What Your First Grader Needs to Know

Like others I also received the older version of the book when it had showed I was ordering the latest version but I think they just have the picture for the latest edition but send out whatever they have on hand. Which realistically the older version is probably not all that different from the newer (newer is more colorful & sections each have their own color to help organize) so not something to throw a fit about. I’m a homeschooler & am not using this as a stand alone curriculum but as more of checklist for reassurance that I’m not leaving anything out so that my son doesn’t end up behind his public school peers. Looking at this book I feel pretty confident that my son is actually ahead, especially in the way of language arts & history. I will say we are an atheist family so secular material is imperative & I think this material can work for those of faith or of no religious affiliation. You can adapt as you see fit for example, this book agrees that dinosaurs are real but only has one paragraph on them. So families who believe in evolution or that dinosaurs are real can read more wonderful books on dinosaurs where as those that are on the creation side can easily skip the one paragraph if it doesn’t align with their beliefs. As a stand alone curriculum I don’t know that it’s quite enough but every child & families needs are different. For a family just starting on their homeschooling journey it could likely provide some peace of mind that you are doing better than you think.

Look at the year before purchasing. I should've read the reviews before purchasing. The photograph is of the most recent edition(2014)but the edition sent was the older edition (1997)

Wrong edition! Extremely out of date. Very disappointed! Don’t buy. Will be returning.

wrong edition!!! the book we got is an old edition, not the one shown on the picture which we ordered.

As the previous reviewer stated, I received an older version while I ordered specifically this edition with green cover. Disappointed.

The copy I was looking for was pictured as the copy I would be purchasing and receiving. That didn’t happen I got an older version of the copy I needed.

This is an outstanding book. I read many passages for my son. He likes them very much. They enrich him like nothing else. My son's school does not provide this much content. We would miss a lot literature, history, and geography without this book. Thanks to the authors. I do see the math part is too easy for first graders. For math, we use Beestar (a nice web site www.beestar.org). Its free weekly exercises are about right and very helpful. Overall, this is an outstanding book loaded with fine content. I highly recommend it.

You just can't beat this book. Not only does it tell you what your child should be learning, it's right there for you. This isn't just a list of topics - it has the actual stories, biographies, math games, etc. right there for you. One of my favorite parts is the literature section. It has the basic stories, poems, fables, and sayings every well-rounded child should now. And the science and history sections have great introductions/overviews of topice - great for unit studies. We use this book for homeschooling, and every homeschooler should have it. Note: to help you buy the right grade - for most books, you often have to buy a grade level higher for a homeschooled child, but the grade levels of these books are very accurate.

This is an outstanding story book that's fun to read and excellent at educating young children. We read something from this book almost every evening. Both my seven-year old and four-year old love something from this book.This book gives a good selection of classic children's stories, fun poems, singable songs, wise fables, and other works that are fun to read. It also gives great introductions to American history, world history, science, art and much more. What you see in this book is what your child should be learning at an ideal school.Since no school is perfect and can cover everything, use this book as a great way of ensuring that your chilren receive an outstanding education.This book tells you what you need to teach your first grader, and it's good reading. Next year we will buy the volumes for second grade and kindergarten.It's interesting that one review made a claim that this book is a little too liberal. The fact is that the editor has been closely associated with forger Education Secretary William Bennett, a social conservative. In fact, the information in this book is neither liberal nor conservative. It's just excellent and enjoyable education for you kids, based on solid empirical research...

This is an excellent resource to supplement a child's education. The topics are presented in an interesting, child-friendly manner. My daughter enjoys working from this book. As for the literature section, I found it to have a balanced mixture of traditional tales and multicultural folktales. Even though many traditional fairy tales are no longer politically correct, I feel that is important for my child to be exposed to literature that has endured for hundreds of years. When a poem or novel makes a literary allusion to Rapunzel or Sleeping Beauty, I want my child to understand. As for the multicultural stories, there are Hispanic, Japanese, English, Dutch, West African, German, Jewish, African American, Italian, and Iroquois selections. My daughter enjoyed reading stories from so many different cultures. I was also pleased with the math and art sections. This is a wonderful tool to use for following your child's education. Comparing the work that my daughter brings home from school to the curriculum in this book helps me know if she is on track or not.

As an immigrant from a non-English speaking country, I found this is the best series of the knowledge book for my daughter and myself. As the contents showed, the book covers every aspect a grader student needs to know (solid and advanced). My daughter is in her 3rd grader and we read together all most every evening from book one to three. Not only she knows a lot from these books and superisingly answer "wild" questions in her class, I learnt a lot from these books regarding to the western (American) history which I missed during my grader education. Very enjoyable books to read with!!!! It worths every penny spent!