Fundamentals of good 1st grade education

The readings are a little longer and more facts and information are included in the readings. I noticed that a couple of the nursery rhymes were repeated from the kindergarten book, and even a fairy tale and folk tale. Interestingly, the actual telling of the story, "Chicken Little" which was included in both the kindergarten and 1st grade book, was slightly different: The kindergarten story ends with the animals all going into Foxy Loxy's den "and never came back out again", whereas the 1st grade book ends with the animals going into his den and Foxy Loxy, "ate them all up." This is probably because folk tales have no definitive telling, and the retelling lets the children hear a story told slightly differently, and yet still retain all the same basic components, but also it takes into account the difference between a 5 year old and a 6 year old understanding of what happens.

I especially like the section "Sayings and Phrases". It explains what the given saying means, and then gives an example situation where it would be used. I like that "History" focuses not on dates and battles, but on specific people and what they did to help or change a situation.

I don't understand one of the other reviewer's quibble about the religion section in this book. It is a very basic naming of the major religions in the world by means of the major figure from each religion. This is geared to 6 year-olds, and appropriately, it is barely a paragraph in length for each religion. It is not meant to encompass all that the religion teaches or even the divinity of any of these figures. The Moses story (which is not in the Christianity section as said by the reviewer) is a simplified version of the major figure in Judaism, just as the very basic outline about Jesus' life introduces him, and gives the historically accurate information that Christianity came from Judaism. The reviewer also didn't like that the other religions were stated as "facts." As a matter of fact, Mohammed, the Buddha and Confucius were all historical figures--they actually existed. Is it that these people were also considered "divine" by their followers? That they were considered "divine" by their followers is a statement of fact as well, it doesn't mean they were "divine", which applies to Jesus as well. ( )

This series of books in general is very helpful to any homeschooling parent. I was able to take this book and expand it into an entire curriculum using their outline as a base and adding in their suggested books and delving deeper with projects. This book is not a first grade curriculum in itself but it’s an excellent guide to give you a feel of how the year should flow and what topics need to (at minimum) be covered. Much of the stories and poetry, even the chapters on geography are written as if being read to your child and we do read straight from this book in some of our subjects. ( )

"What Your First Grader Needs to Know" is the second in a seven-part series for school children through sixth grade. It encompasses a variety of subjects such as writing, reading, history, math, art, music, science, and touches on different religions in the history section. The book says it gives an overview of what children should know by the end of the first grade. Ideally, one would use it with a publicly or privately-schooled child as a supplement to their "normal" schooling or it would be used as a supplement to a homeschool curriculum. We used it as an addendum to our homeschool curriculum.

This book was very informative and truly did as it claimed: Covered a variety of topics and subjects. It is written in a very easy-to-read format for children of this age. My younger children did get bogged down some in the lengthy history section. We had to break some of those "lessons" down into smaller segments.

I was very impressed with the overall subject coverage in this book. In the reading section, for example, they cover poetry, common sayings and quotations, short-stories and excerpts of larger books. In the history section, they cover American History, World History, and briefly touch on religions. In the science section, they cover anatomy, biology, and earth science. In the music section, they cover different famous musicians, different types of music, and types of instruments. The book offers the same type of information offered in the "K" version, but with more detail as is appropriate for this age. I have the 2nd & 3rd grade versions as well and have found them to appropriately build as you progress through the books.

I was a bit disappointed in the religion section. We are Christians, but want our children exposed to different religions. The fact that the others (Islam, etc) were included is NOT what bothered us; although we did alter the sections some to state the information as what some believe not as fact as the book does. However, we found the section on Christianity which includes the story of Moses to be not only disappointing, but biblically inaccurate which leads me to question the accuracy of other similar sections in this book. If the author was not familiar with this information through his own beliefs, then he should have made certain to input accurate information in this section through sources that DO know; as I have to assume he did in the other religion sections of the book.

Overall, I would recommend this book. It is definitely worth the buy to enhance your child's education, particularly for a homeschooler.