Did I miss the 3rd grade plans thread?

[stayathomelibrarian]

I'm pretty much a purist when it comes to the WTM.  I started PHP products in the 1st grade and have kept with them. I love transitioning into the next level. The books are so inexpensive that I'm able to stack our library up with the additional reading suggestions in SOTW.  She rushes through the things she has to do to sit and read from her book bin.    We've only ever changed math.  We started with Saxon, but when I had her tested, I thought her math scores could be a bit higher.  I started 2nd grade with the 2nd semester of 1st grade Horizons because I understood it to be a little above grade level.  She's just finished the 1st semester of 2nd grade. I do believe that she's at or above grade level now, when I compare it with what her publically schooled peers are learning.  She is a little bored with it now, but I think she's just ready for a break.  She's having fun with Teaching Textbooks 3 right now, and we'll pick up where we left off with Horizons later in the summer. I'm the kind of person that I like to find something that works and stick with it. "If it ain't broke don't fix" it and all.   

 

We'll continue with FLL3 and WWE3. SOTW 3.  We never went back to Prima Latina after our Christmas break,  but I may try again with a harder level.  She'll also continue to work through Spelling Workout, Worldly Wise, and Comprehension.  She's done with ETC. We're using Draw and Write Through History for cursive.  It's been a big hit because she loves to draw, and she loves cursive. 

My only real change will be science.  She takes science at co-op, and she does a number of experiments when she's working on badges for AHG, and watches the Happy Scientist,  but she feels like she's missing something because we don't "sit and do" science. I've been searching threads.  I know that I don't want to do Apologia.  She's reading Sassafrass vol 1 right now in her free time on her Kindle.  I'm leaning heaving towards doing Elemental Science next year (the Classic version) but I'm unsure of which subject.  I will have a 1st grader who is focusing on learning to read currently.  

 

Extras: She'll continue to play cello with the Montgomery Music Project. She loves Mark Kistler's Virtual Classroom for drawing. She'll be in her 4th year of American Heritage Girls, and she takes Aikdo. 

[Ameena]

Our tentative plans are:

 

Sonlight Core C

Sonlight Science C with a lot of tweaks

ZB Handwriting 2C

Brownie Girl Scouts

 

 

Math is still up in the air. At the moment, I am leaning towards using the 1st third of Saxon 54 as a 3rd grade math text, supplementing with lots of review with xtramath & maybe some $store workbooks.

[smudge]

Here's what I got so far....

 

Math- MM grade 3, which we will be starting in 2 weeks. I plan on just plugging along and advancing as needed.

Language Stuff- WWE 2, Spelling Workout D, HWOT cursive. Grammar? haven't decided yet.

History- SOTW 2, both girls love this!

Science- Elemental Science, earth/astronomy

Latin- I Speak Latin

 

Art/Music- Uhh.......

 

Both of my kids do History, science, WWE, and grammar together.

[vaquitita]

Nm

Edited December 13, 2015 by vaquitita

[kristi26]

These are my plans NOW, as of May 2014, for my third grader: 

 

My plans for my third grader at this point (this could change between now and July 1, when the new year starts): 

 

-Math: LOF Edgewood through Honey, MUS Beta (second half)

-Science: Apologia Land Animals with journal (plus backyard birds class at co-op) Apologia Swimming Creatures (all three younger kids are doing this together, K through 6)

-Language Arts: TLP Pippi Longstocking, Courage of Sarah Noble, and Sign of the Beaver; possibly IEW Fables for writing? We're going to do just two guides this year instead.  I think it would be pushing it to do three with her.
-History: The Mommy Writer's Modern History PLUS Homeschool in the Woods Early 19th Century, Civil War, and Industrial Revolution We are going to do something that I think will be really fun for History/Geography! We are doing Geography through Art with maps and food from the various countries we study.  Plus, she will be reading biographies of people from the various continents as well using mostly the "Who Was" series. She'll complete notebooking pages for the biographies.

