The Whole Year: 1st Grade

1st grade, the whole year, on one shelf. First grade is the year a child learns to read, and everything else on this shelf is arranged around that. One math book, one reading and one writing book, a science and a social studies workbook you open twice a week, and the books that turn a decoder into a reader. About two hundred and fifty dollars for the workbooks and the books, and you own every page.

How to use it: Math first, twenty minutes, while they are fresh. Then reading and writing, another twenty. Science and social studies twice a week, one page each. That is the floor, about an hour. The Boxcar Children is the first book most first graders read alone; read it to them in the fall and watch them read it back to you in the spring. The Brain Quest workbook is for the days the plan falls apart.

Two more things: the custom full grade is where we build this same year around your actual child instead of a grade level, and the $49 map is the first step of that. Not sure this is the right shelf? Five questions will tell you.