first grade curriculum picks for the 2020-2021 school year

Summer is flying by and it’s almost time for school to start up again!  I wanted to share our 2020 homeschool curriculum picks that we’ll be using with Hudson for first grade (and Parker for preschool too, but we’re super casual about preschool around here so it’s mostly just first grade stuff).

Looking for kindergarten curriculum info?  Here’s what we used last year.

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(scroll to the bottom for a video if you prefer watching/listening over reading)

Main Curriculum: Classical Conversations

This will be our second year with Classical Conversations.  We absolutely loved the Classical Conversations program last our and our CC community and we are so excited about being back again this year!

If you aren’t familiar with Classical Conversations I wrote a pretty in depth blog post about what it is, how it works, what a typical CC day looks like, and our thoughts after our first year.

The Classical Conversations curriculum is very comprehensive and touches on a little bit of English grammar, Latin, history, geography, science, and math each week. The only additional things that need to be added to CC to have a full curriculum are a language arts curriculum and a math curriculum and I’ll share what I’ve chosen for those in just a minute.  This year we are also choosing to add on some additional history curriculum and I’ll share more about that, too.

RELATED VIDEOS

More about our CC curriculum in these videos from last year (which are still applicable for this year since the curriculum doesn’t really change):

Language Arts: Logic of English

After a year of using Logic of English (we did Foundations A and B last year) I am even more in love with it now!  It is such a fantastic, comprehensive, amazing program.  LOE covers grammar, spelling, reading, reading comprehension, and handwriting so you only need the one curriculum (so nice!).  And of course as I’ve shared before (and the name indicates) it teaches the actual logic and rules behind the English language.

I love how each lesson incorporates games and movement.  Perfect for little ones who need to be up and active, not sitting all day!

Hudson made such huge gains in his reading, spelling, and handwriting last year that I can’t wait to see how much he learns this year!

This year we will be starting off the year with Foundations C.  I’m not sure how long it will take him; if it takes the whole year that’s perfectly fine, but if he gets through it faster then we’ll move on to Foundations D as well.

My Logic of English Foundations A review blog post

Order Logic of English here

RELATED VIDEOS

Here’s my LOE Foundations A unboxing video so you can see what comes in the curriculum:

My LOE Foundations A review:

My LOE Foundations B review:

Math: RightStart Math

This year we’ll be continuing on with RightStart Math.  Last year for kindergarten we did RightStart Math Level A and for first grade we’ll be moving right into Level B.

I am still so thrilled with RSM.  I picked it because of the use of manipulatives, the emphasis on mental math, and how games are used instead of worksheets to reinforce concepts.

I am so pleased with how much Hudson learned last year!  It was amazing to see his number sense improve and his understanding of math deepen.  Level A laid a great foundation and I’m excited for us to see what Level B brings!

My RightStart Math Level A Review blog post

Order Right Start Math here

RELATED VIDEOS

Check out what all comes with the RightStart Math Level A curriculum here:

RightStart Math Level A review:

Science: Various Supplemental Books

As I mentioned before, Classical Conversations plus language arts and math is a full curriculum.  There is no need to add anything else unless you just want to.  I am not adding in any additional science curriculum at this time but I did buy several books from Usborne, Amazon, and Thriftbooks to use as supplements.

Our science focus this year in CC is the human body and the periodic table so I got several books that go along with those topics.  I will do video later showing a flip through of some of those books!

History: Notgrass + other supplemental books

I went back and forth on whether to do any additional history curriculum this year.  On the one hand Hudson is only 6, will see this material again in a few years since CC runs on a 3 year cycle, and one of my main goals for our homeschool is to give him tons of time to play and not spend a lot of time “doing school”.  That being said though, he loves loves LOVES history and geography and he is over the moon excited to be learning American History and US geography this year.  And the beauty of homeschooling is having the time to dive deeper into the topics that your child is really interested in.

So because of his excitement about history I went ahead and got a history curriculum.  We will be using Notgrass’ Our Star-Spangled Story this year to go along with what we’re learning in CC.

Notgrass has been highly recommended in multiple homeschool groups that I’m in.  From all the research I’ve done it approaches history from a Christian worldview but doesn’t gloss over some of the harder topics like the treatment of Native Americans and slaves (while keeping it age appropriate, of course).  While I think it’s impossible to find a truly unbiased history curriculum, this one looks like a really good option.

OSSS also incorporates a lot of suggestions for fun activities (crafts, recipes, building with blocks, etc.) that go along with the topics and I love that!  It also comes with a book and cd that teach songs and rhymes from the various time periods being taught.

I don’t know that we’ll do the workbook and every single activity, it’ll depend on time and the kids’ interest, but I definitely am looking forward to using it alongside what we learn in Classical Conversations.

In addition to the Notgrass curriculum I’ve also purchased a lot of books from Usborne, Amazon, and Thriftbooks about the presidents, American History, facts about the states, etc. that relate to what we’ll be learning in history and geography.

Order Notgrass here

Update: here’s a review I did once we finished Our Star-Spangled Story!

RELATED VIDEOS

Our Star-Spangled Story Review

Bible: Indescribable and Shaping Hearts

We started the book Indescribable (a devotional book about God and science that aligns well with the science topics we cover in CC) last year but didn’t finish it so we’ll continue through that this year and then when we finish it we’ll start the second book by that author, How Great is Our God.

We are also going to do a couple of workbooks from Shaping Hearts.  Hudson’s Bible class at church used these workbooks and sent them home at the end of each quarter.  They weren’t completely finished so we’re going to work through them together to complete them.  If we really like them I’ll order some more for us to continue doing or I’ll switch to another Bible curriculum that I’ve been eyeing.

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And there we go!  We’re adding a little bit more in this year, which I’m excited about, but still keeping it very simple.

Prefer videos? Here’s a video I made sharing what we’re using this year for first grade

Here’s the one I made last year for kindergarten

To see what we used for our relaxed, casual homeschool preschool, check out that post here.  Parker is 4 so I will be doing a few of these things with him this year (especially Handwriting without Tears since he’s learning to print his letters) but most of the things we do in a “one room schoolhouse” type fashion so he’ll do most of our CC, science, history, and Bible things along with us.