There is a Back to School buzz in both the public and private school communities as well as the homeschool community and I’ve been taking advantage of this to get Kyri excited for all the new stuff we have planned for the school year. Even though we did a light summer school to keep up with Math and Language Arts, as well as lots of reading, we will be getting into our full curriculum in two weeks when the schools go back into session around here. We will be participating in our Science and History co-op again this school year and I’m using our co-op start date to get our First Grade officially rolling around here. Here are our Curriculum plans for the year.

Math 

We were working on First Grade Math throughout our Kindergarten year, so this year will be a continuation. We will be doing a lot of reinforcement of skills as well as some newer stuff – Word Problems and addition/subtraction with two-digit numbers.

Harcourt Family Learning Math Skills Grade 1 – finishing up

Flashkids Flash Forward Math Grade 1

Kumon Addition Grade 1 – finishing up

Kumon Subtraction Grade 1

Flashkids Place Value Grade 1 – finishing up

Flashkids Time and Money Grade 1

Kumon Word Problems Grade 1

online supplemental – Starfall and Aha!Math

Language Arts 

Like Math, this is a continuation of what we have been working on with phonics and spelling. Additonally with the overview Language Arts book, we will start working on sentences (capitalization and punctuation) and parts of speech. We will also work on Reading Comprehension of fiction and nonfiction selections.

Spectrum Phonics Grade 1– finishing up

Harcourt Family Learning Spelling Skills Grade 1– finishing up

Flash Forward Reading Grade 1 – Reading Comprehension Fiction/Nonfiction

If Basic Skills Language Arts Grades 1-2 Inferencing

Spectrum Language Arts Grade 1 – overview workbook

Handwriting – copywork using selected quotes and Kyri’s reading selections

Literature-based Lessons 

We finished up FIAR Volume 1 over the summer and really enjoyed it! Great reading selections and while we did not use FIAR as a core curriculum as some do (making lapbooks and doing a lot of additonal activities) we rowed each book several times and used the manual for discussion. Volume 2 has an even larger book selection and so this will be spread over the next year and a half.

Five in a Row Volume 2 – we will spend two weeks per literature selection since we use this as a supplement and do not row 5 days in a row.

Social Studies 

We are continuing our Story of the World reading and activities with our History and Science co-op. We will be reading the chapters as well as a fair amount of the sugggested literature listed  in the activity guide.

Story of the World Volume 2: Middle Ages

Story of the World Volume 2: Middle Ages Activity Guide

Civics – continuing study. Will introduce the topic of US Elections since this is a presidential election year. This will include literature selections and perhaps a lapbook session to pull all the information together for a better understanding.

Science

We will continue working with our History and Science co-op. We are switching from Elemental Science that we used this past year, over to RSO.

R.E.A.L Science Odyssey Life Level 1

Spanish 

We are still piecing together material for this subject. For this year, I am mainly focusing on building vocabulary and some basic greetings and phrases.

Larousse Spanish Children’s Dictionary

Vocab Flash Cards

Logic/Critical Thinking

I like using logic exercises as “brain warmups” for Kyri to develop her critical thinking skills.

Logic Lollilop Volume 1

Lollipop Logic Volume 2

Art & Music 

This year we will be doing Art and Music appreciation. HFA has a great schedule to introduce composers and artists. Each month will focus on one composer and one artist. We really didn’t do anything last year for Art or Music and so I am really excited to start this study.

Harmony Fine Arts Art and Music Appreciation Grammar Stage First Grade

Nature Studies 

While we do nature walks together, we do not have a consistent schedule or goal. I really like the simple schedule and suggested activities at the Outdoor Nature Hour and I think this a a great stepping off point for our nature studies. We will start with weekly outdoor sessions and incorporate a Nature Journal and specimen collection.

Handbook of Nature Study and the Outdoor Nature Hour

Bible/Christian Studies

Though we are secular homeschoolers and do not use Christian-worldview materials, we are Christians and want to introduce Bible and Christian faith topics.

My Favorite Bible Stories Activity Book – fun activity sheets to go along with well know Bible Stories

Read and Share Devotional – weekly devotionals that touch on different character topics, such as  patience, as well as other Bible topics.