i can't believe 3rd grade is upon us! its seriously makes me want to cry. this little guy just isn't so little anymore. ugh, don't you wish you could just turn back time?! i do!
today i'm sharing our 3rd grade picks for curriculum. i am so excited about the choices we made this year. i was really intentional about it and made sure to involve my little in our choices as well. over the last two years i've had time to see what works and what doesn't work for us. i've also become more comfortable with our homeschool and how we work and flow. i feel like this years choices were way more intentional then our previous years because instead of thinking about milestones, requirements, grade levels, etc. i instead thought about how we actually learn. i also asked myself, what brings us joy in learning? our number one favorite thing to do is read! we also love anything hands on; experiments, art, history projects, dioramas, nature walks, etc. so i took all of that into consideration when choosing each and every subject we would cover for the upcoming school year.
first up is the curriculum we're most excited about, science and nature study!! we'll be using, discovering what god has made, by karen smith of simply charlotte mason and r.e.a.l. science odyssey earth science and astronomy. now i'm sure you're wondering why i chose two curriculum's, but here me out, i've got a plan! discovering what god has made is a nature study curriculum that is based around god's creation. throughout the year we will cover the different days of creation and what god created on those days. so for example, day two of creation "separation of waters and atmosphere" we'll cover topics such as the water cycle, wind, clouds, weather, etc. we'll explore those things outdoors in nature, charting the weather daily, look at different clouds, etc. but we'll also use our earth science curriculum to add experiments to those topics such as making a rain gauge or making a weather vane and in our science notebook we'll be writing out our predication's, hypotheses and all we're learning. these two curriculum's really work well together and we're definitely excited to dive in.
another subject we're excited about is history! we'll be using the story of the world, volume 1 ancient times. i absolutely love that this curriculum is literature based. reading is our jam! so i'm thrilled that we will be going about history this way. this curriculum also gives great additional reading suggestions, projects and activities so we'll be learning in a hands on manner as well. another thing that i love about this curriculum is that it comes with an audio cd so that we have the option to listen to our readings in audio. some days i feel like i spend the majority of the day reading aloud and mama's throat starts to hurt, lol. so i'm really happy that i will have this option available. it's also great because sometimes we can listen to the reading while working on an activity or coloring sheet. so another great option as well.
next up is arithmetic! we will continue using singapore math. this year we'll be using dimesions 3a and 3b. we have been using singapore math for the last two years and we love it. we add manipulatives to many of our lessons making it hands on and jax really grasps things quickly. definitely recommend this curriculum to anyone who is looking for something for arithmetic.
spelling is another curriculum where we will be sticking to what we've used for the last two years. we'll be using all about spelling, level 3. i cannot say enough about this curriculum. when it comes to spelling in the english language its definitely a challenge. there are so many rules to remember it could make one dizzy! lol. all about spelling presents spelling rules to children in a way that are easy to remember. it also reviews concepts before you begin the following lesson which is a great way for your child to retain information. we also use our wood spelling board with this curriculum for practicing our spelling words. i've yet to see a program quite like this one. i 100% recommend it.
for english we'll be using simply charlotte mason's using language well and spelling wisdom. the two books work together (don't worry we're not using two spelling curriculums, lol). english isn't jax favorite subject, it's actually his least favorite so i needed to find a curriculum that had a really gentle approach. something that wouldn't overwhelm him with tons of grammar and writing. i also wanted something that used the charlotte mason approach to learning so this curriculum seemed fitting to all of our wants and needs. along with that curriculum we will also be using the charlotte's web study guide by memoria press. this guide will increase both the understanding of text and develop reading comprehension skills. i love so many things about this guide starting with the fact that it uses such great literature. we read charlotte's web back in first grade as a read aloud but this year i will be challenging jackson to read it on his own. he's a fantastic reader so i felt that he was up for the challenge. i also love that this study guide focuses in on vocabulary. the literature in charlotte's web definitely uses words that may be a bit more challenging for a child to understand for the simple fact that they may not use those words themselves or hear them very often. so i really like that he will broaden his vocabulary through out this study. it also covers other great areas such as quotations, enrichment, discussion, etc. i personally love english so i'm really excited to dive into this with him.
this year we will be bringing on two new subjects, typing and penmanship (cursive handwriting). i felt that 3rd grade and him being 8 yrs old would be a good time to introduce these skills to him. typing is definitely a skill that must be learned in the technology driven world we live in and penmanship although it seems to be a thing of the past, its still a skill i want him to learn. i went with the good and the beautiful for both subjects.
last but not least we have music and art!
for music we'll be using an online program called my music workshop. it has lots of different music lessons available and also teaches instruments such as piano and drums. we'll be trying it all, especially piano since it seems to be sparking jax interest lately. we're all about child lead learning around here. we also plan to add some composer study in there as well. nothing too technical but we definitely want to explore different musical composers and listen to the different types of music they composed.
for art this year i wanted to really focus in on “the arts”, learning about many different types of art and artists behind them. the last two years we learned about an artist here and there but we focused more on crafts and seasonal projects. we’ll definitely still do that every now and then but the plan is to primarily focus in on picture study, trying different art techniques that famous artists use and art history as well. we’ll be using a book called modern art adventures by maja pitamic and jill laidlaw as a guide for our studies.
that about sums it all up y'all!! i truly love all of our choices for the upcoming school year. all of the reading we’ll be doing has honestly got to be what i’m most excited about, oh and the field trips i have planned of course!
have you chosen your materials for the upcoming school year?!
what are you most excited about?!
share all about it in the comments section below or on instagram if you follow me there (wildflowersteaandme). would love to hear all about it!
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