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Editorial Reviews
From the Introduction:
"What kind of knowledge and skills can your child be expected to learn in second grade at school? How can you help your child at home? These are questions that we try to answer in this book. It presents the sort of knowledge and skills—in literature, reading and writing, history and geography, visual arts, music, mathematics, and science—that should be at the core of a challenging second-grade education.
Because children and localities differ greatly across this big, diverse country, so do second-grade classrooms. But all communities, including classrooms, require some common ground for communication and learning. In this book we present the specific shared knowledge that hundreds of parents and teachers across the nation have agreed upon for American second graders. This core is not a comprehensive prescription for everything that every second grader needs to know. Such a complete prescription would be rigid and undesirable. But the book does offer a solid common ground that will enable young students to become active, successful learners in their classroom community and later in the larger communities we live in—town, state, nation, and world."
"What kind of knowledge and skills can your child be expected to learn in second grade at school? How can you help your child at home? These are questions that we try to answer in this book. It presents the sort of knowledge and skills—in literature, reading and writing, history and geography, visual arts, music, mathematics, and science—that should be at the core of a challenging second-grade education.
Because children and localities differ greatly across this big, diverse country, so do second-grade classrooms. But all communities, including classrooms, require some common ground for communication and learning. In this book we present the specific shared knowledge that hundreds of parents and teachers across the nation have agreed upon for American second graders. This core is not a comprehensive prescription for everything that every second grader needs to know. Such a complete prescription would be rigid and undesirable. But the book does offer a solid common ground that will enable young students to become active, successful learners in their classroom community and later in the larger communities we live in—town, state, nation, and world."
Related Reviews
We keep the age appropriate book for each of our boys in the car. They'll read anything when stuck in the car for long trips and even when waiting for one brother to finish with scouts or soccer. The books have led to wonderful conversations about science and literature and even math. I think these books are a valuable supplement to my boys' education.
TERRIFIC HOMESCHOOL or "SUPPLEMENTAL HOMESCHOOL" Companion!
I LOVE the CORE KNOWLEDGE SERIES! I use these books during the SUMMER VACATION for SUMMER HOMESCHOOL! As the other reviews have mentioned, this book is a "jumping point." We use them to get the kids interested in certain types of literature, periods of history, geographical locations, science subjects, etc. -- then we go to the library once a week to further our study! My children LOVE reading through the books, looking at the photos -- one thing these books have sparked is an interest in FAMOUS WORKS OF ART, and my girls are enjoying examining other works, in other books! This book gets FIVE STARS for a wonderful home-resource, especially in our summertime!
This is an excellent book. My husband and I read many passages for my son. He likes them very much. They enrich his mind tremendously. My son's school somehow does not provide this much content. We would miss a lot fine literature, history, and geography without this book. Thanks to the authors. I do see the math part is too easy for second graders nowadays. For practice, we use Beestar math and ELA (a wonderful 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.
While many of the sections in this book are very well done (Language and Literature, Music, Visual Arts), I was struck by the disproportionate space devoted to relatively minor historical figures apparently based solely on race and gender considerations. This book exemplifies the worst aspects of political correctness. For example, the History and Geography section devotes an entire page (with photograph) to Rosa Parks while yielding only half a page (no picture) to Abraham Lincoln. Even more telling, the Science section profiles only four people, but two of them are relatively obscure black men (Daniel Williams and Elijah McCoy). Major figures like Louis Pasteur, Albert Einstein, and Jonas Salk didn't make the cut, but the man who invented the "automatic lubricator" (McCoy) merited a page and a half with photograph. Many of the biographies are framed in long discourses on racial and sexual discrimination. The message of many of the chapters seems to be that white, European males are evil and that non-whites, non-Europeans, and females are saintly. These themes are repeated in such an embarassingly obvious and heavy-handed way that my wife and I simply skipped entire sections which looked more like PC propaganda than an honest attempt to present information. Sorry, E. D. Hirsch, Jr., but MY second grader needs to know more than this.
Good material, but could be expanded upon
This book (and I've been purchasing all in the series) delivers what it promises - the content of material a 2nd grader should be taught throughout the year.
What I think could make a great book even better, is if the book would also deliver more advice and suggestions on how a parent should go about delivering and enforcing the supplemental material. Activities, quizzes, and worksheets about the topics presented would help the child maintain the information.
