Curriculum: First Grade

The number one question people always ask for any grade level is what curriculum do you use? There are so many wonderful curriculum choices out there and too many to name in even one blog post. Be sure to read our post What Curriculum Do You Use? to learn more about curriculum in general.

First grade is probably the last year that I focus on various curricula and then I use the same publisher for each grade going forward. If you haven't read the post on curriculum for kindergarten I suggest going back because we will continue many of the concepts and curriculum selections that we started with there. You can read that post here. In first grade, lessons should last about 1-2 hours depending on the kid and what you are hoping to accomplish. Again, I focus on the core subjects: reading, writing, and math. If this is your first kid, don't worry too much about science and history. You can start exploring those, but just have fun with them. If you have older kids, then I suggest doing all your science and history together. It doesn't matter the age of the kids. They can all be learning the same content and it's ok if it's "over their heads." Your youngest learners will still soak in some knowledge from their exposure to what your older kids are learning.

Reading

For a reading curriculum, I would continuing using what you started in Kindergarten. In our homeschool, I actually use two. (You can easily choose just one of these and be fine.) The first is Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. I love this resource because it guides you through step-by-step. It goes line-by-line and says what you are to say and the response for what your child should say. This is great for people that want it all laid out for them and might be a little nervous about "doing it right." This book may look dry and boring with no pictures but the goal is to make sure they understand reading and aren't guessing words based on the pictures. You can view some sample pages at the link.

The second book I love to use is Phonics Pathways. This one is not as structured, but it offers some fun activities and games to play with your child. You can also view some sample pages at the link. While it doesn't tell you line-by-line what to say or do, it does offer guidance in the front of the book. You would just need to read up on it a bit before starting and decide exactly how you were going to use it.

Math

For math in first grade, I did use Math You See Alpha for my first child. It worked fine and it was simple, but I found that for my family, they would "master" a concept for a time period, but then, since it wasn't revisited, they would forget it. So Math-U-See focuses on one concept like addition for an entire year. The goal is to master it really well and then move onto the next concept. After trying Math-U-See, we transitioned to Christian Light Education Math. They have 10 workbooks with 17 lessons in each. We would average about one workbook per month, starting in August and finishing in May. I liked that they reviewed the lessons and concepts that they had previously learned and built upon them. It made more sense for my brain and I felt like it covered more for my kids. Again, this all depends on what you are looking to accomplish with your child.

Language Arts

There are a few components to the Language Arts Curriculum and I have used different things over the years. We don't start a formal writing program until my kids are in 4th grade. We do focus on copywork and handwriting. I like to use Zaner-Bloser. Some people like to use Hand Writing Without Tears which is also a great handwriting curriculum. Also, Here is a FREE worksheet generator where you would type in what you want them to practice writing, and then have them trace it and copy it below. Some of the language arts curriculum we talk about below includes copywork as well.

For my first two kids, I used First Language Lessons and Writing with Ease. This complimented Classical Conversations which we were doing at the time. First language lessons has you memorize short poems which we still know to this day! It also has you memorize simple definitions for some of the parts of speech (noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, conjunction, interjection, preposition, adjective). In Level 1, only about 3 of the parts of speech are covered if I recall correctly. It is set up with dialog prompts, so the teacher says something and it shows what the student should respond with. I love the simplicity of the curriculum and it covers the basics and is not writing intensive!

Writing with Ease has you read an except from literature and then has the child copy a sentence. As the year progresses, they start to create their own sentences, but to start all they have to do is copy key sentences from the reading passage, so it can be used as handwriting practice. I still advocate for a handwriting curriculum so you can focus on proper pencil grip as well as proper formation of the letters and numbers. You could come up with your own passages and copywork, but again I like things that are all laid out for me and ready to go.

With my third child we weren't involved with Classical Conversations anymore and I was looking for a change, so I used Christian Light Education for Language Arts. It's a more basic workbook type school work that most of us are familiar with. The kids can work at their own pace and it covers spelling, writing, and grammar all-in-one.

As for spelling, for my first daughter I used Spelling Workout A. It's your typical spelling list with activities and a test. This DID NOT work for my second daughter and we went through several spelling curriculum options until we realized that none of them were working. I finally started All About Spelling and that is what I am continuing to use. I was aware of it with my first child, but it was more work than I was willing to put into spelling. Since she naturally picked it up, I didn't need such a rigorous spelling program for her, but it is a very solid curriculum with concrete concepts and spelling rules.

This is about all I would do for 1st grade. If I had older kids, I would add in history and science to learn all together, but I will break those subjects up into separate posts and link back to them once I get them finished.

Please let me know what questions you have!

Jessica