First Grade In Review

Well, we made it out alive. That about sums it up.

It has been a rough year, filled with tears, some fun, questioning, doubt, excitement, hope and even some good times sprinkled in here and there.

By far the roughest days had everything to do with math. I am not sure how he did on assessments at the end of the year but I vowed I wouldn't obsess about it so...I won't.

Math: We tried 3 curriculums (Saxon, Horizons and CA Math). Next year we will stick with Horizons. I like the colorful workbooks and the spiral review and it seems more parent friendly than the CA Math. Saxon had too much review although I loved the teacher manual. We are working through the last half of the second Kindergarten workbook and will start on the Grade 1 book this summer to get a head start for next year. The books are pretty advanced for each grade level so it is common for kids to be in the year below them by at least half a book. I would like to have him in the Grade 2 book by the middle of second grade. We will see how it goes. :)

Language Arts: Caeden is reading well and he is working is way through every leveled reader at the library. He is just now getting that reading is fun and gives him information about the world we live in. That has been cool to see! We are working through First Language Lessons to finish the first grade section this summer. He really enjoyed Explode the Code for phonics so we will keep that for next year. Surprisingly, Caeden really liked poetry memorization! I am going to do more of that this summer and then in second grade for all subjects.

History: We spent the last semester learning about Ancient Egypt and the continent of Africa. We used the Veritas Press History flashcards ( I love these!) and the Story of the World, Volume I. He liked the projects that we did and he enjoyed learning about another country. I wish we had started it at the beginning of the school year because there is so much more to learn abd fun things to do! We will be finishing up some of our history over the summer too. :)

Science: We mainly studied animals from Africa and used the Draw, Write, Now books for drawing and copywork. We did some magnet experiments and have been learning about the Ocean, which we will carry into the summer too.

I think that's about it! I am already getting geared up for next year with new plans, shopping lists and lessons learned from this past year.