-Art/Music: Draw. Write. Now. Books (we have 8, possibly doing 7 as well) plus art through co-op (we have books 6 and 8 to work on next year); for music, she is on the Kid's Worship team at our church plus some composer studies

-Physical Education: She is in a gym class through our co-op, plus all the normal stuff (swimming, running, walks, bike riding, etc)

 

[Runningmom80]

Bumping this because I'm at a loss for next year. :)

[Dentdiva5]

Here are my plans so far for 3rd for next year:

- History/poetry/dictation/science: Heart of Dakota- Bigger hearts for His Glory

- grammar: Shurley 3 with EG Daily Grams

- writing: writing strands 3? CAP writing and rhetoric fable1

- spelling: undecided but really interested in phonetic zoo or spelling workout

- math: Singapore MIF 3a/3b and Saxon 3 (in summer) and 5/4 in fall.

- literature: HOD Drawn into the Heart of Reading and Veritas press comprehension guides

-vocab: Wordly Wise 3000 online

[CamilleBethany]

For DS 

 

Math-Saxon 3

Language Arts- Abeka (spelling, phonics, etc), LLtL 3

History, SOTW 3 first semester, The Light and The Glory for Children 2nd semester

Science-Apologia Flying Creatures of the 5th Day

Bible-Reading a more advanced youth Bible

 

DS struggles with writing, so we haven't yet started cursive. Though it looks like we'll be adding that at the beginning of the fall. 

 

ETA: Also, reading books ,books and more books! Great classics, biographies, etc.

 

[5LittleMonkeys]

 I'm determined to focus on teaching toward specific goals that are right for him and that will set him up for learning how to learn instead of blindly following curricula and spoon feeding him pre-digested material (something I tend to fall into when life gets hectic). I want him to learn how to think.  This post got me thinking about what my goals are for him, and while there are very specific "spoon fed" type facts I want him to learn, I'm hoping to go about teaching them in a very exploratory, dissect it and put it back together to find the answers way (that makes sense in my head but sounds odd typed out :tongue_smilie: ). Since that post I've been getting really excited about the year I hope we have.  However, I am not a font of interminable knowledge so will have to rely on some curricula.

 

We will continue with Math Mammoth 3 because of all the curricula I've used over these many years this is the one that I will always use with almost no tweaking whatsoever.  I LOVE the way this program makes my kids think about numbers. :)

 

For history this year we (the whole family in the same time period for once!  woohoo!) will be doing American along with American geography.  I'm going to be using SOTW 3 as a spine for him but we will devote more time on the chapters directly relating to the exploration and expansion of America. I'll be adding in movies, documentaries, living books, biographies, several local field trips, and lots of hands on projects. He'll keep a journal of questions he has and the answers, illustrated or written accounts of his thoughts and experiences, and we will add photos of projects and field trips.  We will also be doing Beautiful Feet American Geography at home with a U.S. States notebooking\journaling class at co-op.  He'll also participate in another class at co-op that will tie into learning about American civics\government using How to Build Your Own Country as a spine. And art will tie into American History too using Great American Artists by Kohl.

 

Then we will have science.  Ah, science.  The subject I love but struggle with the most.  :glare: As stated in my goals post my main objective for science really has nothing to do with specific facts so I'm going to stop trying to force a structured, traditional study of science on this kid and let him have his way and do it the nilly willy way he seems to crave.  We will be planting a garden this year and he's already requested that it have lots of worms so I'm going to look into ordering worms for him to "farm"  :p .  He also wants to hatch butterflies and raise tadpoles.  We've been reading lately about self sustaining ecosystems so we will be hitting up some yard sales this summer to try to find some large jars, glass containers and maybe a couple aquariums.  I'm planning to give him more opportunities to continue working on his nature journal as well; something he loves to do.  We are purchasing a good microscope next month too so that will provide opportunities for observations. I will teach him how to ask a question, make a hypothesis and then test the hypothesis ... we already do this in the relaxed way most kids do but I'll show him how to write these things down and explain the importance in the scientific community of documentation.

