For first grade we continue with the kindergarden stuff and add this for history and for language/grammar. I got each of these for less than $10, the history activity guide is around $20. The language book is for 1st and 2nd grade. The history book is volume 1 of 4, and you use the same books for 1st through 4th then repeat for 5th through 8th grade. Love that:

And for spelling we use this, which goes from K through high school level. I took a seminar to learn how to use this one, and it’s pretty intensive but you can simplify it down to just a fantastic spelling guide if you want. 🙂 I have found that all of the kids’ spelling AND reading skills have improved since we started using these phonogram cards and spelling program. It’s $90 or so but again, it’s good for ALL the kids for every year so really a great price:

For our literature lessons and writing we use these, which are teacher’s guides with DVD seminars (which I borrowed, I only own the manuals and they were around $25-$30 each.) They work from K through high school level as well and I love them both a lot. You learn the concepts then incorporate it with your teaching any text you want:

Most of the books we use I’ve found work as a backbone – they give me an outline of what to cover and I go into more depth as the kids need/are interested. Like Saxon – you could spend a good hour a day on just that, but we teach the concept and do some problems and if the kids have it then we move on. I don’t make them do it all, and for K through 2nd grade I don’t always even make them write it out – they can answer me orally or I’ll help them write it out. Handwriting is its own skill and I don’t want stress about the writing itself to slow down their math understanding or desire to creatively write, if that makes sense.

But things like the first language lessons book – it starts slow (lots of repetition) then gets intensive by the end. If the kids have the concept I have no problem skipping ahead in lessons.

Let me know if you have questions!