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Choosing First Grade Homeschool Curriculum

What first grade curriculum are you going to use? Assembling all the best curriculum that fits your family and your learner can be a daunting task. There are so many different curriculums to choose from. First you have to decide which subjects you need to teach. 

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What Subjects to Teach in First Grade

You’ll want to consult your state website to see which, if any, subjects are required for first grade. Personally we chose to teach these:

  • Language Arts
  • Handwriting
  • Literature
  • Math
  • History
  • Science

Don’t forget the enrichment subjects!

  • Art
  • Music
  • Crafts
  • PE

These are the subjects we choose to teach in first grade. You might choose fewer or more subjects or enrichment activities to include in your first grade homeschool day.

First Grade Homeschool Curriculum

Once we knew which subjects we wanted to cover this year, it helped us narrow down our curriculum choices. We are secular homeschoolers, so we only use secular homeschool curriculum.

1st Grade Language Arts Curriculum

We have 1 curriculum for both language arts and handwriting, and we absolutely LOVE IT!

We use Logic of English Foundations.

Different kids may progress through this program at different paces. With my oldest, Dominic, in kindergarten he completed Foundations A & B. In first grade he completed Foundations C. Then did Foundations D in second grade.

My second, Graham, did Foundations A in PreK, B & C in kindergarten, then D in first grade.

And other kids might do A & B in Kindergarten then C & D in first grade.

Just start when your kids are ready and go at their pace!

Foundations Covers - links to Logic of English website

There are so many reasons why we LOVE this program.

  1. It’s FUN & Active!
  2. It Covers
    1. Phonics
    2. Reading
    3. Handwriting
    4. Spelling
  3. It WORKS!

Just to be honest, I had NO IDEA how to teach my kids to read. I didn’t know how to approach it or help them understand how to get from knowing letters or sounds to reading words & sentences. Logic of English Foundations has taken all the guesswork out for me. Plus it’s open & go for me. I don’t have to do any prep work! It is a staple curriculum that I will be using for ALL of my kids.

Read my full Review of Logic of English Foundations

LitHouse Learning promotional image that shows the covers of the student workbook, character journal, vocabulary journal, setting journal, and teacher's guide.

1st Grade Literature Curriculum

As our main literature curriculum in 1st grade, we use Exploring the World Through Story Level B. I love how easy this curriculum is to use and my kids really enjoy it. It also includes some writing, literary analysis, geography, and memory work.

1st Grade Read Aloud Novels

We love read aloud time in the afternoon and before bed, so we tend to read lots of books throughout a year. Some favorites during the first grade year:

Please don’t feel like you need to read all of those. These are just books that we read and enjoyed during the first grade year.

1st Grade History Curriculum

We use Curiosity Chronicles: Ancient History as our main history curriculum in first grade. Then we also add in the history hops from History Quest Early Times. We really enjoy them. They complement each other because they cover everything in different ways, each with its own emphasis. Using both makes our study of history more well-rounded.

We also using the LitHouse Learning history writing workbook for CC Ancient History.

First Grade history & mythology books

We’re also using the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History. These books complement each other really well and I definitely recommend adding the encyclopedia to round out your studies and reinforce what they’re learning.

1st Grade Math Curriculum

We First Grade Math With Confidence. This curriculum makes it easy and fun to teach math! My kids also like playing Prodigy Math for extra practice.

1st Grade Science Curriculum

Science is one of the trickiest subjects for secular homeschoolers. So many curriculums are sneaky and claim to be secular when they aren’t. But we have found a GREAT secular science curriculum: REAL Science Odyssey. In first grade, we use Life Level One. This is the perfect science curriculum for this age. It’s an open and go hands-on secular science curriculum.

<a href="https://www.pandiapress.com/ref/10/" title="Pandia Press"><img src="https://www.pandiapress.com/wp-content/uploads/AFF-YTTHUMB-REAL-Science-Odyssey-.png" alt="Pandia Press" /></a>

Art

We love the Studio Sprout Online Art lessons for elementary art education. They are fun and include STEAM concepts, social-emotional learning, earth stewardship, and social justice.

We also enjoy using lessons from the Art History Kids curriculum. We can regularly find lessons that match up with our history lessons. This is one of the most interesting additions to our homeschool curriculum.

Music

We have joined Prodigies Music & do music lessons 3+ times a week all together. It’s fun & is a great, thorough curriculum.

In addition to this, one of my kids takes piano lessons online at Hoffman Academy.

PE

We keep PE simple by doing Cosmic Kids Yoga, playing outside, going on hikes, and taking trips to the park.

Secular First Grade Homeschool Curriculum

Those are our first grade curriculum choices! We are LOVING all of our curriculum choices & are so excited to dig in deeper in all of these subjects.

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