"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.

This is a great preparatory book for parents of a first-grader...simple, direct and informational. Another 'must' read for parents with children about to start school and also children in grades K-8 is Bully-Proofing Children: A Practical, Hands-On Guide to Stop Bullying. It covers all those important social skills that all children need to learn and be empowered with to get along with others. Buy both of these books and your child can't help but be successful and love school.

My family loves this book. We have been introduced to characters that we weren't familiar with and to new ideas of fun ways to learn together. We pull the book out almost every day.

Millionaire in 365 Days: The Daily Plan to Get There

Helpful if you have a first grader....tell the teacher too....

This book is great! It covers so many topics and does not go into too much detail for a 1st grader. I will buy all of
these books!

I love this book! I have my degree in Elementary Education and spent 3 years teaching - 2 of those in Kindergarten. I have seen how many times even the best intentions do not allow the time for covering EVERYTHING you would love to expose the children with when they are in your classroom.

When my own child started Kindergarten "What Your Kindergartner Need to Know" was recommended to me by a friend. I would spend the nights reading to her out of this book. It was a great chance for me to introduce concepts to her that she either had a basic knowledge or no knowledge. She looked forward to our evening readings together and learned a great deal from this book. We used it solely as a "night read" and did not do the experiments it showed. However, we would look at the experiments and talk about them. They looked very age appropriate and fun.

We have just begun "What Your First Grader Needs to Know" and all 3 of my children love it (ages 6, 4, and 3). This is an excellent way to add onto any child's education!

Flipping through I noticed an error that raised a red flag--the book calls hieroglyphs "Hieroglyphics". Hieroglyphic is an adjective, not a noun, unless it refers to the entire writing method: "they carved hieroglychics" is, for example, wrong. And hieroglyphs are NOT picture writing--they are 90%+ alphabetic and syllabic. Based on such a sloppy error (plus the one I note below) that was so eaily found, I would approach the history portion of this book with caution.

Also, a reviewer wrote:

The first paragraph reads, "The first black people who came to Jamestown were not exactly slaves. In 1619 a ship arrived from Jamestown carrying people from Africa. These people had been taken from their homes and forced to get on a ship that brought them to America. They were sold to the Virginia Settlers and they were made to work, usually on farms. But after they worked for a number of years, they were allowed to go free. When they were free, some of them bought land where they could farm and make their homes." Not exactly slaves?!? How is forcibly taking people from their families and homeland and forcing them to work (under what I learned were nasty, dehumanizing conditions)not called slavery?

They were INDENTURED SERVANTS, just like the many, many white people from England (mostly debtors and some petty criminals) who were taken against their will from their homes and sold to settlers for a set period of time. The legal condition is quite distinct from slavery, whether or not it is morally right.

BUT...the book IS inaccurate, in that the authors claim the first blacks came directly from Africa--they didn't. They came from a Caribbean colony where they had, indeed, been slaves, quite possibly second or higher generation slaves. I assume the book included this information because no one knows for certain when the slave trade started, but the first group of blacks arriving as indentured servants was well recorded.

(It was actually the same year as the first shipment of single women arrived to become colonists' wives! Their passage was free--I don't remember who paid for it, but essentially, they agreed to marry SOME man when they arrived.)

The stories included in this book come from Western, Central, and Southern Europe, Africa, Classical Greece, Japan, and Mexico. Though a parent who want to give their children a complete education will surely supplement, their selection does an EXECELLENT job of introducing children to frequently referenced tales in our own American culture. EVERY child in America should learn about sour grapes, crying over spilt milk, the Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Sleeping Beauty, and Rumplestiltzkin. These are stories necessary to cultural literacy. Rich supplements are, of course, desirable, but that's not the purpouse of the book. My own family is mixed race, with strong ties to another continent! Yet since we are living in America, it's important to be culturally competant here. And I think this book does an excellent job of that.

I also really like the Music section. It's easy for homeschooling parents to not think of teaching elementary-school songs to their children, and this book gives a good selection. Just like the Literature section, it's a place to start, not an entire curriculum. (In my elementary school, we also learned a lot of African American children's music, like Miss Mary Black and Did You Feed My Cow?, which I plan to teach my children, as well.)

The mathematics portion should also be seen as more of a checlist than a curriculum. I recommend the Singapore Math books for mathematics. The same with science, which should be very hands-on at this age!

Just looking at the table of contents, I noticed an error that raised a red flag--the book calls hieroglyphs "Hieroglyphics". Hieroglyphic is an adjective, not a noun. And hieroglyphs are NOT picture writing--they are 90%+ alphabetic and syllabic. Based on such a sloppy error (plus the one I note below) that was so eaily found, I would approach the history portion of this book with caution.

Also, a reviewer wrote:

The first paragraph reads, "The first black people who came to Jamestown were not exactly slaves. In 1619 a ship arrived from Jamestown carrying people from Africa. These people had been taken from their homes and forced to get on a ship that brought them to America. They were sold to the Virginia Settlers and they were made to work, usually on farms. But after they worked for a number of years, they were allowed to go free. When they were free, some of them bought land where they could farm and make their homes." Not exactly slaves?!? How is forcibly taking people from their families and homeland and forcing them to work (under what I learned were nasty, dehumanizing conditions)not called slavery?

