Standards are just guidelines around what should be taught in each year of school. They should tie into each other, such as kindergarten might have a basic introduction of a concept that is built upon in subsequent grades, with mastery expected by a certain grade.

Standards are often misunderstood, especially the Common Core Standards. Every state had its own version of standards before Common Core standardized what is learned in each grade, nationwide. One reason this is useful is because of the mobility of our population. If a student relocates from one state to another, they might not have been taught the same things in both states, and there could be learning gaps. It was also hard to have national standardized testing that lined up with all state standards.

Common Core was controversial because of the ways it was implemented. Standards can be politicized and used to indoctrinate, rather than to educate. This is happening in many places and is one driver for the increase of homeschoolers nationwide. A reading standard can be used with classical literature, or it can be used with materials that encourage transgenderism or homosexuality. Same standard, but one educates and one indoctrinates to a specific lifestyle and way of thinking. It wasn’t the standard that dictated which books to read, it was the teacher, administration, and/or school board that led in the direction.

In their purest form, the standards are to guide you in knowing what to teach in each grade. They are usually developmentally appropriate and neutral, just statement goals to be reached by the end of the school year. Standards are goals. Standards are guides. Standards should build foundations for the next year and the next and the next.

Some of them are not developmentally appropriate. There were a few that my students struggled to learn each year. There was a way I could tell when a standard was not appropriate for my grade: Was it easy for most of the kids to learn easily? If not, then it was too soon for them and perhaps waiting for the next grade to introduce it or having it as an introduction or sneak-peek, without expectations for mastery, would work.

Standards guide not only what is taught, and in what grade, but it also guides assessments. Teachers need to know whether their students fully learned and understood the material. I did a little guide on Assessments in this website, so I won’t go into it again here. In assessing, you always start with the standard. Write that statement on paper and then brainstorm how you will show the student learned it.

Standards also inform instruction. You find a standard you want to cover, and then you figure out ways to teach it. How will you do your direct instruction? What media will you bring in for enhancement? What are the materials you will need? What are the activities that will help your child master or at least start to understand, the concept? What books will you read to help them with understanding? All of that goes into lesson planning.

Every grade I taught, I printed the Common Core and State Standards and kept them in a binder for reference. It helped a great deal with my lesson planning and assessments, and just for overall planning purposes. I encourage you to also do this. As you teach, keep going back to see if your curriculum is aligned with them. If it is not, then add to it. There are so many great supplementary materials available on sites like Teachers Pay Teachers, many for free, that you can easily find quality activities to fill in the gaps.

One thing the standards do not do, is to give you a map of timing, when to use each one. The beauty of homeschooling is, you can present topics when they feel right to present. You can spend as much or as little time as necessary, and even skip or merely review them if your child already understands them.

If you are creating your own program, you will need a curriculum map, showing when you teach which standards. A curriculum map can be a living document, changing to suit the child’s progress. It should be flexible to some degree. It should outline what will be covered each week and should have a review week worked into every month. Most school years are for 180 days, though some go all year and some go less than that. If you are doing year-round school, you might work a month or so, then take a week off. I worked in a modified year-round school and found those breaks to be valuable for allowing kids to integrate learning. When they returned, they often understood things they did not quite get before their break.

Here is the link to Common Core Standards: https://corestandards.org/

Do an internet search for your state’s State Standards. That should give you standards for all content areas, including science and social studies. Common Core is only for English Language Arts and Math.