My baby girl is going into Grade ONE!! I am so excited for her to learn and grow this next year but I am also excited for me. This is our second official year of homeschooling and I already feel so much more confident. I haven’t figured everything out but any stretch of the imagination but I am no longer afraid of changing my plans or taking a break when needed. It is going to be a wonderful year and I feel like we have made some excellent curriculum choices for a fun and artistic Grade One year.

Kindergarten was a great year but it was also a challenge and looked completely different than when I did Grade One with my older child. I was the one that struggled the most with my daughters challenges. I felt like her struggles were my failures and honestly, that was not the case at all. She was not ready, she needed space. Once I gave her some more freedom and time I was surprised to find out that when she was ready she learned in leaps and bounds.

Following her speed was the best thing I did last year for her and we are going to continue to progress at the level she is ready for.

Here we go!

Grade One Curriculum Choices

The Good and the Beautiful: Language Level K

We will be continuing using The Good and the Beautiful.

Draw Write Now

We are adding Draw Write Now into our curriculum this fall because my daughter already loves one of the later volumes but finds the drawings a little over her level, not that that stops her from trying. Each lesson has a learn to draw section and copy work. I am expecting the copy work to be a challenge, which is why we also chose a handwriting curriculum that focuses on individual letters. Our budding artist is going to be thrilled to have projects to create. I imagine this book will be on her table nearly every morning.

The Good and the Beautiful: Handwriting One

Last year we spent time focusing on increasing muscle strength and fine motor control. We are now ready to focus on improving individual letter formation as we start to writing more and more. The Good and the Beautiful has drawing or coloring activities on every page which is one reason why we chose this program. Our 6 year old requested to learn more about art and this is the perfect combination handwriting and art.

The Good and the Beautiful: Math K

We are currently half way through Math K. We started during our kindergarten year but went nice and slow focusing on math games and learning via unschooling methods. This year our Math work will be increasing on a regular basis. The stories and games included in The Good and the Beautiful are fun, engaging and quick to teach math concepts. Alberta’s learning outcomes for Grade One are met mostly through Level K, but not entirely. We are hoping to finish Level K by the first semester and use Level One in the start of the new year.

Science and History

For both Science and History we are trying a completely new strategy. NO CURRICULUM!! I am both thrilled with this and nervous about it. We love learning with books, going on field trips and using media. Creating a tailored program is going to be a wonderful way to follow our curiosities and mix things up as needed.

We are required to cover specific topics (teacher-led), meaning we won’t have complete freedom but we have lots of flexibility. Our History topics are My World: Home, School and Community; Moving Forward with the Past. Science topics are Creating Color, Seasonal Changes, Building Things, Senses and Needs of Animals and Plants.

As we cover these topics I will share posts and link them accordingly.

Personal Goals

Our little 6 year old is head over heels for all things creative. She wants to create art on paper, her face, use many mediums and even the oven. I do not plan on providing her with a strict curriculum but I did find a few instructions to help her expand and grow this year. I am talking about YouTube Channels, Recipe books and lots of supplies.

Family Style Curriculum

The Waldock Way: Passport to Adventure

As a family we love doing unit studies but with four kids it was tricky for me to keep up. Passport to Advenures is going to give us a variety of themes to discover without leaving me overwhlemed. Passport to Adventures uses the The Magic Tree House series as the spine. Each book has a unit attached to it with a student notebook to help engage kids during read-aloud time. For kindergarten we will focus on the coloring pages, sensory bins and starting a bit of copywork.

We will still be doing our daily Morning Basket reading. Each month will look different but follow a similar outline.

Have you chosen your curriculum for fall yet?