Homeschool Year In Review: 1st Grade, Preschool & a Toddler

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We took this photo at a little market our co-op put on where all the kids got to make their own products to sell! My girls made homemade playdough kits and headbands!

We wrapped up another year of homeschooling! This year was a bit more challenging than last, because my youngest is now a busy one-year-old, and my 3-year old (now 4 as I’m writing this) wanted to be more involved with her own “school” so I had to get creative — more on that at the bottom of this post. I have a separate blog post with tips for homeschooling with a toddler and newborn, and still implemented many of those, but the biggest game-changer for THIS year specifically was to group subjects together and spread them throughout our day!

Since these annual blog posts are a way for me to keep track of what we accomplished and completed over the year, the state of South Carolina requires we cover all 5 core subjects (reading, writing, math, science, and social studies), so that’s how I’ll break up this post.

READING

My daughter worked her way through All About Reading Level 2, and is now halfway through level 3 at the end of the year! I love the way they introduce phonics. We were previously doing The Good & The Beautiful Language Arts, but the content seemed too fluffy. Our local library actually carries the teacher manuals for All About Reading, so I just needed to purchase the student pack separately. My daughter was already a great reader, but I’m looking forward to using this curriculum with my other two kids to teach them a solid foundation of phonics!

WRITING

A writing journal is my favorite way to implement writing into our school routine, and I believe it allows for the most creativity! I use these primary composition notebooks with drawing space at the top of the pages. I rotate through the following:

Copywork from our memory verse for the week, a passage of Scripture, a page in a book or another curriculum.
Prompts to facilitate creativity — usually in question/answer format, “tell me about ___” or completing the sentence. I started out requiring one sentence and will plan to work our way up to paragraphs as she ages.
Transcribing something I read aloud to her, or I’ll ask her to describe something she read or heard me read.
Then I’ll point out what needs correcting: handwriting, spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure, vocabulary, reading comprehension, and as she gets older, we’ll work on cursive or even implement typing skills here.

MATH

We’re on Level 2 of Math With Confidence, and we’ve both been enjoying it. I love the way it’s easy to open-and-go without much prep work, and that it includes games but they don’t take away from the lesson. It’s also very straightforward. We’ve finished some lessons in as little as 10 minutes, but we can also take our time to practice the games or activities several times to get extra practice in. I also love the blend of mastery approach when introducing new topics, but also spiral review questions for each lesson.

SCIENCE

Science is such a fun, flexible subject for us. We like to listen to the Nat Theo podcast by Eryn Lynum (I listen on spotify). Or I’ll create a unit study with related library books, crafts, and activities. We also spend lots of time outside in God’s creation gardening, exploring creeks, raising butterflies, and studying flowers. I try to follow my kids’ interests here! We also attend a weekly co-op that does many nature/homestead themed unit studies as well.

SOCIAL STUDIES

I introduced US geography AND history this year, both two separate curriculums that we alternate between — I never do both in the same day.

Our 50 States geography curriculum from Notgrass has been so fun. It’s an old-school textbook made by a Christian company, and comes with a workbook and review questions. I also got Our 50 States by Lynne Cheney and The 50 States by Gabrielle Balkan — two picture books filled with tons of state facts to read alongside our lessons. I also use Geography from A to Z by Jack Knowlton to help define geographical terms in the workbook.

We also use the Early American History curriculum from Beautiful Feet Books, and I had heard it hyped up SO much as a solid Christian curriculum, but I was honestly disappointed with the lack of biblical focus, especially because many of the early lessons include secular books on false gods and idol worship (because that’s what they historically did) but there was a lack of biblical foundation or explanation. We will still finish it, but I guess my hopes were too high.

Oh! We also did Turning Point USA’s Junior Patriots course that introduces the Declaration of Independence. They often offer codes to download it for free on their website. It was cute, but I would definitely find something more in-depth for ages 8 and up.

BIBLE

We have been working our way through New City Catechisms for Kids — it’s only $3 and has 52 different question/answer format pages on foundational doctrines.
I usually select a Bible verse for us to memorize together and learn the ASL hand signs for it from YouTube.
I love the Biggest Story Bible curriculum! It provides a teaching lesson, discussion questions, and crafts/activities to do. I’ve been learning alongside my kids and we reference it multiple times every week.
We also learn about historical Christian figures with unit studies around holidays, like Martin Luther during the Reformation, Saint Patrick, Saint Valentinus (Valentine’s Day), the Torchlighters curriculum from Voice of the Martyrs is really helpful for this. Get it for FREE with my link here!

READ ALOUDS

We’ve read through a few different chapter books this year! The Little House series, Raggedy Ann & Andy treasury, and Stuart Little. What should we read next?

EXTRAS

I’ve started implementing afternoon “hobbies” or activities for my kids with some structured free play. I usually let my oldest pick one and rotate through them all so we can get a feel for what her interests are! These are things I enjoy doing alongside her and my two littles will often join in too.

American Sign Language
Digital Art – I’ve just found random Procreate tutorials on YouTube
Piano from Worship Music Academy
Watercolor Painting – I’ll usually find a photo on Pinterest, a YouTube tutorial, or just freehand!
Pinterest craft/activity – this is sometimes related to our unit study or something I think my kids would be interested in!
Sewing/embroidery – my daughter made headbands!
Polymer clay – we like making magnets
Needle felting – this has been a recent hobby of mine and my girls love it too!
Line dancing – my kids now know copperhead road and church clap, lol!

PRESCHOOL

My goal for preschool (age 3-4) is for them to write their own name and recognize most letters of the alphabet.

See my blog post on the alphabet letter crafts we do.
My daughter also has this coloring keepsake Bible that we read through and she can color the pages.
This Bible Busy Binder from Arrows & Applesauce has been our favorite for years!
My daughter (and my one-year-old son) also likes the Early Learning Toolboxes from Five Girl Schoolhouse.
I also use these dot stickers frequently to make our own little matching game with upper and lowercase letters.

TODDLER

My youngest will be two this summer, and I keep a cabinet in our dining room (where we homeschool) stocked with activities he can play with *only* during school lessons while doing blanket time – you can read about it in my post here along with ideas for toys and activities. Think playdough, sensory buckets, puzzles, toys that foster creativity, can be played with independently, but may require supervision.

Here are the links to all my previous homeschool review blog posts:

If you’re homeschooling kids these ages, I’d love to hear what works for you!