Introduction

You and Your Child 
Your job is to help your child excel in school. Everyone agrees that children bloom when their parents, family, friends, and neighbors nudge them to learn—from the Department of Education to the Parent Teacher Association, from research organizations known as “educational laboratories” to the local newspaper, from the National Endowment for the Arts to kids’ shows on TV.
But state standards hardly make for enjoyable leisure reading, and plowing through reports on the best ways to teach math and reading can leave you with a headache rubbing your temples. You’re caught in the  middle: you want to help your child, but it’s not always easy to know how. That’s where 4th Grade at Home comes in. We identified the core skills that fourth graders need to know. Then, we put them together along  with some helpful tips for you and fun activities for your child. We built this book to be user friendly, so you and your child can fit in some quality time, even as you’re juggling all your other parental responsibilities.