Is this ok for first grade?

[mysonshine]

I am HSing DS1 in K right now. Looking ahead to next year. Something occurred to me this morning that may just work but I'm not sure. I've been using a complete curric and have been debating on whether I want to continue that or make up my own. But I thought this morning that maybe I could get an already made curric for the basics - Bible, Math, Reading (Language), Writing. And then kind of do unschooling for science and history - a "what would you like to learn about now?" approach then find books and activities to do.

What do I *need* for first grade? And what can we "slide" on?

I'm still not sure what we'll do and I'm glad I have time to figure it out. But any tips and help would be appreciated.

[kittie313]

Absolutely you can do that! In fact, I've considered going with that exact route with my girls next school year if we don't stay with our k12 school. Just get phonics and math, and then explore for science and history. I don't see where it would be hard at all, especially since in elementary school they are spending all that time just going over the same history and science each year.

[heatherdeg]

I think the answer to your question is going to be really subjective. Some would say you could pretty much slide on anything he's not really INTERESTED in learning--ya know?

Mine just turned 6yo and would be entering 1st in Sept. if in public school. I'm just trying to go on what he's interested in--which is mostly reading and science. He intermittently takes an interest in math. We work moral education into everything and part of his reading is Bible stories, but that's by his own choice (granted, I remind him that his Bible is available for stories--but I don't tell him to read it).

The only thing I'm really pushing on him at the moment is grammar because his reading level is so high... and I'm fairly certain I don't really need to, so I'm about to really sit back with it. *sigh*

I find myself looking to teach him things because I'm afraid... I don't trust that he WILL learn it on his own. I KNOW I'm subject of the brainwashing and have a hard time overcoming it.

I DO keep track of what he knows against a set of annual curriculum objectives (you can use your state's "core curriculum standards" or you can use someone else's... we use Core Knowledge's K-8 sequence). I just go through them and mark off what he's learned.

[philomom]

Originally Posted by heatherdeg

I DO keep track of what he knows against a set of annual curriculum objectives (you can use your state's "core curriculum standards" or you can use someone else's... we use Core Knowledge's K-8 sequence). I just go through them and mark off what he's learned.

Most states have theirs online. I did this when I homeschooled. Set aside a block of time to look through it all, or call your educational support center for your county ... maybe they can copy it for you. The state of Georgia's was pretty verbose.

I also liked that set of books that is broken down by grade..
"What your First Grader Needs To Know" and they have one for every year. Edited by E.D Hirsch. I found them helpful even when I had my kids back into public school to compare.

[mntnmom]

We're keeping the option of sending DD to school next year, or later open. So I figure as long as she's at grade level in reading/writing and math skills she should be fine. We do science and "social studies" in an interest lead way. Each school is going to vary in what they require year by year anyway. If you know he's NOT going to school, "grade level" is a non-issue in my book.

[luv-my-boys]

another thing we do is we take cues from the months/seasonal holidays. For instance in Feb. we are learning about African American history and important people as well as presidents. When we visit the library I go with those "themes" in mind and pick books accordingingly. And since each month seems to have some kind of holiday its really easy to find them. Our librarian has been a great resource in this.

janice van cleave also has some great science experiment books that are easy for children to do. We use that along side our science curriculum. For instance this yr we are doing a whole yr of anatomy and learnig about our body in greater detail. I also to the whole library books according to seasonal things as well. For instance right now we have a whole bunch of snow themed books fiction and non fiction and the kids have been watching the weather channel and the nightly news and have been mapping it on their wipe erasable maps the weather nationally.

[One_Girl]

That is pretty much what I am doing, except the bible part. It has been working well.

[annethcz]

That's pretty much what I did with my 1st graders. They did reading and math fairly consistently, and we read lots of books.

[ocelotmom]

Originally Posted by mysonshine

What do I *need* for first grade? And what can we "slide" on?

My opinion...

In public school, science and social studies for first grade tend to be very very basic, and the information presented seems somewhat arbitrary. Future grades don't really build on the concepts learned in 1st in the way that they do in math and language arts, so a child who becomes proficient in reading will easily be able to fill in the gaps. So, if I were going to let something slide, I would totally choose to do math and reading/writing over social studies and science.

That said, science and social studies can be helpful for developing comprehension and other useful skills, and it's not hard to put together something (formal or interest-led) that goes into at least as much depth as a public 1st grade, whether on the same subjects as the state standards, or ones of your choosing.

[christinar]

This is what I've been doing with my second grader (Saxon for math; Explode the Code series; spelling; going to do Handwriting w/o Tears cursive this semester). And then interest-led science and social studies. We do have Story of the World vol 1 and the Usborne World History book for starters, but we kind of skip around/stay awhile depending or take a break and do something else depending on where interests take us. Science topics are frequently based on books we get out of the library; weather; nature; the season we're in; a field trip we took; or gets blended into a thematic unit with history. We've been having a lot of fun this way.