Social studiesGrade 1ages 6–7
🏠 Home and family
A young child's idea of home often stretches to cover the whole street or anywhere they've visited — this lesson draws a clear line: home is the place you return to for sleep and food, and family are the people who live there or look after you.
Try this lesson freeNo card needed. The first lesson is free.
Download on the App StoreWhat your child learns
- A home is a place we come back to for sleep and food.
- Family are the people who live with us, or who look after us.
- A street or a garden is outside. They are not the home itself.
- A home has rooms: a place to sleep, a place to eat.
The mistake most kids make here
Thinking every place outside is home.
Try one question
Live and sleep
- in the street
- at home
- in a cloud
Answer
at home — That's it. We live and sleep at home, not in the street.
How Maya teaches it
Your child tells Maya what they did in class. She teaches this topic at her desk, asks questions with tappable answers, and when the answer is wrong she explains why that answer was tempting instead of saying “try again”. She remembers what did not land and comes back to it.
Your child has it when they can: Say what makes a place a home.
How to help at home
Walk your child through the actual boundary of home: which door is the front door, which rooms belong to your family, and which parts, like the hallway or the street, are outside it.
Ask what family means in your own house: who lives here, who visits often, who takes care of you. There's no single right list — the point is that your child can name the specific people who are theirs.
A garden, a playground, or the street outside are all outside the home, even when they're right next to it and visited every day. Point out the moment of walking back in the front door as the moment of coming home.
A good sign they've got it: your child can describe, without your prompting, what makes a place a home rather than just naming any building they've been inside.
Questions parents ask
- How do I explain home to a first grader who visits lots of different places?
- Tie it to something concrete: home is where you sleep at night and where your things live. A grandparent's house or a friend's house can feel warm without being home.
- What's the difference between family and neighbors?
- Family are the people who live with your child or actively take care of them. Neighbors live nearby but in a different home — a useful distinction to hold onto.
- My child says the whole street is their home. Is that wrong at this age?
- It's a common stretch at six, more imprecise than wrong. Gently narrowing it — the street is outside, home is where we sleep and eat — is exactly what this age needs.
- How does Maya teach this?
- Maya asks a simple question, like where do we live and sleep, and has the child pick between real options, so the boundary of home gets practiced directly.
No card needed. The first lesson is free.
Download on the App StoreMore Social studies lessons
- Blue and whiteGrade 1
- Street and neighboursGrade 1
- A house ruleGrade 1
- Hot and cold outsideGrade 1
- Map legendGrade 2
- Who helpsGrade 2
- A map of the homeGrade 2
- Jobs in townGrade 2
Sources: Israeli Ministry of Education – Homeland, society and civics curriculum, elementary (in Hebrew)