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Grade 1: Picking up the pace of a Classical Education

I was preparing the materials and schedules for Justice to start Grade 1 in the fall of 2002 (when he would normally be starting Kindergarten).

May 2002: As I began to buy the books for Justice's Grade 1 curriculum, I realized that he was already ahead of some of the material (and not quite up to that level yet in other areas). We began Saxon Math Level 1 on May 17. It is very simple for him but I need to start him on a consistant curriculum that will take him through grade school. He often asks me to do a Math Lesson with him even if I hadn't planned on doing school that day. Justice is well beyond the Spelling program for Grade 1 but is not yet at a Grade 1 reading level (but of course, ahead for his age).

June 2002: We have started a Grade 1 History program with Justice. This was not planned or deliberate. I just got so excited about the books we had bought, that I started to share them with Justice. He loves learning about History.

The Usborne Book of World History
By Anne Millard
The best book I've found to teach history in
grade 1-3. My son takes this book to his
room to read at bedtime. He takes it in the
car to read when we are out-and-about.
(click on the book to buy it at amazon.ca)

We have learned about early humans who were nomads, archaelogy (we did an archaelogical dig at the beach), and Egypt. So it looks like Justice is now in Grade 1 (except for his reading level) and I've decided to hold off on Science until his History program is firmly established.

August 2002: I feel that it is too early to start the History curriculum with Justice (despite his enthusiasm to do it). I feel that we really need to develop his reading skills to the Grade 1 level before jumping into the Grade 1 curriculum formally. This will also give me more time to spend with Haifa. I have established a formal kindergarten program for him that goes from 9:30am-11:30am and from 4:30pm-5:00pm on Monday to Thursdays. He has a spiritual lesson (15-30 min.), a reading lesson (15-30 min.), a math lesson (30-45 min.), and a spelling/writing lesson (15-30 min.) on those four days. He is read to by both Mom and Dad, and reads to Haifa and us on a daily basis.

Spring 2003: We moved back to Canada from California at the end of November 2002. We quickly settled in and began homeschooling again. This time we seemed to move forward at an exponential pace. In the Spring of 2003 Justice's daily schedule looked like this:

08:00am Breakfast
09:00am Prayers
10:00am Reading Lesson (1 page of Phonics Pathways)
10:30am Spiritual Lesson (write out quotes he's memorized and make a scrapbook page for it)
11:00am Math Lesson (2 pages from Saxon Math 1)
11:30am Science Lesson (watch a Magic School Bus video)
12:00pm Lunch
12:30pm Art Lesson (free drawing time)
1:00pm Go to Library
3:00pm Writing Lesson (copying sentences from the Kitab-i-Aqdas and 1 or 2 pages of Spelling Workout: Level A, Student Edition)
3:30pm Computer Time (math CD-ROM or science CD-ROM)

We were doing really well with this schedule for a while. Justice had little play breaks between each lesson because it wouldn't usually take him a 1/2 hour to complete each lesson. But slowly I realized that he didn't like doing school anymore. It became a chore. There would be arguments to get hime to do his work. It wasn't something fun that he loved to do anymore. So I stopped homeschooling all together for a few months and thought carefully about: Why was I homeschooling? What caused it to no longer be fun for Justice? How can we bring back his love of learning?

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