First Grade

LMS sounding out words in one of her favorite books. She LOVES anatomy books and we have quite a few now, of varying degrees of difficulty. Do we have a future doctor on our hands?

Yesterday we started first grade.

Yes, our summer was short, but we'll be taking breaks throughout the year, so we're not missing out.

And who really wants to be outside when it's really hot and muggy? Not me. I'm all for staying inside and enjoying our air conditioning. When it cools down we'll take a break and spend some time outside.

As I've mentioned before, we're using the curriculum suggestions from A Well-Trained Mind. So what are we studying this year?

Reading, writing, spelling, grammar, math, science, history/geography, music, art, Japanese, and religion.

Yes, we will be busy, but each subject doesn't take very long when you're working one-on-one, and not all subjects are studied every day.

I was going to hold off on the Japanese for a few more years and start Latin next year, but a lady who's originally from Japan recently moved into our ward and I want to be able to take advantage of a native speaker to practice with (I'm super rusty), and figured it would be a good opportunity for LMS as well.

We've already decided on some extra-curricular and enrichment activities, the rest will be decided on as time passes.

We're continuing violin lessons, and after Labor Day LMS will start soccer again and an Irish sampler class that includes instruction in Irish language, dance, music (bodrhan and fiddle or tin whistle), and singing. Yes, I wish I could take this class, but it's only for kids, unfortunately.

After soccer is over, we might do some ice skating lessons or some skiing (I'd like to do both), but we'll have to see how our schedule is.

I don't think we'll be doing any co-ops this year because our schedule is already too full. Maybe next year.

When do your kids start school?

School year evaluation

exploring a local river with friends

So how did the past school year go?

Reading
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons worked well, but didn't teach reasons for why some e's are long and some are short, along with other rules. I've read that criticism elsewhere and plan on using The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading in first grade to compensate.

Writing
We zipped through the Zaner-Bloser workbook in less than two months. We'll continue using ZB, but will take it slower and will do additional practice activities, like we did this year.

Math
I really liked the Math-U-See curriculum, but it wasn't working for LMS. Unfortunately I didn't realize this till February. We did a quick switch to RightStart Math and then did some catching up so we could still finish on time. That wasn't necessary, but I wanted to try to make up for confusing her earlier in the year :)

Music
LMS started violin lessons in the fall. We occasionally listen to classical  and Irish music. We finally bought a piano in the fall and she plays her violin lessons on the piano. We'll start formal piano lessons in another year or so.

PE/Sports
We did fall and spring soccer, ski lessons, three kids fun runs, and four weeks of swimming lessons. We also have weekly park days with friends (I'm not always the best at getting out and going to parks, so having a scheduled time works well for us).

Art
Nothing formal- just fun with paints and crayons and glue and the sewing class at the co-op in the fall.

Science
Physics class at the co-op in the fall, farm animal class at the co-op in the fall, nothing too extensive this year.

We took a pretty relaxed approach to school this year and learned a lot from it. In the coming year we'll be changing how we do some things as well as adding more structure to the subjects that we didn't pay much attention to this year. My main goal for LMS in her kindergarten year was for her to learn to read and to make good progress in her math skills, which she did. I didn't want kindergarten to be high stress, and I think we did a pretty good job of keeping things low key.

So how's our homeschool schedule going?

We started the day after Labor Day, so we're about a month into the school year.

(LMS listening to scripture tapes before we buckle done for reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic)

After some trial and error, we've established an order for doing each subject, which has resulted in less time wasted and less pushing to get each lesson finished.

The first two weeks I didn't do any workouts, and that had to change (see this post), so I figured out a workout/training schedule (see this post), which is going pretty good so far, and only changes our school schedule a little.

Right now the subjects are time-intensive for me as I help LMS understand each new concept, especially in reading and math, but they won't always be. Three afternoons a week we're driving around town for classes, so I multitask by doing the grocery shopping and errands while we're out and about. Two evenings a week (thankfully it's going to once a week this week) and Saturday mornings we have soccer. Spare time for projects and all the household stuff is only available at certain times of the week.

Some of her work I need to sit next to her and help her, other parts she can do on her own, so I have a few minutes here and there to get stuff done around the house: bills, meals prepared, house cleaned, though it's a work in progress to see how everything fits in (and the housework has definitely suffered lately).

I've felt a bit stressed about our busy schedule, but a lot of the stress is because I haven't felt as good as I should lately- our food's been off- there's something else we need to cut out- almonds, I think. So I've felt crummy, stressed, and frustrated because I'm not getting everything done. Fun combo. I'm feeling better physically now, so I'm feeling less stressed, which makes everything better :)

This is our current curriculum (if we find something isn't working, I'll switch it for something else, though right now it all seems to be going well):

Scripture study- she listens to the tapes for the Illustrated Stories from the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Church History
Reading- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy lessons
Writing- Zaner-Bloser Handwriting
Math- Math-U-See Primer
Music- violin and ukulele
Art- no set curriculum- just whatever strikes our fancy
Science- no set curriculum- classes at the co-op are giving her an introduction though (biology now, physics next session)
PE- soccer