They were INDENTURED SERVANTS, just like the many, many white people from England (mostly debtors and some petty criminals) who were taken against their will from their homes and sold to settlers for a set period of time. The legal condition is quite distinct from slavery, whether or not it is morally right.

BUT...the book IS inaccurate, in that the authors claim the first blacks came directly from Africa--they didn't. They came from a Caribbean colony where they had, indeed, been slaves, quite possibly second or higher generation slaves. I assume the book included this information because no one knows for certain when the slave trade started, but the first group of blacks arriving as indentured servants was well recorded.

(It was actually the same year as the first shipment of single women arrived to become colonists' wives! Their passage was free--I don't remember who paid for it, but essentially, they agreed to marry SOME man when they arrived.)

The stories included in this book come from Western, Central, and Southern Europe, Africa, Classical Greece, Japan, and Mexico. Though a parent who want to give their children a complete education will surely supplement, their selection does an EXECELLENT job of introducing children to frequently referenced tales in our own American culture. EVERY child in America should learn about sour grapes, crying over spilt milk, the Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Sleeping Beauty, and Rumplestiltzkin. These are stories necessary to cultural literacy. Rich supplements are, of course, desirable, but that's not the purpouse of the book. My own family is mixed race, with strong ties to another continent! Yet since we are living in America, it's important to be culturally competant here. And I think this book does an excellent job of that.

I also really like the Music section. It's easy for homeschooling parents to not think of teaching elementary-school songs to their children, and this book gives a good selection. Just like the Literature section, it's a place to start, not an entire curriculum. (In my elementary school, we also learned a lot of African American children's music, like Miss Mary Black and Did You Feed My Cow?, which I plan to teach my children, as well.)

The mathematics portion should also be seen as more of a checlist than a curriculum. I recommend the Singapore Math books for mathematics. The same with science, which should be very hands-on at this age!

A reviewer wrote:

The first paragraph reads, "The first black people who came to Jamestown were not exactly slaves. In 1619 a ship arrived from Jamestown carrying people from Africa. These people had been taken from their homes and forced to get on a ship that brought them to America. They were sold to the Virginia Settlers and they were made to work, usually on farms. But after they worked for a number of years, they were allowed to go free. When they were free, some of them bought land where they could farm and make their homes." Not exactly slaves?!? How is forcibly taking people from their families and homeland and forcing them to work (under what I learned were nasty, dehumanizing conditions)not called slavery?

They were INDENTURED SERVANTS, just like the many, many white people from England (mostly debtors and some petty criminals) who were taken against their will from their homes and sold to settlers for a set period of time. Sheesh. The legal condition is quite distinct from slavery, whether or not it is morally right. The book IS inaccurate, in that the authors claim the first blacks came directly from Africa--they didn't. They came from a Caribbean colony where they had, indeed, been slaves, quite possibly second or higher generation slaves. I assume the book included this information because no one knows for certain when the slave trade started, but the first group of blacks arriving as indentured servants was well recorded.

(It was actually the same year as the first shipment of single women arrived to become colonists' wives! Their passage was free--I don't remember who paid for it, but essentially, they agreed to marry SOME man when they arrived. Women were so scarce that those who were widowed married three, four, or more times, and often they had a line of suitors when they came of legal age at 12. Rather creepy to most modern people... The female indentured servants were comparatively well off during those early years because they could often enough marry their master get some other man to buy them off their master and marry them and not have to complete the seven years of their indenture.)

As a former teacher and current homeschooler, I find that much of the material in the early levels of this series are not appropriate for the grade levels indicated. I use the books as references but not usually at the grade indicated by the title of the book. The history sections are especially inappropriate. Children at these early grade levels do not have enough background knowledge (i.e., comprehension of the passage of time and the geography of the earth in relation to their own place in it) to fully understand the material presented. Thus, they are very unlikely to retain the knowledge or to apply it meaningfully to other areas of study. Parents trying to stick to these grade levels are bound to be frustrated.

This book is great if you homeschool or want to help your child during the summer. If you want to use it for homeschool, Hirsch has made a teacher handbook. The Teacher Handbooks provide background about language arts, history and geography, visual arts, music, mathematics, and science. Each handbook has been written to look like the Core Knowledge Sequence. For each section in the Sequence, there is a matching section in the handbooks

I didn't have time to read this book and I was going to return it but before I put it in the package I started thumbing through it. It wasn't at all what I expected--another dry instructional book--instead it turned out to be a spark for my childs imagination. I read a few passages aloud and he couldn't stop asking me questions. I was amazed how interested he was in the content. I'm very glad I didn't return this book it is a good supplement to his curriculum and it is fun to read it to your child it sparks many interesting fancifull conversations.

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.

