Homeschooling First Grade & Preschool While Working Full-Time
Preparing for First Grade and Preschool Homeschool While Working
So... we're doing this again.
Homeschooling. First grade and preschool. While still working full-time. With extracurriculars. And commitments. And a strong desire to not completely unravel in the process.
Let me be really honest from the top:
I'm excited. I'm hopeful. And I'm also one more 3:30am wake-up for the day away from losing my mind. But that's a blog for another day. Suffice it to say, sleep is currently a big wish in my life.
Anyway, here we are, fall creeping in with its fresh-start energy and new planners and cozy Pinterest boards. There's still that new energy, and I do believe this year can be something good. Not because we've finally figured it all out, but because we've learned to be more honest about what we need as a family.
This blog is half reflection, half planning notes, and about 12% emotional support to myself. If you're homeschooling while working and lowkey trying not to melt down about the school year, hi, you're in the right place, and hopefully this helps you.
What We Want This Year to Feel Like
Before we even opened the curriculum spreadsheets or googled "NY state homeschool requirements for first grade" for the 47th time, my husband and I sat down and asked:
Is this still the right choice?
And if it is… what do we want it to actually feel like this year?
The answer?
More togetherness. Less racing. More helping hands. Less doing everything ourselves.
This year, we want our girls to take a bigger role in family life: cooking, cleaning, and planning. Not in a "put your toddler to work" kind of way, but in a building-real-life-skills-and-not-losing-our-minds sort of way.
Which sounded great as we said it at the coffee shop, but now that I'm pulling the calendar together and realizing that if we want our 6-year-old to help pack her co-op snack, we need to build extra time into an already tricky schedule.
Everything takes twice as long with kid helpers. And we're still working full-time. So… we're a little nervous. But also sure it's the right move long-term. (Ask me again in October, though.)
First Grade Curriculum & Goals
We started by checking NYS first-grade requirements and then worked backwards into what would support her academically and fit into our actual lives.
First Grade Priorities:
Continue her love of reading and math.
Build confidence in writing.
Support her total obsession with history.
Add in practical health and wellness conversations.
Use open-and-go resources that don't eat up our Sunday nights.
Curriculum Picks (All Secular):
Reading: All About Reading
Math: Math With Confidence
History: Curiosity Chronicles
Science: Blossom & Root
Literature & Art: Torchlight (We almost went Build Your Library, but Torchlight's Socratic-style questions sealed the deal.)
We're moving away from Waldorf this year with our oldest. Not because we don't love it, but because she's zooming ahead in reading and math and lives for history. Slowing her down just felt… wrong.
And honestly? I'm not confident enough in my own time or abilities to modify Waldorf first grade without just confusing us all. Maybe if I weren't working full-time, I could sit down and figure it out, but we have to work within the realities of our lives.
Preschool Planning (aka Trying Not to Overdo It)
Enter child number two: our sweet, wild preschooler.
Our goals for her are simple:
Keep it loving
Keep it light
Keep it off the walls (when possible)
We start each school year as a family by asking our kids what they want it to feel like as well. And for this year, she said "loving." Both the cutest response and also, gosh, I hope I'm making her feel loved enough that she doesn't feel like that's lacking.
Preschool Curriculum (Secular)
Core: BEarth Earthschooling Preschool
Support: Blossom & Root Early Years
This gives us just enough structure to feel grounded, and just enough flexibility to embrace the chaos and just pure joy that preschool brings.
Our Weekly Rhythm
We're sticking with our 7-day rhythm model. We plan to learn one hour a day and divide the year into 5-week chunks with a week off in between. We've tried a lot of different models, and for us, the super consistent daily rhythm works best for this season, so we learn every day. It also reinforces our family value where we see learning as an essential human experience, not something that just happens in blocks.
Our Weekly Flow:
Monday–Thursday: Daily learning blocks + life skills
Tuesday & Thursday AMs: Waldorf-inspired co-op
Fridays: All-day forest school (where I pretend I'm not crying in the car from the silence)
Evenings & Weekends: Cello, fencing, tumbling, gymnastics, music, plus snack fetching on loop
It's a full schedule, but we're designing it to suit us, not just our checklist. It's taken us some time, but we're finally really embracing the belief that predictability > perfection for our family.
For the Working Parents Holding It All
Let's be real: juggling homeschool, full-time work, and life is basically a superpower. If you're trying to do all three and still remember to buy toilet paper, you're already winning.
It's not going to be flawless, and yes, you may still cry.
It can be intentional, it can look the way you want it to (some of the time).
It can be meaningful, most of the time.
And it can be done in a way that puts connection first.
So if you're still deep in planning mode, exhausted and hopeful and wondering if you're doing this whole thing right, you're not alone. Not even a little bit. I'm right there with you.
Come Be Tired and Messy With Us (But Also Encouraged)
If you need a cozy corner of the internet where people get what it's like to homeschool, work, parent, and try to make dinner all at once, come join us in the Pretty Whimsical Homeschool Community Hub.
We're sharing resources, mini wins, curriculum ideas, and our actual real-life learning rhythms (the ones that include cereal for dinner and messy tables).
Come be messy with us. Come be magical with us.
And let's remind each other that doing our best, even when we're tired, is enough.