Year 1

Back to Main Planning and Scheduling Page

2022-23 School Year – Completed and Reviewed

This is the second time through Year 1 for me. Em is doing Year 1 while M is doing Year 4.

Natural History

Natural History booklist here (these are included with the Nature Study books)

Both of the books for Natural History are favorites. Since Em enjoys the Burgess Bird Book and we have the time in the schedule, we read one chapter every week. We listen to an audio version while Em follows along in the book. Then we look up the birds in a birding app on my phone to see more pictures and listen to what they sound like.

Nature Study

This year I decided to deviate slightly from the Ambleside Online schedule. We are doing Birds, Night Sky, and Wildflowers. I substituted Night Sky for Mammals since we will do the Burgess Mammal book in Year 2. When I did that with M we included a lot of extra videos and a taxonomy chart. Since I do not have easy weekly access to mammals to observe (besides a dog), I am postponing Mammals until I can figure out how to do actual observations, not just videos and pictures.

See the Nature Study page for further details and a weekly schedule for each topic as well as information on how we do nature walks and journaling.

Nature Study: In Review

This year’s nature study topics went well.  I had spent extra time preparing what we were going to do and it really helped to have it all ready each week.  We did not get out to see the stars every week during the Night Sky study in Term 2, but we got out little telescope out in the backyard and took several trips to the fields out of town.  We even got in a special overnight Dark Sky camping adventure outside of Death Valley.  This year’s superbloom in Southern California was perfectly planned for our wildflower study in Term 3 ;).   

Literature & Poetry

Literature booklist here

We enjoy the Aesop’s fables and are using an audiobook version of the Blue Fairy Book. Em has been following along in the book with the audio. Sometimes I substitute the Grimm Brother’s version of a fairy tale if I like it better.

I try to do as much of Em’s Shakespeare in Together Time as possible. In previous years with M, all of it was in Together Time, but now M has started to read the full plays. To keep things together as possible, I created an alternate Shakespeare schedule for us to use instead of the Ambleside Online rotation. I planned out how to read the Lambs or Nesbit version of the play in the first several weeks of the term and then have M and I read the play the remaining weeks. This way, Em only has one play a term that I schedule into his time with me. To help with narration, I have made peg dolls for the characters. This is a favorite part of Shakespeare.

Can you find: The Three Sisters, Prospero, Miranda (also as a child), Caliban, & Ariel ; Bottom & Oberon ; Emilia (& her as the Abbess) and her twins ; Rosalind (and her disguise) and Orlando.

I have decided not to do Just So Stories or Parables from Nature with Em. I tried them both with M but stopped before the end of the year. I am just not a Kipling fan – as much as I’ve tried! And though I enjoyed Parables of Nature, I felt that Year 1 was too young for it. So I am putting it off and will use it in Together Time or Sunday Vespers when Em is older.

Since we have extra literature reading time in the schedule, I bring in some of the free reads as well as other stories I find recommended elsewhere. I also add in extra Fairy Tales from the Blue Fairy book.

Literature: In Review

Em enjoyed Shakespeare this year.  More than last year since we did not do any tragedies this time around.  I have revised my Shakespeare schedule to put off any tragedies until later years (see Other Guides).  Since we now have a stash of peg people, I spent the first day of each scheduled Shakespeare reading letting Em pick the characters.  Though I did need to paint new ones so we had a bear and a shepherd for the Winter’s Tale!  

Poetry

Poetry is included in morning time. I alternate reading a poem (or several) from M or Em’s selections. I was not making my way through A Child’s Garden of Verses very quickly this way, so I added in A. A. Milne to Em’s time with me. Both boys have listened to the Year 1 poetry readings when M went through, but neither minds rereading these fun poems. We also have irregularly scheduled Poetry Tea Times that we all enjoy and often invite friends to join us.

Recitation

From all the reading I have done on recitation, I am still not exactly sure if I’m doing it correctly. From what I can tell, memorization is not the focus of recitation, just a side benefit. We pick a poem from our poetry readings and print a copy of it for the recitation folder. Then twice a week I read the poem to Em and then he practices reading it to me. When he is able to do it well, we move on to another poem. E is very good at recitations – he likes to perform and does them dramatically. So far this year he has done the following poems from A Child’s Garden of Verses: The Mountain and The Squirrel by Emerson, The Seagull, and The Kayak. And we’re working on Spring Morning by A.A. Milne.

Math

After trying several different curriculums with M, we settled on Simply Charlotte Mason. Em is moving through the books at such a pace I’m afraid he may catch up to M! We are already halfway through book 2.

In addition to working through the Simply Charlotte Mason books, I have to make sure I am covering topics required by the State of California since we are using a charter school. For these topics, I have found that Khan academy and the worksheets and videos from Education.com are helpful. Especially since both are organized by school year. Khan academy is free and Education.com allows several free downloads a month. I used some of our charter school funds to purchase an annual subscription so I could use it as much as I need. Some of the topics required by the state are general enough that I can use the same lesson for both boys so I include a math segment in Together Time. We review math facts and then cover a topic such as geometric shapes, telling time, or measuring.

