Monday, May 19, 2008 - First Grade Review (Part 3)
Phonics:
I would say this was our most difficult subject. The one that caused the most tears. I know that I started this year with the hopes that Cameron would make huge, phenomenal strides towards reading independently. We did make progress but not I had hoped. Although, I caught him reading Go, Dog, Go by himself when he thought I wasn't listening. That is huge!
We were using a few different things. We worked in A Beka's A Handbook for Reading. We reviewed short vowel sounds that we had worked on in Kindergarten. It did go a little more smoothly than the end of Kindergarten. We did progress to long vowels and it went better than our attempt at it in Kindergarten.
We also used a few readers from Christian Liberty Press.
Also, towards the end of the year a friend lent us A Beka readers.
We are still plugging along. I think he just needs practice and a LOT of confidence. Sometimes he comes to a word and just looking at it he *knows* that he won't be able to get it and doesn't even try.
I do find it highly amusing that he reads better at devotions. I have him read part of of or all of our selected reading from the Bible. Our King James Version Bible. Better than his phonics book. Go figure.
We are continuing through the summer to work with phonics. He is spending about 15 minutes or more, three times a week, at Star Fall. Hopefully this extra practice, that is fun, will help.
Copywork:
We began the year with a few weeks of reviewing our letters. Then we finally moved into a regular schedule of copywork. Each week he copied his memory verse, part of the hymn of the month, and then selections from our reading that week both poetry, school readings, and free reads.
From first term:
From term 3:
I have noticed an improvement from the beginning of the year.
Nature Study:
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We learned much about birds this year through reading Burgess's Bird Book.
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We studied some astronomy: the sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and the Moon.
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We started doing the Green Hour Challenges and will continue to do those over the summer. They have really raised our awareness of nature study and really helped us to focus on studying nature consciously
Misc:
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PE: two seasons of soccer (16 weeks)
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Handicrafts: Pinewood Derby car, numerous projects at Lowe's,
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Service: ministry to a shut-in family (twice a month grocery shopping, doctor's visits), once a month ministry at nursing home, helped put together 20,000 John and Romans for Mozambique
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Field Trips: purple martins, dairy farm, river boat trip, observatory, science center, zoo,
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Science: various science experiments
This concludes my review of first grade. I cannot believe that we are finished with first already. It feels like we just got started.
Comments
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by tiarali79
Hi! I have only taught one of our children to read so far, but found some low cost help in that area you might want to check out.
www.starfall.com has an alphabet page that teaches the first sounds of each letter (short vowels, and consonant sounds) in a really fun manner - and it's free! They also have some printouts you can use. Honestly the child doesn't really think they are having a phonics lesson, they think they are playing on the computer. I have a three year old who knows all the sounds, and thinks this is a fun site.
www.progressivephonics.com is a really good phonics program that only costs $20. You can get the first few books for free so you can decide if you want them. You download them onto your computer, and then read them on screen or print them out yourself - no postage costs. It is a great system, lots of fun, that only practices the sounds that have already been presented - so it's much less stress! This system uses shared reading, so the child reads the words that they can sound out, and Mum reads the other words. So you can still read fun - and funny - stories, you are spending time together, and it's great phonics practice, that covers reading up to a third grade level.
Another book I like is Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons by Siegfried Engelmann (sp). This one costs a bit more, but might be available in your local library.
Really, the first two resources are what I used with Jasmine.
Good luck!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by michael3
GREAT JOB C!
YOU DESERVE A TRIP TO YOUR FAVORITE RESTAURANT FOR A YEAR OF COMPLETION!
HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!
LOVE, M AND MUMMY
Wednesday, May 21, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Anonymous
Hi there! I know i only get by here once in a while to comment. But I really do enjoy reading your posts, especially since Cameron is just a year ahead of my kiddos. I see that you used A Beka Math, I am going to use that too for 1st grade next year. What other curriculum are you following? I see that you are reading a lot. I thought that I would go with Sonlight next year to try it out. I thought maybe you were doing that too, but I only recognized 2 books from their 1st grade curriculum. I'm also going to use Rocket Phonics.
I have those A Beka readers and I haven't used them are you finding them useful? Is Cameron enjoying them or are they a chore?
If you can email me I would so appreciate it. My email is eskimokisses@bellsouth.net
Chelle
(tripletsrajoy)
www.tripletsrajoy.blogspot.com
