1st Grade Curriculum Options & My Review: Our Favorite Math Program

Curriculum Reviews

Wondering which curriculum to pick for 1st grade? I’m constantly learning what we like and don’t like, so here’s exactly what we used with our first grader, a look inside the books, and my honest review of each one. Spoiler: math was our favorite.

What you’ll get from this post

  • How long 1st grade took us (four days a week, about an hour to an hour and a half)
  • Why you can mix and match curriculum brands
  • Inside The Good and the Beautiful Level 1 Language Arts, which you can download free as a PDF
  • Why we love Math-U-See, and a cheaper way to get the blocks
  • How we kept science, Bible, piano, reading and art simple

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Chapters

  • 0:21 Lesson plans and our 1st grade schedule
  • 1:02 You can mix and match curriculum
  • 1:24 Language arts: The Good and the Beautiful
  • 2:47 Science: Discovering God’s World
  • 3:08 Math: Math-U-See Alpha
  • 4:31 Bible, piano, audiobooks and art

How we scheduled 1st grade

For first grade, we did school four days a week. Our core subjects usually took about an hour to an hour and a half, and we sprinkled in extra subjects through the week.

If you’d like a starting point, I made a Google spreadsheet with lesson plans from pre-k through 2nd grade: our lesson plans and daily schedule.

You don’t have to use one brand for everything

In case you’re wondering, you don’t have to pick one curriculum brand for every subject. You can totally mix and match. We used different curriculums for different subjects, and they worked really well together.

Language arts: The Good and the Beautiful, Level 1

For spelling, handwriting, reading and language arts, we used The Good and the Beautiful Level 1 Language Arts. They offer the entire course book as a free PDF download. How amazing is that?

I bought the set. It came with the course book, phonics cards for practice, and a book of short stories for your child to read. It also includes literature and art appreciation, which is the “beautiful” part.

You work through one lesson a day. The lesson tells you exactly what to read to your child and how to teach it, and when to pull out the phonics cards or a short story. Here’s what lesson one looks like:

  1. Read a poem together and do an activity with it.
  2. Do some phonics.
  3. Your child reads on their own for ten minutes.
  4. The rest is independent work: spelling practice, homophones, another spelling activity, then art appreciation and writing.

Each lesson takes about an hour, but remember, that covers several subjects in one. I love being able to be that efficient. We did language arts four days a week. They had just come out with a new edition when I filmed this, and it looked really awesome, so I’d recommend getting the new one.

Science: Discovering God’s World

For science, we used Discovering God’s World by A Beka. It’s on my 1st grade Amazon list. We only did science two days a week:

  • Day one: read one chapter or chunk, which might include a simple experiment.
  • Day two: find YouTube videos on that topic to watch during lunch.

Pretty easy.

Math: why we love Math-U-See

We love Math-U-See. Our niece and nephew used it years ago and loved it.

I love it because it comes with instructional videos, so I don’t have to worry about whether I’m teaching it correctly. Yes, even at a first grade level, I was worried I wouldn’t teach it right. So I love the videos.

For first grade, use the Alpha book. Here’s what you need:

  • The student pack
  • Either the instructional DVD or lifetime access to the videos online

Lifetime access is great, because for each kid after that, you only buy the workbook. You don’t need the teacher’s manual.

Math-U-See also uses little blocks as counting manipulatives. I think they’re really useful, especially for a kinesthetic, hands-on learner, and super helpful for place value. But the price on their site was pretty high, so I found a much cheaper set on Amazon. It’s on my 1st grade Amazon list.

How we schedule it: math three days a week. On day one, we watch the short video and he does a worksheet. He does two more worksheets later in the week. There are six worksheets per lesson, so if he needs more practice before moving on, I can pull out more.

Bible, piano, audiobooks and art

That covers our core subjects. Here’s how we fit in the rest:

  • Bible time during breakfast
  • Piano lessons from YouTube: one new lesson a week, then a little practice every day
  • An audiobook for 20 minutes during afternoon quiet time
  • Arts and crafts on our non-school day, because that activity takes a lot of my patience

For art, we use The Good and the Beautiful Creative Arts and Crafts book. There’s a supply list in the front, so I bought everything at once and kept it on hand. That way I wasn’t prepping every week for a new project.

Key takeaways

  • 1st grade took us four days a week, about an hour to an hour and a half for core subjects.
  • Mix and match curriculum brands. You don’t need one brand for everything.
  • The Good and the Beautiful Level 1 covers several subjects in about an hour a lesson, and the PDF is free.
  • Math-U-See’s videos take the pressure off teaching math, and the blocks help hands-on learners.
  • Keep science, Bible, piano and art simple and spread through the week.

