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First grade is a milestone. I have to send a letter of intent to the state of Maine this year, so that means my son is officially homeschooling! As you read through my descriptions for each subject in our first grade homeschool curriculum, you might think it sounds like a lot! That’s because I tend to plan more than we ever seem to accomplish.
I’ve learned over the years to start with a general plan of action, and then go with the flow. Don’t hold tightly to curriculum.
What Do You Value in Homeschooling?
Honestly, I value the experience of living life together more than any curriculum. What looks good on paper, never works out perfectly. I don’t want my kids to do work for work’s sake, but to do work that is engaging and teaching skills and life lessons that are important.
I will assess how things are going with my first grade homeschool curriculum choices by looking at engagement level. If my son is begging me to play with him instead of wanting to do a school activity I have planned, then something’s up.
Does the work fit his learning style? Is the curriculum enjoyable? Have I provided him enough variety? I evaluate what’s more important. At his age, play time wins over school time.
I’m starting my tenth year of homeschooling. I realize now how strongly I believe that learning is life and life is learning. That’s what I want to instill in my kids. “Doing school” is not something to get over with so you can have fun afterwards. Learning is enjoyable in and of itself. It’s rewarding.
So here’s my plan for our first grade homeschool curriculum by subject area. We’ll see how it works out as the year unfolds.
Reading
Reading is the subject in our first grade homeschool curriculum that has different components varying in how much teacher involvement they require. Read aloud is teacher led, whereas Reading Eggs is something my son can do completely on his own.
Read Aloud
The one thing I won’t skimp on in our homeschool day is read aloud. It’s by far the best thing we can do for our kids. We help our kids develop a love for reading by showing them that books are entertaining and enjoyable.
By reading to my son regularly, I’ll model for him reading fluency and expression. He’ll learn new vocabulary effortlessly. And he’ll love that time of connection with mom on the couch.
I’ve always been interested in doing a poetry tea time with my children, so this year may be the year to start. I’d love to devote one of our read aloud sessions to poetry. Putting our collection of poetry books in a handy spot will encourage me to start reading them. We may not have time to make fancy snacks and tea for a full-blown poetry tea time, but getting into a weekly poetry routine is a step in the right direction.
Guided Reading with Mom
The teacher in me wants to identify my son’s actual reading level, more out of curiosity than necessity. What’s nice about homeschooling is that he doesn’t have to perform at a certain standard to be considered on grade level.
I intend to identify his reading level by doing what’s called a running record. Basically I give him a 100-word text to read to me. As he reads I keep track of every correct word he says and make notes of specific errors he makes, like when he substitutes a word, omits a word, rereads to fix mistakes, etc. This gives me a good idea about the types of decoding strategies he’s using successfully and where he needs improvement. It also helps me figure out what books to give him to read that are just right, not too easy, and not too hard for our guided reading time.
Independent Reading
I’m going to work towards developing an independent reading time. This means quiet time in which my son is either looking at books or reading them. One idea I have is to use Mondays as book gathering day. He’ll fill a basket with books that he’s interested in reading for the week. I will add some books as an element of surprise and to introduce him to books or genres he’s not inclined to choose on his own.
Another idea for independent reading is to start a reading log. I’ve used homeschool reading logs with my daughter from the beginning. There are many different ways to make homeschool reading logs. I think an accordion book reading log would be perfect for him.
Reading Eggs
Last year I bought a year’s subscription to Reading Eggs to give my son something to do independently while I worked with his sister. He loved it so much that we’re going to use it again for educational fun. I prefer to be more hands-on in teaching reading, so this is just an extra for when he’s begging me to play a “video game.”
Writing
Writers’ Workshop
I’m planning to do writers’ workshop three days a week. Other than read aloud, it’s the only other way I like to start my homeschool day. This year I hope to start introducing mini-lessons and writing genres. When my daughter was in first grade she wrote narratives, non-fiction, and poetry.
I’m hoping that this year, being more mature as a six year old, will open the door for more receptiveness to writing instruction. My son likes to write, but he doesn’t like me giving him any suggestions. When I showed him how writers put space between words, he chose to use periods for spaces instead. It was a losing battle, so I backed off from giving any “instruction” and led by example instead. We wrote together and shared our work, and sometimes we collaborated on stories. It was still time well-spent.
Handwriting
I’m not sure if my son can confidently write all his lower case letters correctly. I need to assess him and work on any letters he doesn’t know. I’m sure it won’t take much effort, it’s just one of those things I’ve been pretty lax on in kindergarten because of his struggles. He was recently evaluated by an occupational therapist, so I’m hoping that she can shed some light on what to do to help him best.
Spelling
I have the All About Spelling program sitting in my closet, but I’ve never used it. I’ve heard that this program is teacher intensive, so I’m not sure if I’m up for that. I know many homeschoolers rave about this curriculum, so it must be great. I’m going to spend time reading the teacher manual and possibly give it a try.
However, I’ve got to pick and choose where I put my teaching energy, and if this turns out to be too much for me, I’ll go back to my standby, Words Their Way. (affiliate link)
Words Their Way is a developmental approach to teaching spelling that I used with my daughter in elementary grades. The basic approach is to give kids a set of words each week to sort based on patterns.