I think if you really want to know what your first grader needs to learn, find the website for your state's department of education. Then download the Content Standards and GLEs. (Grade-Level Expectations)

If my son can finish this book and understand what this book covered, I don't know what he can learned in the next 6 years. Besides the math is way too simple. The other materials are way to complicate and too difficult for 1st grader. My son attended a private school. The school mostly follow this book for the teaching materials.
When other kids in other schools learning living, non-living objects and air, water, solid objects, my son was learning digestive system, nervous system and that Maya worship natural gods.
You tell me, smart parents, do you really learned those stuff in your first grade?

Great springboard book to help if you're a homeschooler or trying to supplement your child outside of the classroom.

Language and Literature: Plenty of stories and poetry to read to your child and get them started. Weak in the phonics area. I would recommend a good phonics primer - Phonics Pathways by Dolories Hiskes (awesome and inexpensive resource and it will get your child reading fast).

Mathematics: Simple progression in math skills. I like the suggestions on manipulatives and games to do with your child, they make the learning process more fun for the child.

Science: Braod overview of many sciences. Good things to start talking about with your child before a trip to the local zoo or library to pick up more in depth information.

This book is not meant to be a complete curriculum for teaching your child, but is a nice supplement. I like the stories, poems and music. It's a great portable all in one book. The notes to parents are helpful in finding ways to teach each subject.

'What your first grader needs to know' is by far the best book that I have purchased for homeschooling. I believe it's a must have for every homeschooling family wondering if they are covering what they should. Along with non-homeschooling families curious if their child is where he or he should be at in the school system.

It goes over everything your child needs to know in the first grade, breaking it up into sections by subject. It not only explains to you what your child should know, but gives you pointers on how you can help your child learn and achieve the first grade goals.

Many thanks to the author of this great book for putting everything I need to know to teach my child, under one cover.

I'm a homeschooling dad and there are two good ways to use this book.

One, use it to ensure that you construct (or your child's teacher constructs) a curriculum for your first grader that is well-rounded and which contains sufficient depth. If you're a homeschooling family, you'll appreciate the comprehensive nature of this book -- it gives a wonderful overview of what your child should know at the end of first grade, including all the major academic disciplines (math, literature, history, science).

For me, this book greatly eased my mind in knowing what I need to cover as my son's first grade teacher. I use the book like you would use a tourbook of a foreign country. With a tourbook, you'll pick out the most important elements of a trip and cross off destinations that aren't of interest or which you won't have time to visit. Similarly, using this book, you'll identify the most important elements of your child's education. In the process, you'll identify topics that you probably won't cover with much depth because either you think them too unimportant or because you only have so much time in a day to work with your child.

The second way to use this book is like a textbook. The book is very thin on math problems, so the problems it does give should be considered as only examples of the type of math problems your first grader should know how to solve. There are some science projects to work on, but they're only a sampling. The literature portion comprises a sizeable part of the book, and it contains some very good literature. Moreover, the book contains explanations behind Aesop's fables (which as an adult I found very helpful!). You'll want to read many of the stories, poems, fables -- but not all of them. Some of the literature you may find unsuitable for your child because of your family's family system.

I have two criticisms of the book. One, the literature portion contains too many stories that include witches and too much evil -- you know, Grimm-type fairytales and the like. I skipped over some of the stories with plots or characters that I don't feel are suitable for young 6 or 7-year-olds.

Two, the book attempts to explain the world's religions in an unsatisfactory manner. As a Christian, I am not interested in teaching my first grader what Muslims believe. Worse, the book purports that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. I hardly think so. The whole section of religion would have been best removed from the book entirely, leaving each parent to decide what religious instruction to offer his or her own child.

So, this is a four-star book -- well worth the purchase, but only if you understand the caveats mentioned above.

There's much to question here in the nitty gritty. I open up the pages randomly and find things that kids shouldn't be being taught, at least not like this: page 135 under the heading "THE FIGHT GOES ON
"The Indians on the land roamed freely, hunting buffalo and other animals. The European settlers wanted to stay in one place on the land, so they could farm. They fought the Indians for new land when they had to. Both sides were hurt, and began to hate one another. The Indians were forced to move again and again. Some struck back fiercely and made the settlers hate them even more."
Break it down:
"The Indians on the land roamed freely, hunting buffalo and other animals". Well, relative to Euro folks land ownership and deeds, it was "freely", but they did have territories and use-rights between/among tribes.
"The European settlers wanted to stay in one place on the land, so they could farm." Europeanness treated as the norm, wouldn't you say?
"They fought the Indians for new land when they had to". What? When God ordered them to? Why'd they "have" to? Explain...
"Both sides were hurt, and began to hate one another."
OK, OK, this is for 6 year-olds, yes, we have to keep it simple, but where's the agency here? Who pushed who?
"The Indians were forced to move again and again."
Yea, true enough, but why don't we read this in the active voice? Who forced them?
"Some struck back fiercely and made the settlers hate them even more."
Ohhhh, there's the active voice!!! Then Indians "struck" and "made...hate".
I'm not an indigenous people's activist, I'm just someone who cares about education. The passage above was chosen at random. But wow, it's ridiculous! While I agree that maybe 1st grade is a bit young for doing studies of genocide, c'mon, we can do better than this type of whitewash!