Sharing the books and resources I have planned for our first grade Charlotte Mason homeschool curriculum this year.

Charlotte Mason Homeschool Curriculum Choices for 1st Grade

Many of these resources will last us the entire year. There are a few resources that will change per term such as which composer or artist we will be studying. The majority will be spread out over our three term school year.

For more insight into how I plan the feast of subjects to schedule into our school day, check out this post.

Homeschool planning: step-by-step

*This post contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you when you use my Amazon links.

Bible

For bible we are going to be reading from the Old Testament and New Testament each week. We will be reading and memorizing scripture from our family bible. It’s nice to choose a translation you are comfortable with and that will be familiar to your children.

I have also heard that reading the King James Version helps to familiarize children with poetic language. Being able to hear this language often while children are young can help transition into reading older classic texts.

Use what is going to be the best fit for your family with prayer and guidance from the Holy Spirit.

Memory Work

Memory work and catechism we will be using the Training Hearts Teaching Minds book by Starr Meade along with Truth and Grace Memory Book 1 by Thomas Ascol.

I will add these resources into our Morning Time basket.

Recitations

Our recitation folder also goes into our Morning Time basket. I like to compile all of our recitations in one place so that they are easy to refer back to and I don’t have to fuss with a bunch of different things.

First, I choose our mottoes, scriptures, hymns, poems, and folksongs I want us all to memorize and recite. Then, I like to type these up, print them out and compile them all into a folder for myself and morning menus for my children. Now that I have children that can read, having the recitations in front of them will allow them to follow along.

History, Heroes + Timeline

One of Charlotte Mason’s educational principles is that “Education is the science of relations”. I find that using a history timeline is a wonderful tool for connecting ideas while we go about our lessons.

About once a week we will add the people we are learning about to our history timeline. I downloaded our printable timeline from Our Cooper Nest blog HERE.

For the younger years it can be helpful to just keep a personal timeline while children are grasping the idea of time. A personal timeline may include events from when they were born, a sibling’s birth, losing a first tooth, beginning formal lessons, etc.

When choosing our history spine, I wanted to primary look at historical biographies. I chose biographies from YWAM Publishing picture book series to cover some American History along with a few missionaries for our hero readings.

We also will be reading Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin. These are delightful stories from history we all enjoy. I pulled this recommendation from our last year’s program and it is also on the Ambleside Online Year 1 reading list.

As we read through the Bible this will also give us events and people to add to the ancient time period on our timeline.

I plan on sticking to a 4 year history loop schedule beginning next year when including my next formal student. For now we are going to be introducing different heroes and building the habit of keeping a timeline.

Sunday Reading

Along with hero stories in our weekly lessons, I like to create a basket for Sunday readings. Sunday readings are books we will enjoy as an extension of our worship on the Lord’s Day Sunday. I continue with our readings of scripture, missionary biographies and godly character development in our Sunday readings.

book of words and banagram letters on table Charlotte mason homeschool curriculum

Reading + Word Building

Next, we have our reading instruction and word building. I found that 10 minutes was really the max amount of attention I could hold from my student in reading lessons. This year we are going to continue reading Pathway Readers for a 10 minute block before our daily nap time. Additionally, I am going to include another 10 minute block for word building and spelling at the school table.

I am going to be using Words Their Way classroom curriculum guide for spelling. The idea to use this resource was inspired by Jessica at Simple Wonders video on using Words Their Way. I like the way she practically shows teaching spelling with Charlotte Mason’s philosophy.

We will continue using bananagram letters for our word building time. These wooden moveable alphabet letters are very nice as well.

Tales & Literature

Then, for Tales and Literature, we are going to be using a variety of resources from Ambleside Online Year 1. (using the Ambleside Online affiliate links on their website helps to fund their mission and the free curriculum they provide. These titles all came from their booklist under ‘literature’)

Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Edith Nesbit

Aesop’s for Children by Milo Winter

Poetry

Next, I am so excited about our choices for poetry. I will be reading from the Nature Calendar: All Year in the Garden poetry collection each morning. For our poet of study, we will be appreciating poems from Robert Louis Stevenson’s: A Child’s Garden of Verses.

