What Your Second Grader Needs to Know: Fundamentals of a Good Second Grade Education Revised (The Core Knowledge Series)

And that's just the language section.

History and geography, visual arts, mathematics, sciences and music are also included in this book. I especially like the history sections in these books. In the 2nd grade book, Civilizations of Asia and Ancient Greece are particularly interesting, with lots of great pictures. The religions of the cultures involved are discussed in a matter-of-fact and respectful manner. The section on ancient Greek politics leads right into the section in American History and democracy.

The next logical step is to discuss slavery in the United States, and important facts of the civil rights movement are explained. Civil rights heroes like Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rosa Parks are given attention, and overall it is done with a proper amount of emphasis, and ends on the positive note of changes and improvements in our culture, rather than stopping with the Civil War and leaving it at that.

A basic overview of what a 2nd grader should know in terms of math is included, along with illustrations and details of the various mathematical concepts. This is not meant to be a complete math text by any means, but more of a checkout point. Anything the child is behind in can then be noted and remedied, and the basic concepts are there so the parents at least can figure out what needs to be taught.

I find the science and visual arts sections to be just a brushover of what should be covered. I only use this information as a starting point, and I find other materials to back these subjects up.

This book is very good as part of the overall Core Knowledge curriculum. By itself, it is an incomplete curriculum for a 2nd grader, I think, but it is very good in terms of history, and for the other subjects, I think it is a great starting point.

Whether your child is homeschooled, or goes to school outside the home, I think this is a good book to have around, and the entire Core Knowledge series is a sensible starting point for a homeschooler who creates their own curriculum, like I do. I think for all other parents, it is very important to have this book, in order to fill in any gaps in your child's education.


Great series!   October 26, 2005
Mom of three (Michigan)
25 out of 25 found this review helpful

This series is great if you homeschool or want to help your child during the summer. If you want to use it for homeschool, Hirsch has made a teacher handbook. The Teacher Handbooks provide background about language arts, history and geography, visual arts, music, mathematics, and science. Each handbook has been written to look like the Core Knowledge Sequence. For each section in the Sequence, there is a matching section in the handbooks.


A Great Building Block   May 6, 2004
A. L. Hermitt (, GA United States)
21 out of 21 found this review helpful

This review is about the 2nd book in the core series "What your __ grader needs to know"

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


TERRIFIC HOMESCHOOL or "SUPPLEMENTAL HOMESCHOOL" Companion!   January 26, 2000
Stacie Renae Von Holten (Georgia, USA)
36 out of 40 found this review helpful

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!


Great Book for the Minivan!   September 9, 2001
Karen (Reston, VA USA)
18 out of 18 found this review helpful

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.