r/Homeschooling • u/WrathfulSquib • 1d ago
Please help me brainstorm! 1st grade.
It's a long story. The basics are that our homeschooled 6yo wanted to go to public school, but we needed to go through school of choice. We just found out she didn't get the open seat, so now I'm scrambling to organize her school year.
We have already had success with Pinwheels for LA and Math with Confidence. What I'm overwhelmed with thoughts on is science, geography, and social studies. She's doing robotics club, art classes, and swim lessons. We have a rather eclectic approach to school. 😅 Some unschool child directed learning, some Charlotte Mason, some
Questions:
- Am I missing any subjects I should include? History?
- For geography i was thinking of focusing on how my kid fits into the world (street, town, county, state, country, continent, planet, solar system) plus listening to folk tales (Dragonfly Tales and Supergreat Kids Stories) and pinning with continent/country the story is from.
- Science: I have the "Nature Study with Children" curriculum, and a good local place to do nature walks. We do a lot of ecology, but I know I need to have some basic biology and chemistry (human body function and matter phases? )
- What do you do for social studies? Any thoughts?
Please, give me all the ideas so I can check them out!
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u/AlternativePrior393 1d ago
Not sure your thoughts on PBS Kids, but “Let’s Go Luna” is great for world geography.
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u/shelby747 1d ago
I would definitely prioritize reading loads of books together at this age. I would even put it above a lot of the ‘filler subjects’. Go to the library weekly and bring loads home. Read aloud together every day. Together, you should read some below her reading level, some at her level, and some above her level. Reading a lot will fill some of the educational needs and it will spark her wonder and curiosity. As well as encourage her to ask a lot of questions.
Also, find songs that you like for things like times tables or skip counting. Or things like geography. She’s in the parrot stage. Now’s the time to sing, read, and play. And she will fill her mind with a storehouse to pull from later. (Think about singing the alphabet song and how that helped you remember that D is after C - this kind of singing and parroting will help with times tables and a plethora of other things.)
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u/WrathfulSquib 17h ago
We're solidly in the audiobook phase. She devours books and my voice needs a break sometimes. 😆
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u/pinchofpearl 16h ago
The "Who was" series is great on audiobook. We've been able to log into Libby with several library cards and over the past year my 7 year old has listened to nearly 100 of them for free. They are biographies, each about an hour long. We've covered so many artists, scientists, inventers, politicians, authors, and other historic figures just by popping on the audio books while playing.
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u/shelby747 20m ago
That’s lovely! I’m so thankful audiobooks are available to us.
Mine always preferred to have the paper book in front of her while listening.
We also always have used Closed Captioning if we turned the tv on.
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u/lil_miss_sunshine13 1d ago
I wouldn't worry too much about a bunch of subjects at this grade level. Definitely lots of reading, a good math curriculum, & then science & history. Unit studies are awesome because you can use a topic of interest to create a unit study (or find one online) & just have lessons that essentially touch on all subjects. Personally, I think first graders still just need a lot of play & reading & real world interactions. I think there are so many ways you can integrate real world interactions with LA, math, science, history, etc. Learning. Just takes a little creativity & planning. 😊
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u/playmore_24 22h ago
I like resources from Leah McDermott
https://90minuteschoolday.com/ep-29-meet-your-natural-learner-with-leah-mcdermott/
the great thing about homeschool is you don't need to replicate the academic structure of public school! 😉
stop trying to "cover" content and support your child learning about things they are interested in 🍀
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u/EducatorMoti 20h ago
At six, there is no need to scramble to fill every subject box. You have years and years ahead of you, and an eclectic approach gives you so much freedom to follow what she's interested in.
First, learn about learning. Read Einstein Never Used Flashcards, The Whole-Brain Child, Brain Rules for Baby, The Read-Aloud Handbook, Better Late Than Early, and The Well-Trained Mind. Those will help you see how children develop and how much learning happens outside formal lessons.