 

For Language Arts he and dd11 will be doing a Narnia Literature Study using this awesome list by momto2Cs along with ROAR as a framework for Socratic discussion of the Narnia books.  I plan to have them to do Waldorf inspired notebooking\journaling ( idea from momto2C's ) of the books that we read.  I'd like them to do illustrations, write summaries, copy favorite passages, draw maps if applicable to the story, draw their interpretations of characters or settings, and write their thoughts on if they particularly like or dislike certain events or characters, or how the story left them feeling.  Not for every book but definitely along with the Narnia books. 

 

Composition will be across the curricula and will include work with grammar, usage, punctuation, spelling and penmanship.  I may get him an independent spelling program ... not sure yet. 

[Ruthie in MS]

Haha.  I may be behind in joining this conversation but the only thing I'm 100% sure about is MATH!  :lol:

I may update and post more finalized plans later.

 

[Chrysalis Academy]

Hm, my plans haven't changed much since February, other than she's liking BA, so we're going to use that as our main math with MM for backup.  CAP W&R is a hit, we'll finish Fable and do Narrative 1 in 3rd grade.  I did add Write from Ancient History to flesh out our Ancient studies and add some writing variety, since CAP won't take us all year and I don't want to rush into Narrative 2 before she's ready.  Science will be videos and books on the topics we're covering together in Big History - Big Bang, Stars & Elements, Solar Sysem & Earth, Life & Evolution.  

 

It's really just continuing with what we're doing now, I feel like 3rd grade started in April here.  That was my experience with her big sister, too - she always seemed to have a big jump in March or April and be ready to level up then.

 

Oh yeah, when we finish LOE we're shifting into spelling dictation using How To Teach Spelling, which I'm also using with my 6th grader.  I really like this book! I think the spelling dilemna is over.  We'll just keep working through the rules & lists in that book until they leave home.  :001_rolleyes:

[FO4UR]

Beast Academy 3

 

Apples & Pears Spelling A/B

 

English Lessons Through Literature 3

 

SOTW 4

 

Science in a Nutshell Kits (Haven't decided which...life science though); library books & Nature Journal

 

Getting Started With Latin

 

 

[jrstarfleetacademy]

Still in the planning process and have started a few. We are going to try keeping track of progress with Mobymax and I may try standardized tests every fall and spring. So far we have:

 

Math - CLE 

Language Arts - Moving from Wordly Wise 3000/GUM Grammar/Prompt, Plan, Write to CLE LA and probably CAP at some point

Reading - Piling on the library books for fluency improvement and throwing in some comprehension short answers and maybe the occasional book report

Science - RSO Chemistry Level 1

Geography/Map Skills - Maybe? Writing my own....

History - Timeline style, one person or event per quarter, interest based

Art - Art Lab, Drawing Lab, Home Art Studio, ALL FUN!

 

Activities - Dance (Jazz), Soccer, Violin or Flute (still deciding), Girls on the Run and Curiosity Hacked

 

 

 

[CAMom]

Next year will be my first year having only one child to homeschool!  My dd is graduating and my oldest is 21 so I'll have two in college and a 3rd grader. :)

 

Here are our plans as of now:

 

Classical Conversations: He'll be attending Foundations and Essentials

 

Math: Horizons 4

 

LA: WWE 3; FLL 4 (we should be finished with FLL 3 soon); Spelling Workout Level C; Various literature

 

History and Geography: I expand on what we cover in CC using SOTW

 

Science: Haven't made a decision yet

 

PE/Extracurriculars: fall and spring soccer; swim team; Lego club

 

This is basically the same plan we followed this year. He loved it and thrived with it. It was a very successful school year. :thumbup:

[kristi26]

Bumping to see what others are doing and because I updated my post here in post 58. :)

[Ameena]

Our current plans for 3rd -

 

Sonlight Core C with grade 4/5 readers

SL Science C, subbing the SL Dino book with Janice Van Cleave's Dino book.

