It goes over everything your child needs to know in the first grade, breaking it up into sections by subject. It not only explains to you what your child should know, but gives you pointers on how you can help your child learn and achieve the first grade goals.
Many thanks to the author of this great book for putting everything I need to know to teach my child, under one cover.
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.
Language and Literature: Plenty of stories and poetry to read to your child and get them started. Weak in the phonics area. I would recommend a good phonics primer - Phonics Pathways by Dolories Hiskes (awesome and inexpensive resource and it will get your child reading fast).
Mathematics: Simple progression in math skills. I like the suggestions on manipulatives and games to do with your child, they make the learning process more fun for the child.
Science: Braod overview of many sciences. Good things to start talking about with your child before a trip to the local zoo or library to pick up more in depth information.
This book is not meant to be a complete curriculum for teaching your child, but is a nice supplement. I like the stories, poems and music. It's a great portable all in one book. The notes to parents are helpful in finding ways to teach each subject.
