Homeschooling Plans for our First Grader

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We were blessed with reviewing My Father's World kindergarten curriculum, God's Creation from A to Z Package last year. I really appreciated having everything organized and laid out for me because it allowed me to focus on pulling materials together for our oldest son's final year of high school. With the great experience with My Father's World, we decided to purchase the first grade curriculum for our daughter.

There are so many wonderful components to the Learning God's Story first grade curriculum from My Father's World. Personally, one of my favorite aspects is the Learning God's Story Teacher's Manual. Each week is laid out on a grid for Monday through Friday and then additional information follows that week's grid. It makes it so easy to plan the individual days as we move through the curriculum. 

Our daughter was so excited when everything arrived and wanted to get started immediately – even though we were finishing up the kindergarten curriculum. As we unboxed everything, our daughter was quite enamored with the math manipulatives, but I was very excited to see My Big Book of 5-Minute Devotions. I love that it included devotions based upon animals. What a neat idea! 

What Did We Get? 

The package that we ordered last year included the following: 

• Learning God's Story Teacher's Manual
• Student Sheets for Learning God's Story
• Student Workbook
• Bible Notebook 
• Bible Reader
• Geared Student Clock
• Horizontal Addition and Subtraction Flashcard Set
• My Big Book of 5-Minute Devotions
• Pattern Animals: Puzzles for Pattern Blocks
• Science with Plants
• Science with Water
• Outdoor Things 
• The Complete Book of Math Grades 1 - 2
• Unifix Cubes - 100
• Wooden Pattern Blocks
  

How Have We Used My Father's World? 

When we started using our first grade curriculum, we spent the first several weeks following the Teacher's Manual and completing the majority of the suggested activities. Everything went very smoothly as we read from My Big Book of 5-Minute Devotions, completed pages in our Math Workbook, and worked in the Student Workbook. I enjoyed working one-on-one with our daughter. 

When my mom's health began to deteriorate more quickly, we needed to take a break from the parent-led instruction of My Father's World and turn to other work that would allow our daughter to continue to learn while freeing me for other tasks. I went through some of the workbooks we have collected over the years, printed out worksheets, and found other activities for her to do. I utilized some of the subscriptions we received as members of the Homeschool Review Crew for our daughter, too. 

After the death of my mom, we were able to jump back into our first grade curriculum from My Father's World. So, while most are finished or finishing up their 36 weeks of first grade, we are right in the middle of it, and because we homeschool, it doesn't matter. We can move at our own pace. Because My Father's World is a complete curriculum that does not rely upon online subscriptions, we didn't have to worry about running out of time. I opened up the Teacher's Manual, collected the books and materials we needed, and we started again. 

Daily Schedule 

Each day when we get started on our homeschooling, I usually hand to our daughter the one or two things she can do on her own as I get her brother organized. Recently, this has been handing her the chart for her to write the numbers over 101 and the chart listing the 66 books of the Bible. 

As we started each day, I looked through the specific day on the grid to see what activities we have scheduled. After our daughter completes the few tasks she can do independently, we review the Proverb for the week together. During the week, she will write it out on her own. Then, each day contains a Bible/History activity or reading, a language arts/reading lesson, a math lesson (utilizing The Complete Book of Math book most days), and sometimes there are music, science, or art activities. 

One of the things I love about homeschooling first grade is that we can complete all the work in a short amount of time, which allows our daughter to have a lot of free time to pursue her own interests. She can play with her toys, read books, color, or complete STEM kit activities.

Adding In 

I also included other activities and lessons from a variety of resources for our daughter this year. As the Social Media Manager of the Homeschool Review Crew, I receive a variety of homeschool products and resources over the course of the year. Some of them are above her age range or grade level, but there have been quite a few that are a good fit for her first grade homeschooling. 

We have been slowly working through Preschool: Exploring God's Love from Positive Action Bible Curriculum. Even though she is in first grade, this curriculum has been a nice addition, as it reviews the key lessons in the Bible. She enjoys the workbook, which includes coloring, cutting, and drawing, and I like the read-aloud sections with questions. 

To sharpen her math skills, we have been using Memoria Math Challenge Level A sporadically. The math curriculum in My Father's World is solid, but I would like her to be able to add more quickly. The Memoria Math Challenge workbook starts with the dictation of numbers, writing the numbers that come after, and then counting and number lines. Eventually, she will be working on her addition math facts. 

Finally, we are adding in more science from Science: Lessons and Investigations from Evan-Moor, courtesy of Timberdoodle (look for a full review in a few weeks). Our son is working on the fourth grade level, while our daughter has the second grade level. They both start with the topic of plants, so we have been completing the lessons and activities together.