What does your day look like with a first grader?

[Janeway]

I am not homeschooling him yet, but he really wants me to. I am thinking about it. Please tell me what a day, or week even, looks like.

[HomeAgain]

1st grade here.  Here's a more sedate day:

 

Wake up, eat breakfast, do chores.

 

Head out to the back yard and refer to lesson about stone age tools from the week before.  Do all stones make good tools?  What kinds of stones are there?  Collect various types of rocks from the backyard and house and open up Geology Rocks! to the page on how to test rocks' hardness.  Sort rocks into different types: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary.  Flip to the tic tac toe page and see if you can make them all fit, or get three in a row.

Continue history: begin reading about the first farmers while hanging out in the hammock.  Get to the part about tools, and encourage child to make a shaduf with a small shovel, pail, and tree stump based on the description in the book.  Show the picture after the child does it and compare, while child insists on filling up the large bucket to make the shaduf work properly.  Introduce memory work for history: The first people were nomads before they became farmers.

 

 

Child reads me the next Aesop's fable in his book.  It's the wolf in sheep's clothing.  We talk about tricky people, and how to tell if someone is tricky/when it's okay to talk to a stranger/when it's not.   

 

We head inside, where I put on the Magic School Bus while I set up for the erosion experiment we're doing.  It just so happens that a book called I Am A Rock is in the living room, too, right on the coffee table.  Gee, wonder how it got there? ;)  Child skims through and is excited he has 6 of the 12 rocks mentioned, less excited when I tell him I'm not getting him a diamond for his collection.  Make plans to go out the next day to look for other rocks.  We do the erosion demonstration with ice cubes, sand, and clay, and talk about how the earth is always changing.  Nature and people both change it.

 

Take a small break, and do copywork.  Copywork today is the memory work from history.  We alternate between history, science, and our read aloud. I bring out the grammar symbols and give him the two he's working with: articles and nouns.  He places the symbols over the words he's just copied.  I keep FLL next to me and stealthily go through the material with him in the next lesson.   Child continues on with cursive "play", since the paper he is writing on is really a dry erase page at the back of his cursive book.

 

Time to get the wiggles out!  Play break for half an hour. It's a Monday - spelling is an oral pretest, and a few small written pieces.  We do the pre-test while he's playing, and I leave the book open for the written work when he's ready.  (It's very small: 3 exercises - write the vowel sound you hear, write two words with that vowel sound, write the list word that fits).  A quick lesson on Duolingo finishes the morning.

 

He eats lunch, and then it's time for math.  We're currently reviewing material, so I give him one small section and the blocks to play with.  Work is nearly done for the day - I read aloud to him, and then I introduce the beginning of our art focus for the week.  We're doing the development of art, a continuation from the previous week.  Today is an introduction, the next two days will be the lesson from Artistic Pursuits.  Cave art/pictographs, as a precursor to written language.  We'll be transitioning into Mesopotamia soon and the development of language will be one of the first lessons.

 

 

 

Over the week we'll also add in library time, park time, 1-2 field trips, and 2 more pieces of memory work from science and grammar (we're working through Grammar-land at the same time as FLL) or a poem.  Friday is a no-writing day.  He presents memory work, does hands on work only, and we schedule a field trip that day.

 

[alisha]

Wake up, have breakfast, play while mommy gets ready for the day.

Then, about 830-9, we have couch time: say a verse 2 times (to help memorize), sing a hymn, have a quick 2 min devotions, read a science picture book (or other subject depending on the day), look at a piece of artwork and notice things about it, work on reading/phonics (we used the reading lesson then).  All this took about 15-20 min.

Then, for the transition to table time, we had the estimation jar. I'd put something in a jar on the table, he would guess how many, then count it out to check.

Then we continued with "table time" which included a page or so of math, a handwriting page, a geography page, reading a section of Story of the World with questions, then some logic workbook like logic links or something.

Then we'd take a break. This would take about 45 min to an hour, so at this point, if we started at 9, it's only about 1030 at the latest. We have lunch about 11 or 1130, then rest time and screen time (my version when we gave up naps)

Then, in the afternoon, we'd do "fun school" which might include a schoolish games or geography puzzle, a craft, or errands. Or maybe we'd just skip that and play outside for the afternoon if it was nice out.  

 

Usually, that's our daily schedule, doing different subjects on different days of the week. For instance, on Mon & Wed, we'd do History (SOTW read a section and any activities that came up) and on Tues & Thurs, we'd do science (Apologia Astronomy-read a section and do any activities). Sometimes the activities would take awhile and we'd go straight into lunch, but it was always his choice at that point. And usually he chose to finish the activity.

 

My 2nd son is in 1st grade this coming year, and I'm sure it will look different with a 4th grader to teach also, but this is what we did when my first son was in 1st grade. 

 

I'm not sure if you're asking about the time commitment or not, but we spent about an hour doing focused school, maybe half an hour doing elective type/active/game type school and the rest was play time or outside play time, or household life stuff like cleaning or baking or errands.

 

Hope this helps.

