First Grade Homeschool Curriculum: What We Chose

Choosing a first grade homeschool curriculum comes down to four real decisions: a phonics/reading program to finish the learning-to-read job, a math program you’ll actually stay with, a light handwriting routine, and a read-aloud plan that quietly covers everything else. That’s the load-bearing list. Science, history, and art at this age ride along through books and life; formal spelling and grammar can wait. Below is what we chose for our own first grader, why, and where a different family would sensibly choose differently.

A word on format, because it’s this domain’s oldest tradition: the original Homeschooled Mom ran “my curriculum choices” posts year after year — the 2012 edition featured a four-year-old working through first-grade materials — and that what we chose and why framing is the only honest way to write about curriculum. I have not used every program on the market and won’t pretend otherwise. What I can give you is our actual shortlist, our actual picks, and the published facts that drove them.

Reading: finish the phonics job

First grade is the year phonics either gets finished properly or gets abandoned at “close enough,” and the gap shows up for years. We kept the same step-by-step approach that worked in kindergarten and added a daily workbook page for reinforcement: we chose Explode the Code Book 1, a decades-old phonics workbook series that drills short vowels and blending in a format kids can do semi-independently — ten minutes, one page, done. The full arc of our method, stall-outs included, is in teaching your child to read at home.

Families we know have been equally happy finishing the job with All About Reading (scripted, multisensory, pricier) or with the phonics strand of an all-in-one like The Good and the Beautiful’s language arts (faith-based publisher; its early levels fold phonics, handwriting, and literature into one open-and-go book). Different tools, same destination: a kid who can decode anything by Christmas of second grade.

Math: pick for the teacher, not the kid

Here’s the unpopular truth from our shortlist season: most reputable first-grade math programs teach the same content — place value to 100, addition and subtraction facts, measurement, early word problems. The real variable is you. Scripted, manipulative-heavy programs (Math-U-See and RightStart are the names you’ll hear constantly at co-op) suit parents who want to be walked through every lesson; leaner workbook programs suit parents who find scripts suffocating. We went lean: a straightforward workbook plus the counting cubes we already owned, because I’d rather improvise from a solid page than perform someone else’s script. Choose for the adult who’ll teach it — the kid adapts to either.

Handwriting and the things we deliberately skipped

Handwriting in first grade is ten minutes: short, daily, done before the hand tires. A simple workbook line-a-day plus real reasons to write (grocery lists, birthday cards) beats a formal program at this age. We skipped formal spelling and grammar entirely — first-grade spelling is phonics, and grammar before a kid reads fluently is teaching swimming on dry land. We also skipped the boxed science-and-history add-ons; a library basket rotating through space, dinosaurs, and how bridges work out-taught them at our house, free.

Worldview note, since first grade is where catalogs start sorting families: secular options (workbook-based programs, Blossom & Root-style literature approaches) and faith-based options (Abeka, The Good and the Beautiful, and the A Beka phonics I myself grew up on in the ’90s) both cover this ground competently. This site describes both factually and endorses neither worldview — pick the shelf that matches your home, and the phonics works the same.

The one-afternoon assembly

Our full first-grade stack: phonics spine + Explode the Code, one math workbook + cubes, a handwriting book, a read-aloud list, a library day. Total daily formal time: about an hour, split into short blocks. Choosing it took one afternoon of comparing published samples — every publisher above posts them free — and that’s the method I’d defend: shortlist three per subject, read samples with your actual kid in mind, decide, stop. The same afternoon-sized discipline works for planning the whole year, and it inoculates you against the mid-August catalog panic that fills used-curriculum sales with barely-touched boxes.

FAQ: first grade homeschool curriculum

What subjects does a first grader need in homeschool?

Reading/phonics, math, and handwriting as daily formal work; science, social studies, and art through read-alouds and life. Verify your own state’s current subject requirements — most are satisfied by exactly this core plus a good library habit.

How long should first grade homeschool take per day?

Commonly around one to two hours of formal work, in short blocks. Ours runs about an hour. If it’s stretching past two, something in the stack — usually the schedule, not the child — needs trimming.

Do you need an all-in-one boxed curriculum for first grade?

No — subject-by-subject picks are cheaper and easier to fit to a specific kid. But an all-in-one is a legitimate convenience choice if decision fatigue is the bigger threat to your school year. Buy the problem you actually have.

What’s the most important first grade subject to get right?

Reading. A finished phonics job makes every later subject cheaper to teach, because the kid who decodes fluently can be handed a book. If the budget or the energy only stretches to one strong program, make it the reading one.