checklist of skills by grade level to present at review?

thanks Lillian! Knew I could count on you! I admire your patience and dedication to answer questions on this list and point to relevant threads.

Now I looked at the World Book list. Looks doable, but I am not certain how to use it. Consider this excerpt:

Social Studies

* Holidays, traditions, and customs
* Our American Heritage
* Different cultures at different times
* Family, school, neighborhood, community
* Farm and zoo
* Neighborhood helpers
* Jobs and careers
* Social skills and responsibilities
* Basic geography terms
* Making and reading a simple neighborhood map

I understand "making and reading a map." That I can do. The rest of the stuff - does it just meaning knowing what it is? How does one "test" this? Should the child be able to say 2 clear sentences about it? Any ideas?

Quote:
Grade 1 ? Don't make it more complex than it needs to be - instead of trying to figure out how someone might want you to use it, try just thinking in terms of what makes the most sense for introducing those things to your own child. They're just asking for a child that age to be made familiar with those things. You'll be automatically touching on the holidays - you can add some crafts and foods, sing a few songs. Our American heritage can come with Thanksgiving in very simple ways - talking about it, reading some little picture books, looking at a globe, etc. That can also touch on various cultures at other times.

There are little picture books about the community and neighborhood helpers too - ask your librarian - but you have a community of your own you can point things out and talk about various things when you go out. You can make a simple map of it on a large piece of paper, using a map you can probably get from your town's chamber of commerce. Social skills and responsibilities are things that come up naturally with your child. Geography terms are very simple for that age. To establish directions, you can talk about the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, etc. - look at a globe and point out where your town sits in your state and in the country. You can look at where the oceans are on the globe too - and talk about mountains, rivers, creeks, lakes, and whatever is around you. You can also google any of those things like this: for instance, "oceans children" - and oila! You'll find pages of good stuff like "ocean lesson plans," "oceans and children's literature," etc. - and even though you're not interested in getting into lesson planning and all that, they'll lead you to good books and resources, activities, etc. Even something as simple as reading the first Little House on the Prairie book covers a whole lot of this sort of thing.

Farm and zoo - same thing - very simple stuff - and maybe you can take little field trips.

I don't know what kind of workbooks you got, but you might want to consider cutting pages out as they're filled in and putting them into a folder for keeping samples - rather than feeling you need to fill out every page. You could have one big box or drawer for keeping things you might want to show. And if you keep a loose journal about your thoughts on the things you talk and read to her about and the things you notice her learning, that can be more be even impressive than samples. Taking pictures of things she does, things she makes, and places you go together, is good too. You can paste them onto pages she can write a few words on in colored pencil (she can even just trace over your lighter printing).

Remember that any lists of things you see that the state wants to see covered in a grade are things they would expect to see spread over the whole school year - you don't need to feel pressured to get it all in at the beginning. And I'd be sure to talk to some local homeschoolers to see if the authorities really expect much in the way of reporting - it could very well be that you're picturing it as a much bigger effort than it needs to be.

Now, just go have fun! Lillian