Each day I scheduled 15 minutes of math with me and 5 minutes of independent math work. This is usually a worksheet that I’ve printed from Education.com or one I’ve written myself. When I see Em needs more practice in a specific topic, I print a generic graph paper document and make my own worksheet with the problems he needs to practice. We use Math Wrap-Ups for several minutes of the independent math time as it’s an easy way to work on math facts that does not involve more worksheets.

Math: In Review

As suspected, we finished the Simply Charlotte Mason Book 2 early. So for the remainder of the year we worked on Math Facts – addition & subtraction within 100 and multiplication & division up to 6. I found a free app call Space Math that Em enjoys to help him memorize his multiplication facts. I also continued to print math practice from Education.com and re-used questions from Book 1 and 2 to work on oral math.

In morning time we made our way through geometric shapes, lines, rays, segments, types of triangles, perimeter and area. We do these together since they are topics not in the SCM books but need to be covered for the charter school requirements.

Reading

Em learned to read so quickly in pre-school years that I never really had to use a curriculum for him. M took much longer to read. We started out using the Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading but when he still wasn’t reading well far into first grade, I switched to the beginning reading lessons from A Gentle Feast. Either this method was a better fit for him or he was just ready and he started reading quickly and now enjoys reading in his free time. While Em was in kindergarten I started him on A Gentle Feast, but didn’t get very far before he didn’t need lessons anymore. So we switched to reading practice out of early readers.

Since I don’t need to be doing any “how to read” lessons with Em, I have him read aloud from a book of his choice every day and then have a Free Read book that is slightly below his level to read independently. I put out a stack of books for him to choose from for the independent reading. This way he gets practice reading aloud and to himself.

Reading: In Review

Sometimes it has been hard keeping books at his reading level available for Em.  I make sure to choose ones at or below his level for his independent reading, but ones that just challenge him for his reading time with me.  In his reading with me I notice that he like to rush ahead and skips over words because he is going fast.  So mostly, our reading time together is me reminding him to look at every word and helping him out on some of the more complex words.  

I try to check out books from the library for his independent reading or get them at the library sale since he goes through them so quickly.  

Here is a list of some of the books we’ve read together:

• Mercy Watson series by Kate DiCamillo
• Tales from Deckawoo Drive series by Kate DiCamillo
• Billy and Blaze Series by C.W. Anderson
• Young Reader’s Don Quixote by Emma Fischel (this was a favorite)
• Fudge-a-Mania by Judy Bloom (this took several months, but he enjoyed the challenge)

And some of the books Em has read independently:

• Penny and Her Marble by Kevin Henkes
• Mr. Pine’s Mixed Up Signs by Leonard Kessler
• Minnie and Moo series by Denys Cazet
• Sand Cake by Frank Asch
• The One in the Middle is the Green Kangaroo by Judy Bloom
• The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh
• The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh
• Terry’s Catepillar by Millicent E. Selsam
• A Raccoon at the White House by Rachel Dougherty
• The Cat Who Ruled The Town by May Nakamura
• A Parrot in the Painting by Thea Feldman
• Gold Fever (Step in to Reading) by Catherine McMorrow
• Mr. Putter and Tabby Fly the Plane by Cynthia Rylant
• Amelia Bedia series by Herman Parish
• Little Bear series by Else Holmelund
• Sea of Ice: The Wreck of the Endurance by Monica Kulling

Copywork

I have used lists of quotes from the AO Forum as well as our current hymn and recitation for his copy work. This is one of our greatest struggle areas. Though he can write well, he fights it. I mix it up by letting him write on a white board or using different pens. For a while he enjoyed when I would choose my favorite word from his work and draw a star over it.

Copywork: In Review

By the end of the year Em was consistently writing beautifully – but on the white board.  I let him choose white board or pencil and he almost always chose white board.  He went through a phase of fighting the copywork and also kept asking when he was going to get to do typing like M.  Since M didn’t start typing until the third year, I originally told Em that’s when he would start too.  But since his hands are probably big enough (they are almost as big as mine are!), I told him that if he could do his copywork well for the rest of the year, that I would add in typing for him next year.  It’s looking like he might get it…though I will definitly be requiring pencil for his copywork for next year.

Spanish

I’ve chosen Spanish as our foreign language. We do our lessons in Together Time. I had several years of Spanish in High School, but was never fluent and only remember general concepts and few words. So I am learning along with them. We have tried several different curriculums and are now using TalkBox.mom. It is a little expensive so I might not have chosen it if I did not have the charter school funds to help. Though it takes us so long to get through a box, it’s no where near a monthly purchase. It has been the easiest for me because of the app with all of the pronunciations available. There are also well made posters and flashcards that are helpful. But even with this, I struggle in this area. We learn a set of words and use them regularly and then move on to another set of words but then forget the first set because we’ve stopped using them.

We are working our way through Diez Deditos learning several songs per term.

Spanish: In Review:

I am a miserable failure at Spanish.  See my year in review for Year 4 for more detail.

Art (Picture Study)

We do our Art lessons in Together Time one day per week.