[MinivanMom]

Typical day for my 1st grader:

 

7 am - Up & eating breakfast

8 am - Start seatwork at table: Singapore math, journal entry or spelling lesson (on alternating days), working on a writing project, French lesson

9:30-ish - Move to the couch to read out loud: literature book followed by either history or science reading (on alternating days). Some days we pull out his timeline for history, but not every time.

10-ish - We are done with formal schoolwork for the day, and he is free to play.

12:30 pm - Lunch

1:00 pm - An hour of silent reading on his bed. He chooses the books, and I try very hard not to meddle or monitor his choices.

2 pm - He is completely free for the day.

7 pm - Bedtime. Dh always reads to him before bed. During the summer, we let ds read books in bed until it's too dark, but that will stop in the fall when it's darker and ds needs more sleep due to a busier schedule.

 

We follow the typical schedule on Mon-Thur. On Friday we only do Singapore math followed by art. And some Fridays we just take the day off to go on a field trip somewhere. On those weeks, we do his art project on Thur so that we're done for the week before our Friday field trip.

[knitgrl]

We have a 6yo, a 2yo and a 1yo. After breakfast, I'd sit on the couch with our first grader and we'd say a prayer to start the day, read about the saint of the day and then I'd read a classic children's novel to her. Our last one was Betsy-Tacy. On Mondays and Wednesdays, we did History, more or less according to TWTM. We'd do an All About Spelling lesson, which lasted less than 10-15 minutes. Math-U-See could take a little longer. She got to be really pokey, so I started setting a timer for 25 minutes. Once she knew the timer was going, she would do the worksheet in 10 minutes or less. Shurley English usually took 5-10 minutes. Song School Latin would take 5-10 minutes. She is a voracious reader, so she does that on her own throughout the day. Science was on Tuesdays and Thursdays and usually took a bit longer, maybe 20-30 minutes. Art and music for 30-45 minutes once a week each. Snack time is always at 10:30 no matter what. With the littles, sometimes we got done with most everything before lunch at noon, but usually there were 1-3 subjects to cover after lunch. We cover a lot of stuff, but most of it is in 10 minute spurts. If there were no distractions, everything could easily be done before noon.

[Janeway]

We have a 6yo, a 2yo and a 1yo. After breakfast, I'd sit on the couch with our first grader and we'd say a prayer to start the day, read about the saint of the day and then I'd read a classic children's novel to her. Our last one was Betsy-Tacy. On Mondays and Wednesdays, we did History, more or less according to TWTM. We'd do an All About Spelling lesson, which lasted less than 10-15 minutes. Math-U-See could take a little longer. She got to be really pokey, so I started setting a timer for 25 minutes. Once she knew the timer was going, she would do the worksheet in 10 minutes or less. Shurley English usually took 5-10 minutes. Song School Latin would take 5-10 minutes. She is a voracious reader, so she does that on her own throughout the day. Science was on Tuesdays and Thursdays and usually took a bit longer, maybe 20-30 minutes. Art and music for 30-45 minutes once a week each. Snack time is always at 10:30 no matter what. With the littles, sometimes we got done with most everything before lunch at noon, but usually there were 1-3 subjects to cover after lunch. We cover a lot of stuff, but most of it is in 10 minute spurts. If there were no distractions, everything could easily be done before noon.

Betsy-Tacy was one of my favorite books when I was young.

[Jackie]

Our days have quite a bit of variation. My 6 year old is quite academically inclined, so we do more academics than I might otherwise lean towards at this age. We have 5 subjects/day and spend 30 minutes/subject, for a total of 2.5 hours. Breaks are scattered between subjects as desired or needed. We aim to get everything done before lunch, but if that doesn't happen, we just pick up where we left off afterwards. Almost everything is done 1-on-1 with me, with occasional things she does independently (working through math problems, some independent reading, online Spanish Skype sessions).

 

We do a family read aloud in the evenings for 30 minutes. I keep the library bin stocked with a huge variety of fiction and nonfiction and whatever DD picks out for herself for her to read whenever. Lots of educational toys are around the house for her to use whenever - Lego Education kits, art supplies, Snap Circuits, Zometool, robotics/programming toys, and so on.

[rebcoola]

1st Grade last yr with a child who could already read looked like this,  

Woke up around 8 ate breakfast etc,  math workbook and copywork with me,

Than chores 

Than computer time for reading eggs and dreambox  

Finally our Geography read aloud and project for the day.  

Finished by lunch 

 

 

[2_girls_mommy]

It's been a long time since I had a first grader.  What I remember is like this:

 

We watched Little House on the Prairie reruns every morning at 10:00.  That was preNetflix, so that was just the time it came on daily, and we enjoyed the show. :) So we did morning stuff and got ready and then watched it.  We schooled from 11-12:00 and then had lunch. We did math, Bible, and Language arts from Rod and Staff.  AFter lunch every day they played outside.  Then we had a mandatory naptime from around 1-3 everyday.  The 1st grader was required to read. I had a variety of books for her on topics we were doing or she had her favorites from the library.  (My next 1st grader wasn't as great a reader, so during naptime she read along with books on CD from the library.)

