Our Grade 1 Curriculum Choices

I can hardly believe I’m homeschooling a grade-one student now! Where has the time gone?!

Planning my youngest daughter’s Grade 1 curriculum was much less stressful than with my first daughter. I know exactly what she likes and what I enjoy. While there are some crossover choices with my other daughter, who’s in Grade 5, some selections are entirely new.

Here are the curriculum choices I’ve made for grade one.

Morning Time

As I’ve mentioned before, our morning time routine brings such peace and beauty into our homeschool day. It sets the stage for learning and continually inspires us. I’m definitely continuing the morning time basket.

What I love about Morning Time is that even if my daughter completes Morning Time with us on a rough day, she gets a solid educational foundation.

Some of the curriculum choices that I’m sharing here are part of our morning time routine, while others are used during the more structured part of our homeschool day.

Language Arts

Smart Start in Language Arts

I used this curriculum with my oldest daughter in grade one, so I thought I would try it with my youngest. So far, she enjoys it. Her favourite activity is gluing the daily sentence strips into her “book” and illustrating an accompanying picture for the sentence.

Math

Jump Math 1.1 & Jump Math 1.2

Since Jump Math was such a solid curriculum for my oldest daughter, I also decided to use it with my youngest daughter. I’m very familiar with it, and it’s so affordable!

Life of Fred

My daughter loves all sorts of stories, so Life of Fred will be an excellent curriculum! We’re starting with Life of Fred:  Apples.

Science

I’m excited to do science with my youngest daughter. She’s a hands-on learner, so nature study will be a massive part of our science curriculum. Some of our nature studies follow the Nature Explorers curriculum. We’ll be using Hard as a Rock and Remarkable Rain. We’ll also be doing activities from the fabulous book Play the Forest School Way.

I also try to include various science readings in our Morning Time. My favourite science read-aloud book is the Julia Rothman Collection: Nature Anatomy, Farm Anatomy, and Food Anatomy. These books are visually stunning and packed with information!

Social Studies

I’ll combine my daughter’s social studies curriculum from various sources. Our life and community curriculum is from Rodeo Chaps, and I will be sharing assorted Canadian resources as well, such as:

• Kids Book of Canadian Geography
• The Kid’s Book of Canadian History 
• Kids Book of Great Canadian Women

Bible

Grace for the Moment: 365 Devotions for Kids

I love this devotional for children. The devotions are easy to read but also inspire life application.

The Ology

This children’s theology book is AMAZING! Even as an adult, I’m learning from it! The pictures are beautiful, and the content is rich. I highly recommend this book for your homeschool students.

Health

Health is another curriculum that I create using various library books and DVDs. This year, we’re focusing on dental care, self-esteem, communicating feelings, and basic safety.

Art

This year, we’re doing something entirely different for art! While I’ll regularly provide opportunities for the girls to draw in their drawing journals, I’ll also do collages, watercolour paintings, and sculpting with them.

You ARE an Artist

I’m really excited about our chalk pastel curriculum, which we’re doing through You ARE an Artist! My girls LOVE Nana’s video tutorials. The videos are short and super easy to follow, and the results are stunning!

Music

Squilt Musical Era Bundle and Meet the Instruments

We love SQUILT (Super Quiet Uninterrupted Listening Time). With this curriculum, my children are exposed to notable pieces of music. SQUILT also allows us to include a peaceful ritual of music appreciation in our daily lives.

Physical Education

I don’t use a specific physical education curriculum, but I plan a variety of activities at home to get my girls moving on a daily basis. We use Yoga DVDs and various exercise video games, such as Wii Fit Plus, Just Dance Kids, and Zumba Kids.

We also attend periodic gym times at our local YMCA, and the girls have weekly swimming and Kung Fu lessons.

Curriculum for Mom

I think it’s critical to have some curriculum for myself during the school year as well.

I’m currently reading Teaching from Rest: A Homeschooler’s Guide to Unshakable Peace by Sarah Mackenzie, but once that’s done, I’ll be reading the following books:

Simply Homeschool: Have Less Fluff and Bear More Fruit by Karen DeBeus

For the Children’s Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Grotto

Reflect

So now it’s your turn! Was there a Grade 1 curriculum you enjoyed doing with your children? Is there a particular curriculum you love that you’re using this year? Feel free to comment below and share this post with your homeschool communities.

Jennifer Bly

Author of My Kitchen, My Classroom: An Introduction to Homeschool and creator of The Deliberate Mom. Jennifer writes about parenting, homeschooling, her faith, and life with her husband and two girls. Jennifer has a Bachelor of Applied Human Service Administration Degree with a specialization in Early Learning in Child Care.