First Grade on a budget — Classically HS’ing
We have been running everywhere since we are in our last days before the National Science Olympiad competition. So, I needed to take a few days away from blog writing to focus on other things. However, on one of my yahoo loops a mom asked about homeschooling a first grader on a tight budget. I wasn’t going to post the note here; since there are many resources already focused on this topic, but, heck, this is my blog so I’m including my own take on this topic. A Classical HS’ing take:
For First Grade, here are some ideas:
Language Arts:
First Language Lessons, by Peace Hill Press —this $18.95 book, —$12.32 from Amazon — will last you two years—scripted lessons to cover grammar, memorization, narration, writing, storytelling, —–a very complete language arts program for 1st and 2nd grades.
Handwriting / writing:
Take a book, any quality picture book or some classic and have dd practice copying the sentence. There are also handwriting programs on the net, FREE, that you can use to print out handwriting worksheets.
After you read a story, have your dd tell the story back to you.
This narration skill is actually a writing skill!
Phonics / Reading:
If she isn’t reading then do invest in a phonics program. If she is reading, then do about 15 minutes of read-aloud time daily so you can check up on her reading skills. Of course, if she doesn’t like that much reading time do some things like buddy-reading, you read a page, shereads a paragraph…… she reads a little bit in the morning and some morebefore bed. It doesn’t all have to happen in one sitting. Oh, and all the reading books can come from the library, no need to buy them. If you want ideas then request a Sonlight Catalog or a Rainbow Resource Catalog and use their book lists to give you ideas of what to have her read. Also, there are book lists on the net, such as 1000 Great Book List.
Math
Use Math Factory Worksheet (they have a Basic version that is free) to print out your own math sheets. Practice adding, subtracting — if you are concerned that you are not covering everything you should then print out a scope and sequence (chapter topics type thing) from Singapore Math or Saxon or ABeka and just make sure you are covering all the topics. However, a math program from Singapore will run around $25, or from ABeka for $12. Use homemade manipulatives to save a bundle — start saving milk bottle caps for counters for one,…..
History
I like doing history chronologically and when we started hs’ing I used the Great Men and Women list found in The Well Trained Mind to guide me. Every couple weeks I would take out all the library books about one of the men listed. We’d read about the person, find out where he lived (ahhh, geography!), draw a picture about him (ahhh, art), tell a story about him, writing! most the time dc told me the story and I would write it down. It was very low cost. Then I’d return all the books, and take out all the books about the next man on the list.
Science
Again, use the library. Pick a topic — my suggestion is Life Science. Spend a few months reading about animals; insects, birds, fish, reptiles,….. read about one type of animal a week, and make a story book about them. Then spend a few months reading about the human body; five senses, circulation system, respiratory system,,,,,,,, Then spend a few months reading about and growing plants. Again, all the books are from the library so there isn’t the cost to you, except going on-line, reserving the books, getting to the library to pick them up,….
HS’ing in 1st grade can be done really, really inexpensively.
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May 13th, 2006 @ 11:04 pm
Check the article “Ten Things To Do Before Age 10″ at www.triviumpursuit.com
May 14th, 2006 @ 5:41 am
I deleted the previous commentor’s blog page location since it’s over at HSB, and I do not link to there.
Thanks for the link to the article and whew, yes that’s what we focused on with our two:
1–Reading & Writing,
2–Oral Narration
3–Memorization
4–Hearing & Listening
5–Family Worship
6–Arts & Crafts
7–Field Trips & Library
8–Work & Service
9–Discipline
10–Play & Exploration
Thanks for the reminder to this article, although I TOTALLY disagree to ever taking a switch to a child. There is NO need to ever do such a thing.