Year 1 (2010-11)

Many of the resources below were taken from Ambleside Online (AO) Year 1 booklist. We will slowly implement more and more of Charlotte Mason methods and generally follow AO's suggested reading schedule. Though this may look like a lot to cover, all lessons will be kept short (probably a maximum of 2-2.5 hours per day), allowing lots of time for masterly inactivity and the pursuit of his own interests.

You can see our workspace here.
I organize our daily activities in eight workboxes (plastic drawers that hold needed materials):

1. Bible
~prayer
~(Daddy reads from The Child's Story Bible at bedtime.)

2. Poetry
~Tail Feathers from Mother Goose: The Opie Rhyme Book
  G found this book at Goodwill, and since he really liked it, we used it to establish our habit of daily
  poetry reading. We then moved on to the following AO suggestions:
~A Child's Garden of Verses
~Now We Are Six
~When We Were Very Young

3. Math
~Math-U-See continue Primer, begin Alpha (stopped in mid-Nov.)
~Math Whizz (Dec.-Feb.)
~Thinking Kids' Math:  First Grade (began in Dec.)
~Dreambox  (began in March)
~living math books
~Lollipop Logic
~games that promote mathematical thinking
~weekly allowance

4. Literature--selected readings from the following:
~The Aesop for Children (with narration)
~Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare (followed by Animated Tales)
~The Blue Fairy Book
~Just So Stories (audio CD)
~Parables from Nature
~James Herriot's Treasury for Children

5. Penmanship

~Lowercase Letter Stories

6. Beginning Reading
~Headsprout Early Reading
~Usborne Very First Reading & misc. other beginning readers
~Learn-to-Read Treasure Hunts

7. History (early European & American history, focusing on people rather than events)
~Trial and Triumph (just a few chapters)
~An Island Story--ch 1-21, free audio at LibriVox
~Fifty Famous Stories Retold (just a few stories)
~Viking Tales Part 1, Ch 1-11
~Columbus
~Pocahontas
~Benjamin Franklin
~George Washington
~Buffalo Bill

and/or Geography
~Scholastic Success with Maps
~Reading correlations with maps
~Paddle to the Sea, read, then watch docu-drama: part 1, part 2, part 3

8. Nature Study
~continued nature walks and outdoor play
~continued nature journal
~Handbook of Nature Study (reference)
~TN Wildlife Activity Book
~Nature Series Kit:  Science on a Tracking Expedition
~The Life of Mammals (on Netflix instant view!)
~mammal lapbook
~The Life of Birds (on Netflix instant view!)
~Compact Guide to Tennessee Birds (reference to identify birds we see)
~The Boy Who Drew Birds

Art
~Artist Study (Chihuly, Durer, Cassatt) 
~continued free access to quality art materials

Composer Study
(Introduced with presentation of DVD's and a collector card,
these composers are most often enjoyed during car rides.)
Term 1--Mozart
Mozart's Magic Fantasy
Mozart:  Musical Masterpieces
Term 2--Beethoven
Beethoven Lives Upstairs
Beethoven:  Greatest Hits
Term 3--Bach
Mr. Bach Comes to Call
Bach:  Greatest Hits

Additional Read-Alouds (These are the chapter books and long picture books I read in the afternoons & Rick reads at bedtime. We also frequently get new crates of picture books from the library; those won't be recorded.)
~Prince Siddhartha: The Story of Buddha

~The Mouse and the Motorcycle

~Three Tales of My Father's Dragon *

~Runaway Ralph

~The Velveteen Rabbit

~St. George and the Dragon

~Pinocchio

~Charlotte's Web
~Dinotopia 

~The Wizard of Oz *
~Stuart Little

~Peter Pan
~The Original Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy
~The Reluctant Dragon
~Pippi Longstocking 
~The Indian in the Cupboard
~The Return of the Indian

~Little House in the Big Woods *
~Kirsten American Girl series


* read previously, but requested again by Gerrick

Other Activities

~community-league soccer
~swimming lessons

First Dictation

I thought I'd try dictation for the first time with Gerrick using words he had been exposed to through the Headsprout program. He did a great job! Just a couple of days earlier I asked him to write a few single words and he had a hard time. But look what just a little more practice can do!

Fingerprint Monsters...

...as stick puppets. I never know what he'll come up with next, and I love that!

Creek Play

Don't worry; this water snake was dead when we found it.

Recycling Education Station

We visited the Recycling Education Station in Nashville where we watched a video, which you can also see here. We also had a scavenger hunt for various items made from recycled materials and saw a truck full of recyclables weigh in at over 43,000 pounds!




Gerrick really liked this belt made from recycled tires, the latch from a seatbelt, and bottle caps.

Friends

Blueberry Picking

(I was too busy picking berries and talking with friends to get many pictures.)

Recycled Robot Art

Writing Samples--Year 1, Week 1

(dry-erase mat--$1 at Target)


Read, copy, do.

Summertime...and the livin' is easy

To the Zoo Again...

I know; we go to zoos a lot. We really enjoy our membership! (And believe it or not, I don't post pictures from all our visits.) Today was Gerrick's official first day of Year 1 (or first grade), and since Rick was off work for the 4th of July, we decided to take a family field trip.

This was the first time we have ever seen any of the gators swimming.






He chatted with a docent for a while about reptiles and amphibians.


We saw the baby Eurasian lynx that was born at the zoo during the big flood about 9 weeks ago.

To see what other families are doing outdoors, check out the Outdoor Challenge links at 5 Orange Potatoes.

Birmingham Zoo

Another great day with friends--life is good!