From Our Forum a Reader Asks:
I need advice on homeschooling. The possibility that I may have to homeschool my 1st grader is looming. I have some big decisions to make and want to prepare myself as much as possible. Does anyone know the best homeschooling kit? One that gives the most comprehensive curriculum to prepare a child for second grade. Specifically, I live in Georgia and I need to make sure my child will be a top performer when he gets to second grade.
May I ask why you’re only HS’ing for first grade?
If you plan to re-enroll in B&M school next year, why not try the Georgia Virtual Academy? It’s a virtual public school, so re-enrolling in B&M school would be much easier.http://www.k12.com/gva/
GVA uses the curriculum I’ve used for 5.5 yrs, since my son was barely 5. It is *incredible*.http://www.k12.com
Why not attend some GVA online or in-person open house sessions to find out more about it?
I agree with others – don’t put so much pressure on your child, *especially* not at this age. K12’s scope & sequence is at least a year ahead of most public/private schools, so if you use K12, your child will have the advantage of a deep, and broad, curriculum. I’ve always used K12 as an independent HS’er (not connect w/ a public school) and my son’s test scores are incredible. For instance, in 3rd grade, he scored better than 99% of 8th graders in science on the EXPLORE test. In 4th grade, he scored better than 99% of them in grammar (K12 starts grammar in 1st grade).
Sonlight has a complete package that is amazing. Although they are quite expensive, many of the resources can be resold the following year on Ebay. I usually end up selling it for 75-80% of what I paid for it.
And they have a 1/2 school year guarantee that allows you to return it even after you have used it!
Best of Luck to You!
Warm Regards,
Janahttp://www.summerhouseliving.comhttp://www.purehomeschooling.com
The first two answers you have received are excellent, and I have only one thing to add: beware the desire to make your child a “top performer” when he gets to second grade. This will create undo pressure on both your child and you. Competition kills the joy of learning.
Be well.
My dad makes his own curriculum I do not know if u are capable but he does lots of studying and just shows me what i need to learn next!
Math u should do adding and subtraction along with lots of reinforcements. play some games like put books or any object really and count them then take away a certain number and count them now this also helps if he/she gets stuck on a problem. I found that Key Curriculum Press makes a series called Miquon which really helps!
If your child can already read then I will tell u what to do to inforce reading: find a realativly high reading level book(I used Harry Potter because I wasn’t scared of the story and didn’t have night mares from this material) buy two copy’s and have your child read aloud the story as u read it to and if he doesn’t stop at a period pause at a comma prounounce something correctly ect. then stop him and help him fix the problem.
If he can’t already read then start him with Let’s read by Bloomfield and Barnhart which is an excellent book to learn to read. I had a hard time learning to read and this book really made a differnce.
Writing just have your child write short story’s and help him correct grammer and spelling.
Social studies learn map skills and the name a differnt towns and city’s in GA. Then do the huge history facts from the past and maybe some information on the Government.
I hope this helps and everything works out with your child! Good Luck
I personally would suggest choosing seperate materials for each individual subject. Boxed curriculums are convenient, but your child might have specific learning styles in certaian areas. For example, your child may be an auditory learner in language arts related areas (does best following along with audio books or reading out loud or reciting spelling words or hearing grammer rules and coming up with rhymes or songs to remember them, etc) but may need more hands-on materials to really grasp math and science concepts (lab experiments, activities with physical manipulatives, etc)” and contact your local group streight away. You’ll be aable to take advantage of things like co-op classes (small group classes of homeschoolers studying special, harder-to-do-alone subjects) social events like parties around holidays for the kids, or park days and picnics, field trips to unique locations, curriculum fairs and trading, and lots LOTS more.
For math, if this is the case, I would suggest Math-U-See. It comes with DVD lessons and the usual workbooks, but they also make great use of physical manipulatives to get the kids using their hands and really make concepts concrete before moving into the more abstract parts of math.
For Reading, I would just use real books from the library instead of those low-standard readers they use in the classroom that butcher and dumb down some of the greatest works of literature. Read to him and with him anad maybe get some phonics flashcards to help him learn what certain letter combinations sound like and apply that while he reads. You can draw vocabulary from the books you get him just by picking out words he doesn’t understand and learning them. You could even get him started on greek and latin roots so that he can learn to “decode” words he doesn’t understand by himself.
A simple grammar workbook could be enough for lanaguage arts, though I can’t reccomend one. Just shop around for this. Shouldn’t be hard to find. You could also design your own activities to go along with the books. Maaybe have one or two sentences every day that you write incorrectly, and talk about what’s wrong and how to fix it.
For science, any typical science curriculum could be used, but you don’t want to stick tot he book alone. Mayabe use it as a guide, and supplement with your own experiments and activities. really, I wouldn’t worry too much about buying an expensive boxed curriculum for science. You could do as well as (or more likely go far beyond) the public school just by getting childrens science books from the local library and reading them to or with your child, replicating the experiments in the books, baking and cooking together and talking about the science involved in cooking, eating, and digesting food, taking field trips to the hospital, zoo, hands on science museum, planetarium, awildlife preserve, or any areas of interest near you. You can read about the eating habits of birds and create bird feeders to put up in the park or even in your own back yard and observe and see who comes to eat. You can catch and examine insects and learn about their bodies and eaating habits and where they live. You can make carbon dioxide and learn about why mixing baking soda and vinegar makes such a fizzy mess… maybe even make a carbon dioxide volcano or rocket. You can learn about the weather and what makes different weather happen. The possibilities are endless! If you want to try using some pre-made kits for science experiments and activities, try googling Home Science Tools and checking out the first result. Lots of great things there.
For hitory, you could just start from the dawn of time and work your way up from there in chronological order using library books, online resources, or a purchased curriculum, or you can focus more on state, local, and american history.
Some other things you might want to do (and can easily do without a packaged curriculum) are arts and crafts activities (painting, clay, paper crafts, just have fun and get the creativity going) poetry reading (Shell Silverstien is a MUST), maybe get him started on a musical instrument, even if it’s just the recorder. Definitely work on computer skills like tping, and counting change and telling time are both important as well.
If you need more help, and een if you don’t, I HIGHLY reccomend joining your local homeschool support group. Google “Homeschool Groups
Good luck!
I prefer to homeschool choosing each curriculum that fit my childs need, however if you are looking for a boxed curriculum Abeka, Sonlite, BJU, Rod and Staff etc are all wonderful. But as others have said…look around and choose wisely. The boxed curriculum can be very costly and can be a cosyly mistake.