The End Of 1st Grade!
Well, she did it! Abigail finished 1st grade.
And in true homeschooler fashion, we didn’t really have an official “last day of school”….we just kind of slowly wrapped up her workbooks and decided that we were done for the year. And then started working on some other fun schoolish items to tide us over until we start school back up again in August :p
For those that have asked, for Pre-K we used Confessions of A Homeschooler and for Kindergarten we used My Father’s World. I wanted her Pre-K and K experiences to be really light hearted and laid back, so we did everything at home and filled our time with play dates, MOPS, and other fun outings throughout the week.
But for 1st grade, I was ready to get more serious about her schooling. We joined our local Classical Conversations group, which meets every Monday for 24 weeks and stopped doing all of our extra morning things like ladies bible study and MOPS, so that we could be home getting our school work done every morning instead.
First day of CC/school pictures 🙂
In Missouri, the basic regulation is that once your child turns 7 you have to keep track of and log 1,000 hours of school. Since Abigail is 6, I wasn’t required to log this year, but I did want to start to get some good habits in place so that I would have a general idea of how much school we were doing and prepare myself for logging hours this fall!
As far as curriculum goes, Classical Conversations provides everything except for math and language arts. So we used Saxon math, plaid phonics, and first language lessons to supplement what CC didn’t provide.
With CC this year, Abigail learned:
- 161 events and people in a chronological timeline (from creation to September 11th)
- 24 history sentences to add depth to the timeline(including Charlemagne, Renaissance, Reformation, and World Wars)
- 45 U.S. Presidents
- Over 100 locations and geographic features in Europe, Asia, and select parts of the world.
- 24 science facts(including biomes, planets, laws of motion, and laws of thermodynamics)
- Latin verb endings of the first conjugation
- English grammar facts (including pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs)
- Multiplication tables up to 15×15, common squares and cubes, as well as basic geometry formulas and unit conversions
- Exposure to drawing techniques, music theory and tin whistle, 12 science experiments, 12 science projects, and she gave 24 oral presentations!
She also got to take field trips, work on science projects, build an art portfolio, spend lots of time in our backyard, run errands with me, spend every day with her little sister, face time her grandparents at lunch, have lots of free play and crafting, and more.
I couldn’t forget to include the pictures of their school pictures :p Mama was way too cheap to buy them, but these little thumbnails are absolutely priceless!! Nailed it, both of them.
1st grade was so much harder for us navigating our daily schedule than Kindergarten had been. For one, it took longer and needed more concentration, and for two, Mabel wasn’t taking a morning nap anymore. Basically she ran around either destroying the house or yelling at my knees begging either to nurse or be held or whatever else she could do to get my attention.
We all learned a lot this year and had to be exceedingly patient with each other, but I’m happy to know that Abigail was still able to learn lots and lots in spite of the crazy circumstances.
And the good news is, it will only be less chaotic next fall. (just kidding ;))
She finished out CC strong in the middle of April and is already counting down the days to get back to it in August!
In the meantime, we’ve been working on some fun reading/writing books, she has been wanting to learn cursive so we will work on that this summer, along with maybe some more music lessons, and I’m hoping to find her a typing program!
I realize that I never took a last day of school photo, since we didn’t actually have a “last day” but here is a picture of us at her end of year program for CC at the beginning of May 🙂
As far as next year goes, we plan to start school earlier than usual(probably the beginning of August) to get a jump start on things in case we have to take more time off after Finn is born, will be doing CC again, along with Plaid Phonics and First Language Lessons, but I am looking to switch to a different math program. I’m leaning towards Horizons math, but haven’t pulled the trigger yet! We’re also going to do the BookIt! program so I’ve been ordering her some fun new chapter books since she is now reading on her own 🙂
And that was our 1st grade year! On to 2nd!
BookIt! is such a fun program! I did it when I was a kid. Then, you got a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut…I hope that hasn’t changed over the years!
Regardless, I’m sure Abigail will enjoy the program!
What a great school year for sweet Abigail! I can’t believe our babies are on to 2nd grade!!
What a fantastic school year! As someone how is thinking about homeschooling, how do you figure out what curriculum is best for you?
Will your children be home schooled for their whole education? Also, how did you decide to home school vs. public school?
Great work you two!! It sounds like you’ve got a great community and are surrounded by learning activities. You both deserve a nice summer break 🙂
You are such an awesome example of homeschooling! Sounds like you have such a good system down. I’m sure Finn will fit right into the school flow when he arrives.
oh my gosh, smartest 1st grader ever! 15 x 15! like, i have no idea what that is. to be honest. and 24 oral presentations! can i pay to send my kids to spena school?! you are amazing, lady! i know it can’t be easy at. all. but your babies are blossoming so beautifully and you guys are so inspirational! congrats on wrapping up 1st grade!!
Gosh, she learned more in 1st grade than I can remember learning in all of school 😉
Go get em, mom
It sounds like she had a great year!