First Grade in Our Home: Overview

I'm having such fun doing first grade with my two oldest this year.  We started in July, so we're a little more than half way through our first term.  I'm relying on Ambleside Online very heavily this year and plan to for the future as well; their book lists are wonderful, and I love the weekly schedule on their site.  We went through their Year 0 and Year 0.5 book lists over the last couple years, and now we have moved on to Year 1.

Here's what we're using pretty much as-written from the AO Year 1 plans: 

:: Poetry - Robert Louis Stevenson, A.A. Milne, other anthologies for free reading

:: Geography - Paddle to the Sea, weekly mapwork

:: Literature - Lang's The Blue Fairy Book, Nesbit's Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare, Milo Winter's The Aesop for Children, Kipling's Just So Stories*

:: Nature Study - James Herriot's Treasury for Children, The Burgess Bird Book for Children, weekly nature outing and journaling

:: History - Our Island Story, Fifty Famous Stories Retold, Viking Tales, D'Aulaire biographies, weekly timeline work

:: Free Reading - Some of these titles we're doing together as read-alounds, and some the kids are reading independently, but we'll likely hit them all--and many others as well.  I'll post a list of what the children have read independently when we finish up this term for those looking for reading suggestions for this age range.

*The one change I did make in these subjects was that I substituted Parables from Nature and Trial and Triumph with Amy Steedman's Our Island Saints.  This is a compilation of saints' lives from early British history that both challenges the young student at the literary level (as Parables from Nature does) and gives a history of the early days of the Church (as Trial and Triumph tries to do).  It also corresponds nicely with the time period we're studying this year, the early history of Britain.  We have found the stories fascinating so far, so I think it was a great addition for us as a Catholic family.

Other resources we're using, not strictly from the Ambleside list:

:: Copywork - I use Startwrite to print out copywork selections from our poetry reading.

:: Math - We started Right Start Level C last month after finishing Level B over the summer.

:: Geography - In addition to Paddle to the Sea, we're reading a lesson per week from  C.C. Long's Home Geography for the Primary Grades.  So far I really like this text--short, understandable lessons that combine geography with a bit of science and history.  And a great match for this age.

:: Italian - Pimsleur Complete Course #1, Teach Me Everyday Italian!

:: Art - Mona Brooks' Drawing with Children, weekly art project

:: Religion - Amy Steedman's Our Island Saints, Maria Montessori's The Mass Explained to Children, Knecht's Child's Bible History, Father Brennan's Angel Food series, Old Testament picture books

:: Physical Education - A combination of drills and regular ol' outdoor playtime. :)
:: Artist Study - We're doing picture studies for one artist per term.  This term is El Greco.
:: Music Study - I'm focusing this year on an introduction to the orchestra through a variety of book- and music-resources.  I'll share more on this subject later on.
:: Music - We're learning a new hymn and a folk song about once every few weeks, depending on length.

:: Handcrafts - Our handcraft for this term is a new set of household chores.  ;)  With a new baby on the way and two very eager helpers, I have been training the older children to do some new tasks around the house.  More on this another day too!

I hope to write a bit more about some of these subjects over the couple weeks, as well as talk about how we're scheduling it all.  But that's an overview of our first-grade program!