What viewers say

The art appreciation part of the language arts program is very neat! We have used Math U See for years as well. Our kids use those Math U See block for playtime, too.

@TheNerdyHomeschooler on YouTube

I love how paired down your science is. It’s so easy to over complicate things sometimes!

@MommaonMission on YouTube

Love these Sarah! Wish you had made these 13 years ago!!

@karensowder9436 on YouTube

Things we mentioned

Planning 1st grade? Come hang out with our crew on YouTube. Subscribe to The Johnson Crew on YouTube.

FAQ

How long should 1st grade homeschool take?

For us, it was four days a week, with core subjects taking about an hour to an hour and a half.

Can you mix different homeschool curriculums?

Yes. We used different brands for different subjects, and they worked really well together.

Is The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts free?

They offer the entire Level 1 course book as a free PDF download. We bought the set, which also came with phonics cards and a book of short stories.

Do you need the Math-U-See teacher’s manual?

We didn’t. We used the student pack plus the instructional videos, either on DVD or with lifetime online access.

Are Math-U-See blocks worth it?

I think so, especially for hands-on learners and place value. Their site price was high, so I found a cheaper set on Amazon.

More from our crew

Full transcript

Hi I'm Sarah I have four kids from the ages of one to eight and have been homeschooling them for the last four years and I'm constantly learning new things about homeschooling and teaching and curriculums that we like and don't like so I wanted to share our experiences with you today first I've included a link below to a Google spreadsheet of lesson plans that I've made it includes lesson plans from pre-k up to second grade so check that out I also link to my previous videos below where I talked about what we use to teach preschool pre-k

And kindergarten up next will be a video what we used for second-grade and what we've decided to use for third grade for first grade we did school four days a week and it typically took about an hour to an hour and a half for our core subjects and then we would sprinkle in some extra curricular subjects throughout the week we chose different curriculums for different subjects and they worked really well together in case you're wondering you do not have to pick one brand of curriculum to use for every subject you can totally mix

And match I list out below what we chose but if you'd like to see inside the books and here my review of them keep watching for spelling handwriting reading and language arts we used level 1 Language Arts by the good and the beautiful which they actually offer the entire book as a PDF you can download for free how amazing is that I bought the set and it came with the course book phonics cards to practice with and a book of short stories for the child to read this book also includes literature

And art appreciation that's the beautiful part of it so here's the PDF of their new edition you work through one lesson per day which tells you when to have them practice with the phonics cards and when to read a short story so just a quick look at lesson number one they always write out what you are to read to the child how to instruct them we read a poem they've got an active to do with the poem and then we go and do some phonics learning then they are to read for ten minutes on their own

And then the rest of this lesson is independent work they've got some spelling practice some homophone practice and then another spelling activity and then some art appreciation and writing they did just come out with a new addition that looks really awesome so I definitely recommend getting the new addition each lesson should take about an hour to complete but remember that includes several subjects all in one so I love being able to be efficient like that so this would be a subject that we would do four days a week for science we used discovering God's world by A Beka we would only do science two days a week one day we would read one chapter or chunk which might include a simple experiment

And the other day we would find YouTube videos on that topic to watch during lunch pretty easy for math we love math you see our niece and nephew did it years ago and loved it I love it because it comes with instructional videos so I don't have to worry that I'm teaching it to them and correctly yes even on a first grade level I was worried that I wouldn't be able to teach them correctly so love the videos for first grade use the Alpha book which I've linked to below you'll need to purchase the student pack

And you can either order the instructional DVD or purchase lifetime access to the videos online this is great because we don't have to buy the whole package for each next kid going through it just the workbook you don't need the teachers manual they also use little blocks as counting manipulatives and I do think those are really useful for the kids especially if you've got a kinesthetic learner someone who likes to be hands-on super helpful especially with place value but the price on their site for them is pretty high

So I've linked to Amazon below for a much cheaper set we would do math three days a week on day one we'd watched the short video and then he would do a worksheet and then he would do two more worksheets throughout the week now if it seemed like he needed more practice there are actually six worksheets per lesson in the workbook so I could always pull out more if he seemed like he needed more practice before moving on to the next lesson okay that covers our core subjects we also did Bible time during breakfast piano lessons from YouTube we would do one new lesson a week

And then practice every day for a little bit an audio book for 20 minutes during quiet time in the afternoon and we would do arts and crafts on our non school day because that activity requires a lot of my patience the good and the beautiful has a book called creative arts and crafts that I'll link to below it has a supply list in the front of the book so I just went out and bought all of that and that way we just had it on hand I wasn't having to prep every single week for a new project

Okay if you have any questions please drop them in the comments below you can check out our daily schedule and a video that I've linked to below if you enjoyed this video please give it a thumbs up and as always don't forget to subscribe thanks for watching talk to you soon

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