In Summeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer!

So it's JUNE! First grade wooot! Um. Well, sort of?

Still drowning in the interwebs and curriculum review, I realized that since it doesn't matter at all when we start "first" grade, that I may as well start adding in things now one at a time. This way, I can get used to all the new things and how they'll flow into our day without overwhelming myself. The kids want to be outside as much as possible, so while we're still doing school everyday, I'm giving in, keeping it light, and letting them enjoy the days swimming and getting messy. As fall approaches, I can set up a more concrete schedule.

The first thing I added was First Language Lessons. This is wonderful! It's so short, just having a conversation with her, and she's memorizing poems and parts of speech with ease. We're about 15 lessons in, and I plan to do it 2-3 times per week so we stretch level 1 out for the entire year. We just started with Elemental Science, and I bought the workbook to go with it, which I regret. It's just too much writing for her at this stage, so I'm going to shelve it for this unit. The outlines for study though are great and we are doing the plant study unit first since it's appropriate given the weather. We've done one lesson in Telling God's Story and I like it fine too. We'll just do it Sunday mornings, and have a memory verse to go with it that we'll talk about every day. I'm not all that impressed with the activity book so far, so while I'll continue the series, we'll make up our own fun. Gabster begged to learn cursive, so I'm throwing that in too. I'm also still looking for a Spanish program (thinking Salsa online) as we're now attending a Spanish church service weekly and I just really want us all to be fluent anyway. We did our first history lessons this week and so far so good! She is so excited to talk about mummies and Ancient Egypt with Story of the World.

The best thing though, has been All About Spelling. Totally shocked at this, but I've realized that the "spell to read" approach is working beautifully. I finally see progression and she does not dread anything having to do with letters now. I dictate words, she spells them, reads them back at the end, and we follow it up with a BOB book or some other easy reader. Teaching her the spelling rules, will help her figure out new words as she comes across them. I've been reading about the Spalding method and it makes so much sense at least for her. I'll keep it in mind when it's Lil Bit's turn to read. Progress is still slow, but I have to remind myself that she just finished K and it's very normal for students not to be independently reading yet. If we're still stuck in CVC land come next summer, I'll worry then.

Speaking of Lil Bit, she's going to need some help with her language. We had her evaluated and she's presenting in the range of an 18 month old in some areas. She is four. She qualifies for speech and language therapy through the county in a preschool setting. That will be 4 days a week for her (half day), so I will not be doing anything else structured with her aside from reading, as she'll be plenty tired! This completely changes my day, as I am now looking at setting up a "morning time" for us since we're all together (memory work, history/science, Spanish) and doing Gabster's core math and reading work in the afternoon when little sister is gone and baby brother is napping. She is so excited to go, and I'm happy she'll be getting that time to have fun on her own and get the help she needs. Just one year should do it, and she'll be home for K.

Back to Gabster, math is going well. It's been really hard not to jump ship and try a different program, but she really is understanding concepts. We're spending the next 6 weeks just focusing on math facts with games and workbooks Addition Adventures & Subtraction Secrets. That way, moving to the next level should be a breeze.

So yes, we've started everything for first grade, but I'm still very much in summer mode so we'll call it official in August. We found a GREAT coop and that will be Tuesdays. We'll do music and native American unit studies this fall and I believe art & NC history in the spring.

I'm still certain that this was the best decision I've ever made for my children.