We're Homeschooling - Year 4! Our Curriculum First Grade

We’re ready for another year of homeschooling! In fact, it’s our fourth year of homeschooling and we’ve found our groove. We’re continuing with most of the curriculum choices from last year, just changing the level. This year Arthur will be in 4th grade and Quentin will be in 1st grade. My big challenge this year is to make less work for me while giving each child individual time.

As a reminder, we are a pretty eclectic household with a strong literature base. My criteria when looking for curriculum:

• secular

• rigorous

• wide world perspective

• not necessarily all-in-one

• at least some physical items, not all online

• cheap (not necessarily the cheapest, but not expensive)

Let’s take a look at what I have for curriculum for next year!

Primarily Quentin will be using Blossom & Root’s Grade 1 Language Arts curriculum and Build Your Library Level 1. BYL 1 is a dive into Ancient History. Hopefully by combining these two curriculums, we will get to the amount of reading the we accomplish normally.

Language Arts

Blossom and Root and Build Your Library has some basic language lessons and activities, but my kids both seem to love workbook style for grammar lessons and such. We use these as supplemental material. I create little weekly packets that I help the kids work through. Quentin is not good at working independently yet, but we will get there.

• Highlights First Grade Activity Book

• Summer Bridge 1-2

• Summer Fit 1-2

• BrainQuest Grade 1

• Second Grade

• Sylvan Jumbo Language Arts Success G1

• Spelling and Writing Grade 1

• Mad Libs Grade 1 Reading

More language arts books and some fun activity books.

• Highlights Amazing Mazes

• Highlight Amazing Mazes

• How to Draw Cars and Trucks

• Big stack of Highlights mgazaines

• Tinkeractive English Grade 1

• Scholastic Writing G2

• Cricket: Click magazine

• The Big Book of Reading Comprehension Activities Grade 1

• Evan Moor Daily Higher Order Thinking Grade 1

• Evan Moor Smart Start Read and Write G1

• Beginning Phonics G1-2

• Phonics G1-2

• Phonics for First Grade

Literature

Quentin will have a variety of picture books and chapter books plus poetry of course!

• A World Full of Spooky Stories by Angela McAllister

• The Littlest Mummy by Brandi Dougherty

• The Littlest Witch by Brandi Dougherty

• Ten Timid Ghosts by Jennifer O’Connell

• Nat Geo Kids Halloween

• Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn by Kenard Pak (actually the whole series)

• Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson

• The Little Old Lady Who was Not Afraid of Anything by Linda D. Williams

• Bonaparte Falls Apart by Margery Cuyler

• Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola

• A Child’s Introduction to Poetry by Michael Driscoll

• The Random House Book of Poetry

• Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

• How to Catch the Easter Bunny by Adam Wallace

• The Littlest Easter Bunny by Brandi Dougherty

• The Littlest Leprechaun by Brandi Dougherty

• The Littlest Valentine by Brandi Dougherty

This will be Quentin’s first year where we are going to try to read longer chapter books. I curated this collection from the Build Your Library and Blossom & Root curriculums and oTalur own bookshelves.

• Frog and Toad All Year by Arnold Lobel

• Days with Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel

• Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel

• Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel

• The Tale of Troy by Roger Lancelyn Green

• Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown

• The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

• Grimms’ Fairy Tales

• The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary

• Matilda by Roald Dahl

• Homer Price by Robert McCloskey

• Encyclopedia Brown Cracks the Case by Donald Sobol

• Tales of Ancient Egypt by Roger Lancelyn Green

• Half Magic by Edward Eager

• Tales from the Odyssey Part 1 by Mary Pope Osborne

• Tales from the Odyssey Part 2 by Mary Pope Osborne

• Sideways Stores from Wayside School by Louis Sachar

This picture includes more of our literature this year. These are some of the picture book style choices for the year.

