ETC *AND* SWO? Help me pick 1st gr LA.

[Wee Pip]

I'm thinking of 1st gr for next year. We're working thru ETC 1 & I imagine we'll get thru 2 before the year is over. It sort of seems like overkill to start dd on Spelling Workout A next year if we're also doing ETC, but...I wonder if we'll be missing out on some important phonics & spelling patterns if we don't use both. Also, I've noticed that many pkg'd curric seems to have separate phonics & spelling. I have this huge list of books I'd like to use for LA, but I think its way too much, so help me cut down!

ETC (wherever we left off, probably will be book 3)
SWO A (?)
Evan-Moor Grammar & Punctuation 1
Write About Me (its a 1st gr writing/journaling type of book)
Handwriting Without Tears 1
Readers: probably easy read library books, I also have a 1st gr set of Scotts-Foreman Reading textbooks I can pull from.

Ok, the Grammar & Writing books might be a little overkill too. But maybe I could swap back and forth (do 2 weeks of grammar, 2 weeks of writing? or 1/2 yr of grammar, 1/2 yr of writing?) BTW, this is my 2nd dd & I'm probably overcompensating for all the mistakes I think I made with my 1st dd, LOL.

Sarah

[Trivium Academy]

Get your 1st grade reading well, so I would do ETC alone and if you feel SWO would be a good addition, add it later. Starting it at the halfway mark will give your 1st grader time to focus on ETC and it will freshen up your year when you add SWO.

Evan-Moor Grammar & Punctuation 1:
Does this 'teach' the concepts or is it just a practice workbook? Is your 1st grader ready to write sentences? If this will help you teach, get it. Will you be using copywork and narrations? You could just get a list of concepts to cover for both grammar & punctuation and address them in copywork exercises which would also build handwriting skills. I would also phase the Evan-Moor book if you decide to do that.

I would buy: HWT, ETC and possibly Grammar & Punctuation
I would wait to buy SWO.
I would give her the Write About Me as a "fun" thing and let her do it on her own.

If you're interested in doing copywork and narrations: pick one her favorite books for copywork and narration.

We're in 2nd grade now, there are things I'll be changing for my youngest too!

[stephanie]

I'm thinking of 1st gr for next year. We're working thru ETC 1 & I imagine we'll get thru 2 before the year is over. It sort of seems like overkill to start dd on Spelling Workout A next year if we're also doing ETC, but...I wonder if we'll be missing out on some important phonics & spelling patterns if we don't use both. Also, I've noticed that many pkg'd curric seems to have separate phonics & spelling. I have this huge list of books I'd like to use for LA, but I think its way too much, so help me cut down!

ETC (wherever we left off, probably will be book 3)
SWO A (?)
Evan-Moor Grammar & Punctuation 1
Write About Me (its a 1st gr writing/journaling type of book)
Handwriting Without Tears 1
Readers: probably easy read library books, I also have a 1st gr set of Scotts-Foreman Reading textbooks I can pull from.

Ok, the Grammar & Writing books might be a little overkill too. But maybe I could swap back and forth (do 2 weeks of grammar, 2 weeks of writing? or 1/2 yr of grammar, 1/2 yr of writing?) BTW, this is my 2nd dd & I'm probably overcompensating for all the mistakes I think I made with my 1st dd, LOL.

Sarah

I, too, am a language/arts junkie! I think I'm a little overkill as well,but I did almost the same. We did ETC, SWO, ZB handwriting, FLL, and they wrote copywork sentences or short sentences to narrate a story. My dc are reluctant writers so I did a lot of writing for them at that age as they narrated. Of course, we did lots and lots of reading. We are now working in R&S grammar,SWO, HWT,WT 1, and Spelling Wisdom for dictation. At that age I was afraid to push too much writing b/c they weren't real excited about it. They still are a bit reluctant, but we're working on it. We journal every am for 5 minutes, and I think it's their favorite part of the day! HTH!

[coffeefreak]

My daughter LOVED ETC and HATED Spelling Workout. It was overkill! So, on day one, we would take the rules from ETC and copy them into a notebook. Then, we would put examples on the page each day for the rest of the week. For example, if the rule was "A compound word is two little words that join together to make a big word," we would write that in her notebook on day one. Then on day two, I would have her do another ETC worksheet or two and write three examples of compound words on her notebook page. This year we started Spelling Power in December and so far so good! HTH!
Blessings!

[Arch At Home]

My First Grader is doing Explode the Code and Copywork. I have Educational Fontware and am able to develop copywork to suit her needs and interests. I also use both programs for writing once they get passed the learning to shape letters.