Transitioning to MP but a little behind.

[KLight]

My daughter will be transitioning to Memoria Press this month (we school year round). She has been doing "OK" with her current curriculum, but it is not working as well as I would have liked and has very little academic bones to it. She is an average reader, but I feel our curriculum has been lacking in both math and writing skills. I'm stuck between repeating first grade using MP, or going ahead with grade 2.
I don't want to hold her back, of course, but if MP is more advanced in those areas, I don't want to push her if she's not ready, either. Any feedback would be very helpful, as I am finding myself being so indecisive on the matter.

[Michelle T]

My suggestion would be to begin with the MP 1st grade material, work your way through that first. The beginning of the year will be heavy in phonics with First Start Reading Book E, Traditional Spelling I, and literature. These lessons will benefit not only decoding but also spelling. Should they come easily to your student, move more quickly through the material but still go over it rather than skipping ahead. Should the level seem on pace with your student's abilities that is not a concern either. The literature assigned to the 1st grade level is above a 1st grade reading level so your child will not be behind his/her grade. It is better to get the phonics taught only in K-2 mastered than to skip ahead to find out later there are gaps. Writing is important so moving on pace with the lesson plans will allow students without that stamina to build it up by 2nd grade!

[KLight]

Thank you, Michelle. That is what my gut was telling me, I guess I just needed a little reassurance.