Rating: 
Summary: Very good home schooling resource
Review: I just discovered this series and am so happy I did! Pulling together a mix of materials for our home school curriculum has been quite overwhelming. This book provides a design that I can use to structure my other home school materials into a rich, well-organized curriculum. I love the layout of the book, with its well written stories in many subjects such as literature, history, and geography, just to name a few. This book provides a wonderful foundation for our first year of home schooling. I loved it so much, I immediately purchased the 2nd and 3rd grade volumes as well. I highly recommend this series to all home schooling families but most especially to those just starting out on their home schooling journeys.
Rating: 
Summary: As a first grade teacher...
Review: 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)
Rating:
Summary: Thank you E.D. Hirsch!
Review: I would like to thank E.D. Hirsch for writting such a wonderful guide to teaching my child. I am the parent of a 14 year old Mongoloid who is only able to function at a 1'st grade level. Everytime I show him the pictures and teach him about the basics of mathematics, my Mongoloid drools and smiles. Before this book, James(my mongoloid child) wasn't able to speak. However, now he can say three words, "Daddy" "yes" and "no", and spell all three! This book is great!
Rating: 
Summary: Very good guidebook for your child's 1st grade education
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Very good guidebook for your child's 1st grade education
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: If my son can finish and understand what this book covered..
Review: 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?
Rating:
Summary: Well worth it
Review: My son is about to complete first grade at a prestigious private school. The sections on History, Geography, Literature, Arts and Music are for more extensive - and engaging - than what he has been exposed to at school. The content and style were well suited to his age.
Rating:
Summary: Good resource for parents and teachers
Review: The purpose behind this series is commendable. It's to give children the educational background necessary to get along in the world. My children LOVE it when I read stories to them out of these books. I also find the history, science, and math sections to be good guidelines for what my children should be learning. It's not a complete curriculum, but it's a good start.
Rating:
Summary: PRICELESS BOOK!!!
Review: This book is absolutely priceless!!! I dreaded teaching my daughter because I hadn't the slightest idea of how much of what to teach her!! This book is a GREAT resource!!!
Rating:
Summary: PRICELESS BOOK!!!
Review: This book is absolutely priceless!!! I dreaded teaching my daughter because I hadn't the slightest idea of how much of what to teach her!! This book is a GREAT resource!!!
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