Plans for First Grade

First Grade is when school seems to be more regulated and less "anything goes."  Planning for first grade was actually harder the second time around, at least at the beginning.  The biggest challenge was not comparing Merry and Charry.  I have all the lesson plans and workbooks that I used with Charry so at first I thought I would simply redo them with a different student.  That won't work.  My kids are too different.  They learn differently and because their birthdays are in different seasons they start the year at different levels.

So I stopped looking at what Charry did in First grade and started looking at what Merry did last year.  I'm not sure why I didn't start there to begin with.  I guess sometimes it is easy to over look the obvious.

Much of next year will be building on last year.

Math- Life of Fred, She goes through the books a bit slower that her sister, which is good since they need to last longer (4 years instead of 2 with the elementary books.)  She is loving them.
- Workbooks, right now she needs the daily practice.  Instead of spending more on a big "everything" workbook (like I've done in the past) this year we will try to use dollar tree resources more.
- Math Wrap-ups, doing the "same thing" as her big sister is a huge motivator for Merry, so having similar schooling works well.

 Science- Apologia, "Exploring Creation with Zoology" This will be a family subject, we will be working on it together.  The curriculum has two different levels of Journals, Merry will be using the Junior version.  Because the journals require a bit of writing this will be a stretch for Merry, who hasn't had to write much.

English-All about Spelling, Merry is working on level 1 and will continue it.
-Online Grammar, I will be printing workbook pages from the same site that I found for her sister.
-Reading will be done out loud.  One goal I have with Merry is to listen to her read out loud everyday.

Social Studies-Knuffle Bunny travels across the USA.  Instead of joining her sister for this subject, her sister will be joining her.  The world traveling bunny was such a success last year that he will keep traveling, and writing to Trixie.  Merry won't be required to memorize capitals but since her sister will be working on them I'm sure Merry will pick up some of them.

Languages- Minimus, Starting out in Latin.  We will be working on this as a family, that way we have someone to practice the new language with.  As a teacher I will have to work to make sure Merry isn't overwhelmed by a too fast pace and Charry isn't bored by a too slow pace.

I am actually very surprised at myself and the number of subjects I have my girls working on together.  I started out homeschool plans wanting them to have their own work and their own subjects.  I knew Girls in Junior high who where below grade level because they did so much with their younger siblings and I didn't want this for my kids.  But I'm finding that Merry wants to be like her sister so much and Charry would rather I had time to do things with her.  Working on them together will mean I get to work with both girls at the same time and hopefully will be able to tailor lessons so they both learn.  I guess I'll find out in September.