. I was surprised by a few things that I thought I would love that I did not and then a few things that I was pleasantly surprised with. I have decided rather than a single long post I will review each in its own post with links here (as I finish them).

Miquon Math blue book
Singapore Math 2A and 2B
First Language Lessons
Explode the Code 3 and 4
Handwriting Without Tears
Story of the World Vol 1.
Story of the World Vol 2.
Exploring Creation through Botany
Day by Day Bible and Devotional
Drawing with Children
Online Spelling Lists
Reading List

We had other resources we pulled from and used off and on but these were our main spines for the year and the resources I feel are worth reviewing from our work this year. Check back over the next few weeks as I update and complete each resources review. Of course these reviews are personal and biased based on what I liked and did not like for our family, they may not apply that much to you or your family. If you have any particular questions about a particular resource I am more than happy to answer email.

Also if you are a publisher or curriculum provider and would like me to review a book or material for you, please send me an email to tenniel.at.gmail.com.

Handwriting Without Tears Review

Rhiannon was interested in learning cursive this year so I agreed. Having read and heard wonderful reviews of Handwriting without Tears we purchased the Grade 3 Cursive books. I purchased the teachers edition which I would not do again as it really is unneccesary and not very useful other than for a few word lists which you could easily create on your own.

Two things about this program as described that we found inaccurate. First the name lies, there are still tears, at least for us there were. The first few times there were tears and general unhappiness. I pulled back for awhile and then started again and still the tears - I was ready to throw in the towel and then I tried a different approach. I stopped doing what they recommended - I stopped trying to teach it on a board and with all the steps and showed her once in her book and then left her alone to do it herself (which they recommend to not do), reviewed it with her and then she stopped crying and started enjoying it - go figure.

So all in all it was a great program for us once we adapted it to fit Rhia's learning style better. The structure of the letters is different than a traditional cursive program and that takes getting used to and you still need to help your child understand the letters in traditional cursive even if they do not write it so they can read it. This adds in an extra step I suppose but it is worth it. I like the style of HWT and the letters are easier to understand and look more like their print counterparts, they are also easier to write.

Nearly the whole program focuses on lower case letters with just the last few lessons bringing in capitol letters. We did this program thorugh the whole year but at a pretty slow pace and I would recommend it. Rhia misses the curly and prettiness of the traditional letters but likes the way she writes these.

So as long as you don't expect this to be a magic pill, of handwriting without any tears, and don't mind the different style of lettering this is a great program. We will continue using the next level for her next year and bringing Ciaran into this program in 1st grade. We have heard it is especially useful for lefties which he is, so we will look forward to evaluating that.

Miquon Math Review

We began the year with Miquon Blue book for the start of second grade math. Rhiannon really enjoyed the orange and red book last year but this year was a different story. We were moving along just fine and suddenly she started to hate math. Now math has truthfully never been her favorite subject even though she does fine in it. Soon it became a fight and tears and all the things homeschool is not supposed to be. So we switched programs and moved over to Singapore math in the middle of the first semester - she did about 3/4 of the blue book before abandoning it.

Strengths of Miquon: It introduces multiple skills in logical ways. Multiplication and Division do not seem so hard because they are logical flows out of other concepts. Fractions are especially easy to understand with the cuisennaire rods. The amount of work on each concept is just right, not too few problems not too much busy work. Lessons are cyclical so you will come back quickly to other topics you already covered. The connections between math concepts is very easily understood with this program.

Weaknesses of Miquon: The program introduces older and more difficult math concepts pretty early on. The final breaking straw for us when we she was faced with multiplying and dividing fractions in second grade. While we could have just skipped that section because it was too advanced and continued with the other elements in the program we chose not to. She felt discouraged and bad about her abilities when faced with this math book. The book is also less visually stimulating then some others. When asked to describe what she did not like about the program Rhiannon will respond with "Everything. It was boring and too hard!" So there you have it.

The other weakness that moved us away from this math program is the lack of word problems. There are none until you get until the very end of third grade. After using Singapore which is heavy with word problems I really see the strength and importance of word problems as we are most often faced with real life math in a word problem format even when we work the answers out in equation format.

Overall Opinion: I still like Miquon math and have started Ciaran using it with the orange book in kindergarten this past year. I think the program is strong and logical and a good foundation for math.

