“How do I know what I should be teaching them?”
It’s the number one question I hear from parents thinking about homeschooling. I asked it too. I went looking for one clear list of language arts skills by grade, showing what to expect and in what order, and I couldn’t find it.
When you homeschool, you don’t have a classroom of other kids to compare to. It can be hard to tell whether your child is right on track, just needs more time, or is struggling and needs a different approach. And honestly, that worry will likely come back more than once. That’s normal. We all want our kids to do well.
So in this post, I’ll walk through language arts skills by grade from kindergarten through 8th grade, why the order matters more than the grade, and how to figure out what to teach next.
Why the Order Matters More Than the Grade
Humans were made to communicate by talking. Reading and writing came much later, and they can be hard skills to learn. The good news is that reading research tells us a lot about how these skills build on each other.
Think of each skill area as a ladder. Kids usually need the lower rungs before the higher ones. For example, a child who can’t yet hear the separate sounds in a word will likely struggle with phonics, no matter what grade they’re in.
Any list of language arts skills by grade is a general guide. Grade levels are typical, not deadlines, and exactly when a skill is introduced is often a curriculum choice. What matters most is finding the rung your kid is on right now and teaching the next one.
It’s also very normal for kids to be at different levels in different areas. A kid can understand 5th-grade read-alouds and decode at a 2nd-grade level. Neither one cancels out the other.
Exposure Isn’t Enough: Why Explicit Teaching Matters
There’s a popular idea in homeschooling that if you surround kids with good books and read aloud to them, they’ll learn to read on their own. Some kids do seem to pick it up that way. Many don’t.
My kids have had all of that. Our house is full of books, we read aloud constantly, and they love stories. And my oldest still has severe dyslexia and has had to work really hard to learn to read. Loving books and decoding words are two different skills.
Reading research supports explicit and systematic instruction: teaching each skill directly, in a planned order, with practice until it sticks. Neurodivergent kids often need things taught explicitly, and academics are no exception. If we don’t teach a skill, there’s no guarantee they’ll pick it up on their own.
Honestly, this is a big source of anxiety for me. So much of education seems to assume you just know what to teach, or that kids will absorb it somehow. That ambiguity is exactly why I wanted to lay the skills out clearly.
Good books still matter a lot, for vocabulary, background knowledge, and a love of reading. They just can’t do the whole job alone. My video How to Raise a Reader When Your Child Has Dyslexia shares how we keep that love of books alive.
The Building Blocks of Homeschool Language Arts
The science of reading breaks reading into five big areas: sounds, decoding and spelling, fluency (accuracy, rate, and expression), language and meaning (vocabulary, background knowledge, and comprehension), and motivation.
Each of these can be taught directly, one step at a time. A gap in one area, like hearing the sounds in words, can quietly hold back everything built on top of it.
Reading is only part of language arts, though. A full language arts education also includes writing, grammar, handwriting, literature, poetry, and research skills. They all work together. For example, writing words while reading them helps kids practice connecting sounds to letters, so reading and spelling reinforce each other.
Language Arts Skills by Grade: What It Typically Looks Like
Here’s a big-picture look at how skills usually build, based on Georgia’s K–12 English Language Arts standards and reading research. Remember, these are typical ranges, not deadlines.
| Stage | Sounds and reading words | Fluency | Understanding | Writing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K–2 | Rhyming, blending and splitting sounds, letter names and sounds, CVC words (cat, sit), digraphs, blends, silent-e, vowel teams | Reading grade-level text accurately, with growing expression | Retelling stories, characters and setting, main topic, central message | Drawing, labeling, or dictating, then a few related sentences and simple opinion pieces |
| 3–5 | Multisyllable words, syllable types, prefixes and suffixes, Greek and Latin roots | Reading automatically (without effort), with expression | Character traits, themes, cause and effect, figurative language, comparing sources | One focused paragraph, then several grouped paragraphs; stories with dialogue; cursive |
| 6–8 | Word origins, connotation vs. denotation | Expression that shows tone and meaning | Multiple themes, author’s perspective and bias, evaluating arguments | Multi-paragraph essays, arguments with counterclaims and rebuttals, citations |
This is a very simplified version. My full guide breaks language arts skills by grade into step-by-step skill ladders, with a one-page snapshot for every grade.
If Your Kid Is Neurodivergent
If you’re teaching a kid with dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADHD, or autism, a chart of language arts skills by grade can feel discouraging. A few things I’ve learned:
- Slow reading isn’t the same as low skill. Check skills one at a time, like single words, sounds, or spoken answers, not only through timed reading.
- Check understanding by ear. Read-alouds and audiobooks let kids show comprehension without decoding getting in the way.
