We’ve done so much this year and Elliot has learned more than I could have imagined, so I thought I’d try my best to summarize some of the big things we’ve accomplished.
To put it simply, Elliot is now a fluent reader. At the beginning of the year, he completed all five sets of BOB books, and then we moved on to Pathway Readers and he completed the entire three-book set of first grade readers. He has also completed up to book four in the Explode the Code series. In addition, he has enjoyed reading many of the “I Can Read” books for fun.
This year Elliot completed the “A Reason For Handwriting” workbook for Kindergarten. Though he was easily writing all the letters before he started it, this book really helped him to learn how to form them correctly and neatly on the line. He’s also been writing in a journal several times each week, which has given him lots of practice and opportunity for improvement.
Elliot completed book one of the Rod and Staff First Grade Arithmetic curriculum this year. From it he has really solidified a lot of skills such as addition and subtraction, which he had a basic understanding of at the beginning of the year. He has memorized many of the addition and subtraction facts. Additionally, he and I have worked on several other math concepts. He can tell time precisely, to the minute. He can count money in any combination of coins. He can count by two, five, and ten (obviously, since he can count money!), he understands the meaning of even and odd numbers, understands “more than” and “less than”, can gather and record information on graphs and has a basic understanding of symmetry.
Elliot has learned so much from our Five in a Row Curriculum this year. He understands terms such as setting, characters, conflict, point of view, and plot. He has also learned a ton of new vocabulary from each of the books. He has also really become interested in learning about authors and their writing styles.
Though we haven’t started a formal grammar curriculum and won’t for a while still, Elliot has learned a lot just from all the reading and writing he’s done this year. He understands capitalization for words that begin a sentence, and other things such as names or titles. He can use punctuation, such as a period and a question mark, correctly. He is even recognizing commas and apostrophes and has a basic understanding of when they’re used.
Social Studies and Geography
Elliot is familiar with so many new geographical locations and cultures because of Five in a Row. This year we studied New England and Appalachia in the United States, as well as China, Japan, Russia, France, Italy, England, Jamaica, Sri Lanka, and Canada. He understands cardinal direction (N, E, S, W) and can read a map. He’s familiar with rivers, oceans, islands, etc.
Elliot has learned lots of new science concepts this year such as male/female, predator/prey, vertebrate/ invertebrate, floating/sinking, the five senses, the four tastes, organs in the human body, bacteria and viruses, hibernation, nocturnal animals, weather, temperature, the water cycle, ocean life and tidal pools. He’s been introduced to the idea of invention and has learned about some pretty significant ones, such as the airplane. He’s also studied animals such as ducks, bears, birds, cats and sea creatures.