Is this really happening? I can’t believe I am writing about our first grade homeschool curriculum picks! We are finishing up our Kindergarten homeschool year and if you haven’t yet, feel free to check out my previous blog post about our decision to homeschool year-round, moving forward! I shared about why we made that decision and how and when we are hoping to do it. So without further ado, here are our first grade homeschool curriculum picks for 2021-2022 by subject.
MORNING TIME
If you’re following me on Instagram, you’ll know that our morning time is always adapting, and my personal favorite part of our homeschool day. My idea of morning time is to make room for the beautiful subjects that can be done together as a family.
The main components of our morning time include Bible reading and prayer, hymns and folk songs, poetry, read alouds, artist and composer studies. Some of these topics might not be discussed daily so I might incorporate math and phonics review for additional practice when necessary.
If you’re unfamiliar with what Morning Time or Morning Baskets are, and why this time can be beneficial to your homeschool day, I highly suggest Pam Barnhill’s book Better Together. It gives a perfect explanation and inspiration for starting your homeschool days off with beauty and truth through subjects you long to enjoy and teach to your children, but aren’t sure how to do it or where to begin.
Our morning time takes anywhere between 20-40 minutes, and then a playtime break while I gather the materials for our formal lessons.
PRIMARY CURRICULUM CHOICE
After months of prayer, discussions with my husband and a ton of research, I’ve made the decision to use Ambleside Online Year 1 for the bulk of our curriculum this year. As I continue to gather and prepare for our 1st grade school year, I get more and more excited for what’s to come of the school year!
MY FIRST THOUGHT WAS “THIS IS NOT FOR US”
I’m going to be real honest here. At first glance, I immediately thought that the schedule they were proposing was simply too much for us. My main concern was that it used a lot of resources I wasn’t familiar with, and there weren’t beautiful books and curriculum pictures laid out on their website like most other curriculum websites have to give me an overall view of what’s included.
I continued in research-mode for the “perfect” curriculum, but I was coming back empty handed. I suppose I was looking for something that would allow us to work at our own pace for the sake of keeping the cultivation of wonder and learning alive. I wasn’t looking for another boxed curriculum with all the things (although, we did enjoy the ones we’ve used in the past).
I wanted ‘simple’, yet rich in literature, rich in new vocabulary, and rich with a living education in mind. AO kept coming up and so I decided to take another look.
BENEFITS OF AMBLESIDE ONLINE
When I took a closer look at Ambleside Online Year 1 schedule, I broke down their subjects and began searching the books recommended in their book list. I read through their FAQ’s, clicked all the links, even searched the hashtag #amblesideonlineyear1 on Instagram. I loved what I was reading and seeing from other fellow homeschool families, and to top it all off, the curriculum is free. You can find their year 1 schedule, here!
Another important aspect of why I chose AO was that it holds a Christian worldview, and uses Charlotte Mason’s method of education, which I have come to really appreciate. We are also avid readers in our home and the literature-based curriculum seemed fitting for us.
SUBJECTS WE’RE USING FROM AMBLESIDE ONLINE
We will be following AO’s Bible reading plan, history, geography, literature and tales, poetry, art and composer study. AO recommends choosing your own math, and phonics curriculum. I am really excited to start this curriculum and I will be sure to update you in a later post about how it’s going for us! If you’re curious, you can find AO’s year 1 schedule for free here.
LANGUAGE ARTS
We loved using The Good and The Beautiful kindergarten curriculum for language arts and we will be continuing to use them for first grade as well! Did you know that Language Arts grades 1-5 are free to download on their website? That’s exactly what I did and we can’t wait to dive in! I am also thrifting several reader books to be read independently such as Frog and Toad books, and Little Bear.
WRITING
For writing, I’ve chosen Writing With Ease Level 1. Although my daughter will have plenty of writing practice throughout all her subjects as we use the art of narration to grasp concepts, I chose Writing With Ease for its simplicity using narration, copywork and dictation.
MATH
While I do feel that The Good and The Beautiful Math curriculum isn’t as open and go as I’d like, we are going to give it another try using their 1st grade math curriculum because my daughter thrived using their kindergarten math and enjoyed all the little manipulatives and games it includes. So, although I personally may not like that it isn’t as open and go, I felt like that wasn’t enough of a reason to switch to something else just yet.
However, there have been recent updates about TGTB updating their math curriculum making it a bit more open and go, and simplifying the lessons. And another huge benefit to using their curriculum is that they will be offering simply math levels 1-5 for free. Depending on how our 1st grade year goes, we may continue to try their new math editions in the coming years!
SCIENCE
We’re introducing science into our homeschool for the first time and I’ve chosen the Adventures in Creation science curriculum from MasterBooks! After hearing good things about the company, and wanting something foundational to our Christian worldview, this felt like the right starting place. I thought this devotional would pair nicely on the days we have a science lesson!
NATURAL HISTORY AND NATURE STUDY
We’ve followed along with Exploring Nature With Children’s curriculum throughout Kindergarten and it really is an ideal curriculum to bring nature study to life! You can read more about our experience with ENWC here! We will continue to use this curriculum as well as AO’s natural history reading selections found in their Year 1 schedule.
We will be following a 36-week homeschool schedule split up into 3 terms. Within our year-round school schedule, I have chosen our breaks intentionally this year to better fit our family life around holidays and my husband’s vacation time from work. In a later blog, I will share how I plan my homeschool year, and share some practical tips I’ve used to plan this upcoming year!
I am really looking forward to the new school year and implementing a new curriculum! I’m thankful that we, as homeschool families, get to change up the curriculum we use for our children when something would better suit their learning styles, making their education a living, personalized education. I’m also very grateful that I get another year to teach and learn alongside my children right at home.
Come tell me what curriculum picks you chose for your homeschool year on Instagram!
