1st Grade Curriculum

I'm still in a bit of shock that I have a first grader. We're in the weird situation where we started homeschooling early. Based on his age and NC public school cut-off dates, Jonathan should be starting Kindergarten this fall, but we started early based on his interest and engagement.

So, here we are in 1st grade!

Ancient History

We're following a classical approach of 4 year history cycles as the base of our studies. That makes this the year for our first go-through of ancient history. We also follow along with many Charlotte Mason ideals, so we're doing a lot of notebooking too.

I chose to stop using the boxed curriculum and venture out on my own this year. I loved Sonlight for the last two and a half years, but I found myself not using the teacher's guide much more than I was using it. Now that I have a couple years under my belt, I feel comfortable creating my own curriculum and reading list. (I'm working on a guide and printable to help others do the same!)

I'm making lots of fun printables to go along with our ancient history studies. You can find all of my printables listed on my printables page.

Here are some of the resources I used to pick our books:

Finish selected Sonlight Core A books: The Family Under the Bridge and The Light at Tern Rock (around Christmas).
Study Ancient History – from the beginning of time to the fall of Rome.
Selected books from Sonlight Core B, The Well-Trained Mind, Ambleside Online, Timeline of Classics, Read for the Heart, etc

Our main history spine is Story of the World Volume 1 and Activity Guide. I've listed all of our read-alouds, readers, and additional literature read-alouds on our curriculum page. There's just too many books to list in a post with all of our other subjects. I'll be adding to that page as we add or remove books. I'll also be adding the corresponding chapter numbers for Story of the World soon.

Timeline of Classics is a must have resource that you will use throughout your homeschooling years. I did a review recently and got to meet the creator at the HINTS book fair this summer.

Math

I have a little boy who seriously loves math! We tried Saxon Math K last year and it was too slow for him and the ultra-scripted teacher's guide drove me crazy. I decided to try Math Mammoth Light Blue Grade 1 and we fell in love. Jonathan doesn't need a lot of manipulatives for math, but Math Mammoth makes it easy to adapt the workbook to any learning style. So this year, it's on to Math Mammoth Light Blue Grade 2. {Homeschool Buyers Co-op is running a great sale on Math Mammoth in August. Hop over to my Deals & Discounts page for more details.}

Science

Jonathan-Astronomy-Lapbook

We're continuing Apologia's Exploring Creation with Astronomy. We're using A Journey Through Learning‘s lapbook too. We reviewed the lapbook last spring.

English/Language Arts

We're working on a hodgepodge of English this year.

Spell to Write & Read spelling lists
Pathway Readers and Workbooks – Continue 2nd Grade level
WriteShop Primary Book A
Applied Grammar

Bible and World View / Theology:

I'm start to teach Jonathan to read the Bible on his own first thing in the mornings. He's currently reading Genesis. In addition, we'll do that following.

Continue Apologia's Who is God?
Grapevine Bible Studies
Continue reading through Egermeier's Bible Story Book
What's in the Bible? DVDs
We Choose Virtues

Other:

We'll continue to work on Hooked on Phonics French as we have time and Jonathan shows interest.

Tot School

Jacob-Coloring Jacob-Writing-A

Don't forget about little Jacob! He will be doing tot school this year. He's almost 21 months right now and turns 2 in October. He loves to “write” and draw. He's always trying to get into his “Bubba's” school work. I made a special tot school binder for him. It has smooth page protectors inside and letter activities. He can write with dry erase markers all he wants in his own school binder. I also have a small bucket that I've been putting books and activities from around the house that correspond to the letter he's “studying.” It's all fun to him, but he's actually retaining some of the letter sounds and corresponding words.