Five for Friday + a Freebie for First Grade Graduates

I’ve decided to try something different this week and jump in with Five for Friday, as hosted by Doodle Bugs First Grade Rocks blog. Someone, tell me if I’m doing this wrong!

Also, below I include a sampler from my most recent project, a set of worksheets for graduating first graders!

1. Well, as a homeschooling parent, I never stop teaching, and my son never stops learning. This year (after our first full year of homeschooling) I’ve decided to go full  steam ahead through the summer, since we took a few weeks off when we had our vacations and other things going on. We are trying to get things done before 10 a.m., and to do lots of fun things in the afternoons, though! It’s 9:30 a.m. and Raisin has done three pages of math and five spelling words, as well as a devotional time and piano practice. So I feel it isn’t too hard on him. He’s reading a book right now, which I also could count for school, I suppose. When baby Strawberry wakes from her nap, we’re headed to the park….

2. If the rain does not come. We had some really nice weather, and then this week it has been cold (as in 60 degrees) and rainy! We were supposed to meet friends at a park today, but the forecast called for severe storms all day, so we cancelled. And now it’s beautiful blue sky. I’d say I wish the weather would make up it’s mind, but honestly, I hate the hot and humid weather that is a normal Chicagoland summer!

3. I am planning for next year’s curriculum! We have been taking an extended break from some subjects, so I’m going to focus on those before the fall so I will feel “caught up.” One was Logic of English Foundations, which we’re back on as of today, at lesson 80. I plan to keep going with that for the summer and start the Essentials program in the fall, at a very slow pace. As in, I hope to get through Essentials in two full years, that’s how slow I want to go. We also have stalled on American History, but we covered the revolution and we’ll circle back around in a few years. We’ll do a little about the Civil War and modern history, but we’ll worry about it at another time. I feel he’s had a nice intro to American history.  More about next year another time. I’m a little overwhelmed by the long list, but I know it will all work out in the end.

4. Raisin is reading some of Beverly Cleary’s books by himself. He loves it! He’s talking about how he needs a two-wheeler (like Ramona in Ramona the Pest) and he is always telling me the little stories about Ramona. He loves her. It makes me wish I had time to read along with him!

5. I have been creating and I have so many more ideas! I have been making study guide to correlate to the Childhood of Young Americans series, like this one about Helen Keller or my guide for Clara Barton or Benjamin Franklin. I have 3 1/2 done and 2 1/2 to go (John Glenn is almost finished, and Pocahontas and Louisa May Alcott are coming). These book studies are for a custom request  from a TPT educator.

Here are some of my ideas: I have a fabulous non-traditional book study for The Mouse and the Motorcycle in the works, and I did manage to eek out some more Language Arts worksheets for first grade graduates. I also revised and added to my single Magic Tree House guide based on what Raisin and I did for his presentation, and now I have ideas for making a similar set of idea organizers for each of the books in the series. I have so many more ideas for creating, I can’t even stop myself from brainstorming!

I am delighted when I get a chance to share a freebie with you. As a thank you for following my blog, here are the Long and Short Vowel summer sort pages from my Reading Skills Review pages for 1st grade graduates.

Get access to the Long and Short Vowel sort when you sign up to become a Line upon Line Learning VIP.