What should a parent do first after reading First Grade: Decoding, Sentences, and Addition Within 20?

First grade homeschool built on decoding new words and adding within 20, with every unit of the year in order. Use this page to convert homeschool research into a concrete next action, decide what First Grade: Decoding, Sentences, and Addition Within 20 should change in the next week, preserve an assigned owner, dated action, saved artifact, and follow-up review, and take this next step: choose one implementation step, save the evidence, and schedule a review.

First Grade: Decoding, Sentences, and Addition Within 20

Everything you need to plan 1st grade homeschool: what your child actually has to learn this year, how a lesson works for a child who is not reading yet, how long the day should be, and the handful of checks that tell you it is working.

By Andrew Garber, founder of TheHomeschoolingCompany. Reviewed August 12, 2026.

Typical age range: 6-7

Take the free placement diagnostic to see where your child should start, or try the free placement tests.

1st Grade Subject Paths

Reading

Short and long vowel patterns, consonant blends and digraphs, decoding unfamiliar words, growing sight vocabulary, and reading a simple book aloud with understanding.

English Language Arts

Complete sentences with capitals and end punctuation, spelling by segmenting sounds, writing a short narrative in order, and legible print handwriting.

Math

Addition and subtraction within 20, making ten, place value to 100 as tens and ones, comparing two-digit numbers, measuring length, and telling time to the half hour.

Science

Light and sound, plant and animal needs, how offspring resemble their parents, and patterns in the sky described through observation over time.

History

Timelines of a life and a year, maps and globes, community roles and rules, and comparing daily life now with daily life in the past.

1st grade scope and sequence

Each core subject's 1st grade units, in the order your child works through them. Placement can start a subject earlier or later in the list.

Math

Numbers to 120
Addition and subtraction to 20
Fractions as fair shares
Geometry
Measurement, time, and data

Reading

Decoding
Fluency
Story comprehension
Informational reading

Writing and language

Sentence writing
Kinds of writing
Revising
Speaking and inquiry

Explore: science

Investigating
Properties of objects
Motion and energy
Earth materials and weather
Plants and animals
The sun, the moon, and the stars
Land and water on Earth
Kinds of animals

Explore: history

Change over time
American heroes
Patriotic traditions
Learning from sources
Coming to America

Is my child on grade level for 1st grade?

Each question below is a skill taught early in the 1st grade year. A child who can do most of them is ready to start the grade. Several misses in one subject usually mean starting that subject a unit or a grade earlier.

Math: Can your child count forward to 120 from any number?
Math: Can your child add two numbers within 20?
Math: Can your child split a shape into halves?
Reading: Can your child read a word with a short vowel sound?
Reading: Can your child read a short passage without stopping at each word?
Reading: Can your child describe the setting of a story?
Writing and language: Can your child write a complete sentence about a picture?
Writing and language: Can your child write a short story about something that happened?
Writing and language: Can your child read their writing back and add a missing word?

Take the free diagnostic or try the free placement tests.

Planning a 1st Grade Curriculum

Your child can start without you

Every question is spoken and every answer is a tap, a drawing, or their own voice, so your child can begin a lesson without you reading the screen to them.

Short blocks that end on purpose

Lessons are sized to the attention a child this age has, and stop at a point your child reaches rather than running until the plan is finished.

Progress you can watch them do

Saying the first sound in a word, counting out a set, writing their name. The checks are the skills themselves, not a pile of finished pages.

1st Grade Project Examples

A book the child writes and reads back

The child writes and illustrates a short story across several pages, then reads it aloud to a listener, which is the first time writing and reading meet in one piece of work.

A measuring hunt

The child measures five objects with a repeated unit, records the numbers, and puts them in order from shortest to longest.

A plant kept alive

The child plants a seed, records what it needs and what changes each week, and explains why one plant grew and another did not.

How to Plan and Run the 1st Grade Year

We Read Every Lesson Out Loud

A 1st grade learner cannot read the screen yet, so the lesson speaks. Your child hears the question, then each answer, and replies by tapping a picture, saying it out loud, or tracing a letter.

We Teach the Skill in the Order It Develops

Sounds before letters, amounts before numerals, sentences before paragraphs. The path follows the order children learn in, so an extra month on one step does not cost your child a year.

We Keep the Directed Day Short

Lessons run in short blocks with an ending your child reaches. Attention at this age is measured in minutes, and a lesson that finishes well teaches more than a longer one that ends in a struggle.

1st Grade Learning Goals

Decoding unfamiliar short-vowel words without being told them
Reading a simple book aloud and saying what happened
Writing a complete sentence with a capital letter and a period
Adding and subtracting within 20 without counting every finger
Understanding that the 1 in 13 means a ten
Measuring length with a repeated unit
Working alone on a familiar task for fifteen to twenty minutes

Questions About 1st Grade Homeschool

What should a 1st grader be able to read by the end of the year?

A word they have never seen. That is the real test, not a book they have heard ten times. By June your child should work out an unfamiliar short-vowel word, read a simple book aloud at a steady pace, and tell you what happened in it.

How much math does 1st grade need each day?

Twenty-five to thirty minutes. The whole year comes down to adding and subtracting within 20 and understanding that a two-digit number is tens and ones. Both are built by short daily practice, not long sessions.

My 1st grader still counts on their fingers. Is that a problem?

Only if it is the only thing they have. Teach making ten, doubles, and counting on from the bigger number, then practice until those beat counting. The fingers stop on their own.

How do I teach writing when handwriting is this slow?

Split the two jobs. Let your child say the sentence while you write it, have them copy it, then have them write one of their own. Thinking and letter formation stop competing for the same ten minutes.

Does my 1st grader need a separate spelling program?

Usually not. Spelling and reading come from the same sound work in first grade. A child who can blend sounds to read a word can be taught to pull the sounds apart to spell it, and that carries further than a weekly list.

How do I know if my 1st grader is behind?

Check three things directly: reading a word they have not seen, adding within 20 without starting over, and writing a sentence someone else can read. If one is weak, fix that one. You do not repeat a year for a single skill.

How long should 1st grade homeschool take?

Two to two and a half hours of directed work. First graders still learn a great deal from play, building, and being read to, and that time is not the gap between lessons.

Can a 1st grader work independently?

On familiar work, for fifteen to twenty minutes. On anything new they need you, or a lesson that talks, because they cannot yet read their way out of being stuck.

Related 1st Grade Resources

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