1st Grader – Should I make changes?

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  • HSMom03
    Participant

    Hey there!   I have 4 kids in grades 5, 3, 1, and preschool.  I’m concerned about my first grader.  It’s a huge battle to get him to come and do his schoolwork.  We’ve been going strong with My Father’s World First Grade since September.  The thing is he’s really smart and he complains that it is boring.  I disagree, I think it is fun, Bible-saturated, the phonics you can just use as spelling for advanced readers.  I LOVE it.  I just got everything ready for our Bible history timeline and it is awesome.  We did not do formal preschool or K with him but he learned everything anyway, he even taught himself to read!!  I love MFW 1 but I can’t stand all the complaining and resisting, etc.  He has SUCH a hard time retelling the Bible stories which I think are important for him to hear.  He’s not even listening though!  I can tell!  He has no idea what happened when I finish reading a story.  Also, he doesn’t illustrate his Bible notebook well because he just doesn’t want to put the effort in.  They are supposed to be relatively nice drawings colored in with colored pencils or whatever.  MFW 1 includes drawing lessons for this reason.  It also uses The Complete Book of Math for Grades 1-2 so there should be enough challenge for him there.  Do I just ditch the whole thing, get him the math curriculum that my older ones use (he has been wanting that) and let him sit in on family studies?  Even my DH has a made comments a couple times, he does not know why I am still using MFW 1.  He thinks it’s not enough for my first grader.  I think it is but he clearly doesn’t enjoy it.  You can beef it up with library books but we haven’t been making time for that.  Ok I forget to get the books back on time and request the new ones so I end up with lots of late fees and no new books!  My son is really bright.  I don’t want to stick with the curriculum for myself though.  Thanks for reading this long post.

    Wings2fly
    Participant

    What is the source of the Bible stories?  Could you substitute that portion to something more engaging, like the Vos Children’s Bible?

    sarah2106
    Participant

    I would likely drop the 1st grade curriculum and have him join in with his older siblings. I only did 1st grade with my oldest, after that the other two just joined in when they were ready. They did not always sit and listen to everything, but I was amazed at what they learned as they would quietly play cars or with play dough while I read. I did continue with ability appropriate math and reading practice, but for the rest they joined the older siblings, that is why I really like SCM.

    As far as the math, if he is ready I would let him keep moving forward. My middle child just gets math, he has always been a head of where his older sister and younger brother were at the same age, but that is the best part of homeschooling, you can meet them where they are from slowing down when needed and providing challenges when needed. I am glad I did not hold him back, he would have gotten tired of doing simple things, but on the other hand when he needed me to slow down with reading lessons that was also not a problem.

    Oh and how old is he? My youngest changed so much right at 7. I was honestly blown away by his jump in maturity and ability to participate and do his school. He turned 7 a few months into 1st grade and up to that point 1st grade was very light. After turning 7 he was ready to go and wanted more challenging things that kept his mind thinking. Kids are all so different!

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