While I am planning for the school year, I decide which artists we are going to cover. I think it is important to have diversity in artists and styles, so I don’t always follow the Ambleside Online rotation. I prefer to purchase guides with the paintings already printed, if possible. This year we are using the following guides:

• Van Gogh from Simply Charlotte Mason
• Juan de Pareja from The Art of Color
• John Singer Sargent from A Humble Place

To do the actual artist study, we look at the picture and discuss it. If the guide has any biographical information, we read a section every week. Some guides have information about the artwork, so we’ll read or discuss that as well. Some weeks when there is more time in the schedule we will hide the painting and each of us draw what we remember is in it – very basic stick figure kind of drawings just as a way of remembering or narrating what we saw. Most weeks I just cover it and we do an oral narration, taking turns talking about what we saw. Then I hang up the art above one of their desks, replacing the previous picture (we do not have wall space for more than one picture above each desk).

In addition to the artists study each term, I include Architecture in the “Art” lesson slot. This means every other week I rotate between Artist Study and Architecture. This is the first year I’ve added in Architecture, so it’s an experiment, but so far has been working well. Several years ago I attended an online conference (I can’t remember which!) where Jennifer Stec presented a lecture on teaching Architecture. It inspired me to include it in our rotation. We are currently working our way through Young People’s Story of Architecture 3000 B.C – Gothic Period. We read a section at a time and sometimes look at pictures or videos to supplement the reading.

Art: In Review

It wasn’t until I was reading the above description of what I had planned that I realized I changed my mind on Term 3’s artist.  I used the Raphael study guide from Simply Charlotte Mason.  We loved it and I only wish we could travel to Europe to see his work in person!

Drawing and Handicrafts

These are the parts of the curriculum I enjoy planning for and think will be fun. But in reality I have a hard time following through with doing them regularly. Probably because I have no experience, so it’s all new to me. It is also the thing that gets left out when we are running out of time. I have tried putting it at different parts of the schedule to make it more regular, but I haven’t been able to be disciplined enough to do it every week.

This year for handicrafts we are learning weaving. I have purchased a basic weaving kit and are slowly making our way through the projects.

For brush drawing we are making our way through the beginning lessons from Bestowing the Brush. I highly recommend these lessons. They are perfect for me since I have no experience with brush drawing so I can learn alongside my boys. Both my Year 1 and Year 4 are enjoying the lessons and can follow along. Now if only I can do it more regularly!

Drawing and Handicrafts: In Review

Another area where I have terrible follow-through.  We have made it through several lessons of Brush Drawing, but did not even finish our first weaving project.  I think my problem is that I am learning along side my boys and the effort involved in that is sometimes more than I can fit into my week.  Every year I say I will do better, so we’ll see what happens next year…

I did at least have a little sucess in the “handicraft” category to celebrate.  About 2 or 3 times a month we have been cooking scrambled eggs and (refrigerator) biscuts for lunch.  And in the last month they have been able to do the entire process without me assisting (beyond staying in the kitchen and reminding the of the next step.)  They love having egg sandwiches for lunch, so they have been motivated to learn.  I am thinking I will teach them a simple dinner dish, like frozen meatballs and jarred marinara sauce next.  It is so hard to teach them to cook because it is so much easier to do it myself.  But I know it is important, not only to teach them life skills, but for their own self-confidence building.  

Music

Hymns and Folksongs

We usually follow the Ambleside Online rotation for both hymns and folksongs. Sometimes we learn a hymn quickly so I add another one in. And at Christmas time we are working our way through learning several new carols each year.

Since we sing hymns every night at Vespers, we only sing the hymn on Mondays. I read through a new verse or two every week so we are all clear on the words before singing it. The rest of the days we sing the folksong. I do the same for it, reading a verse or two before we sing so we are all singing the correct words.

I have no musical training so I rely on having recordings of the songs so we can sing along. I follow Hannah Fridenmaker at FolksandHymns on YouTube. She plays guitar and sings the folk song and hymn in the Ambleside Online rotations. I support her on Patreon where she provides the lyric sheets and mp3s for the songs. So every month all I need to do is download the song into my playlists and print the lyrics. I have a playlist on my phone called Hymn Study that has all the hymns we’ve learned and the same for Folksongs. I also have three binders. The first is for our Together Time and includes the hymns and folksongs. The other two are our vespers hymn books. I talk a little more about these in my “How I organize” under Planning and Scheduling.

Piano

We use Hoffman Academy for piano lessons and both boys have been enjoying the lessons. It is part of their independent time. Each week while planning I watch the videos (sometimes skipping through) so I know what they are doing and any worksheets associated with the lesson. They usually watch a new video on Monday and then do the practice sessions the next day or two and then practice all their songs the last day or two. I have never had piano lessons, so watching the video beforehand helps me be able to answer some of their questions.

Physical Activity

Em has chosen Taekwondo as his extra curricular activity and attends twice per week. Every day I include Taekwondo in his independent work. He follows along with the video from his Master to prepare for the next belt testing and then does some of the same exercises he does in class.