Son ready to start 1st grade?

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  • April 16, 2015 at 3:54 pm
    Monica
    Participant

    Hey there.  Wondering if y’all can help me think through my son’s start date for first grade. He will be 6 at the beginning of August, which is when I intended to start SCM first grade with him.  However, he’s already accomplished most of his kindergarten goals.  He finished Math-U-See Primer and is on lesson 4 of Alpha, can listen patiently to read-alouds, and has just finished the second Getty-Dubay book and a whole pile of Rod & Staff and Kumon workbooks.  We have established a good routine with our day.  We spend about 1 1/2 hours total on school right now, but now that he’s finished several things it will go a lot faster.  He is EXTREMELY active, so we have worked up gradually to this amount.  Since he’s finished so much kindergarten stuff, I was thinking maybe I should just start the first grad stuff.  We homeschool year round, taking time off as we need it for seasonal agricultural projects (we live in the country in Florida where nobody wants to be outside in summer). But, he’s not 6 yet and he’s not quite reading yet.  He can decode phonics and knows a good amount of sight words, but reading hasn’t quite clicked with him.  Also, I know he’s not supposed to narrate until he’s 6.  So I’m not sure what to do.  I don’t want to end up spending only 45 mins on school for the next 3 months and then expect him to jump up to the amount of time it takes to do 1st grade.  But I also don’t want to do busy work just to flesh out the time.  Know what I mean? Would love some advice, thanks!

    April 16, 2015 at 4:54 pm
    Melanie32
    Participant

    I would hold off until the Fall for first grade and just continue working with him in the skill areas along with reading lots of great books! You’ll be glad you didn’t rush it.

    I spent hours reading aloud to mine at that age. I would spend the extra time reading, drawing, studying nature and learning through play. You could also progress with age appropriate CM methods without starting an official SCM year.

    April 17, 2015 at 7:44 am
    eawerner
    Participant

    I had that choice with dd a couple years ago. We started first grade in the spring and I truely wish we hadn’t.  This year we are officially taking the summer off and will restart our year in September, AFTER her 9th birthday in July.  Please know that there is nothing to gain by pushing ahead like this, but much to lose and frustrate IMHO. She was just as ready as your son sounds but it still wasn’t a good choice In the end.

    Nature study

    Play

    Math games

    Cooking

    Habit training

    Reading aloud

    Bananagrams

    Chores

    You can always ease back into the length of school over the first week or month.

     

    April 17, 2015 at 9:39 am
    Monica
    Participant

    I completely agree with the others.  I would use the summer to do lots of nature study, board games, reading (maybe even something like Five in a Row), cooking, etc.

    My rising 4th grader did lots of math board games at that age (which he loved).  He still loves to cook every day.  Nature, especially birds and bugs, are a passion of his.  And I wish I would have gone more slowly on the reading – going by his interest and readiness rather than the perceived schedule I had in my own head.

    Let him be an active, curious boy, and use those few moments of quiet to do reading and game and crafts.

    Don’t worry about building your time back up in the fall.  Just add 10 minutes or so each week.  Take it slow.  Enjoy it.  He’s still little…

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