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We’re continuing on with our curriculum picks for the 2022-23 homeschool year! In my last post I outlined what we’re planning to use for Squeaks in third grade, and together as a family. In this post I’ll be sharing what I have lined up for the boys! Little Dude is entering first grade, while Flash is a big kindergartener! *sob* It just blows my mind!
Of course Little Dude and Flash are both included in our morning basket routine. We cover Bible, history, and a bit of geography every morning as a family (you can read about that more in my last post). Here’s what I have planned for their individual subjects though.
Our curriculum picks for Little Dude’s first grade year!
Math:
Little Dude’s math was the easiest to decide on out of all my curriculum picks. He has a very math focused mind so I knew I wanted something challenging, but he is also easily distracted and overwhelmed by busy pages. Throughout my research I’ve heard Horizons math described as what seems to be the best fit for Little Dude’s learning needs. Now that I’ve had the chance to look through the book myself I think it’s perfect. Lessons are straight forward, no long lectures, you can add manipulatives but they aren’t required, and he can move through the lessons quickly (a necessity for a high energy little guy). I’m excited to give it a try!
Language Arts:
Language arts isn’t really language arts for Little Dude this year. I’m focusing solely on reading with a little penmanship thrown in. I just know that if I try and teach him grammar, spelling, writing, or have him do a bunch of copy work or narration, he’ll run from the room screaming (I might too). My plan is to build his confidence in reading, and that will open up doors in all other areas. This is the same strategy I used with Squeaks, to focus on reading first, and it worked really well. So my curriculum pick is All About Reading. I’ve actually never heard of anyone not having good results with this curriculum. It’s gentle, comprehensive, and reportedly very helpful to struggling readers.
Little Dude has never showed an affinity for the alphabet. In fact I could have sworn he was allergic to letters! Thankfully he’s outgrown it a lot (read about what helped here) and shows way more interest in learning to read than he has in the past. It doesn’t hurt though to have a curriculum like AAR that does so well for reluctant readers.
We’ll be a bit more intentional about writing this year than we were last.
Last year, while working our way through his Kindergarten Journal, I didn’t put much emphasis on penmanship. I just wanted him to be familiar with the letter shape, and as long as he gave writing a try I was happy. I knew forcing good penmanship would have adverse effects so I took every opportunity to praise a solid attempt at writing.
This year we’re going to give Handwriting Without Tears a try. Little Dude has matured and gained more confidence so I think we can easily move forward with some more structured practice. The different practice options with HWT are appealing to my active guy. It does include book work, but he’s also excited to use the mini chalkboard and build letters (we already had this letter building set so I didn’t purchase the set with the curriculum). I think it’ll be a perfect fit!
Science:
We’re trying something new for first grade science! Dad (aka The Man) will be doing science with all three kiddos on Fridays! I’m sure I’ll be involved in some way too, but I’m excited to pass off a little learning to The Man. I’ve been blessed with an incredibly supportive pro-homeschool husband, and I love that the kids will get this memory with their dad!
They’ll be working through Faith and Science with Dr. Fizzlebop. It’s not a curriculum, and we’ll have to take the time to gather the needed supplies ourselves, but it looks like such a fun book. Each lesson is a devotional with Bible reading and a corresponding science experiment. For example, after reading about David and Goliath, they’ll test out centripetal force using a bucket of water. The experiments all look pretty easy but impactful and fun! I bought little junior composition books for them to record their results since there’s no workbook, but we’ll keep it simple and probably just do drawings of each experiment.
And finally our curriculum picks for Flash’s Kindergarten year!
As mentioned, Flash will be joining us for our morning basket subjects. He absorbs so much from just listening to me read out loud and the older two kids answering questions. He even knows the majority of our catechism questions already! Never underestimate the power of just having your little ones in the room during school. They’re little sponges!
Aside from our morning basket time, Flash’s structured school time will be simple and short. He finished the Preschool Journal, so we’ll be moving on to the Kindergarten Journal. That will cover basic math, introducing time, addition, subtraction, and so on, as well as beginner reading concepts like beginning sounds, c.v.c words, and some penmanship practice. Just like with Squeaks and Little Dude, we’ll keep this light and fun. As much praise for a solid attempt at a concept as possible!
I’ll also be giving him the option to chose a hands on activity from our Kindergarten Busy Binder. It builds perfectly onto the concepts he’ll be practicing in his Kindergarten Journal with activities to practice telling time, learning his phone number, plus early math and reading skills.
We’ll be continuing with our ABC See Hear Do books as well. Little Dude just loved ABC See Hear Do and Flash even joined in a bit, so I know he’ll be interested. I love that it adds some movement into the learning process. Perfect for wiggly little ones.
So aside from science with dad and the big kids, that’s everything for Flash! With lots of reading together and playing outside thrown in of course.
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