What would your recommendation be for 1st grade curriculum?

[amanda1]

Tomorrow I am going to a homeschool used book sale, and today I feel completely overwhelmed. I have been seriously looking into the CM method for months now, but even with all the help from AO I am starting to wonder if I can really emulate the method that Charlotte intended.

I am a Type A and do better with structure. I want dd to enjoy learning but I feel I can't teach her without step by step instructions for me. Therefore, I'm thinking I need more of a structured curriculum. I may come home tomorrow without buying anything, but being faced with making curriculum choices has made me realize I'd like some input from experienced homeschoolers.

Hopefully some of you who have BTDT can give me your input. Thank you!

[Grover]

I have only used Heart Of Dakota-but I love it.We are nearly finished with little hands for and we plan on beyond little hearts for our next year

[ShangriLewis]

These have given us both structure and flexibility.

Italics Handwriting
Explode the Code
Math U See
Apologia Science
Story of the World
KONOS (Good if you like to skip around subjects.)

[2TMama]

I'm one to be more prone to mulling over a purchase & then not getting it vs. impulsively getting something that "looked good at the moment"..........but book sales make me prone to want to be uncharacteristic :P~

I like:
Handwriting Without Tears
Explode the Code
First Language Lessons
Five in a Row --- gives great book suggestions and ideas for activities including some geography & art!

and any and all Magic School Bus books (supplemented w/ a variety of other books/videos from interlibary loan) for Science

[veggiegirl]

I've only home schooled for Kindergarten, but I also like:
Explode the Code
Horizon Math
and any math manipulatives you can find! :)

[ShangriLewis]

Magic School Bus are awesome.
Usborne books are fun, too.

[Sweet Life]

I've heard that the Sonlight curriculum is based in CM -- it gives you the benefits of AO as well as the structure of a day-by-day curriculum. It seems like it might be a good fit? And if money is an issue I wonder if you could look to purchase their teaching guide and then buy the books individually/used.

We used My Father's World for First which also offers a blend of day-by-day structure with a lot of good reading / reading lists. We didn't enjoy everything about it, but found that it was easy to add on the books from AO. :)

Several families in our homeschool group are using Tapestry of Grace and they love it. I don't know much about it but you might keep your eye open and see if it's a fit for you guys too.

[Sweet Life]

Usborne books are fun, too.


My Father's World uses many Usborne books and the kids *love* them.

[amanda1]

These sound like some great suggestions. And, yes, money is an issue for me.

I know there is a site that has input on many curriculums, but it all seems so overwhelming, and I've found suggestions from the experienced seem to help me the most. Thank you!

[Leslie]

I've heard that the Sonlight curriculum is based in CM -- it gives you the benefits of AO as well as the structure of a day-by-day curriculum.


Sonlight is a "living books curriculum," but the similarity pretty much stops there.

Sonlight provides more pre-planned structure - when I used it, they had a teacher's guide and every day would tell you exactly what pages to read in each book, what questions to ask, what writing the child needed to do, etc. I need that kind of detailed structure to keep me moving forward; AO provides only loose structure, so I spend a day before each school year begins creating a more structured daily schedule from the weekly AO schedules.

You could try something one year and see how it goes. After using Sonlight, I discovered what kind of schedule worked best for us - it was nice having something as detailed as theirs at first. I did end up changing it to suit our needs, and eventually I found it was easier to create my own detailed schedule than to tweak someone else's. But having one to tweak was helpful for me when I was first starting. Often you can't know what you want and what works best until you actually start schooling and see first-hand how it plays out in your home. You can try a curriculum for a year without committing to it for your child's entire elementary career. Over that first year, you'll probably gain a clearer idea of what you can and can't do, how much you need planned for you, etc.

[ShangriLewis]

You don't really need much for 1st if you have a good library. I would focus on teaching good reading skills at this age. That is what I'm focusing on with our youngest and he will be a 1st grader this upcoming year. You can go through book lists from Sonlight, Winter Promise, Ambleside Online, etc and find topics you want to cover. Plan a topic per month and use your library catalog. Read, read, read.

[Soaring Eagle]

We're going to be using Little Hearts for His Glory for our grade 1 curriculum (tried it with my dd for K but she didn't care for 1/2 of it) I love how the guide is very well laid out, really open and go

[cobluegirl]

I really liked MFW

[mom2boys]

I'm the local Heart of Dakota fanatic, so that's what I recommend. :giggle
And what I use, too! Along with AO for the older boys, since the HOD curriculum isn't written that far out yet.

[hopefromgrace]

We'll also be using HOD's "Little hearts.." We've been going through it "part time" for K and will be about half way through it at the end of the school year....I'm planning on doing the second half of it for Ist grade with some supplementation.