I've found that the "tips" on how parents should help their children given in the introduction to each section have decreased with each year in the book series. There was a lot more information given in the introductions for the kindergarten and first grade books than there is in the second grade book.
I will definitely buy the rest of the series, but I will probably have to come up with ways to enforce the material presented on my own. Which is fine -- the book doesn't promise to do this, it would just be an even better book if it did.
Helpful guide and a nice revision
The Core Curriculum series is a good jumping-off place to guide a child in an education. It gives information that builds upon itself, and this enables a child to develop a chronological sense of history and discovery. The series is fairly developmentally appropriate. Some may argue that it does not allow for flexibility and curiousity, but using it in a home environment should not curtail exploration; on the contrary, a child who is allowed to peruse the book at leisure will find many curious and interesting things, and may have more questions than the book itself can answer, which is why it makes a great starting point for further exploration. If greater interest is not illicited regarding a particular subject, at least an introduction is made. It is a collection of facts, stories, and simple exercises that can be taken as far as interest and time will allow. The series cannot stand on its own, and is not meant to, but allows a child to begin exploration in the sciences and arts. When supplemented and expanded with field trips, experiments, and curiosity, it can serve as the basis for a fun and enlightening education. A particularly nice feature of the revised edition is the introduction of ancient world religions. It is always helpful to aid gaining an understanding of our world by introducing the varying ideas upon which people base their values, moral standards, and practices. The Core Knowledge Curriculum is recommended for those who wish to aid children in a guided discovery of their world, who want to allow children to stand on the platform for a moment and look around before they decide what end of the pool they would like to jump into.
When I bought this book from Amazon, I knew it was a steal! My daughter has already been helped so much by its stories, activities, and short biographies of famous people. I plan to eventually buy all of the books in the Core Curriculum series. They're just like vitamins and vegetables, they're good for kids!
Every parent should have these books for the grade school children. It's a great way to know if your school and/or child are keeping up with your childrens grade level. I used the book in the summer, prior to my childen entering the grade to make sure they were ready for their next school year.
Every parent should buy these books for their children. We bought the Fourth grade, second grade and Kindergarten and they are all fabulous. The kids find them very interesting and my husband and I even enjoy them. They are packed full of terrific information. Highly recommend. This is a book your child has to have.
This series is very good to my kid. It covers not only literature and math, but science, art, history, etc as well. Both my kid and I like it very much.
I have purchased the Kindergarten and First Grade books. They've been especially helpful to me as an American parent in Switzerland. I read the books to my child to familiarize her with American culture and history because I don't want her to be culturally illiterate whenever we return to the United States.
She very much enjoys hearing the poems, stories and history. I don't do much with the math or science as they are the same in any language. I would, however, like to have quizzes or activities in the book to reinforce what she's learned. I'm looking forward to the future grades.
She very much enjoys hearing the poems, stories and history. I don't do much with the math or science as they are the same in any language. I would, however, like to have quizzes or activities in the book to reinforce what she's learned. I'm looking forward to the future grades.
Homeschooler using this book as a resource
I have been very pleased with this book. I love to get ideas out of it for our homeschool.
What Your Second Grader Needs To Know, etc.
I highly recommend this entire series of books for all parents and students - publiclly, privately or independently schooled. Very logical and resourcful.
Great Resource!
We are temporarily residing outside of the US, and the school our child attends, follows British Curriculum, while the two Curriculums are very similar, there are some differences. This book helps me make sure that he is exposed to the same concepts his American peers are.
We are temporarily residing outside of the US, and the school our child attends, follows British Curriculum, while the two Curriculums are very similar, there are some differences. This book helps me make sure that he is exposed to the same concepts his American peers are.
I'll be using this book to fill in gaps. As a new homeschooler I'm a little uneasy that we are leaving out some really important information. I'll relax a little now with the knowledge that all bases are covered.
My daughter attends second grade at a charter school. She was having a bit of a hard time and we weren't sure how to help her. Her teacher recommended this book and it changed our world. We are able to work on subjects before she gets to them so she is familiar with them. It has helped out a lot. Definitely a good buy.
"What A Second Grader Should Know?"
