Teach the years everything else is built on.
A complete Kindergarten through Grade 5 curriculum: the years when your child cannot read the lesson yet, and the years when everything else starts to depend on it.
The placement reaches below Grade 3, so even your youngest gets a real starting point. Start your 14-day free trial
Your child can start without you
Through Grade 2 the lesson is spoken. Your child hears the question, hears each answer, and answers by tapping a picture, saying it out loud, or tracing a letter.
The order children actually learn in
Sounds before letters, amounts before numerals, sentences before paragraphs. An extra month on one step does not cost your child a year.
Checks you can run in five minutes
Can they read a word they have never seen, explain how they got the answer, and write a paragraph you can read? That tells you more than a folder of worksheets.
Your five-year-old can start the lesson without you.
The K-2 dashboard is drawn, not written. Your child picks a subject by its picture, hears the lesson read to them, and answers with their voice or a tap, so you are not needed for every line of it.
- Subjects your child picks by picture, not by word
- Every question and answer read out loud, one at a time
- Answers by voice, by tap, or by tracing
Elementary is where the later years are decided.
Decoding, arithmetic, and the habit of explaining your reasoning are what every later subject borrows from. Our elementary paths build them in the order children learn them, and tell you when one needs repair.
We start before your child can read
Our K-2 lessons are spoken and answered by tap, voice, or a traced letter, so a five-year-old can work through one without an adult reading the screen to them.
We teach in the order children learn
Our paths run sounds before letters and amounts before numerals, so a learner who needs another month on one step takes it without repeating the year.
We show you the checks that matter
Our progress evidence is built on what your child can do unaided, because elementary progress is the easiest kind to mistake for a pile of finished worksheets.
Elementary Subject Paths
Each path shows the skills, projects, and evidence you can expect across Grades K-5.
Reading
Our reading path runs from hearing sounds in spoken words through decoding, fluency, and reading to learn, so the skill is built in the order it actually develops rather than assumed.
Writing
Our writing path moves from forming letters and naming a drawing, to a sentence, to a paragraph with a topic and details, to a researched piece with sources named.
Mathematics
Our math path builds counting and quantity, place value, the four operations, and fractions and decimals, treating each one as an idea to explain rather than a procedure to reproduce.
Science
Our science path starts with observing and describing, then moves to investigations the child designs, records, and explains in writing.
History and geography
Our history and geography path starts with family, community, and maps of familiar places, then widens to regions, sources, and how a place and its people changed over time.
World languages
Our world language paths open at Grade 3, where a learner can read enough to work in a second language, and build listening, speaking, reading, and writing through daily use.
Browse Elementary by Grade
Each grade guide carries the subject detail, an honest daily schedule, project examples, and the checks that tell you the year is working.
Kindergarten
Lessons read aloud, letter sounds, counting
1st Grade
Decoding new words and adding within 20
2nd Grade
Reading fluency, paragraphs, place value
3rd Grade
Reading to learn, multiplication, fractions
4th Grade
Long division and writing with evidence
5th Grade
Fractions, research, middle-school habits
How an Elementary Year Runs
We find the real starting point
Our placement measures the skill rather than the grade on the form, and it reaches below Grade 3. For a child who is not reading yet, the whole check is spoken and answered with pictures.
We keep the directed day short
Our paths are built to about ninety minutes in kindergarten and four hours by Grade 5. An elementary day that runs much longer usually means a missing prerequisite, not a heavier year.
We repair the gap where it is
Our progress evidence points at the prerequisite underneath a stalled lesson, so a weak second-grade skill gets fixed without restarting a third-grade subject.
What Your Child Should Be Able to Do by Grade 5
Use these as the year-end checks instead of a completion percentage.
- Decode an unfamiliar word without being told it
- Read a passage and say what it meant
- Write a paragraph that stays on one topic
- Use the four operations and explain why each works
- Reason with fractions, not just follow the rules
- Record an observation and draw a conclusion from it
- Carry a task that takes more than one day
Questions About Elementary Homeschool
Which grades count as elementary for this guide?
This guide covers Kindergarten through Grade 5. The separate grade pages carry the subject detail, schedule, and project examples for each year.
How does a child who cannot read use a curriculum?
The lesson reads itself. Through Grade 2 your child hears the question, then hears each answer, and taps the one they want. Nothing on the screen asks them to read a sentence they cannot decode yet.
What changes at third grade?
The job of reading changes. Until then your child learns to read. From Grade 3 they read to learn, and science, history, and word problems all start to lean on it. A child still working hard to decode will look like they have several problems when they have one.
How long should an elementary homeschool day be?
About ninety minutes in kindergarten, rising to roughly four hours by Grade 5. If it consistently runs much longer, that is usually a missing prerequisite rather than a heavy curriculum.
Start where your child actually is.
Placement measures the skill, not the grade on the form. For a child who is not reading yet, the whole check is spoken and answered with pictures.
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