Need lots of help...1st/2nd grader

[summer]

I am an old homeschoolers...but none of my children started this early. My older children homeschooled after 2nd grade. So I am pretty torn what to do with my 6 yr old, who will be 7 at the state of the school year.

We had intended on homeschooling him this year for first grade. But then at the last second sent him to a private school. The private school was wonderful, but he was placed in kindergarten instead of 1st because he had just missed the cut off date. His skills are not any higher now than they were a year ago...as far as academics goes. He did get to do a lot over the year and I don't regret it, it is just it is not like he is a year further in school now than he was a year ago.

DS is easily ready for 2nd grade math. I have considered (am still considering) Miquon (I am worried this will be too time consuming for me), Math U See (Beta, he already took the placement exam), Singapore Math (1B, again, he already took that placement exam tooo), BJU (2nd grade).

DS has issues with having to sit and write for long periods at a time. He has an anxiety issue that we are working on. He is also a very quick learner and knows a lot and does not handle frustration well. So, long redundant lessons are out. I have flash cards and computer games for drilling math facts so I do not need a program with lots of problems for drill. He likes to be able to complete a paper and feel a sense of accomplishment instead of getting half way through and being too overwhelmed.

For Handwriting, we have handwriting w/o tears. For spelling, we have spelling workout. I also have a maps book from MCP.

I am unsure what to do exactly..especially in the area of math and English. Should I keep English at journal writing and do some activities here and there about starting with a capital and ending with punctuation? I was thinking this might be enough for this upcoming year.

But then math still leaves me stuck. Help! I am very familiar with lots of programs and the ones I listed above are pretty much the ones that I am still considering after having ruled out a number of programs. Any feedback? Thank you.

[dalynnrmc]

IMHO, having used about a half dozen programs with my oldest son (who I started hsing in the 2nd grade and is now a 4th grader and deals with some of the same issues you listed), Math-U-See is working well for us. Especially if he doesn't need the drill, and you want him to be able to move quickly if he can and will, I think MUS is the way to go.

For English, have you looked at First Language Lessons? It's an oral program and is meant to cover BOTH first and second grades. He may could speed through the first half and into the (supposedly second grade) last portion.

My son has done well, starting in the 3rd grade (which would be after FLL), with Rod & Staff. We've done some things like allowing him to type his answers on the computer instead of writing them out, letting him do the worksheet instead of the book work when there is a worksheet to do, etc, to help with easing the handwriting on him. We work on handwriting separately. (They do have R&S 2 for English, so that is a consideration, but R&S is often used a grade level off - so a 5rd grader often starts with R&S 4 if they've not been in it the entire time, etc. You'd not need R&S 2 if you started with FLL.)

Anyway, kids are bugging me (it's bedtime) and I've lost my train of thought, but there's some thoughts off the top of my head. Good luck!

A consideration, though (without being familiar with HWOT other than the little bit I've read about it), is that using copywork may be enough to work on things like capitalizing first words in sentences and ending with punctuation, etc. Or, maybe you can do some copywork once or twice weekly in lieu of the HWOT. (Do you think moving slower through the HWOT might be useful?)

Welcome to the board!!

[Chris in VA]

Quickly--Welcome!

I'd nix journal writing all together. Instead, how about a weekly nature walk? He can draw something he finds (or take a photo, or press a leaf or flower) and tell you about it. You can write it for him in a nature notebook.Do that until January or so, then start taking his narration and have him copy one sentence from it into his nature notebook. Viola! Science narration, time outside, and Writing for the Wiggly. It helps with anxiety to move around, too.

I'd go with MUS, because it's going to be fun for him, and hands-on. It's got great resale value, too, so if it doesn't work, you can try something else (like Singapore).

I second FLL, doing it as orally as you can. You can skip what he knows, and he can seek his own level of learning by having available a resource that encompasses both 1st and 2nd grade LA.

Are you adding history? I love SOTW--again, you can combine some copywork in there, it's very hands-on, it's exciting to learn about Ancients, and even if it's familiar, there's still lots of fun involved.

