First grade homeschool curriculum: a free plan for reading and math

A free first grade homeschool curriculum needs four things: a phonics order that moves from blends to silent e, vowel teams and endings; daily reading of short books at your child's level; math facts to 20 with place value and time; and plenty of read-aloud and talk. Done in short pieces, that is about 60 to 100 minutes of sit-down learning a day. Peabody (peabody.kids) wrote this plan. Peabody is a free reading and learning site for kids, free through the end of 2026, and we say below which parts of it fit a first grade day and where you will need something else. The other resources named here aren't ours, and nobody paid to be listed.

First grade is often the year reading clicks: a child goes from sounding out every word to reading short books smoothly. It happens at different times for different children, sometimes in a rush after months of slow going. The plan below is a menu; teach the child in front of you.

What does first grade cover?

A sample first grade homeschool day

That is about 60 to 100 minutes of sit-down work, depending on the day. These are not targets; no study has found an ideal number of minutes for reading, as we explain in how long should kids read. Short pieces with movement between them suit most six-year-olds.

A weekly first grade schedule

How to teach reading in first grade

The work is the same order that started in kindergarten, carried further: one new pattern at a time, words with that pattern, then a book that uses it. Peabody's phonics scope and sequence lists one free order in sixteen steps; a first grader often reviews the short-vowel steps, then works through blends (steps 8 and 9), silent e (step 10), vowel teams (step 11), r-controlled vowels (step 12) and endings (step 16) over the year. Our step-by-step guide, how to teach a child to read, shows how to teach each step.

Two habits matter most this year:

• Reread. The same short book two or three times across a week, until it sounds like talking. That is how smoothness grows.
• Retell. After a story, ask what the problem was and how it ended. A child who decodes well but can't say what happened needs more talk and read-aloud, not easier books.

Vocabulary grows mostly by listening and talking at this age. Our post on vocabulary practice for 1st grade has five-minute ideas.

The year at a glance across all grades is in our free homeschool reading curriculum by grade.

Using Peabody in your first grade homeschool

Here is how Peabody's free pieces fit the week above, and what you do while your child uses them.

1. Reading, 10 minutes, Monday to Thursday. Your child reads one story from the free library to you. Peabody starts a new 1st grader at level 1, a little easy on purpose, and the level moves up when books run easy; many first graders end up reading level 2 and level 3 stories like Tadpoles in a Jar, Look at Ants and Stone Soup. Each story ends with a few questions. You listen; when they stop on a word, cover the ending and ask for the first sound. Our post on free AI stories for first grade shows what a first grade story looks like.
2. Word games, 5 minutes, two or three days a week. In the games, a 1st grader starts on phonics, first sounds and sight words, with spelling taking only the words they already read. Deep Dig lays out the phonics steps as mining layers; Word Blocks and Dino Dash are other good picks. The phonics games and sight word games pages list the rest.
3. Math, 10–15 minutes, four days a week. Peabody's 1st grade math path has 30 short lesson parts: adding and taking away to 20, doubles, making ten, the equals sign, missing numbers, tens and ones, telling time to the half hour, halves and fourths, and graphs. Ten right answers finish a part and every part is open. Fact practice starts on adding, taking away and number sense. Peabody Rush and Number Line Run ask 1st grade math in play.
4. Friday, 10 minutes. Your child makes a story with the free AI story maker about something they love (up to three new stories a child each day), then reads it to you.

A child starts with one tap from the front page and needs no account. A free family account adds a grown-up page with their recent stories, how their time splits between reading, math and games, which letter-sound patterns are sticking, and one thing to try tonight. It can help with homeschool records, but it is built from taps and story questions, not from listening.

What Peabody can't do: it is not a boxed curriculum. It has no handwriting, no written work, no teacher's guide, no standards report and no test. It never records your child, so it cannot hear them read aloud or measure fluency. Science, history and writing need your own plan. The homeschool hub and the free homeschool math plan by grade cover what else Peabody has.

Read-alouds for first grade

First graders can listen to much harder books than they can read, so this is a good year to start short chapter books read aloud, a chapter a night. Mix in:

• Non-fiction about whatever they love, from the library's easy non-fiction shelf.
• Folk tales, fables and fairy tales, which come back in later books.
• Poetry and rhymes, which keep sound play alive.
• Picture books with rich words, which are not just for little children.

Peabody's library has short retold classics, such as The Elves and the Shoemaker and The Ugly Duckling, which you can read aloud now and your child can read alone later. Your public library's Libby app lends ebooks and audiobooks free with a library card.

Free first grade resources beyond Peabody

• Reading Universe is free and covers reading skills from kindergarten to 3rd grade with lesson plans, videos, decodable texts and assessments, written for teachers.
• UFLI Foundations Toolbox, from the University of Florida Literacy Institute, has free lesson slides, decodable passages and home practice sheets. The teacher's manual is sold separately.
• Starfall has a free Learn-to-Read section; the rest, including math, needs a $35-a-year home membership as of October 2026.
• Khan Academy Kids is a free app for ages 2 to 8, with reading and math and no ads.

Learn more elsewhere

• Reading Universe, free teaching resources for reading, kindergarten to 3rd grade
• UFLI Foundations Toolbox, free lesson slides and decodable passages
• Khan Academy Kids, a free app for ages 2 to 8
• Libby, free library ebooks and audiobooks with a library card
• HSLDA state law pages, to check your state's homeschool rules

Questions parents ask

What is a good free first grade homeschool curriculum?

Put together a phonics order (Peabody's sixteen steps, Reading Universe or UFLI's free toolbox), a library card for daily reading and read-alouds, and a math path such as Peabody's free 1st grade lessons, which are free through the end of 2026. Add your own writing, science and history through books and projects.

How long should first grade homeschool take each day?

Often 60 to 100 minutes of sit-down learning, in short pieces, plus read-aloud time and projects. Shorter on hard days is fine. Steady most days beats long and rare.

What should a first grader be able to read?

Many first graders finish the year reading short books with a few sentences a page smoothly, including words with blends, silent e and vowel teams. Children vary a great deal; if your child is reading below that, keep teaching the pattern they are on.

Does my first grader need to know their math facts?

Many programs aim for adding and taking away within 20 with growing ease in 1st grade, using strategies like doubles and making ten, rather than instant recall of every fact by June. Short, frequent practice suits this better than long drills.

What if my child is not reading yet in first grade?

Many children start reading later in first grade, and some later still. Go back to the phonics step they can almost do, keep sessions short and warm, and keep reading aloud. If progress stalls for months or reading seems unusually hard, talk to your doctor or a reading specialist.