Fifth Grade Benchmarks, part 1

Benchmarks, part 1

Ok, so you child is going to be or already is a fifth grader. Congratulations! If you have your child in public or private school, this year may not seem much different than any other. Part of the reason for that is that the curriculum is already dictated for you child. And that’s a good thing. However, if you are homeschooling, then the fifth grade year takes on added importance. Why is that you ask? Well, fifth grade is one of those years. It is a year of transition. Your child is hitting those tween years, becoming more independent, and education is becoming more in depth. Because of these changes you might find that the homeschool curriculum that has worked for you up to this point is no longer as effective as it was, or is not fulfilling the needs of your child. This year is one where there are new concepts being learned, but also concepts that are being covered again, in new and more concentrated forms. You may have breathed a sigh of relief when your child learned to divide. By the end of fifth grade she will be expected to use long division, using larger numbers and dividing by larger numbers and applying this to real world math problems. See, it is still division, but it is not really a review.

If you look at the benchmarks for 5th grade as a measure of whether your child is getting what he or she needs in terms of education, you might find that you are left bewildered. Have you ever looked at the bench marks for 5th grade?