Today, Nick was moved to a more advanced reading level in his class. He's now a part of the 'red group' - the most advanced reading group they offer for the first graders. He's currently reading out of the Tiptoes book from the A Beka program. While this is still below his reading level, it is definitely more challenging than the previous book he was studying (also a part of the A Beka program). I was pleased to see this new change to his studies, as I was getting very frustrated with the too-simple 'work' they were assigning.
I will say, though, that I'm also disappointed with the 'spelling words' they are assigning him (I believe these are from the A Beka program as well). Last week's spelling list included the following words: man, ran, sun, bus, hot, net, sit, cub, a, the. A? Really? Can you even spell that wrong? If you can say it, you've just spelled it! This week's spelling list included the following words: coat, goat, boat, bean, read, made, game, ride, to, the. Better, I guess, given that we've now included 4-letter words. My grumpiness over the spelling words assignments is based less on difficulty of the words themselves and more on the actual assignment. The paper has the words written in cursive, with a space to the right for the student to print the word. Perhaps their assumption is that the students cannot read the cursive writing, and will therefore have to rely on a parent to say the word aloud, with the student following up by writing the word. Whatever the reasoning behind this assignment, this is no challenge for my son, who reads the words on the left side of the paper and merely copies them again on the right side, letter for letter. And then he's finished with his homework. Voila! Nothing learned, lol.
OK, stepping off of my soapbox for a few, I would like to praise Nick's teacher before I close this out. She called tonight at about 5:30, from the school, WELL after I would assume she had gone home for the day. I was nervous at first, when I realized it was her on the phone, thinking perhaps something had happened at school today that Nick hadn't told me. But she was just calling to let me know that she had bumped Nick up to the higher reading level today, and that both his reading and his comprehension in the new group were excellent. She added that he is excellent in math, and gets very excited when she begins that subject in class. She said he is very bright academically, and is also a good friend to his classmates, and that she really enjoyed having him in her class *beams* - hearing all of this, of course, made me very proud. I thanked her for taking the time to call me, and congratulated Nick on his achievements thus far.
I have begun researching different curriculum programs to try with the boys next year. I haven't made any decisions yet, although I'm leaning heavily towards using the A Beka program for reading and spelling (although I may bump them up to the next grade level depending on how they're doing at the end of this year). I've heard excellent things about the Saxon math program as well, and would like to look into that a bit more. I still have lots of research to do and questions to ask, but we have time to figure all of that out still.
I will say, though, that I'm also disappointed with the 'spelling words' they are assigning him (I believe these are from the A Beka program as well). Last week's spelling list included the following words: man, ran, sun, bus, hot, net, sit, cub, a, the. A? Really? Can you even spell that wrong? If you can say it, you've just spelled it! This week's spelling list included the following words: coat, goat, boat, bean, read, made, game, ride, to, the. Better, I guess, given that we've now included 4-letter words. My grumpiness over the spelling words assignments is based less on difficulty of the words themselves and more on the actual assignment. The paper has the words written in cursive, with a space to the right for the student to print the word. Perhaps their assumption is that the students cannot read the cursive writing, and will therefore have to rely on a parent to say the word aloud, with the student following up by writing the word. Whatever the reasoning behind this assignment, this is no challenge for my son, who reads the words on the left side of the paper and merely copies them again on the right side, letter for letter. And then he's finished with his homework. Voila! Nothing learned, lol.
OK, stepping off of my soapbox for a few, I would like to praise Nick's teacher before I close this out. She called tonight at about 5:30, from the school, WELL after I would assume she had gone home for the day. I was nervous at first, when I realized it was her on the phone, thinking perhaps something had happened at school today that Nick hadn't told me. But she was just calling to let me know that she had bumped Nick up to the higher reading level today, and that both his reading and his comprehension in the new group were excellent. She added that he is excellent in math, and gets very excited when she begins that subject in class. She said he is very bright academically, and is also a good friend to his classmates, and that she really enjoyed having him in her class *beams* - hearing all of this, of course, made me very proud. I thanked her for taking the time to call me, and congratulated Nick on his achievements thus far.
I have begun researching different curriculum programs to try with the boys next year. I haven't made any decisions yet, although I'm leaning heavily towards using the A Beka program for reading and spelling (although I may bump them up to the next grade level depending on how they're doing at the end of this year). I've heard excellent things about the Saxon math program as well, and would like to look into that a bit more. I still have lots of research to do and questions to ask, but we have time to figure all of that out still.
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