I was just visiting Home Grown Kids blog, and she was posting about how kids learn when they need to. I totally agree.

I read a magazine article today about "what your kids will learn in each grade". I picked it up just to see how my kids were doing. My seventh grade daughter has excelled in everything except "should be able to converse freely and knowledgeably about STD's and AIDS". Guess we skipped that part.

My fourth grade daughter has missed out on quite a bit, because a big thing was "is able to use a variety of sources, such as maps and encyclopedias and the internet, to write reports" and "can make a bibliography". We haven't actually had her do projects like that. We've been focusing on summarizing from one source and on composition.

But if she ever had to do that, it's not hard to figure out. We never taught my older daughter, but she knows how to do it. We figure if we focus on the basics, the rest will come when it needs to. And that's good enough.

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Posted by elliott10

If we lay the basic foundation, the rest will fill in as we help them pursue the path God calls them to. Every child needs to know the basics, but we have different giftings, so from there things may vary. I am grateful for the things they are missing!

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Posted by nikimcneil

I look over those lists every now and then and think we may not have done everything but we've taught them how to figure it out and they will figure it out if and when they need to!

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Posted by LittleEblingsAcademy

.......articles and books about "What Should Your Child Know". Quite frankly, I don't want my child(ren) to know a lot of things that are on those lists. I am thankful that I can teach them what I want them to know, when I want them to know.

Blessings, Beckie :o)

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Posted by robinkay

I want to encourage you to keep on focusing on those basics. When your kids get in college as mine are, you will be amazed at how many things they picked up without formal lessons just from being around you so much. It is the sweetest and most marvelous thing about homeschooling! Guess that's why God put kids in families, not institutions, huh? Have a wonderful day with your kids!

Love,
Robin

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Posted by jillconnelly

So right!

Jill

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Posted by BarbaraFrank

I just read that across the nation, an increasing number of community college students are being required to take remedial reading before they can take credit classes because they can't even write a coherent paragraph. So how can it be that they're doing what you described in fourth grade but can no longer do so by the end of high school? Hmmmm....makes me wonder if that magazine article described reality or an unattained goal?

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