What Every Parent Needs to Know about 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Grades: An Essential Guide to Your Child's Education

This straightforward overview of how children learn best in the early elementary grades is arranged by school subject, beginning with reading and writing and moving on to math, social studies and science. In each chapter, the authors, education and teaching specialists, describe appropriate teaching methods and supply parents with questions to ask teachers, as well as tips on how to help children learn at home (e.g., put up a family message board to encourage writing, or play dice and board games to learn math concepts). The authors are adept at describing how education has changed, and why children seem to be learning in different ways than did their parents. While the book is otherwise neatly arranged, a discussion of the developmental characteristics of children in first, second and third grades is rather oddly placed following the glossary. Lists of suggested readings and useful education-related Web sites are also included. This is a handy primer, which should help parents keep on touch with what and how their children are learning in the early grades. (July)