I enjoyed reading through this volume. It seemed like a lot of information to cover for 3rd graders, but doable. I don't remember covering a lot of world history (I can't recall hearing about Alexander the Great's conquest at all in elementary school) when I was in 3rd grade, nor any of the science presented in this book. Granted it was a long time ago, who really remembers what they learned back when they were 9 years old, and yet we all managed to get through times tables and multiplication. If I were homeschooling, I would definitely keep these books as reference for what should be covered in that year. It would have to be supplemented with a lot of creative and interesting projects and readings because just reading all of this would not hold most 3rd graders attention. ( )

The author's organization has decided what all kids should know in particular grade levels. The book is written for parents, but also serves as a textbook for the third-grade child. You will find that most of this, your child is NOT getting in public school. This may inspire you to supplement your child's public-school curriculum, or to complain that your child isn't learning the "right" things in school.

The concept of a universal core curriculum that is followed and is consistent over the years is one I understand and see the need for (as I can never assume that my own students know ANYTHING, since they all come from different teachers and different schools), but I think it's ridiculous at the same time. I'm in conflict as to what I believe about this. If I child is committed to surviving the entire gamut of public education, then it makes sense that teachers work together vertically through the grade levels. However, for one committee or organization to decide what the essential body of knowledge or exposure should be also seems wrong, in a way.

Universal standards make sense (what we do have, but is varied by state), but they are vague and skills-based; the teacher has the liberty to decide what texts or experiences to use to help the child develop those skills. This book focuses a little less on skills than on knowledge and exposure to certain "timeless" works of art & literature. For example, there are poems, songs, and short stories included that "every third-grader" should know about or have read. Ironically, I hadn't read several of them, and I'm an English major and feel pretty educated! So who really is to say that those texts are more important than the texts your 3rd-grade teacher has selected? When will this core curriculum be reviewed to include more modern works of art, music, and literature? However, it certainly would be nice if a 7th grade teacher could know for certain that every child in her class has read Alice in Wonderland> at one time so that she could use it in an example to teach something new.

The history, math, science & geography section caused me some alarm, as I could identify exactly what my child has not learned (there was no Roman history unit in my son's 3rd-grade class), but I could name several things that my son DID learn that was not included in this book (the many months studying government & culture, for example). I know for a fact that Roman history will be part of the public school curriculum eventually, so why stress about it now?

Therefore, I rate this book as "ok" because I can see the value in it, especially if your child is not learning much of anything in his or her classroom and you want to do something about it at home, but I would not treat it as gospel, and I'm not going to worry about whether or not he is up to par with this book because most kids won't have been exposed to this knowledge either. I am going to use it as a textbook for the summer, but I'm not going to test him!

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This book is great, it gives an outline to use just like the others in this series. It is a deep recourse of information and its more than a starting off point. The author makes it very easy to build on. ( )

Fundamentals of good 3rd grade education