I really like how it's all laid out, and you can just open and go.
I also like how gentle and flexible it is. :)
I think that it is a really good "base", but definately supplement with other things and just "life-learning" in general.

Hope you find a perfect fit for you and your child! :)

[2TMama]

Amanda1,

How was the book sale??? I just want to reiterate the idea that you really DO NOT need to spend a lot to hs a 1st grader............seconding what Shangrilewis said about the library!!!

[amanda1]

Amanda1,

How was the book sale??? I just want to reiterate the idea that you really DO NOT need to spend a lot to hs a 1st grader............seconding what Shangrilewis said about the library!!!

Thank you for asking! It was small, but I ended up buying $5 worth of stuff and they also had a freebe table. I got a nature book, some paper lined at the bottom for writing and blank at the top for drawings, a neat nature book that has copywork about different mammals and their habitats and simple instructions for drawing each mammal, and a general arts and crafts book. The best part of the fair is that I got to talk to a woman who homeschooled both her kids from K on--the son is a teen still being homeschooled and the daughter is now 21. She even gave me a listing of what resources she'd use if she had to do it all over again. I haven't researched all her curriculum recommendations yet, but she's also invited us to her home after May (she does testing and evaluating) to check out her curriculum and talk some more.

There is another book sale Monday evening thorugh the local homeschooling group. I plan to go once more to get some "hands on" and see some of the curriculum, but since my dd won't be with me maybe I get leave without buying anything!

I keep finding myself coming back to AO, but I realize if nothing else I need to find a math and phonics curriculum for the upcoming year.

[illinoismommy]

I'm type A too and I hate those curriculums that script for me what to say :hunh and it overwhelms me when I get behind on a really exact schedule.

I really like Math U See and that's probably what we will be trying for math first.

I think we will use AO for first grade but I might modify it some based on our situation and the work load we can handle, and make other things optional, but I am not sure yet because right now I look at AO Year 1 and it seems overwhelming, but maybe when we are doing it we will be able to handle all of it after all.

[RubySlippers]

Yes, you need a Math curriculum at the minimum.
Many of the recommended books are online, though we prefer hard copies and have bought several.
The rest we either get from the library or use online.
I think you can create your own structure/routine/flow for the day with AO. :)

[amanda1]

I still keep coming back to CM. I love the nature and literature part of it the most. I actually started working on a flexible 3 day per week schedule for this summer using about half of the AO recommended curriculum. Since we're starting in the summer it takes some of the pressure off, and I feel maybe I can add additional curriculum once we get the hang of things and maybe even do a complete AO curriculum by fall!. I am creating a 3-day per week schedule to allow for extracurricular summer activities. In creating the schedule and starting my plan, I'm feeling better about proceeding with this. I am really leaning towards Math U See and have requested a demo CD from them. Thanks again for all the advice!

[2TMama]

"In creating the schedule and starting my plan, i'm feeling better about proceeding with this."

:rockon Doing the planning *can* be a little overwhelming........especially in the "choosing materials" stage; however, there is a really good feeling that comes along w/ the planning :yes.

[RubySlippers]

Since we're starting in the summer it takes some of the pressure off, and I feel maybe I can add additional curriculum once we get the hang of things and maybe even do a complete AO curriculum by fall!.

That's awesome! I did the same thing when starting CM. I needed to see how it would work with less pressure before going all out during the school year. :rockon

[IslandMama]

I'm joining in here late, but I know exactly what you're saying! We tried AO this past year (very loosely) and enjoy it! But again, it does take some planning on your own to add or take away from it. Because I like the idea of combining my kids, I'm considering doing what I call "modified Sonlight." I will be following their history schedule, but picking and choosing their literature and taking from AO (plutarch, shakespeare, natural history, etc) and not use the guide as written, but implement CM philosophy. I guess I could go at it on my own, but I'm trying to simplify if I can. Still not decided on this one, and I keep coming back to AO too! Another language arts curriculum that we are using is Primary Language Lessons. I prefer it over FLL.

It's only first grade, so you could definitely build up to a full AO curriculum over time! Hope it works out for you! :yes

[amanda1]

Thanks for all the encouragement! I let dh look at my summer schedule last evening and he said it looked like an awful lot, which I think is part of what overwhelmed me, but if you figure that most studies will take 10-15 minutes, it really isn't that much after all. I was glad to hear that some of you had the same idea I did and that it worked out for you!

[live~laugh~love]

I used MFW with my oldest son and will be using it again with my youngest son. I liked it, but hind sight is 20/20 and there are little things I'll do differently to suit my younges ds.