Every school year, homeschool families should be assessing what they want their children to achieve. Of course, there are minimum skills and knowledge that your child should have at the end of each year, but that isn’t always clear. In this post, we’re going to cover homeschool goals for first grade to ensure your child is on a successful track.
I’m going to be covering First Grade standards for your homeschooler. You know I’m all about handy tools, so here’s a First Grade Standards Checklist printable for your convenience.
Skills
The first set of standards are basic life skills your child should be achieving in the regular course of their education and interactions with others. Hopefully, by the end of First Grade, your child is on track to be a functional member of society, yay!
- Understand “left” vs “right”
- Knows home address and phone number
- Tell time to the nearest hour and half hour
- Identify and write the date from a calendar
- Tackle tasks and problem solve
- Identify and tell the value of coin money
- Identify own and others feelings
- Work independently and in groups
Reading and Writing
The core of everything is reading and writing. By the end of First Grade, your child should have the ability to do independent reading and produce understandable writing. FYI, I have some free reading tools that will help you reach these goals.
- Can spell first and last name
- Begin to spell words phonetically
- Read common sight words
- Write complete sentences with correct punctuation
- Write a basic, one paragraph story
- Read 1st grade level books aloud with accuracy and comprehension
Science and Social Studies
When researching this list I thought some of these standards were pretty advanced for First Grade. But thinking more about it, these make sense because learning about observable things like you do in Science and Social Studies is typically easier for young students.
- Know the three states of matter
- Ask science questions, make predictions, and identify the solution
- Identify living and non-living things
- Understand water cycle and seasons
- Identify animals and their habitats
- Know symbols of the United States
- Know symbols of the student’s State
- Read a basic map
- Locate and name the seven Continents
Math
Unlike Science and Social Studies, Math can pose a much greater challenge to many children. Don’t freak out if your First Grader can’t do all of these. Some kids will be slower in developing their math skills, you just need to stick with it and encourage them.
- Do addition problems with solutions up to 20
- Subtract with numbers 0 to 20
- Use a basic ruler to measure things
- Skip count by 2s, 5s, and 10s
- Identify and describe 2D and 3D shapes
- Count to 120
- Identify numbers on a number line
- Compare numbers (i.e. less than, greater than, equal to)
Wrapping Up
Keeping track of these homeschool goals for First Grade is a great way to make sure that your schooling is on track. I personally like to have my Checklist printed out and hung up in our schoolroom to check on it occasionally. When the kiddos prove they’re competent with an item, I have them check the box. It’s a great reward and makes them feel proud of their hard work.
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Do you have any other goals that you track for you first grader? I’d love to hear your thoughts on social media!