Do you ever look at your life and just stop and think “How did we get here?” That’s exactly where I’m at today, as I sit down to share our future plans with you. When we started our homeschool journey, I was the mom of a wild and rowdy two-year old boy. That sweet and adorable boy caused us a LOT of headache in our early days of homeschooling. We were tying to find our groove in a whole new world and he was set on coloring on everyone’s schoolwork, shutting the laptops in the middle of lessons and screaming during our read-aloud time. It was exhausting.
Now my sweet boy is 6 years old and heading into 1st grade. How does that happen so quickly?
Around here, we’re pretty firm believers in allowing kids to be kids. We know the power of play, reading and just living life to it’s fullest. I’m in no hurry for any of my kids to grow up. And luckily, we live in a very relaxed state, where the homeschool laws allow us to postpone any schooling until the age of 7. And we’ve taken advantage of that!
Kindergarten Recap:
As we’re winding down our last baby’s kindergarten school year, it’s hard to not be a little sad. We had big plans for our little guy but, as always, simplified those plans as we found what works and doesn’t work with our guy.
Looking back, we really overplanned (or underperformed, depending on how you look at it!) 😉 The only things we really stuck with was The Good and The Beautiful and Reading Eggs.
You can find our kindergarten plans here.
The Good and The Beautiful Language Arts:
Around Christmas, we completed the Pre-K language arts book and he really enjoyed it! I didn’t push school for him, but instead only did workbook work when he acted interested in doing what his sisters were doing. Once we completed Prek-K, we moved right along to the Primer. We’re currently wrapping it up and will head into the kindergarten workbook after our summer break. I feel like kids grow and learn SO much over the summer, there’s no reason to struggle through a curriculum just to check a box off our list. Once he’s ready, he’ll take off and save us both some tears. One thing to keep in mind about The Good and The Beautiful is that the levels are NOT grades. The kindergarten level is actually a good fit for 1st grade.
The Good and The Beautiful Math:
While I did purchase the math set for my little guy, we struggled with it. He did enjoy it, but I felt like it was stuff he already knew, so we stopped pulling it out and focused more on his reading and language arts when we did school. We made it almost through the first book of the math curriculum and will focus on the second book more next year. Bear is a natural math lover, so he breezed through the work but I’m hoping the second book is more challenging.
Reading Eggs:
One thing that we’ve kept up with pretty well (for us!) 😉 is Reading Eggs. There’s just something about it that my little guy really enjoys. He struggles with reading, due to his hearing issues, so the fact that he actually enjoys playing the games on Reading Eggs gives me hope. And I love that we always have Reading Eggs available. Whether we’re in the car or waiting at a doctor’s office, he can play it on my cell phone.
1st Grade Homeschool Plans
This year, we’re continuing our relaxed approach, especially for the first semester. Once Bear turns 7, in February, we’ll focus more on school work and less on play. Until then, here are our plans:
Math:
We’ll focus on finishing up our second book from The Good and the Beautiful Kindergarten math, while learning through life experiences. We’ll also use Math Seeds online program to reinforce what we’re learning.
Language Arts:
This fall, we’ll start The Good and The Beautiful’s kindergarten language arts program. We’ll continue learning with Reading Eggs over the summer and will use it heavily once the school year starts up again.
History:
Bear will be joining his sister for history this year. I’m super excited to try out the Giant American History Timeline with them both. It’s relaxed enough to fit our schedule but requires some research on their part. I’m excited to use this curriculum to teach them how to find information they need, while learning about the most important events that have shaped our world.
Geography:
We’ll be taking a fun and relaxed approach to geography by learning through Little Passports. I’m excited to use this ready-to-go actitvity subscription to learn with my little guy.
Science:
I’ve always been super relaxed when it comes to science, geography and history. I find that my kids learn it best when we watch videos, movies and read books that they’re naturally drawn to. For first grade, I plan on watching a lot of Sid the Science Kid, Magic School Bus and Wild Kratts. That’s all I have planned for science this year, but we’ll see how it goes and add or subtract from the plans as needed.
