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 reading and math can leave you 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 1st Grade at Home comes in. We identified the core skills that first 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 responsibilities.