Trophies: Practice Book, Volume 1 Grade 1

In this book, there are mini-books, standardized test like questions and comprehension worksheet/exercises for the stories in the Harcourt Trophies books. The questions and exercises are good, as well as the mini-books. The pages are not too cluttered for a first grader and are very straightforward for readers who are on level. At the beginning of the year, directions and some words may need to be read to the student--depending on the reading level of the student. For homeschooling with Harcourt Trophies, I think it is a good idea to get the 2 practice books. What you will need is: The five Harcourt Trophies Student texts and the 2 practice books. If the Teacher's guides are affordable, I definitely recommend them, but they aren't a must. They have questions in them to help guide your child as you are reading the stories with them as well as spelling word lists and other suggestions for instruction. The read Aloud Anthology is a great resource that has comprehension questions in it for you to ask your child as you read to them. There are many other resources that you can purchase, including a spelling workbook, but if you have your own spelling program/plan that you like to follow, then I don't think the spelling workbook is neccessary. I do like the Harcourt Trophies a lot--I like it far better than other public school curriculums that I've looked at. Some of the reasons are: activities are included in the student text, comprehension questions are included in the text at the end of each story, and they have a good variety of stories (nonfiction and fiction). The texts are not cluttered, but are visually pleasing to look at. The publisher did a great job! I have seen the 2003 and 2007 versions compared to the 2001 and the publisher made great improvements, so I would recommend purchasing the newer books rather than the older ones. There is a big difference!