If you are thinking about homeschooling this coming year, I want to highly recommend that you consider the Core Knowledge series (aff link) and purchase the book for the grade your child will be starting. For example, next year, I'll have a sixth grader, so I'll pick up a copy of "What Your Sixth Grader Needs to Know."
The Core Knowledge Series of books has been my guide for many years. In it are all the basics that my children should know by the end of the year. I use this as my spine while using separate programs/lessons for teaching each subject. You can find them new and used in my Amazon store, LibrerÃa, or ask for them at your local library. Personally, I want to reference them all year long, so I like having copies of my own.
I LOVE this series. The books themselves are divided up by subject: Language & Literature, History & Geography, Visual Arts, Music, Math, and Science. They were not originally written for homeschoolers, but rather as a supplement for parents wanting to get more active in their children’s education. This series is a byproduct of the Core Knowledge Foundation whose mission is to improve our national education system through the creation of specific guidelines that promote a sound foundation and which builds upon itself. In other words, it is sequential and each grade builds upon the knowledge that was learned in the previous grade.
Important note! I should clarify right now that I am NOT (and have never been) a fan of Common Core Standards (CCS). While I think that it is good in theory, I think it is an atrocious failure in practice. Why? Because although it is great to have a guideline for what children should be learning in school, I know that kids learn in different ways and in their own time. I object to teachers being forbidden to teach anything outside of the CCS, or to teaching to tests. Our goal is to teach children to be functioning and contributing members of our society. My goal as a parent and teacher is to raise happy, healthy, considerate, and hard-working kids.
The series has recently been updated so you may find books with different covers. Grab them if you can!