Customer Reviews

WHAT YOUR 4TH GRADER NEEDS TO KNOW (Core Knowledge Series)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The "What Your Nth Grader Needs to Know" books are a narrative of the information your child should know separated into sections such as:

World History
American History
Science
Geography
Fine Arts
Math (list of what they should know)
English (list of what they should know)
Literature (excerpts, poems, sayings, stories)

The writing is wonderful! It flows. It's interesting. It is not dummied-down! My 4th grader (an average reader) reads it out loud so I can help with vocabulary. My 6th grader reads it independently. Unlike books aimed at students, these books are good reads for adults. I finally got interested in history!

The only drawback for homeschoolers wanting to use these as texts is that there are few if any activites or review questions included. However, you can get the Redwood Games worksheets that go along with the books (free) over at http://www.maui.net/~redwood/hs.html.

For homeschoolers, one need only add a math book and the worksheets. For parents of public school kids, these books will be an eye-opener in evaluating your child's education.

Karen Crowthe

This and the other books in this series, are such a great idea.

They give a basic structure to what your child should be learning about each year, which is particularly important if your child is likely to change school districts, or go from private to public school, or from homeschooling into a school setting. Because so many schools use the Core Knowledge guidelines, your child won't have big gaps in her education, if she has been taught a curriculum based on these guidelines.

Each book in the series cover all the basic subjects: math, science, history, geography, language arts, art and music. The sections are broken down into small pieces, and one part can be taken up each day pretty easily.

Additional references are included for every subject, so your child can more fully explore the areas that interest him.

The language arts section includees excerpts from some great adventure classics, like "Treasure Island" and "Robinson Crusoe." It also covers poetry, grammar, and common sayings and phrases. The grammar is not in itself adequate, and I would recommend that homeschoolers use additional materials for grammar.

World Civilization covers the Middle Ages. European history is extensive, but this also includes a very nice look at Asia during this period of time. This is much more extensive than what I was taught of the Middle Ages during my entire elementary education. The geography section corresponds with this study, but also looks at all parts of the world.

American Civilization pretty much covers the period from the signing of the Constitution through the 1840's (Manifest Destiny and the Mexican War). Again, if your child has studied the previous books in the series, this will fit in nicely - the 3rd grade book covers the colonies through the signing of the Declaration of Independence. There are lots of pictures and other resources you can use to augment this study.

The fine arts section covers music (hard to do with a book, but notes & reading sheet music is in there) and visual art, which largely discusses architecture during the Middle Ages.

A very comprehensive overview of math is given. This is not to be used as the sole source of math work, but a basic overview of what your child should be learning during 4th grade.

The science section covers paleontology, the cardiovascular system, rocks & the composition of the earth, weather and electricity. The best part about the science section, is that you can find out what really interests your child, and there are additional resources recommended for the various studies... ...

We bought this to use with our daughter who just started fourth grade. We used the third grade version this summer and were pleased enough with it to give this one a try. As with the other, the history portions were well written and easy for her to understand. The choices for poetry and literature are just unusual enough for her to be interested in. If I were homeschooling, I wouldn't rely on this alone, but it does make a very helpful and handy tool for suplimenting a public school education.

One reviewer stated that homeschoolers experience some difficulty making use of this series due to the lack of worksheets. Visit coreknowledge.org for details.

I went back to school for special education after many years in a different job. These books not only helped me to do very well on the Praxis exam for elementary content knowledge, they were a big help in preparing for resource classes.

For Mothers and Others who have been away from the classroom for many years, these books are great refreshers.

This book is great if you homeschool or want to help your child during the summer. The topics that this year covers includes: the Middle Ages, African Kingdoms, China, The American Revolution, Early Presidents and Politics, The Human Body - Circulation and Respiration, and Meteorology.

FYI: If you want to use it for homeschool, Hirsch has also 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. The handbook is not necessary, but having the teacher guide probably will save you time.

We purchased this book because we wanted to make sure our child was learning everything he needed to be learning at his grade level. It is very user friendly; it is written in such a way that it can be read by the child independently or jointly with a parent or caregiver. Our child actually looks forward to the time each day when we sit down and look at it together, and it has helped supplement and reinforce what he has learned in class. Highly recommend this series. (We have a kindergartner who also insists that we read from the book written for his grade level daily.)

Consider E.D. Hirsch's book a cultural multi-vitamin. That is, you might eat well, but to be on the safe side a wide-spectrum tablet will fill in any undiagnosed nutritional gaps. Similarly, E.D. Hirsch has written a series of indispensable books that will supplement a youngster's curricular deficiencies. Every parent, every teacher should purchase, "What Your 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Grader (and so on) Needs to Know."

This is one of the best books for school. The only problem about my state is that public schools do not have good programs and things for the school. The students are not well taught. Even though I go to a private school, I glad that I get a good education from this program.

This book is a great book!

I have a special needs child that I plan to go through this book with her to help her. I wished I had it when my other children were young. It has a lot of information and so far we are enjoying reading through it.