Happy August! I cannot believe we are about to enter our 8th year of homeschooling. This is my second round of homeschooling in 1st grade, and I am so excited. If you would like to see what I used 5 years ago, you can read that here. This time around, we are using a Waldorf approach to our homeschool. A few years ago, I was introduced to Waldorf education and completely fell in love with the concept. Waldorf education is a holistic, child-centered approach to learning based on the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner. We will not be completely Waldorf, as I feel my first grader needs more to satisfy her wanting to learn. She loves school and wants to do all the workbooks. With all that being said, today I am sharing our 1st grade homeschool curriculum we will be using for the 2025-2026 school year.
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Main Waldorf Curriculum
Doing research this year, I found Oak Meadow and their first-grade curriculum. As I read through many reviews and blog posts, everyone raved about their older first-grade curriculum. This is what I decided on for our main curriculum. It has everything listed by weeks for you. For the first 12 weeks, it has 2 letters your child will be learning throughout the week. It has your science, which is very nature-oriented, math, circle, and handicrafts. I really enjoy this because it is catered to the homeschooled child. Most Waldorf curricula I have found lean more towards a full classroom than homeschoolers.
Math
This year, we will continue with Math with Confidence. I love this program so much. It is very parent-oriented and not open and go. You do need the teacher’s manual to complete this curriculum because it is not just worksheets. This curriculum really breaks down math for the child to help them understand more easily. It makes math fun, not scary. We will be using this to go with the math concepts that are in the Oak Meadow curriculum.
Reading
I like the Waldorf approach to reading, but my 1st grader needed extra help. So, we are using Dash into Reading this year. This is also a very gentle approach to reading, just as Oak Meadows, but I feel it will help us fill in the gaps for my 1st grader.
Handwriting
For handwriting, we are using two different curricula. We will not be using them every day, but just to help support each other. We will be using in Zaner-Bloser Handwriting Grade 1 and Dash into Handwriting book 1. Our main book is Zaner-Bloser, and Dash will be for extra practice.
As we enter this school year, I am so ecstatic to see how this new 1st grade homeschool curriculum turns out and how much we accomplish. I am very hopeful it will be a very good year.
