The candle was lit, the verse was on the chalkboard, and my five-year-old was choosing a picture book from the basket in the reading nook while his little brother lined up stools at the big table. Nobody was hurrying. That is the kind of morning I want to describe, because it is the kind a 1st grade week can be made of.
A quick honest note first. My oldest is five, so I am not writing from a finished 1st grade year. I am writing from the week I have laid out for the grade ahead of us, and from the pieces I have already tried with my boys. If you have a 1st grader at your table right now, I hope this gives you a shape to borrow.
Give the week one thread
The thing that makes a week feel calm is not a longer list. It is one thread that runs through all five days. For us that thread is a single state. We study one place, slowly, and let reading, drawing and talking gather around it.
For week one I am using the Our 50 States Week 1: New Jersey and Pennsylvania worksheet. It has New Jersey facts and a flag, Pennsylvania facts and a flag, and a page where your child finds and colors both states on the map. It is a print-at-home PDF on US letter paper, $4.00 or $2.00 for members, and you can find it with the rest in the worksheet shop.
The five days
Monday: begin with New Jersey
Read the New Jersey facts aloud together, then let your 1st grader read them back to you, one line each if the words are long. Color the flag. That is the whole state lesson, and it is enough. Do not add a project on day one.
Tuesday: Pennsylvania
Same rhythm, new state. Children feel safe when they know what comes next. Read, read back, color the flag. Before you finish, ask, "Which flag do you like better, and why?" There is no wrong answer, and you will hear how they think.
Wednesday: the map
This is the day for the map page. Find both states and color them. Then pause and thank God out loud for these two places and the families living in them. It takes thirty seconds and it changes the feel of geography.
Thursday: tell it back
No new page. Set the finished work in front of your child and say, "Teach me about one of these states as if I have never heard of it." Narrating is real work for a six-year-old. Write one sentence of what they say on the back, word for word.
Friday: a lighter day
Friday is for a nature walk, a read-aloud in the nook, and finishing anything left over. Members get a free nature-walk basket list among the 25 printables, which is handy for this day. Joining is free, forever, and takes 50% off every worksheet.
What goes around the state work
The state is only one slice of the morning. Around it we keep a rhythm that barely changes from day to day:
- Light the candle, write the date and verse on the chalkboard, and read the verse aloud.
- Morning basket: a poem, a hymn or a short Bible story.
- Math and reading at the table, with the hardest subject first.
- The state work, kept to about fifteen minutes.
- A picture book in the nook to close.
If you would like a chart to hang up, the weekly rhythm chart is one of the free member printables. Our own room is a big part of why it flows, and I have written about designing your homeschool classroom if you want to see how it came together.
Where the little one fits
My three-year-old is not doing 1st grade work, and I do not ask him to. But he sits at the table with a crayon while we do the flags, and he gets his own paper to color red, white or blue however he likes. When it is time to read the facts, he goes to the nook with a book facing out. He is part of the morning without being part of the lesson.
If you are at the kitchen table
For two years we did all of this at the kitchen table, and it worked. Clear one end the night before, set the week's pages in a basket, and put the chalkboard verse on a sheet of paper propped against the wall. A table is a real place to homeschool. You do not need a room to have a rhythm.
A word about the rest
Requirements for hours, records and subjects vary by state, so please check our resources page for where to look up the rules where you live. And if you have a question about a week that did not go to plan, bring it to the members' forum. There is a room there for the hard days, and nobody will hurry you through it.
If you are still deciding why you are doing this at all, the case for homeschooling is there for you, and you can read more about me and why I started.
A good week does not need to be full. It needs to be faithful. Light the candle, open the page, and do the next small thing with your whole heart, because as Paul wrote, "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men."
