{Day 10} What Do Elementary Age Children Need To Learn?
{For an overview of all 31 Days of Homeschooling click HERE.}
Knowing exactly what to teach in elementary school (K-5, or K-6, in some areas), is not as easy as it sounds. This is because many people — even so-called “experts” – do not agree on what is required at all.
One of the things homeschool parents can do, is look at what topics children would be offered in school. National standards and other curricular recommendations and milestones written by independent people and publishers, are some of the only guides we currently have at our fingertips. These guides may not be perfect (some are even the basis for much controversy), but for many families, they provide a starting point by which to base the rest of the year. Using these topics as a guide, homeschool parents can then determine what to teach on their own. {This is just one approach! As a teacher and homeschool parent, I do not follow public school guidelines much, either!}
That being said, read the following statement, then proceed to the curriculum recommendations, below:
Remember as you read: No two children are alike. No two homeschools are alike. Keep these two basic tenets of homeschooling in mind as you read the remainder of this post. Not every parent desires to duplicate what children would be learning in school. That would be defeating the purpose of homeschooling and sabotaging its success, would it not?
KINDERGARTEN:
Core Knowledge, supporters of Common Core, recommends that Kindergarteners study these topics called Listening & Learning: nursery rhymes and fables, the five senses, stories, plants, farms, Native Americans, Kings and Queens, seasons and weather, Columbus and the Pilgrims, Colonial Towns and townspeople, taking care of the Earth, Presidents and American symbols. There are many more areas of study. See all of the Core Knowledge recommendations for kindergarten HERE.
1st GRADE:
World Book Curriculum Correlations for First Grade include the following topics in science: Grouping and classification; living and nonliving things; animals; pets; farm animals; zoo and circus animals; woodland animals; common birds; plant and animal habitats; seeds, bulbs, plants, flowers; weather and seasons; day and night; solids, liquids, gases; air and water; magnets; fire and temperature; Sun, moon, stars, planets; simple machines; beginning experimentation; and scientific method and scientific inquiry. See all of World Book’s recommendations for first grade HERE.
2nd GRADE:
Core Knowledge, supporters of Common Core, recommends that Second Graders study these topics called Listening & Learning: Fairy tales and tall tales; early Asian civilizations; ancient Greek civilizations; Greek myths; the War of 1812; cycles of nature; westward expansion; insects; U.S. Civil War; the human body building blocks and nutrition; immigration; and, fighting for a cause. See all of the Core Knowledge recommendations for second grade HERE.
3rd GRADE:
World Book Curriculum Correlations for Third Grade include the following topics in math: Reading and writing numbers to 5 places; beginning Roman numerals; rounding numbers; positive and negative numbers in daily life; simple fractions and equivalents; properties of one; numeration systems; addition and subtraction facts to 25; multiplication and division facts to 100; perimeter, area, volume; geometric constructions; similar and congruent figures; properties of solid figures; customary and metric measurement; time to 1- and 5-minute measures; estimation of outcomes; problems-solving analysis; word problems; and, charts and graphs. See all of World Book’s recommendations for 3rd grade HERE.
4th GRADE:
World Book Curriculum Correlations for Fourth Grade include the following topics in social studies: Types of community life; history and development of the local state; relation of the state to its region, nation, and the world; world cultures; reasons for our laws; regions of the world; continents; time zones; Earth’s resources; climatic regions of the world; map skills: longitude, latitude, scale; and using a globe. See all of World Book’s recommendations for 4th grade HERE.
5th GRADE:
World Book Curriculum Correlations for Fifth Grade include the following language arts topics: Silent and oral reading; types of literature; presenting original plays; listening skills; dictionary use for word meaning, analysis, spelling; common homonyms; homophones and homographs; synonyms and antonyms; using a thesaurus; spelling; plurals and possessives; kinds of sentences; parts of sentences; cursive handwriting; outlining; paragraph writing; writing letters, stories, reports, poems, plays; preparing a simple bibliography; proofreading skills; parts of a newspaper; and, using study materials: keys, tables, graphs, charts, legends, library catalogs, index, table of contents, reference materials, maps. See all of World Book’s recommendations for 5th grade HERE.
In the end, homeschool parents have the freedom to select any guide they trust (or none at all) and design a homeschool curriculum that is perfect for them.
Perhaps the best approach of all is to follow the recommendations already outlined in {Day 3} of this program. Combining curriculum guidelines, common sense, and goals for each individual child, a personalized curriculum can be developed for each student in the homeschool. Read my book, “The Way Homeschoolers Do” to find out why this is one of the things that homeschoolers do best!
Further reading:
A relaxed way to look at elementary science
100 Ways to learn without really trying
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