Just some quick thoughts. You are right to go slowly, imo. I take it he'll have the summer to relax from school? Most kids need some transition time from school to homeschool.

Looking forward to hearing what you pick!

[Closeacademy]

It sounds like you are going to need to do short lessons without a lot of fribble. I have to do this with my oldest.

Math--Singpore sounds like a great idea. We do this and I keep the lessons short just like she needs. It sounds like he picks things up fairly quickly so you may only need to pull the text out when you are doing something new.

I would actually let him do miquon on his own. Maybe put the pages in sheet protectors and leave them in a binder where he can "play" with them on his own.

English--First Language Lessons is good. I would just try to keep the lesson short. There is enough repetition in the book that if you don't do everything every day it is not a big deal especially since the focus of the book seems to be learning the definitions of the various parts of speech.

Penmanship--Handwriting without Tears is great.

Phonics--are you using Spelling Workout for this? He may get bored with it but then again he may do fine.

Sounds like you have a good year lined up. If you concentrate on the 3 r's this year you can't go wrong and then as you see that he is ready for more you can add in history and science and such.

Good luck!:001_smile:

[summer]

I already purchased starter things for Miquon and then changed my mind. It looked good, but then....now it looks like it has so little explanation and jumps around enough in sequence that I will be doing tons of work trying to explain it all. But I am not so sure.

I already have SOTW. I used SWO last time and it was perfect for us. I do not plan a separate phonics program with him because he already has his phonics down.

The math is the part that really has gotten to me. I feel very stuck on it.

[Cadam]

I would go with MUS. You can pace it to him. If he masters the concepts he can move on and each page just has a few problems so he shouldn't get overwhelmed. In 2nd and 3rd grade if my ds struggled to get going on math I would act as scribe for a couple of problems.

For LA we really like FLL. You can look at it and decide if you should start in the first grade or second grade section. I wouldn't do a journal at this age just some copywork and narration.

[Karen in CO]

I would try the BJU. My dd had a serious math revolt this year and we tried all of the programs you have listed. I finally found the BJU worked for her. She likes that she can finish the problems in the lesson in a short amount of time. When we started in BJU2 this year, I wrote all of her answers for her so that we could get through the math. We used copywork to improve the LA skills - handwriting, punctuation, capitalization and such. I made my own copy pages from books we were reading and often let her choose the sentence to copy. We started with 5 or 6 words max for the copywork.

For the basics, we did just reading, math and copywork for a month or so until I started to see improvement in those areas, then I started evaluating what she needed to add in other areas and what specific skills she needed more direct instruction in (we have now added in R&S spelling and are going to add in R&S grammar or FLL next). Since you have the Miquon but sound unsure of it, try using it once or twice a week instead of the more traditional math. This way he can have the fun of discovering the math and you can still feel good about him making progress.

[Lucky Mom]

If your son is a quick learner, I'd go with Singapore. We have used Singapore since the beginning. (My kids are just finishing 2nd and 4th grades.) I usually teach a lesson one day a week covering whatever will come up in the next week of exercises. And I answer questions as they come up throughout the week. You could use Miquon, at your son's speed, to supplement. It uses a discovery approach, so I didn't teach it but did give helpful hints when needed. These two programs go great together.

[Mallory]

Well, we love Miquon, and since you already have it, I'd say give it a shot.

Especially if he will breeze through the first few books, you could try it out.

We often do it orally, even with them standing while we talk about it. Not much writing, not much sitting, and most pages are quick.

Some people also do all of a certain letter before they move on to the next. So you could do all of the A's (counting) in the orange and red books (I don't think there are any more), then do all of the B's (even and odd) in whatever books they are in, and so on.

But I don't feel like it really skips around that much. Counting and even and odd are similar concepts, which flow into adding and then subtracting, ect. There are usually a few odd sections at the back, sort of tagged on, but they are usually more fun for my boys, and we sometimes skip ahead to some measuring or clock when there have been too many pages of multiplication.