1st Grade Home School Subjects & Curriculum

First grade! Never in my wildest dreams had I thought I would homeschool my kids during grade school. I somehow always thought I'd be back to work and that the kids would attend public school. BUT, this is not what happened. Being that we live in Germany, attending local school means one should probably be quite fluent in German and while my son did attend German Kindergarten two years, I still felt uncomfortable sending him with the big German-speaking kids. I also knew that one day, we'd be back on American soil and that he'd need to read, write and count in English. Unfortunately, the "English" school is quite far. Neither me nor my husband felt like doing the driving everyday, especially with a 3 year old in the back...And so began our homeschooling journey. I researched tons and made lot of decisions, mostly based on our "home state" of New York. New York requires me to instruct my first grader in at least 12 subjects over 180 days (aka 36 weeks, 5 hours a day). Because we live abroad though, I do not have to follow their requirements but will still abide by them simply because they are stringent and well...to my liking overall! Besides I do intend to send my kids back into the public domain once we are back "home". :) Below is the "course of study" I designed:

Adrian during his technology class:
loves learning to code with Hour of Code!

Course of Study & Materials - First Grade

Arithmetic/Mathematics*

Singapore Math - Primary Math 1A + 1B (U.S. Ed.)

Miquon Orange + Red Books

Life of Fred - Apples + Butterflies

Splash Math (App)

Science*

Apologia - Young Explorer Series (Zoology 1,2,3 + Botany)

KHT Montessori - Botany, Physical Science, Astronomy, Geology, Ecology albums

U.S. History (including citizenship and patriotism) & Geography*

Abeka - My America & My World
The Story of the World: Volume 1

KHT Montessori  - History Album

A child's Geography - Explore his Earth

KHT Montessori - Geography Album

English/Language Arts/Phonics, Handwriting/Spelling/Reading*

Abeka - Language 1

Abeka - Letters & Sounds 1 (phonics)

All About Spelling - Level 1

A Reason for Handwriting - A

Music*

Fun with Composers - Volume 1

Piano Lessons

Visual Arts*

Discovering Great Artists

Draw, Write Now Series

Physical Education*

Family Fitness Fun - Fitness for Homeschool Curriculum 1

Swimming Lessons

Ice Skating Lessons

Health Education (including alcohol and drug abuse)*

Abeka - Health, Safety and Manners

Catechesis

Our Heavenly Father - 1

Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking Company - Mind Benders 1 + 2
Lollipop Lagic K-2 Book 1
OLSAT Practice Tests - K/G1

Technology

Kodable (Coding App) + Hour of Code (Coding prog.)

Toontastic (Animation app)

French

Tatou le Matou - 1

*Required Subject in NY State

A few of our books used this year:

most of them were purchased from Rainbow Resource Center

(got to love free shipping and how much stuff they have in stock!)

That above list was designed over the course of a summer. All the materials are here and being used at this time, BUT...I already do not like some of these materials. *sigh* It all sounded good on paper (and oh boy! did I read reviews!) but once my son started working with some, it quickly became evident that it wouldn't work out. For example, while I love the idea behind the series "Life of Fred", it doesn't do much for my six years old. He'd rather be doing actual math problems than read how "Fred" uses math in his daily life through these chapter books (I WILL keep the series for when he's older I think and starts asking; "why does math matter?"). In the end, it's a live and learn situation! :)

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