I am new to home-schooling with a daughter going into 4th grade. I have compiled a curriculum to meet the 900 hours my state requires. And, even though I have been fairly conservative, I cannot fathom how schools fit in everything over the year. Forgive me if this is obvious to you. It seems to me that they can't. Taking into account days off, snow days and testing weeks I can't see how any teacher could accomplish what is supposed to be done at 4th grade. Not to mention the time wasted by unruly students. My experience at 3rd grade in school is that we did not finish the Common Core math syllabus; did very little science; virtually no history. No Spanish. The emphasis was almost all on LA and math. We did one book report in the entire year and no hands-on science at all. I suppose I am in shock at how little my daughter learned in a whole year. And how very time-efficient home-school is. I knew the curriculum would be tailored to her needs but I had not thought about the quality of the time spent. Does anyone have any comments or advice for a newbie?