For poetry tea time, I like to choose a few poems from Favorite Poems Old and New by Helen Ferris. This is a delightful anthology of poems to have on had for young children. We have pulled recitations from this collection in the past.

Handwriting + Composition

Last year we used Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting which laid a great foundation for us in handwriting. Focusing on basic strokes and best effort, we finished this program about halfway through the year. Only focusing on one letter for each 5 minute lesson.

After finishing this program I moved onto Getty-Dubay Italic Handwriting Series book B. We will continue on with Book C for this year.

Modern Language

We love learning American Sign Language as our modern language of choice this last year. My husband has a family member who is deaf so many of his family members are fluent in ASL. We also have a growing deaf community at our local church that we would like to communicate with better. Using Signing Time this year gave us the tools we needed for basic signs to communicate with our loved ones.

I like to think of learning a modern language as building a skill set to loving our neighbors well. Choosing a language that is going to help us communicate with those around us who we may not be able to communicate with otherwise.

This year for modern language we will be learning Spanish using Talkbox.mom.

The idea behind Talkbox is to an immersion experience in your home with their categorized subscription boxes. For our first box we will be focusing on the kitchen. There are charts, challenges, and a guide book to assist our learning. They also have an app to refer to with native speakers using the terms we will be learning. This way we can hear to correct pronunciation of the phrases and terms as we learn.

If you want to try Talkbox.mom you can get $15 off using my COUPON CODE: REFDSWSYJX2Y4

Natural History

Our resources for Natural History will be focused on wildlife and looking at water. We will be using the Burgess Animal Book along with the original palette prints from Riverbend Press. They have these prints for a variety of Burgess books, not just the animal book.

Also, we will use Wildlife in Woods and Fields by Arabella Buckley in her Eyes No Eyes series. If you saw our curriculum hits and misses from last year on Youtube, you know how we enjoyed our readings from Buckley last year.

Along with our wildlife readings, I am going to be using A Drop of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder by Walter Wick. This text is so beautiful and simple. I think this will really be a delight to reference this next year in our Charlotte Mason homeschool curriculum.

Special Study + Nature Journaling

For Special Study, I plan on having us observe the wildlife out our front window daily. We have a wide variety of wildlife to observe that we are going to also be reading about in our Natural History readings. I think it will be fun to take time daily to observe the animals we are learning about out our own front door!

We will use these observations as we add entries to our nature journals. I am still playing with the idea of inviting others over for nature journaling.

We will be observing our garden, local wildlife, and nature happenings from our own yard. If you do not have a yard or you live in an apartment, it can be nice to have a designated nature spot locally to familiarize yourself with. Visiting the same nature spot can be fun to observe throughout each season for nature journaling.

Regardless of where you live, raising butterflies, having an aquarium or keeping a pot of wildflowers can be a delightful special study for students. I have a post on raising butterflies for special study HERE.

Geography

We will be expanding into more map work this year alongside our geography readings. Our primary reader I will be referring to this year is Home Geography for Primary Grades by C.C. Long.

Additionally, we will be reading Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling. I think I am most excited for this story in our geography time. After pre-reading, I think my children will really enjoy this living book as we look deeper into the geography referenced in the story.

To aid us in our geography lessons, we will use our geography glossary along with either kinetic sand or play doh (here is a recipe for homemade non-toxic play doh) for modeling the geography we learn about. This is a fun way for children to work out what they are learning and gives them a tool to use along with their oral narrations.

Math

We will be continuing with Math with Confidence First Grade this year. So far so good!

Common Subjects

Common subjects are subjects we will enjoy as a family. They are a delightful way to mix things up throughout the day. Without even realizing it, things such as folksongs, singing games, and dancing were included in my public school education. I have found my children really enjoy these subjects and they give us a little boost after some of the more mind taxing lessons in a school day.

Singing

For learning to sing we will be using Children of the Open Air on Youtube. This homeschool mama does a good job of teaching singing using Charlotte Mason’s methods. I will also be using other singing videos I have compiled in a Youtube playlist.

Singing Games + Folksongs

I thrifted a few books to reference for singing games and folksongs. I am looking at traditional American Folksongs along with some Spanish folksongs as we learn Spanish together. The best way for this I have found it to put together a playlist on Spotify or your favorite music player.

