Curriculum for 1st Grade and on-- opinions please!

Patricia - posted on 11/16/2012

I use CLE with my son who has ADHD and he does very well, the instructions are easy to read for him and myself.

Bobbi Jean - posted on 11/15/2012

Other helpful websites for math are:



www.coolmath.com

Khan Academy

Lisa - posted on 07/23/2012

Don't forget that there is nothing wrong with choosing your own books. You don't HAVE to buy a pre-packaged program. Books like A Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer or websites like hsadvisor.com will give you an outline of the subjects that you should be covering at each grade as well as listing several books for each subject for you to compare.

For example, I use History Odyssey and REAL science from Pandia Press, Singapore Math, Writing Strands, A Reason for Handwriting, worksheets from superteacherworksheets.com and check out grade appropriate literature for free at the library.

It's a little more work, but you can save money this way as well as design a program that reflects your own children's strengths and needs.

Whatever you decide, remember that no one knows your kids better than you do. Good luck!

Starla - posted on 04/05/2012

I like christian liberty press except i use saxon math. And this year i had an old hooked on phonics program which ended up not working, so i just got the Christian liberty phonics and so far i'm liking it. Look at christian book didtributers, they have lots of homeschool books for good prices and also have scaned pages of most books and reviews. I like to look at it to compare how the books are set up and what will work best for my child. Also I have found my self just copying the pages in many work books for my son to do so that they will still be usable for my daughter when she starts school in a few years.

Shelly - posted on 04/03/2012

Math - Mammoth Math



English - Pathway Readers for 1st grade



Grammar - Climbing to Good English.



Writing - Handwriting Without Tears



Lots of arts and crafts.

Len - posted on 09/01/2011

Just as a suggestion, we don't actual use an all in one packaged curriculum but several different sources. I also use the workbox system to organize everything so I'm not left flying by the seat of our pants (organization wise). We use Math U See, Handwriting Without Tears, and All About Spelling as our main resources, obviously that's not all we do but those are our favorites.

Annie - posted on 08/31/2011

We landed on Sonlight curriculum for this year. I found someone in our area who had the core package we needed used and we paid a quarter the price. Score! I had to purchase the workbooks new but I think it will be worth it. My kids are close enough in age that we can use the core package for both of them, then we just have to separate for math and writing, but I think we will still cover the same concepts but to different degrees. I'm super excited! We don't start until after labor day, which is this coming Tuesday, because we're awesome like that, but my kids are already getting pyched about school. :)
Thanks for all of your imput!
Annie

Gloria - posted on 05/24/2011

I really love time4learning.com

Deanna - posted on 02/08/2011

I started out this year serious with all of my kids after my 7yr old spent two yrs on public school. We flubbed around this year but we still got everything done and are still going strong.



So through hours upon hours of research we have found our curriculum for next year. We will be using Bob Jones in Science, Math, Spelling, & History. For grammar/reading/writing and dictation we will be using the Shurley English. Each of these subjects has bible through it that we can add or remove when and where needed.



However, I have spent these last months researching each of my children and their learning styles as well as the curriculum's out there. We started out with Rod and Staff because it was cheaper and basically spoon fed to you. However, it lacks color, and is very dull for my kids.

We didn't like LifePac as it needed an additional grammar book with it and for that price I thought it should come all inclusive plus it seemed to skim over a lot in extremely short bursts whereas my girls like to work out what they are doing a bit more than just a few pages. We didn't like the Rod and Staff grammar. It was fine and did what it needed to but there are somethings in there that the teacher must have learned before as it assumes that you the teacher have learned and retained all of this before. Answering in depth questions was challenging at times. I hope this helps as to what we are using and didn't like about what we used this year & why.

My best piece of advice is to research research research. Watch your child and make notes about how your child learns, what time of day is usually best and so on. Take those with you when you research. (even if it is only to the computer) christianbooks.com is a wonderful site that you can actually see a few pages into most of their books if you aren't sure if it will be a good fit for you. However, also note that they are a little more pricey than other places.



