Can you take a look at my plans for 3rd and 1st for next year?

[momtolgd]

Here's what I've got so far...can you tell me if you would change anything or if I'm missing something? Thanks. :)

3rd Grade for ds (will turn 8 in August):

Horizons Math (finish book 2 of 2nd grade and move onto 3rd)
Finish OPGTR
ETC 7 and 8
GWG 3
Simply Spelling
Getty-Dubay Italics (finish C if necessary, move onto D)
Writing Tales 1 (may wait to start in January, not sure yet)


1st Grade for dd (will turn 6 in October):

Horizons Math 1
OPGTR
ETC 3, 4 and 5
GWG 1
Getty-Dubay Italic B


Both kids together:

Song School Latin
SOTW 2 and Activity Guide (finish 1 first if we need to)
R.E.A.L. Science: Life
Nature Study (ala the Green Hour from Heart of Harmony blog)
Themes to Remember
Recorder practice

[Karen in CO]

One comment is that you might want to wait until you finish ETC to start spelling.

[chiguirre]

Another ETC thing. Recently a lot of people recommended skipping ETC 4 and doing it last. I'm still up in the air on this, but I guess I'll have to choose in August:confused:.

[momtolgd]

Another ETC thing. Recently a lot of people recommended skipping ETC 4 and doing it last. I'm still up in the air on this, but I guess I'll have to choose in August:confused:.

Yes, I've heard that as well, and may consider that for dd. With ds, we did them straight in order, but he was a bit older when we started ETC so it wasn't bad to just go straight through. He is on book 5 now at age 7 1/2 whereas I anticipate dd will be 6 1/2 at the same stage. Thank you for reminding me of this...I will give it some thought for her.

[momtolgd]

One comment is that you might want to wait until you finish ETC to start spelling.

Hmm, now that is something I hadn't thought much about. It is a good idea for him...keep focus on phonics/reading to finish ETC and OPGTR, and start Simply Spelling in January along with Writing Tales 1. I will have to give this some thought.

Thank you for the suggestion...any other thoughts on this?

[nukeswife]

Looks good to me.

I'm currently using GWG 3 with my son whos in 3rd and he loves it. We just started but he can't get enough :D

I'm also planning on using R.E.A.L. Science life level 1 next year as well. My kids will be in 4th (turns 9 in may) and 1st/2nd (turns 7 in Nov) I've also got a younger who will most likely start working on learning letters, he'll be 3 in July but always wants to "do school"

Looks like you have a great mix of things there

[OhElizabeth]

If I could suggest, on the writing I would save Writing Tales until he can write his own narration, at least a short one, comfortably. Not sure where he's at with his writing, given that he's still doing phonics and hasn't started spelling. If he gets to that stage and you only have a couple months left to the school year, you could do some simple rewrites using the Imitations in Writing series, then start Writing Tales the following year. I just wouldn't rush it. WT will be just as good a year later. You want him to be fully ready so he can do the writing comfortably. Being able to write his own narration is what I'd look for.

[momtolgd]

Actually, we did start spelling this year, we did SWO in the fall, but it really wasn't working for him. He really enjoys spelling tests, but there wasn't really any retention of the words after the test. So after reading the boards, I decided to put it away for a while.

We did also try Sequential spelling in January, but I'm not sure it's a good fit either. Again, he likes it too, and wants to keep going with it. I don't know.

His reading really has started to take off in the past month or two, and he's taken an interest in reading on his own at bedtime. So when we begin everything will just depend on his progress in the next 6-9 months.

Thank you OhElizabeth for the suggestion about WT...having not seen that book myself yet, I really am not sure when we'll be ready to start it...based on what I've read here on the board, I was guessing around January of next year, but it could very well be later. I will definately be watching for him to be ready (I just wasn't exactly sure what he should be doing to be ready, kwim?!) Thank you. :)

[KarenNC]

We finished ETC before moving to Spelling Power and it has worked well. I didn't skip all of book 4 for ETC, but did skip some of the open/closed syllable lessons, as my daughter was reading well and spelling well at that point. For her (we hit it in early first grade, IIRC as she was an early reader), it was more confusing than helpful. Now she is a natural speller and was reading comfortably by that point, so that may be a difference. I did do the other lessons in the book. I didn't go back to it at the end.

I actually tried to switch her to Spelling Power after we finished ETC 4 or 5 (can't remember for sure) because I thought she would enjoy the fact that it took less time, but she begged to go back to ETC because she liked it so much. Spelling Power a year later works much better for us after finishing all of ETC than it did before. If he gets through ETC mid year, you could always start spelling then (that's what we did--added spelling, reading comprehension and vocabulary to the mix).