Our first grade year is officially in the books and I’m pleasantly pleased with how it went down. Of course, it didn’t go exactly how I thought it would, but overall, I would say it went even better than I expected. Here is a breakdown of what curriculum we used and what I thought about it. (I will have links at the bottom)
For Math: We used the Good and the Beautiful Math 1 with great success. We both liked the lessons, the aesthetics TGATB is known for, and the length of time it took to complete daily. The math box that came with the book was great, but the hands on the clock did break off pretty quickly into our school year. I also added logic into the mix for math with a logic puzzle workbook that my daughter was responsible for doing on her own time, weekly.
For Language Arts: We used, again, TGATB for Language Arts. Here is where I will throw in a caveat: I found the reading portion of this to be a bit basic for where my daughter was at, so we more or less skipped that part and I assigned books to her myself. We also did a substantial amount of family read-alouds. Every week, I assigned a literary log entry, and those are now a treasured keepsake to look back on. I can explain those in a further post, but it’s essentially a small summary of a scene in a book, accompanied by a picture. The last thing I incorporated into our language arts was handwriting. She did a handwriting workbook on her own time weekly.
For Science: We used TGATB Little Hearts and Hands curriculum, and I found it to far too basic. It would be great for a pre-schooler, or maybe as a supplement, in my opinion. We also watched an episode of Wild Kratts every week and discussed the animal featured. Occassionally, we did a science experiment from a book that I have. Overall, first grade science was a gentle introduction into what I hope and plan on being a robust science education.
For History: We used Gather ‘Round’s US History Unit 1 and 2, stretched out over the entire year. This was by far the favorite “class”, not just for the kids, but for my husband and myself as well. We included our four/five year old in the lessons and it was a great experience. I also tried to match up some literature to what we were learning in history to round out the learning.
Art: TGATB Language Arts is technically also an art program, but in addition to that we used the Usborne Art Treasury and worked through the projects in that. It was a blast. I also created art units on my own here and there, usually based off of one famous artist. We covered Monet pretty heavily in the Spring semester.
Spanish: We dabbled in Song School Spanish, but didn’t hit it very hard. One resource we loved was a free podcast called Eat Your Spanish. In addition to this, I made flashcards that we would go through during our morning time.
Physical Education: I outsourced this almost entirely to a local sports league. My daughter did two sessions of soccer and one session of basketball. In addition to this, I try to get the kids all outside daily.
Misc: We do Bible breakfast daily, aside from the actual school year. This includes verse memory work, reading a portion of the Bible together, and working through the New City Catechism.
Testing: I purchase a standardized test in the fall and in the spring to track learning. I do this through Homeschool Boss and it’s called the Growth MAP test.
Links:
The Good and The Beautiful Website
Cozy and Maple 
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