This is an update to my other post on here. Also I have been teaching in prek, k, 1st, and 3rd grades. Next year it will be prek, 1st, and 4th grades.

Annie - posted on 11/20/2010

Thanks! That is sort of how I've been doing things, only with a lot less structure. :) We have been enjoying ourselves, but I find myself scrambling to get my stuff together every morning. I like that some of the curricula have structured day-to-day lesson plans. It will be harder and harder to do the "flying by the seat of our pants" thing as the kids get older and their studies get more complicated. As often as I say "I need to get more organized," it usually happens for about a week or two until something comes up and then we come unraveled again. I do, however, feel like no matter what curriculum we use, we will end up modifying it. That's the beautiful thing about homeschooling. I love the spontaneity of it. If the kids are really interested in a particular topic, we can explore that topic at our leisure and come back to the prepared topic later, whenever it suits. They learn so much better if it's something they care about.
Thank you so much for your input. I will have to do some more Googling and comparison. :)
Annie

Deanna - posted on 11/08/2010

There are hundreds out there and each one is different in some ways. However, we use the Rod and Staff because it is so much like the ABEKA but without all the colors and such. It is also a lot cheaper and with homeschooling 3 kids it runs into a lot of money each year as it is. We love it and we plan on using it again next year as well. However, I will admit that we prefer to have the more scientific science books so we are using a different curriculum book for that. We also are doing something different for the history portion. We have a U.S. Governments and Presidents book for grades 3-5 that we use for our social studies as well as a geography book that I found at Sam's club by accident and the girls love it. We do change Science up a little and throw in life science and human body science. Between units in the science book we will take 1-3 days to do something dealing with life science. I have also made a chart with all of the bones listed on it and we are trying to learn the bones in our body over the next couple of years. (technical terms) We also learn how certain parts of our body work. We just got done with how our body digests food for instance and now we are going to go back and review our planets before moving on to the next unit. I make a lot of our homeschooling aides as well. Like I made 1inch wood blocks (100) and we use those for counting, adding, subtraction, fraction, dividing, multiplying, and so on. It is great for all of my girls in their math. We have made our own flashcards for math, memory, numbers, and reading. I have also just started a word of the day and next year I plan on transferring that from sheet paper to a WOTD box. (like recipe box) That the girls can review and go over once a week.
I am not even sure if this helps but I thought I would at least reply in the hope that it will in some way.
(if you want to know how I am doing something specifically or even want copies of some of my own worksheets let me know and I can e-mail them to you.)

Annie - posted on 10/31/2010

Thanks! I looked at CLE online just now... it looks very nice for the money! It's actually published in Harrisonburg, VA, where I live, so I do believe I will be going to that store at some point to check it out in person!
The other one I'm seriously considering is Sonlight, which is much more expensive (~$900 for the whole program for a year), BUT you're allowed to use it for multiple children, it has lesson plans already taken care of (YES!), and you can try it out for a few months and then return it if it's not right for your family. It also uses a lot of the classic reads (Aesop's Fables, Charlotte's Web, etc.) and seems to be fairly open to other cultures and beliefs.
How is CLE on that aspect? We are a Christian family, but I don't want a curriculum that teaches a "holier than thou" point of view. I like for them to learn about the other religions from an educational standpoint. That's something that's very important to me as a mother. I will be curious to see how they handle evolution/creationism because I have my own opinion on that one. ;) But don't we all.
Thanks again,
Annie

Crystal - posted on 10/24/2010

This is my first year homeschooling, We are doing 2nd and 6th grades...for 2nd grade we tried Abeka and 6th we tried CLE(christian light education) Abeka is way too teacher intensive for my taste and if it hadn't been for my friend letting me borrow a lot of the books we wouldn't have tried it...love CLE though..very reasonably priced and my DD has learned a ton this year...we are only using..L.A., Math, and Reading...I thought the Science and History looked rather boring...I would recommend checking it out .I am definitely ordering CLE for both girls next year and I'm going to try it for my DD who will be starting K...