New Homeschool Year

We have now completed two almost full weeks of homeschool, Phoenix is back at his last year of preschool and I think we are getting our schedule down.  I've decided again this year to make my own curriculum for Tristen who is in 1st grade.  I like the freedom it offers me, if we start a topic say like skip counting by 2's I can take a whole month to really hammer it out.  Instead of feeling rushed to move onto the next subject and feel like I'm falling behind.  I've also included in more hands on things, so far Tristen is really enjoying this year and I feel a little bit more equipped to handle it with a year under our belts.

My curriculum is:
Making the Grade: Everything your 1st grader needs to know - I use this as a general starting point, I'm skipping a few topics that we already have covered but this gets me going and ideas flowing. It includes the main topics of English, Math, Science, and Social Studies.

Scholastic Success With 1st Grade -This is a big book of worksheets, I use this for extra practice and on the days we do "light" schooling.

English

First Language Lessons For The Well- Trained Mind (level 1)- This book is for Grammar, composition, and language arts.  Its more of a classical approach with real life use of language.  Right now we are going over common nouns and memorization of a poem.

Spelling Workout A- This is for spelling, it gives a list of 6 words where over a week you study them, use in sentences, break them apart and I have him writing them in his own notebook.  At the end of the week I give him a test.

Success With Writing- For writing practice and correct punctuation.

Explode the Code books 2, 2 1/2, 3- Book two offers blends, with book 2 1/2 more practice on blends and book 3 essential lessons for phonics mastery.

I'm also piecing together a study on sight words from the Dolch list where we go over 4 new words a week with different activities.

Math- is mainly from the making the grade book and then I go online for ideas and worksheets to reinforce our topic of study.

We spend the bulk of our time doing English and Math studies about an hour a day on each.

I've decided to do History for the first half of the year and Science for the second half.  That way we can spend more time on each study.

History for Little Pilgrims-  Is a Christian study on history.  With a timeline starting at creation, middle Christs death and end of time when Christ comes again.  We are little pilgrims on a journey through time.  I'm kinda struggling with this one, just finding enough time to fit it in.

Science will be also with health and I got a used Abecka book.

I think the most important time of our day is first thing in the morning.  I got a new devotional book called Devotions for the Children's Hour that we do before breakfast.  It gives us a chance to start our day with the Lord, come together with prayer, bible reading, a short lesson and close in a hymn and prayer on our topic of the day.  Both the boys love this time, especially the questions at the end and me attempting to sing.

We also have piano lessons, art, and some sort of gym.

So this is pretty much our 1st grade curriculum.  I prayed long and hard, spent many hours reading reviews, prayed some more and this is what the Lord lead us to this year. 

~Many Blessings~