By Kelly Cuccurullo
(New York)
Visitor Review:
My name is Kelly , from NY. We started homeschooling my son (1st grade) last January 2011. He has ADHD along with being dyslexic, so I need to use a little of this and little of that, to suit him best. We are still learning as we go.
We started with Horizons Math and he did awesome (his strong subject) and we have continued with it again this year in 2nd grade.
As far as Language Arts in 1st grade we used Sing, Spell, Read and Write, its a multi-sensory program for ages 6-8 (1st grade to 3rd grade). He did well, he loved the games and songs and did well until we hit the 2nd grade level, became harder but scored well at the end of the unit test.
This year I decided to go with a more traditional program of Bob Jones University Press 2nd grade and the writing components are too hard for him, but we will finish out this year and try a different program next.
We used the BJU reading and spelling program for 2nd grade but it is too hard for him and I have being using supplements.
Explode the Code is an excellent source of phonic awareness program, we started in the 3 1/2 book and we will continue this next yr.. I have also found Teacher Created Products, very useful too. Jake has started and finished Itsy Bitsy Stories grade 1 and 2.. We are currently doing Non-fiction reading stories.
I will be using another multi-sensory approach next year.
For Science we used in 1st and now 2nd grade ACSI. My son isn’t able to do the reading but I read everything to him and he’s able to understand and do well on the test. He loves science.
History, in 1st grade we used ABEKA, which I felt explained things in a simple enough way for him to understand. This year I used a combo of BJU and Abeka. He doing well, but I think we will go back to Abeka history.
We are using BJU handwriting program and he is doing well in it.
Hope this can help anyone out there just starting out and not knowing where to turn.