 

AFter nap we did our afternoon subject.  On Mondays it was art. On Tues/Thurs it was History, and Wed. it was science experiment and notebooking day. Once a month we went to the library storytime in the morning instead of morning work.  On those days it was just math, nap/reading, and afternoon subject if possible.  If we couldn't get to the afternoon subject, we always read lots of books on lots of subjects.  We did our formal music curriculum once a week in the mornings on top of the other work.  I think it was Tuesday mornings. My second 1st grader was in a piano class in first, so she did daily piano practice instead of the study we had done with the older.

 

We did lots of field trips on all kinds of things.  We even attended plays and sometimes lectures at colleges that were open to anyone if I thought they were something interesting. We always read for around an hour at bedtime.  We memorized poetry, practiced reading aloud, and heard chapters from books beyond their reading abilities at that time. In the car we listened to books on CD or classical music or musicals or learning songs on a variety of subjects. My kids did dance and soccer and gymnastics and swimming lessons and scouts at those early ages (not always at the same time.  They usually each had one sport going at a time.) It was a time of a lot of freedom for exploring the world.  The schooling took so little of the day back then.

[KSinNS]

My grade ones would do about 20 minutes of reading, 10 minutes of printing, and about 20 minutes of math with me (broken up if necessary) then they would join in on whatever was being read aloud to their older sibs. And would do violin practice later in the day. The rest of the day was playtime.

[Sk8ermaiden]

Wake up, take DH to the park and ride, eat breakfast in the car, usually. 

 

Come home and immediately start work, usually at 8:30. She gets to pick the order, but she

writes in her journal (we have fun prompts from teacherspayteachers or she can write her own.) We added journal at Christmas specifically to increase her writing speed and stamina. At the beginning I required 3 sentences in 10 or 15 minutes and oh the GROANING. But by the end of the year journal was a favorite and she'd bang out half a page, no problem.

Phonics - we finished the Explode the Code series this year, she's reading well enough, so I'd have her do 2-3 pages or half of every page or somesuch. 

Math - If a lesson is required, a quick lesson with hands-on practice, a glance through the textbook and some verbal answering, and then I would help her work the first couple problems and then set her loose to do one exercise in the workbook. If not a lesson day, I'd briefly review the procedure, maybe work the first couple problems with her, and then let her do the exercise. 

Language - We do the Evan Moor Daily Language Review, which was perfect. It takes her 5-10 minutes. 

Clean - This has nothing to do with school, but in our house, school gets done and cleaning doesn't. It got SO much better once I made her clean her bedroom and playroom for 15 minutes before she could be considered done with school and "free."

 

Those were our daily required subjects. It was very rare that they did not get done. Most days these are done while alternating sitting on the couch and being a contortionist on the floor. Sometimes if she is having focus issues I make her sit at the table or even *gasp* make her go in a quiet room (torture!) We were usually done at 11 at the latest. She usually would have a recess and go play with her brother for 30 minutes or so in the middle.

 

Then, 3-4 days a week, I would have her read to me. Sometimes we tacked it right on the end of everything else, sometimes did it in the afternoon or at bedtime or in the car. 

 

And then she usually plays all day. Or sometimes a museum or outing with friends. 

 

History and science are child-led, mom-designed unit studies and sometimes we do a little a day in the afternoons. We often do big, fun projects on weekends. Sometimes we hit a lot of rabbit holes and end up reading and watching about them for hours. It varies, but I usually have a list of activities and books I want to get to in the semester and I make sure it gets done. 

 

Then she almost always has a sport in the late afternoon, so it's sports, pick up dad from the park and ride, dinner, sometimes read aloud, sometimes Lego with dad, bed!

[eternallytired]

Well, I'll have a first grader again this year, but since the future can change, I'll tell you what last year looked like with my oldest in first:

 

On Mondays we had choir in the morning--only an hour, but a half-hour drive each way plus the few minutes of getting there early and socializing/getting packed up afterwards meant that it took most of the morning.  On Thursdays we went to Community Bible Study in the morning from 9:30-11:30.  The one a half-hour away has a homeschool program, which I like because the kids have a little bit of large-group experience and those schooly details I never think to give them at home but are probably helpful touchpoints socially (morning pledge, classroom jobs, recess).  On those days we didn't do any work at home.

 

On the other days (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday) we got up and breakfasted at 8.  The kids had some time to play (because they so desperately want to play first thing in the morning--and the weather is often nicer for being outside earlier in the day) while I do some cleaning or prep.  Around 10:30ish I called them for snack; we all sat around the kitchen table and I read aloud to them while they munched.  Then we did our "together" work--things like science and social studies that we do as a group--before I started them on their separate work (math and language arts).  We finished by lunchtime, and after lunch (12:30 or 1ish) they were free to do as they pleased. 

 

I allowed some "technology time" right after lunch, when they could watch a somewhat educational video, play games I'd installed on the tablet, or do something on the computer (play on Starfall, type a story) for about a half-hour.  We often go up the street and hang out at Grandma and Grandpa's house for a little while in the afternoons if we don't have anything else planned.  (Each kid is allowed to be in two extracurriculars at a time; ideally I have at least one where they overlap, otherwise it can be a lot of running.)  Free reading has always been at bedtime, so that's not built into our schedule otherwise.