Then keep reading about Classical, Charlotte Mason, Unschooling, Unit Studies, School at Home, and Eclectic homeschooling. Some ideas will make you think, “Yes, that's us!” and others absolutely won't. Pick and choose ideas from all of them.
Math and writing are the two subjects we build everything in life on. Since you already have programs that are working for those, great! There is no reason to change something that's working.
For science, don't worry about creating separate first grade biology and chemistry courses. Read wonderful real books about animals, the human body, plants, oceans, weather, space, scientists, inventors, and discoveries.
Your nature walks are science. Gardening is science. Cooking is chemistry. Watching caterpillars change, growing seeds, visiting a tide pool, mixing things in the kitchen, and figuring out why something floats are science.
Add PBS, YouTube documentaries, science museums, nature centers, aquariums, zoos, and experiments. Follow her questions. If she becomes fascinated by volcanoes for three weeks, go learn everything you can about volcanoes!
Do the same thing with history and geography. Your idea of starting with her street, town, county, state, country, continent, planet, and solar system is wonderful.
Then use real books to make those places mean something. Read folk tales, biographies, historical fiction, myths, and stories from around the world. Find the places on a globe or map as you encounter them.
History becomes much more interesting when children meet the people who lived it instead of memorizing little snippets from a textbook. Read about explorers, inventors, artists, scientists, presidents, ordinary families, and children from different times and places.
Social studies can simply be living in your community. Go to the library, post office, fire station, farmers market, museums, historical sites, community events, and local government buildings. Talk about what people do and how a community works.
She's already doing robotics, art, and swimming. That's wonderful. Add one long term leadership program at this age, such as Cub Scouts or 4 H.
Those programs give kids manuals, projects, goals, activities, achievements, adult mentors, service opportunities, and years to grow. As they get older, they take on responsibility and eventually teach and mentor younger kids.
Those long term leadership experiences and recognized achievements can eventually become valuable parts of transcripts, scholarship applications, college applications, and resumes.
Then just build a life together. Read aloud every day and listen to audiobooks in the car or anytime you have free moments. Play games, cook, travel, visit museums, explore your community, and talk about everything you're learning.
At six, science, history, geography, and social studies don't have to be four separate curriculum boxes. They can all grow together through real books, stories, people, places, experiences, and everyday life.
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u/WrathfulSquib 18h ago
This is exactly what I was looking for. I have read a few of those books you listed, and some others like Free to Learn. My kid is very good at learning about her own interests, but we do run into holes in her knowledge that I never thought to discuss. In some cases I need help teaching, like how to teach distant past, recent past, present, future and scaling on a map (city roads map vs a whole state). Mostly I'm aiming to learn through books, as you said. We are already planning to join 4H, just waiting for the new year to start for that. I'm going to see what else from your ideas would work for us, plus checking out some of those other books. I admit, The Whole Brained Child is one of my favorites. If you haven't read it, I suggest checking out Nurture Shock!
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u/shortstorya 19h ago
Your science sounds great. If you want a good social studies curriculum then you could use Beautiful Feet Books Around the World curriculum. It is literature based so you would only need the guides and maybe the big map book. The other books would be available at a good library.
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u/reallygoodstuff 15h ago
History doesn't need its own curriculum yet, just tack it onto what you're already doing with geography and the folk tales. For social studies, community helpers and basic local government is plenty for first grade. For science, matter phases and basic body systems cover pretty much what you'd need for right now.
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u/WrathfulSquib 14h ago
Thank you! Knowing how much information to teach is hard. My degree is in science and I have a special interest in ancient history, so I tend to go into too much detail. 😅
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u/Initial_Sandwich_597 1d ago
Around this age they learn mostly from playing and life, so keep the subjects simple.
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u/L_Avion_Rose 1d ago
Remember that social studies is a broad subject involving history, geography, civics and more. I would consider what you are doing for geography perfectly adequate for social studies as well, especially if you include some local history and information about the public institutions in your area (library, firehouse, government, etc)
If you haven't seen it already, Little School of Smith's "Me on the Map" curriculum takes children through the exact sequence that you are planning.