Megan

One of my daughters will be entering first grade in a few months, and she is so excited. First graders like her are a unique bunch. They are starting to identify with the “big kids,” but they are still little. They still want to play and explore and move around—and they need to! We want their homeschool experience to be the best it can be. We want them to learn to love learning. In this post, I’ve included some tips to help you find the best first-grade homeschool curriculum for your homeschool.

If I were to pick my favorite grade to homeschool, I would definitely pick kindergarten. I love watching my kindergartener learn—she gets so excited about every new skill and tidbit of information and craves knowledge. I never have to coax her into doing schoolwork. She would do more if I let her! And a lot of her excitement came from having a good K5 homeschool curriculum to rely on.

I didn’t always feel this way about kindergarten. The first time I taught kindergarten to one of my daughters, I was terrified. I was convinced that I was going to ruin her academic career before it even got started! But a good kindergarten curriculum gave me the confidence that I needed to homeschool successfully. If you are looking for a kindergarten homeschool curriculum, here are a few things that you will want to consider before you make a purchase.

Everyone loves a good story. I have spent hours with my children relating the adventures of Frog and Toad, Corduroy, and the Boxcar children. We have laughed at Amelia Bedelia’s mix-ups, cried at the death of Matthew Cuthbert, and cheered on the Narnians as they battled the White Witch.

Since so many homeschoolers are also great lovers of books, literature has always played a large role in homeschooling. Literature-based homeschool curriculum packages offer homeschoolers the opportunity to replace traditional textbooks with a variety of other books. Would such a curriculum be a good fit for your family? Here are some things to consider.

I am a homeschool mom of four wonderful daughters. When I started homeschooling six years ago, I had a second-grader, a kindergartener, a toddler, and an infant. This year I am homeschooling an eighth grader, a fifth grader, a third grader, and a kindergartener. I sometimes get asked how I manage homeschooling multiple ages. My answer—It’s hard. But it has actually gotten easier now that all my children are in school. And I’ve had several years to learn what works and what doesn’t work for my family. 

A few years ago, BJU Press published a podcast entitled “Homeschooling Multiple Grades”. The guest, HomeWorks by Precept Consultant Jennifer Lont, had some really helpful tips that have helped my own homeschool run more smoothly. Below are her tips as well as a few of my own.