The fundmentals for this book is speechless!!; I strongly urge any parent wanting the best for their Kindergarten through Second grader. Our son, second grader, was struggling with Reading; Yet, 4.0 Second grader. The poems, stories, and articles of literature gave him something to read everynight, as well as build up his reading level from first grade to second grade, and continue to progress and advance with math, science, and history learning materials. I stumbled across the book in the library and continue to check it out for three weeks until I decided to order from Amazon.
The fundmentals for this book is speechless!!; I strongly urge any parent wanting the best for their Kindergarten through Second grader. Our son, second grader, was struggling with Reading; Yet, 4.0 Second grader. The poems, stories, and articles of literature gave him something to read everynight, as well as build up his reading level from first grade to second grade, and continue to progress and advance with math, science, and history learning materials. I stumbled across the book in the library and continue to check it out for three weeks until I decided to order from Amazon.
We homeschool and this book was a great reference for me. It covers all the basics and isn't terribly lengthy or expensive. I like cheap, simple and to the point.
This book is essential to any family with a core curriculum student. A must have!
Quizzes & Worksheets for the Book
I agree with previous reviews (e.g. review by Kathryn Behm). Core Knowledge "What Your ?st Grader Needs To Know" books need quizzes and worksheets to help the students retain the learned information.
Here is a website that provides quizzes and worksheets based on Core Knowledge Curriculums:
http://www.kwizNET.com/
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The author/ Editor E.D. Hirsh Jr. has compiled every well-known fact in American culture such as literature, slogans, sayings, history, math and all other subjects that a child of a particular age or "grade" should know. There are 7 volumes in all from Kindergarten to 6th grade.
The premise of this book was to create a national standard so that children in the same grade are learning the same things at the same time be it from classroom to classroom, or from state to state. In the books Introduction, Hirsh explains how a parent of twins were concerned that they were learning completely different things and thus were both getting different and abbreviated educations with many gaps. He believes that it is "a sign of trouble when teachers in that school do not know what children in other classrooms are learning on the same grade level, much less in earlier and later grades".
I can identify with Hirsh's concerns as a parent who has moved from state to state across the US. My son was in 3 schools in 3 years and as far as I could tell, repeated Kindergarten 3 times with few exceptions. When he finally got to a school that was up to par with the 1st school he attended, he was lost. So having a unifying curriculum across the United States is very helpful. As this book has been widely acclaimed and used in public and private schools across the country , I believe it will be very useful to me and my children as we embark upon our homeshooling career.
To date this is the only book of its kind written for public schools, and though there are suggested curriculums for homeschooling parents, there are so many camps and methods available, that unifying is not possible.
I am a little wary of the whole concept of a unified curriculum because our children are not machines to feed information to at predestined intervals in order to come out with a good finished product. Instead they are individual human beings, all with differing strengths and abilities, and I don't feel all children should be restricted to learning the same thing. Of course this is how the problem started in the first place, because just as all children are different, so are all teachers. So we are stuck with an interesting catch 22. Using this book as a starting ground and allowing a student to go into further depth on subjects that interest him or her can best resolve this conflict.
The Book "What Your 1st Grader Needs to Know" has already become a favorite in my home and is a great building block to use not only after, but also in conjunction with the Kindergarten volume. I have found that this book repeats much of the material in the Kindergarten book reinforcing popular knowledge while including it for anyone who may have missed this information in the lower grades. It then builds upon this knowledge by adding more. This is most evident in the literature section where we see things we have already read in the Kindergarten books along with many new treasures. For the Literature sections at least you could skip some levels and not miss anything because of the repetitive nature of the series. In subjects like math and science however, it may be necessary to use the books chronologically in order to build upon a Childs knowledge from year to year.
Contents of the First grade book include, but are not limited to:
Language arts witch includes: Nursery rhymes, poems, Aesop's Fables, and short stories.
Geography, world civilization, and American Civilization,
A deeper understanding of fine arts, including, books, and musical arts
Math from counting to fractions to using the calculator
Science with the same subjects as before on a deeper more involved level
When I purchased this book, I thought it would serve mostly as our curriculum for the upcoming years, but instead I have found a great resource and guide as to where to start. I believe these books will help to make my children's interests more evident and inspire them to concentrate on the areas they are passionate about.
I purchased these books in anticipation of beginning homeschooling, but we could not wait to get started on this series. I recommend this and the other books in this set to anyone considering homeschooling or even school schooling