Monday, August 11, 2008

Lesson Plans: Streamlined FLL in 1 Year

I have a love/hate relationship with FLL. On one hand, I love the short lessons, and on the other I often wondered why I was working on narration skills and picture studies during grammar time. I love the concept of no lesson preparation, but honestly scripted lessons drive me bonkers. I liked learning the definitions of the parts of speech and memorizing linking verbs, helping verbs, and prepositions. The presentation of these components, especially during the 2nd grade year, felt a bit sporadic to me. Jessie and I both like to work on one thing until it is mastered. So towards the end of last year after I had given up on using FLL for Violet's 1st grade very early on, I went through the book to determine what it contained that I actually wanted Violet to learn. You can read the list of goals that I created here.
So armed with my list, I've gone through the book selecting lessons or portions of lessons that I felt best met the goals that I have listed. I rearranged the lessons into units covering one topic at a time, and added in a few ideas here and there to make the lessons more hands-on. To provide the review that we need, I'll have Violet copy each of the definitions as we encounter them onto index cards which will then go into her memory box that we use for Bible verses and poetry. For each lesson, I have listed goals for what I am trying to accomplish as well as the lesson numbers and page numbers from FLL which line up with those goals. The hands on activities column is still in its preliminary stages this year, but I hope to add on notes and suggestions as I work with Violet which can then be used with the boys as they get older. You'll find a link to the rough draft of my plans in the right hand column under lesson plans.

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