- Older kids aren’t too old to go back. Gaps in sounds and phonics can show up at any age, and filling them can make a big difference.
- Separate ideas from handwriting. Narration, dictation, typing, or speech-to-text let kids show what they know while handwriting is practiced separately.
- Some kids learn language in chunks first. Gestalt language processors, including many autistic kids, may not break words into sounds the usual way, at least not yet. A speech-language pathologist familiar with gestalt language processing may be able to help.
This is just what’s helped in our family and what I’ve learned through research. It’s not professional advice, so reach out to a qualified professional if you’re concerned.
How to Figure Out What to Teach Next
Once you know how language arts skills by grade typically build, you can use that ladder to find your child’s starting point.
- Start where you think your kid is. Pick a skill area and start a little below where you think they are.
- Work down the ladder. Keep going until you hit skills they can’t do yet, or can only do with help. That’s your starting point.
- Pick just the next few skills. Trying to fix everything at once is overwhelming for both of you. Focus on two or three.
- Reassess every term. Kids can move faster in some areas and slower in others, and that’s okay.
What This Looks Like in Our House
Because my son struggles with fluency, he was placed in the same level on almost every reading placement test. When I first looked for a dyslexia tutor, she placed him at that same level again. I mentioned that we’d been at that level for years. If you checked his knowledge one skill at a time, he knew most of it. It was applying it all at once that was hard. She just shrugged and said that’s where he placed.
I eventually found a different place. They went through his psychological evaluation and did a modified assessment. He still placed in a lower level because of his fluency, but they also noticed that spelling was a strength and that he had a lot of the underlying knowledge. It was fluency specifically. So we’ve really zeroed in on that one piece.
Breaking skills apart can also show you small things you’d otherwise miss. Once my son started writing more, I noticed he spelled apple as “abble.” He was hearing a /b/ instead of a /p/. So we worked on mouth shape, tongue placement, and voiced vs. unvoiced sounds, so he could feel the difference. Since he’s a decent speller, his spelling actually tells me a lot about what he’s processing.
That’s the whole point of looking at one skill at a time. You can zero in on what actually needs help, instead of spinning your wheels in the same material forever.
Georgia families: Georgia requires homeschool parents to write an annual progress report for each required subject (see HSLDA’s summary of Georgia homeschool law). Tracking skills this way can make that report much easier to write.
Get the Full Language Arts Checklist
I put all of these language arts skills by grade together in one printable guide: the Language Arts Skill Goals: K–8 Checklist. It’s 33 ink-friendly pages and includes:
- 13 skill ladders, in research-based learning order, with Not yet / Learning / Got it boxes
- One-page grade snapshots for kindergarten through 8th grade
- A My Kid’s LA Plan worksheet and progress notes page
- Notes for neurodivergent kids throughout
It works with any curriculum, and you can print a fresh copy for each child every year.
Watch: How to Assess Where Your Kid Is Actually At Academically
In this video, I talk through how I figure out where my kids are in each subject, what to do about gaps, and why different levels in different subjects is completely normal.
If you’re just starting out, watch You Just Pulled Your ND Kid From School: Now What? For more on teaching reading, see How We Teach Reading with Dyslexia at Home.
FAQ
What language arts skills should my child know by grade?
It varies, but language arts skills by grade generally follow this pattern: K–2 focuses on sounds, phonics, and early writing; 3–5 on fluency, comprehension, and paragraphs; and 6–8 on analysis, essays, and arguments. The order skills build in matters more than the exact grade.
What if my child is behind in reading?
Start at the earliest skill they haven’t mastered and work forward from there, even if it feels “too young.” Foundational gaps can show up at any age. If you’re concerned, talk to a qualified professional about an evaluation.
My kid reads great but struggles with spelling. What am I doing wrong?
Probably nothing. It’s very common for kids to be further along in reading than in writing and spelling. Reading is usually the easier skill, because spelling and writing ask kids to apply everything they know at once. That’s also why it helps to teach reading and writing together. Writing is a multisensory tool that builds automaticity. In general, if they can write it, they can read it.
Do I have to follow Georgia’s standards to homeschool in Georgia?
No. Georgia requires homeschoolers to teach certain subjects, including reading and language arts, but doesn’t require you to follow the state standards. They can still be a helpful guide for what kids typically learn. My video Homeschooling in Georgia: Start Here covers the legal requirements.
Does this work with any curriculum?
Yes. It’s a map of skills, not a curriculum, so you can use it alongside whatever you’re already using.
You’ve Got This
Figuring out what to teach can feel like a lot, especially at the beginning. You don’t have to have it all figured out today. Language arts skills by grade are a map, not a test. Start where your kid is, take the next small step, and adjust as you go. You’ve got this!
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