What to teach in each homeschool grade, K to 8

Teach reading and math in the order they build, and let the rest follow your kid's interests. There's no single national list for the United States. Each state sets standards for its public schools, and many use or adapted the Common Core standards for math and English. Homeschoolers usually aren't bound by those, though some states name subjects you have to cover, so check your state's rules.

Still, the public school sequence is a useful map. Here's roughly where math and reading sit, grade by grade.

Math, in the order it usually goes

• Kindergarten. Counting to 100, writing numbers, adding and taking away small amounts with objects.
• 1st grade. Adding and subtracting within 20, place value with tens and ones, telling time to the hour.
• 2nd grade. Adding and subtracting to 1,000 with regrouping, money, measuring.
• 3rd grade. Multiplication and division facts, and a first look at fractions.
• 4th grade. Multiplying bigger numbers, long division, equivalent fractions.
• 5th grade. Adding and subtracting fractions with different denominators, and decimals.
• 6th grade. Ratios, rates, and negative numbers.
• 7th grade. Proportions, operations with negative numbers, simple equations.
• 8th grade. Linear equations, functions, and the Pythagorean theorem. Some kids start Algebra I here, and some wait until 9th.

Reading, in the order it usually goes

Kindergarten and first grade are about sounding out words. Letter sounds, blending, and short books a child can actually read. By second and third grade the work is fluency, reading smoothly enough that the meaning comes through. From fourth grade on, kids read to learn things, write paragraphs and then essays, and start noticing how an author built a story.

Read aloud the whole way through. A child can understand books years above what they can read on their own, and the evenings spent on a chapter book that's a little too hard for them are where a lot of their vocabulary, and their patience for a long story, comes from.

Science, history and the rest

These vary much more between schools, and they matter less for the order. A seven-year-old can learn about volcanoes or ancient Egypt in any year. Many homeschool families cycle through history in order, or teach science by topic, and let siblings study the same thing together at different depths.

Your kid's level matters more than the grade

You've met this kid. Maybe he's yours. Ten years old, reads like a middle schooler, and still counts on his fingers to subtract. In a classroom he'd be "a fourth grader." At home he can read sixth-grade books and do third-grade math in the same morning, and both are right for him.

Find where your child actually is in math and reading, and start there. A placement test from a math program, or just sitting beside them for a few problems, will tell you more than their age does.

If you want the full list for one grade, we keep a free one-page schedule for each grade, with no account needed.

Grades are a rough guide. The kid in front of you is the real one.