Math
I love Singapore Math. It teaches kids to think mathematically and to solve problems. It’s nothing like the rote learning method I learned back in the 70’s. Singapore Math has a reputation for being highly effective, and I’ve seen it in my daughter’s math experience. (She’ll be taking an independent study Honors Math 9 course this year. After she’s completed it, she’ll be ready for Pre-Calculus as a sophomore).
Singapore Math has a newer program called Dimensions Math that we used last year. This program uses the same methodology of starting with concrete, moving to pictorial, and finally introducing the abstract. There are plenty of hands-on activities to make learning math fun. The colorful illustrations are also attractive to kids.
Science
Nature Study
Handbook of Nature Study (affiliate link) by Anna Botsford Comstock has been sitting on my shelf for too long. I’ve been reading it this summer, and it is fascinating. It’s opened my eyes to how little I know about my personal 0.84 acre of the world.
Our nature study has been ongoing as we notice things outside, like the blue butterfly, the yellow striped caterpillar on our parsley, and the nest of baby birds we found in the maple tree. To take our study further, I plan to use nature notebooks and be more intentional. Once a week we’ll take our notebooks outside with us and draw one thing that’s interesting and worth studying. I’ll use Handbook of Nature Study to ask good questions while we observe. We’ll follow up with picture books from the library.
Snap Circuits
If you have a child who loves to put things together and is curious about how things work, snap circuits are sure to please. My son discovered his sister’s Snap Circuits Jr. sitting unused in the closet one day, and it became his favorite toy of the year. He saved up his birthday and Christmas money to purchase Snap Circuits Light Electronics Exploration Kit (affiliate link) this summer. The more he uses it and the older he gets, he’ll start to understand the science behind how it works.
Science Units
Building a Foundation of Scientific Understanding (affiliate link) by Bernard J. Nebel, Ph.D. is a resource I like for teaching science. It’s not very user friendly, but the content is excellent. This text breaks up science into nature of matter, life science, physical science, and earth and space science. The idea is to flow through lessons for each of these over the span of grades K-2. The lessons are teacher directed with lots of discussion, exploration and experimentation.
History
Since it’s an election year in the US, we’ll learn about the voting process and presidents by reading picture books like these:
- Duck for President by Doreen Cronin
- One Vote, Two Votes, I Vote, You Vote by Bonnie Worth
- What’s the Big Deal About Elections? by Ruby Shamir
- Bold and Brave: Ten Ten Heroes Who Won Women the Right to Vote by Kirsten Gillibrand
- Lillian’s Right to Vote: A Celebration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by Jonah Winter
- If I Ran for President by Catherine Stier
- Grace for President by Kelly DiPucchio
The greater part of our history homeschool curriculum for first grade will be the Mystery of History. My son likes to listen to audiobooks while coloring or doing puzzles, so I know he’ll enjoy the soothing voice of Linda Lacour Hobar as she tells stories from ancient times. After each lesson we’ll add to our history timeline using our Historical Timeline Figures from Homeschool in the Woods.
Geography
We really enjoyed Let’s Go Geography (affiliate link) last year and will continue to learn about the continents in the Year 2 curriculum. We’ll be using semester two which covers two more countries in Europe, the Netherlands and Greece and then covers countries in Africa and Asia and ends with Australia. The program is all online. All I need to do is print out the maps and notebook pages and prepare a craft project for each country. The bulk of the curriculum utilizes videos to give kids virtual tours of the countries.
Here are some other geography resources we’ll use:
- Orboot Smart Globe (affiliate link)
This globe is not an ordinary globe. Once you’ve downloaded the app, you can point your device over any star on the globe to find out information. Kids can learn about different cultures, landmarks, animals, monuments, and more.
- Continent Race by Byron’s Games (affiliate link)
We tested this game with our whole family. You can find out details in this post.
- Scrambled States of America game (affiliate link)
This game is fun to play and an easy way to learn the names of states and their capitals. Most importantly, it helps kids learn where the states are located.
Art
You ARE An Artist Ancients History Art Subscription is a resource we’ll use to go along with what we study in Mystery of History. This subscription gives us access to lessons in ancient history, old testament, and new testament bible stories.
Music
This year I’m trying SQUILT, a music appreciation curriculum created by Mary Prather. My daughter is more familiar with SQUILT than I am. She remembers “Super Quiet Uninterrupted Listening Time” in her co-op music class years ago. My son will start with Meet the Instruments: Exploring the Orchestra.
Computer Skills
The last piece in our first grade homeschool curriculum is Keyboarding Without Tears. This online program teaches typing skills in a fun way using different content areas. It also teaches kids digital citizenship. I love this program. I’ve had success with it in the past. With kids accessing technology so early, it’s helpful to teach good keyboard habits from the start. This program makes that easy!
Our eclectic first grade homeschool curriculum is packed with exciting learning. I’ve chosen a variety of curriculum that I hope will best suit my son’s activity level and need for hands-on experiences. Reading, writing, and math are the subjects we’ll do every day, because they’re key to building a good foundation for learning. We’ll spread out the other subject areas over the course of each week. I’m thrilled to share another year of learning with my son.
