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We’ll start at the beginning (for me anyway). First grade is my youngest’s current grade level, although MUCH of her curriculum is well-above a first grade level. She’s a young first grader, but most certainly was ready for the challenge this year.

Of course, she participates in our Morning Time and Together Subjects, discussed here. Her individual subjects involve all of Language Arts and Math.

Language Arts

Phonics: We use Explode the Code for phonics practice, and during her 1st grade year she completed Books 3, 3.5, and nearly half of Book 4. Typically she completes two pages a day. Most of the time she is able to complete the work independently, though occasionally she will have a question or two for me. I always make sure she’s working on this when I’m nearby to offer assistance if needed.

Core Language Arts & Literature: This year, we used The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts & Literature Level K. She actually completed half of this last year during Kindergarten, but once she got about halfway through it, it became a tad too advanced for her. As I predicted, once she turned six and had some more phonics understanding under her belt, she was able to continue on with Level K beautifully. We spent some time reviewing the lessons she had already completed in her Kindergarten year, and then moved on. She just finished it last week, and showed vast improvements over time with the reading assessments. The Level K course follows a simple daily lesson format and enjoyable activities. It is a full phonics program which teaches children to read. Phonics, reading, spelling, literature, grammar and punctuation, and art appreciation are all taught in this open-and-go course.

Readers and other books used: The Good and the Beautiful comes with a course reader which we referred to often, as well as a set of 30 mini books (that were very useful in pushing her to decode words). The course reader contains 20 good and beautiful style stories that support family, God, nature, and high character. Reading increases in difficulty as the reader progresses through the book. In addition to the reader and mini books, it also includes a set of phonics cards that were SO beneficial in helping her learn to read this year. These phonics cards include not only phonograms (letters or letter combinations that represent a sound) but also common word families so students can quickly learn to recognize and read word patterns.

Once she had a good foundation, we were able to enjoy many other early reader style books including the Dash Into Learning Phonics Books Sets 1 and 2, The Little Bear Treasury, The Frog and Toad Treasury, The Good and the Beautiful Beginner Books Box C and D, and I Can Read! Levels 1 and 2 books like Biscuit and Amelia Bedelia. Many of the books she read this year were found very inexpensively on ThriftBooks. If you use my link for ThriftBooks, you’ll receive 15% off your first order! I also frequently find books at Book Outlet or (of course) Amazon.

Mathematics

Teaching Textbooks 4.0: I discovered Teaching Textbooks three years ago now, and it’s been my math curriculum of choice ever since. I love so many of the features, and no other math curriculum out there offers what they do. There is recorded lecture before each lesson with examples that the student can work through. Each lesson (in Math 3) consists of several practice problems before the actual graded portion of the lesson. During the practice problems, I make sure to offer assistance if needed.

I love that it offers hints if she is stuck on how to figure out a problem, and if she gets the problem incorrect she usually has a second chance to correct her mistake. Both of those features (hints and try again) can be turned off with the parental controls. I choose to keep those features on most of the time. I’ve partnered with Teaching Textbooks this year and have a very detailed review (and giveaway) coming next month! I’m thrilled to be able to share a company I love with all of you!

Humble Math Workbooks: The only other math practice she did this year included two workbooks, the Addition & Subtraction Book and the Multiplication Book from Humble Math that I found on Amazon. She completes a page from each book a day and usually skips around the book so she’s doing something different every time. Completing these practice pages are part of her morning work while I’m reading aloud.

The rest of my first grader’s curriculum is part of our morning time and “together” subjects, mentioned here. She also greatly enjoys coloring and drawing many times throughout the day. If I can’t find her in the house, I can usually count on finding her sitting at the school table creating something with different markers or pens.

Pens…she loves to write with anything but a pencil. And you know what? I let her. I’m not going to be that person that tells her she must do her work in a pencil because she’s six. She likes to use color and loves the feel of ink instead of scratchy pencils. I can’t blame her there. Her favorites (yes she has favorites) are Papermate Flair Pens and BIC Gelocity 0.7 gel pens.

My first grader has achieved so much this school year. I’m excited to continue to see her grow as a reader and lover of learning. She’s proved time and time again that just because she’s the youngest doesn’t mean she isn’t ready to tackle difficult math concepts or scientific ideas. I’m so proud of the little learner she’s become this year.

For more curriculum reviews and ideas, see the following posts below:

Curriculum Planning: Morning Time
Curriculum Planning: First Grade
Curriculum Planning: Second Grade
Curriculum Planning: Fourth Grade