It’s almost the beginning of another school year, so it’s time to share our homeschool curriculum plans for 1st Grade!
In our homeschool, I try to keep everyone’s individual daily work to just the basics: reading, writing, and math. I feel that, when you are homeschooling multiple children, keeping their individual work to a minimum makes for more successful days. All of the other subjects (history, science, etc.) we cover through read alouds, Morning Time, or group lessons with their siblings.
This list may seem very sparse. But that is intentional! I have another list coming soon if you’d like to see what we’re covering in Morning Time for this year. I hope you find this helpful!
Are you getting caught up in all the beautiful homeschool curriculum out there? It’s easy to be drawn in by the looks of it and dream of all the new subjects to cover in the new school year! I know because I’m prone to this temptation every year.
But I’m here to remind you that new curriculum will not solve all the problems in your homeschool. Overscheduling only leads to burnout. Which is why I would love to encourage you to simplify your homeschool curriculum plans this year! Something I have learned through many years of teaching multiple children at once, is that simplifying often makes for more successful homeschool days.
If our children are burdened by too much book work (especially elementary-aged boys) the day can rapidly disintegrate into a mess.
So, keep it simple! In the elementary years, I rarely assign anything more than reading, writing, and math. All other subjects (history, science, art, etc.) will be covered in Morning Time or group lessons with siblings.
Here is the short list of curriculum for our 1st grader!
Handwriting/Copywork
This year my first grader is going to try out Spelling You See for handwriting, copywork, and spelling practice! In years past, we have used Writing With Ease (and it’s been great!), but we’re going to try out something new and fresh this year. I think my first grader would be fine with either curriculum, but Spelling You See looks a little more engaging.
Phonics
We spent kindergarten working on letters and now he’s ready for his real phonics lessons! We have always used The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading and will use it again this year for my first grader. I really love how thorough this book is. It isn’t a phonics workbook for students. It functions as a guide for parents to teach phonics. The lessons are written with directions to the parent on what to say and questions to ask your student. My other children who have finished this book became excellent readers very quickly because of its thoroughness. The daily lessons are relatively short, but there is a lot of review. We will aim to do one lesson every day or two.
Math
We’re trying out a new curriculum for math this year called Math With Confidence. It looks similar to Math U See in its approach, but has more colorful illustrations. We have LOVED and used Math U See for many years. And I don’t have anything negative to say about it! I just know my son well enough to know that this might capture his interest more. Math With Confidence is published by The Well-Trained Mind Press.
I will be sharing our Morning Time Plans soon and will detail the books we’ll be using for all the other subjects. I hope that this basic curriculum plan for 1st grade was helpful to you.
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