However, it is not right for Rhiannon who needs success in between her challenges. She has a bit more of a perfectionist tendency and Miquon I do not feel is good for this kind of child as it pushes them farther and farther until they reach their point or past their point and then moves back to an easier concept.

I love the rods and the way Miquon introduces concepts and is not afraid to present more challenging things in a simplified and natural way. For the right child (maybe a gifted math child or one who loves challenges and being pushed) this math program can make the challenges fun. It will be interesting to see how Ciaran approaches this when he gets to this level in the series. I recommend the red and orange book with no hesitation at all. While the blue book was not a good fit for us I believe in the program and given the right child I think this a good advanced math second grade book - though you would likely need to supplement with word problems if you value those in math education at this level.

First Language Lessons Review

We have spent the past two years using First Language Lessons by Jessie Wise. We used this for first and second grade English. We loved it for first grade and lost interest in second grade. We skipped a lot of sections and found it too repetitive in second grade.

The strengths of the book are the poetry memorization, the gentleness with which the concepts are introduced and the narrative style of lessons. The lessons are short and interesting to young children and there is little to no prep work. The material is classical styled and a good beginning for the English language. It is easy to modify the work as needed for the level of the child doing the work and you could teach more than one child at a time. It is a non-consumable which is always nice and we enjoyed the picture studies as well. Rhia was very excited for this book her first grade year and by the end of second grade really did not care for it at all.

The weaknesses of the book are the repitition. In the beginning it is good but then it goes on and on in second grade. We found many of the lessons unneccesary and simply skipped them once she got the concept. Perhaps for some children the repition is neccessary, but for Rhia it became tedious. By the end we simply worked on definition memorization and once she had the concept down and definition memorized we moved on. The poems were not as interesting to memorize for second grade and the book spends A LOT of time on prepositions.

Overall I am glad we used the book and I will use it with future children. I am not sure there is enough to make this into a complete two year program and may not do that again. The book is a great style for first grade but a bit tedious and young for second grade. I think I will keep it for first grade in the future and use parts of it for second grade along with another program.

All in all it is worth the price and a useful tool for teaching young children the English language in a classical style.

On Demand Curriculum

Last night at dinner Serona and I were discussing some curriculum for next year and reviewing some of the modifications we have made to this years in the middle of the year. Serona made a comment that really resonated with both of us. He said "I am so thankful that we can make on demand curriculum choices."

How true that is and how different from traditional school settings. We got about halfway through the year and realized that Rhiannon's math program was getting too intense for her and was way beyond what she needed to know so we made an adaptation and changed curriculum. We plan to return to the original one sometime next fall most likely but we were able to adapt in the middle of the year to meet her needs.

Ciaran is learning to read and we are even more on demand in this area. While I have a traditional phonics program for him in Phonics Pathways and we have the whole Bob books series we realized that these were just not lighting his passion for reading. What we discovered was two fold. First Ciaran needs to feel confident and second he needs to feel rewarded for his progress in tangible and immediate ways.

So we discovered the Primary Phonics series - which we used briefly with Rhia when she was learning. Well this really connects with him - he likes the 16 page stories and the fact that he can read all the words unassisted and each book works on a single new rule at a time giving him time to work through that and master the skill. So rather than pushing through the Phonics Pathways book with him we are working through the individual reader and teaching the rule he needs to get through the next book. Then he has lots of practice in ways he enjoys on just that one phonics rule and reviewing others he already knows. No more saying "well that word is different because... or well that word is really hard ... or no the rule does not apply to this word" All of those phrases were really frustrating and discouraging to him and his learning style. So we no longer use library Level One readers - as there are always too many exceptions. He is much more confident and enjoys reading more now.

The other important part of this for him is tangible and immediate rewards. His favorite pastime right now is playing Gamecube video games. So for every half hour he reads he gets to play 15 minutes of video games. It is not immediate in the sense that he reads for 30 minutes and then plays for 15 minutes. Rather he knows he can not play until he is done reading for the day and I say it is time to play but his game time is limited by the amount of time he read that day. It also helps keep the constant reminder for him that reading is more important than the video games.

In the age of on demand movies and television why not have on demand curriculum? Google provides this as well as many times an inquisitive little mind asks a question and determines our lesson plans for the day found through Google and the wonderful resources available online and at our local library. Just one more benefit to homeschooling.