I have also printed out the music with lyrics to add to our recitation time. You can find these free online typically.

Singing games and folksongs can also be a fun way to go deeper into your personal family’s heritage and traditions. Have fun with this and watch this time bring delight to your homeschool lessons! Education is so much more than checking of the “three R’s”.

Modern Language Songs

I have a few Spanish children’s albums I am following on Spotify. I will loop these into our days for modern language songs. Hopefully we will be able to memorize a few this year!

Piano

We use an in person piano teacher for music lessons. If you do not have the option of in person lessons, I recommend Voetberg Music Academy. They are an online program that offer affordable music lessons for families from the comfort of your home. You can check out the variety of music lessons they offer HERE.

Composer

Next, we will also be using a Spotify playlist for composer pieces. I will add in picture book biographies as we learn about Beethoven this first term. There are some free biography readings of many famous composers online. I would just make sure to pre read these as you see fit.

Last year we used Simply Charlotte Mason for our Mozart composer study. This resource allows you to pick one composer for the year. I highly recommend these composer studies. They are very well done.

Artist Study

We are going to be using Simply Charlotte Mason picture study guides this year for Artist Study. We used Riverbend Press artist prints last year and both options are lovely. One of the perks of the Riverbend Press prints is we ordered their sticker set to accompany the pieces we studied. My daughter was able to put these into her Truth Beauty Goodness notebook as a sort of portfolio of the pieces we have incorporated into our lessons.

Art Instruction

During our art instruction time, we will be using Brush Drawing by May Mallam. In our afternoon occupations I purchased a watercolor course from Lily & Thistle to do. I have chalk drawing and clay modeling supplies as well for afternoons.

Handicraft

Finally, for our formal lesson time I have scheduled sewing and quilting for our handicraft for my daughter. I personally am a quilter and love the art so she has seen this done in our home. One day she came into my room while I was working on my quilt and asked if she could make one of her own. I said absolutely and pulled out a bag of scrap fabric I had been saving for such occasion.

She picked out her fabrics, I cut them to squares and we have worked on this project together in 10 minutes sections. I think this handicraft will be very special this year and hopefully she will delight in the process while learning this craft.

Skill Building

Charlotte Mason included home and garden skills and scouting in her programs. I like to stick our habits in this section as well. When I think of these categories I like to think in terms of equipping my children with skills that will increase their capabilities, which in turn builds their confidence as people.

Habits

The three tools Charlotte Mason says that we have to rightly motivate and educate our children are 1. atmosphere, 2. discipline, 3. life. Disciplines are the habits that run our lives and homes. I like to think on what habit would really be beneficial for us to work on as individuals in our home as well as collectively to make our days run smoother. The idea behind equipping my children with good habits is that the habit itself will be a gift to them in adulthood. 90% of what we do as humans is directed by the habit tracks in our brains. I want to help my children have tracks in the right direction as much as I can help guide with the Lord’s help.

3 foundational habits that give us a good place to start are truthfulness, obedience and attention. If we can have deep tracks in the right direction for these habits, our lives run smoother in the direction of virtue.

Home + Garden

Home and garden skills are enveloped into our morning tasks and family work days. I like to think of each child and an area of responsibility they can step into.

I also find it helpful to always be thinking in terms of inviting my children into what I am doing in the moment. If they want to be with me while cleaning the kitchen, I typically find something for them to join in the process. This helps to cultivate a sense of value and contribution to the family as well as provide quality time with mom.

Scouting

Scouting is an area I am largely leaving in the hands of my husband. As an avid outdoorsman, EMT/training paramedic and our go-to nature guide, he is the teacher when we hit the trails. If you want to look more into scouting and why it was a part of Mason’s programs, I think this video from The Common Place is a good place to start.

Free Reads

For our family read aloud and free reads this year, I am planning to read what I have collected and have on my shelves. I will be making sure my daughter has free read material to read at her level available but I am going to use what we have this year. A few of the titles I am looking forward to are: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Peter Pan by J.M Barrie, Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Mother West Wind “How” Stories by Thornton W. Burgess, and Heidi by Johanna Spyri.

If you want to see the titles we enjoyed last here, you can find those here: Read Aloud Books for Kindergarten (& really the whole family)