First Grade Curriculum 2011 - 2012

This year, I decided to try out a few different options for our curriculum.

At the FPEA conference I walked through the vendor hall many, many times. I perused all of the merchandise multiple times. I decided that an all-in-one boxed curriculum was not the best choice for us, so then began the task of choosing curriculum for individual subjects. It was a bit overwhelming looking at all the options, and not every choice is even available at the conference!

In the end, here is what I decided to do:

Reading:

• Explode the Code workbooks - I purchased books 1-4 at the convention. I'm not sure how many books we will actually use this year, but they were discounted at the convention, so I grabbed them.

• Bob Books - I bought set 1 and 2 at the convention to use for reading practice. I already have the Abeka K5 readers from last year that we will be using this year. (Gigi is a little behind in her reading).
• Happy Phonics - Games that reinforce phonics lessons.
  

Handwriting:

• I did not purchase any formal curriculum this year for handwriting. Instead I bought a composition notebook where I will have Gigi do some copywork from various sources.

Math:

• RightStart Mathematics Level B - This was my biggest purchase so far this year. I bought the complete kit while at the convention.

Science:

• Again, no formal curriculum. The plan is to create lapbooks on various topics. I have quite a few topics in mind that I would like to cover, but of course that is all subject to change based on Gigi's interests.
  
• If the subject matter allows, I plan to use the Let's read and Find Out book series to research information for the lapbooks. I really like these books, plus they often suggest experiments that correlate with the subject.
  

Geography:

• I plan to have Gigi create lapbooks for this subject as well. We will make one lapbook for each state we learn about.
• In addition, I want to start letterboxing with her when the weather cools down a bit.

Bible:

• I will be using the Character portion from Hubbard's Cupboard as a guide.
• I will have Gigi do some notebooking pages based on the character traits we learn about
• We will also be referencing the God and Me! Devotions for Girls book that we already own.

Music and Art:

• I will teach some basic piano to Gigi myself. I took some lessons as a child and still have a book from that time that I can reference.
• For art, I will allow some free creativity time, providing a different material frequently

In addition to these things, we will be making many trips to various local museums, zoos, aquariums and theme parks. We will also be using the library for it's treasured resources as much as possible.