While surfing BarnesnNoble.com one evening for homeschool supplies, I ran across a series of books by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., "What your____ Grader Needs To Know." I ended up ordering the 1st grade edition, as well as the 4th grade, to aide in my homeschooling. My son and I have since worn this book out.

"What your First Grader Needs to Know" was written to assist teachers and help parents understand what it is their child was to be learning in a classroom. It is a wonderful book, filled with 320 pages of information, poetry, stories and facts.

Section 1
Language and Literature
Part 1:
Reading Writing and Your 1st Grader answers the question about teaching children to read, write and what parents can do to help.
Part 2: Literature contains many read along activities for a young child to enjoy.
Part 3: Poetry. This section contains 25 poems to share with your 1st grader.
Part 4: Aesop's Fables is my son's favorite section. There are 6 Fables, including "The Fox and the Grapes" and "The Wolf in Sheep's Clothing."
Part 5: Stories that includes such titles as "Brer Rabbit Gets Brer Fox's Dinner" and "Tom Thumb."
Part 6: Familiar sayings and the meanings behind them.

Section 2
History and Geography
This section touches on the basics of history.
Part 1: World History and Geography.
Part 2: American History and Geography includes such lessons as Pocahontas and the 13 Colonies. We are about to start on a Mexico unit and will be using what this book has on the Mayans and the Spanish Conquistadors.

Section 3
Visual Arts
This is a very small section, consisting of only 18 pages. However, It is definitely a section that shouldn't be ignored. It talks about color usage in art, shows many famous pieces, such as the Mona Lisa, and teaches the child to look for patterns.

Section 4
Music
This section contains a wealth of information about composers, instruments and rhythm. It also has the words to many popular songs for the child to enjoy.
One of the songs:
"Oh beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!"
Remember singing that song in school?

Section 5
Mathematics
Basic math skills that every 1st grader should be taught can be found here.
Part 1: Numbers and Number Sense
Part 2: Computation
Part 3: Money
Part 4: Geometry
Part 5: Measurement
This touches on the Calendar and telling time. A suggested read for this section is "My First Book Of Time," another wonderful book.

Section 6
Science
A wonderful selection of theme ideas to use for teachers and homeschoolers.
Part 1: Living things and their habitats
Part 2: Oceans and undersea life
Part 3: The human body
Part 4: Matter: solid, liquid and gas
Part 5: Measurement: how long, how much, how hot
Part 6: Electricity: an introduction to the shocking facts
part 7: Astronomy: our solar system My son enjoyed the experiement suggested in this section. We used a globe, clay and a desk lamp to illustrate how night turns into day and day turns into night.
Part 8: Down to Earth
part 9: Stories about scientists

"What your First Grader Needs To Know" offers activites to do, recommended reads, pictures, and suggestions for following up on each lesson.

As I mentioned, I use this for homeschooling. It contains so much information and is constantly being used as an aide in our daily studies. My 1st grader enjoys listening to or reading the poetry and stories, which we follow up by drawing a picture about what we just read. This is not, by any means, our only source of information, but it is definitely one that we use a lot.

Recommended: Yes