Children arrive in first grade already bursting with math. They count the stairs, split the cookies, notice who got more, and line up their toys from biggest to smallest. What they need next is a year that honors that natural curiosity, gives their hands something real to hold, and quietly builds the strong number sense that every later year of math will stand on. First grade is where a child decides whether math is a puzzle to enjoy or a worksheet to dread, and we would much rather it be the puzzle.
Hop to It! is a complete first grade math course built the From Earth to Sky way. Every week begins with something your child can touch: beans checking into a Frog Hotel, a pretend café where snacks keep vanishing, a clothes-hanger seesaw that shows what the equal sign really means, a sidewalk clock big enough to stand on. Your child discovers each idea first and learns its name second. Then they practice it, play a game with it, make something with it, talk it through, and draw about it in a math journal.
Over thirty-six weeks your child will count, read, and write numbers to 120; add and subtract within 20 using real strategies like counting on, making ten, doubles, and fact families; understand tens and ones; add two-digit numbers; compare numbers with >, <, and =; measure length; tell time to the half hour; read simple graphs; count coins; and explore flat shapes, solid shapes, halves, and fourths. The year ends at The Big Pond Party, where your child runs game stations for the family and shares a final project of their choice.
Pip is a small green frog in a gold bow tie who loves flies, adores math, and always hops before he looks. Every week he writes your child a note about his adventures at Lily Pad Pond. He is right about almost everything. However, every note hides exactly one math mistake, and your child's job is to find it and help Pip fix it with objects, a drawing, or a few words. Finding someone else's mistake feels safe and fun at six, and thirty-six oopsies later your child has learned to check every answer, including their own.
Every day starts with Hop Start, five to ten minutes of counting and fact games. Every week ends with a short Practice Set: Quick Hops, five silly story problems, Pip's Challenge, and a Look Back review so September's learning is still there in May. Every answer is in the Facilitator Guide.
Learning shows up in the Math Journal, the Socratic circle, the Practice Sets, Help Pip, and twelve hands-on Show Me checkpoints, one per unit, where your child shows and tells while you listen. One simple rubric runs through everything: Not Yet, On My Way, Got It, I Can Teach It.
The Facilitator Guide, 168 pages. You do not need to be a "math person." Every lesson gives you plain-language background, Pip's note with the mistake explained, what to set out and say, what usually happens, three worked examples, common mistakes and quick fixes, a game with full rules, a creative project, a Socratic circle plan, a Bloom's Taxonomy question ladder, multiple intelligences ideas, differentiation, matching IXL skills, and complete answers. You also get a readiness check, pacing options, assessment without tests, a guide to running Socratic discussions with young children, a games and strategy library, online resources, field trips, worldschooling destinations, further learning, report card language, a glossary, and California and national standards.
The Student Workbook, 236 pages. Pip's Oopsie, Discover, Learn It, Try It, Help Pip, and journal pages for every lesson, 36 Practice Sets, 12 Show Me checkpoints, 12 coloring pages, the year-long Pond Town Project, a Hop Start tracker, a 22-page printable math toolkit (ten frames, number and dot cards, hundred and 120 charts, base ten pieces, paper coins, a paper clock, shape cards, 3D nets, game boards, rulers, and more), a picture glossary, and a certificate.
Mostly what is already in your home: dried beans, dice, a deck of cards, clay or play dough, paper plates, an egg carton, crayons, a ruler, and a handful of real coins. Plan on about $20 to $50 from a standing start. Screens are optional; IXL, Khan Academy Kids, and other online practice are suggested as extras, never required.
The child who counts everything in sight. The wiggly learner who needs to move, build, and talk to understand. The family stepping away from workbook-only math who still wants a full, standards-aligned year. When the year is done, your child will not only know their first grade math; they will know they are a math person, and that confidence is a gift that keeps growing.
Children arrive in first grade already bursting with math. They count the stairs, split the cookies, notice who got more, and line up their toys from biggest to smallest. What they need next is a year that honors that natural curiosity, gives their hands something real to hold, and quietly builds the strong number sense that every later year of math will stand on. First grade is where a child decides whether math is a puzzle to enjoy or a worksheet to dread, and we would much rather it be the puzzle.
Hop to It! is a complete first grade math course built the From Earth to Sky way. Every week begins with something your child can touch: beans checking into a Frog Hotel, a pretend café where snacks keep vanishing, a clothes-hanger seesaw that shows what the equal sign really means, a sidewalk clock big enough to stand on. Your child discovers each idea first and learns its name second. Then they practice it, play a game with it, make something with it, talk it through, and draw about it in a math journal.
Over thirty-six weeks your child will count, read, and write numbers to 120; add and subtract within 20 using real strategies like counting on, making ten, doubles, and fact families; understand tens and ones; add two-digit numbers; compare numbers with >, <, and =; measure length; tell time to the half hour; read simple graphs; count coins; and explore flat shapes, solid shapes, halves, and fourths. The year ends at The Big Pond Party, where your child runs game stations for the family and shares a final project of their choice.
Pip is a small green frog in a gold bow tie who loves flies, adores math, and always hops before he looks. Every week he writes your child a note about his adventures at Lily Pad Pond. He is right about almost everything. However, every note hides exactly one math mistake, and your child's job is to find it and help Pip fix it with objects, a drawing, or a few words. Finding someone else's mistake feels safe and fun at six, and thirty-six oopsies later your child has learned to check every answer, including their own.
Every day starts with Hop Start, five to ten minutes of counting and fact games. Every week ends with a short Practice Set: Quick Hops, five silly story problems, Pip's Challenge, and a Look Back review so September's learning is still there in May. Every answer is in the Facilitator Guide.
Learning shows up in the Math Journal, the Socratic circle, the Practice Sets, Help Pip, and twelve hands-on Show Me checkpoints, one per unit, where your child shows and tells while you listen. One simple rubric runs through everything: Not Yet, On My Way, Got It, I Can Teach It.
The Facilitator Guide, 168 pages. You do not need to be a "math person." Every lesson gives you plain-language background, Pip's note with the mistake explained, what to set out and say, what usually happens, three worked examples, common mistakes and quick fixes, a game with full rules, a creative project, a Socratic circle plan, a Bloom's Taxonomy question ladder, multiple intelligences ideas, differentiation, matching IXL skills, and complete answers. You also get a readiness check, pacing options, assessment without tests, a guide to running Socratic discussions with young children, a games and strategy library, online resources, field trips, worldschooling destinations, further learning, report card language, a glossary, and California and national standards.
The Student Workbook, 236 pages. Pip's Oopsie, Discover, Learn It, Try It, Help Pip, and journal pages for every lesson, 36 Practice Sets, 12 Show Me checkpoints, 12 coloring pages, the year-long Pond Town Project, a Hop Start tracker, a 22-page printable math toolkit (ten frames, number and dot cards, hundred and 120 charts, base ten pieces, paper coins, a paper clock, shape cards, 3D nets, game boards, rulers, and more), a picture glossary, and a certificate.
Mostly what is already in your home: dried beans, dice, a deck of cards, clay or play dough, paper plates, an egg carton, crayons, a ruler, and a handful of real coins. Plan on about $20 to $50 from a standing start. Screens are optional; IXL, Khan Academy Kids, and other online practice are suggested as extras, never required.
The child who counts everything in sight. The wiggly learner who needs to move, build, and talk to understand. The family stepping away from workbook-only math who still wants a full, standards-aligned year. When the year is done, your child will not only know their first grade math; they will know they are a math person, and that confidence is a gift that keeps growing.
