What Your Fourth Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of A Good Fourth-Grade Education (Core Knowledge Series)

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."

I have bought all these books through 6th grade. I love them. My kids love the stories in the literature section. I read the poetry to them and the stories. These help give them a little extra education that they don't get in school.

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!

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.)

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