• Dragons Live Tacos 2 by Adam Rubin

• Dragons Live Tacos by Adam Rubin

• Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

• Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett

• Aesop’s Fables

• Fairy Tales

• The Random House Book of Fairy Tales

• Ralph’s Secret Weapon by Steven Kellogg

• Johnny Appleseed by Steven Kellogg

Social Studies

Social studies is coming straight from the Build Your Library Level 1 curriculum. As such, we will be exploring the ancient world. We will be using History Quest has our main spine, but we have a variety of other reference texts to add.

• DK When on Earth?

• DK A Child Through Time

• Human World

• DK Children Just Like Me: Celebrations

• Kingfisher History Encyclopedia

• DK Explorers

• DK Myths, Legends, and Sacred Stories

• A Journey Through Art by Aaron Rosen

• Map Skills for Today Grade 2

Science

Primarily we will be using RSO Life as our spine, but we have a variety of animal related references to add.

• DK Where on Earth? Atlas

• DK Animal

• Lonely Planet The Animal Book

• Nat Geo Kids Wild Vet Adventures by Gabby Wild

• The World’s Most Dangerous Animals Sticker Book

• Stack of Nat Geo Kids magazines

• Nat Geo Kids Ferocious Animals Sticker Book

• Target Animals of the World workbook

And we have a ton of nature science related books for supplements.

• DK Ocean Encyclopedia

• Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner

• DK Trees, Leaves, Flowers, and Seeds

• Nat Geo Kids On Safari

• Many Biomes, One Earth by Sneed B. Collard

• Ocean Anatomy by Julia Rothman

• Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring by Kenard Pak (actually the whole series)

• Over and Under the Rainforest by Kate Messner

• Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau by Jennifer Berne

• We Planted a Tree by Diane Muldrow

• The Magic School Bus: On the Ocean Floor by Joanna Cole

• Cricket: Click magazines

Even more nature related reference books and human anatomy books.

• DK Human Body

• Let’s Investigate with Nate: The Life Cycle by Nate Bell

• Ant Cities by Arthur Dorros

• Cricket: Click magazines

• Human Body Activity Book

• Food Anatomy by Amber K. Stott

• Julia Rothman Collection: Farm Anatomy, Food Anatomy, and Nature Anatomy

• Tinkeractive Science Grade 1

• On the Nature Trail

• Nature Anatomy by Kristine Brown

• Exploring Nature by Kim Andrews

• DK First Earth Encyclopedia

• The Nature Connection by Clare Walker Leslie

• One Small Square: Woods by Donald Silver

• One Small Square: Backyard by Donald Silver

Math

Math is definitely an issue in this house as both boys are at least one grade advanced in math. I am always trying to scramble to find the best choices for them. Quentin is going to be finishing the Grade 1 books before moving on to Grade 2. We will also be adding in some math board games.

• Tinkeractive Math Grade 2

• Evan Moor Daily Word Problems Grade 1

• Singapore Common Core 2A and 2B

• Money and Time Workbook

• The School of Numbers by Emily Hawkins

• Growing Patterns by Sarah C. Campbell

• Evan Moor Financial Literacy Grade 1

• Time, Money and Fractions Grade 1-2

• Sylvan Basic Math Success Grade 1

• Lollipop Logic Book 3

• Tinkeractive Math Grade 1

• Singapore Math 1B (not pictured)

Art

This is actually all the art books for Quentin and Arthur. I took just one picture. Each one of their Build Your Library levels has a related art book to dip in and out of. We are just going to pick a variety of composers and artists to study over the course of the year.

• Why is Art Full of Naked People? by Susie Hodge

• Great American Artists for Kids by MaryAnn F. Kohl

• The Story of Paintings by Mick Manning

• 13 Art Movements Children Should Know

• 13 Art Techniques Children Should Know

• The Art Lesson by Tomie dePaola

• Frida Kahlo: The Artist Painted Herself by Margaret Frith

• DK The Arts

• 13 Art Materials Children Should Know

• 13 Artists Children Should Know