Elements of an older SL Grade 3 LA, mostly for the creative writing assignments & grammar songs schedule

Saxon Math 5/4 worked slowly, along with lots of fact drill. Xtra Math for outside drill{dd likes Xtramath because it's not me drilling her}

Finish up ZB Handwriting 2M, followed by manuscript copywork {we don't plan on doing cursive unless dd wants to later on}. Does anyone know do they make a secular Manuscript program for 3rd grade or above?

Brownie Girl Scouts {try to finish up try-its}

PE - work on normal kid skills for age i.e. riding a bike without training wheels, jumping rope, etc. All are things DD has yet to master.

ETA: We will also be working X many pages of A Comprehensive Grade 3 workbook on our off days / days when we are too busy to school formally. It covers citizenship, math, english, critical thinking and I think science. This is primarily to keep DD in the school groove - if we miss more than a day or so, she gets balky lol.

 

This year's main goal is to work on dd's attitude issues & bring her up to speed in a few areas she is behind {primarily fine motor skills & following multi-step instructions}. I also want to work on teaching her proper classroom behavior & how to function in a class setting, but I'm not sure where to start on that. It needs done though because right now dd doesn't have enough of a grasp of it for me to be comfortable putting her in that setting without me to assist, and even then only for very short periods of time. She can handle, with assistance, things like storytime at B&N which lasts for about 30 minutes including craft time. Anything above that she begins to burn out / melt down & loses focus. Yet she wants to do day camp & girl scout workshops where I can't assist her.

[nomfaux]

My oldest has decided to attend public school for high school, so I'll be down to just one doing school at home this coming school year.  I'm also finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for my associate degree, which has been such a loooong time coming.

 

Plans so far:

 

Math: Singapore Math 3A/3B

History: History Odyssey - Early Modern

Science: Elemental Science - Chemistry

Language Arts: MCT Island, Killgallon Sentence Composing for Elementary, WWE 3, AAS 4, and HWT 3

Foreign Language: GSWS

Logic: Logic Countdown

Art: Artistic Pursuits

Music: Hoffman Academy

Extra Stuff: Continue with taekwondo and possibly start Brownies if we can find a fun troop

[tammyw]

Tagging along because it's time for me to plan grade 3 for ds. And this year I need to be way more disciplined with him!!!

[smudge]

Well I posted on March 30 (#56) but since then things have changed and I have come up with a new plan! We will be heading into our second year of HSing, so how does this sound?

 

Math- MM3 a&b, and I thought I would throw in BA 3a for fun.

 

LA- I am thinking of trading FLL2/WWE2 for English Lessons Through Literature, but can't decide if I should get vol 2 or vol 3. DD seemed bored with FLL1/WWE1 this year.

 

Spelling- Spelling Workout D, she seemed to enjoy SW C this year and did very well on her spelling tests.

 

History- SOTW2, we absolutely loved 1, and the Middle Ages fascinates me!

 

Science- Elemental Science- earth sciences/astronomy, we really enjoyed the biology program

 

Handwriting- continue working HWOT cursive books

 

Also hoping to add in GSWL, and art/music study. She will also continue with Kung Fu.

 

Have I overlooked anything?

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

Our plans for third grade are shaping up:

 

Shurley 4 (We are skipping Shurley 3.)

Building Spelling Skills

Pentime

Writing With Ease (from teacher's manual) along with CAP's Writing and Rhetoric (He saw the samples and is super excited.

Story of the World 3 with some American History supplements

Elemental Science Biology

CAP's God's Great Covenant

CAP's Song School Spanish

We will finish Saxon 3 and do the Life of Fred elementary series to give him a bit of a break before starting 5/4 and supplementing with LOF.  I want to practice his math facts with him more too so he knows them more solidly and with more speed.

Piano

Drawing with Children along with Draw Write Now and Discovering Great Artists for art

 

He's also going to start scouts and possibly 4-H.  He's begging to do horse back riding.  

 

 

[Dentdiva5]

Our plans for third grade are shaping up:

 

Shurley 4 (We are skipping Shurley 3.)

Building Spelling Skills

Pentime

Writing With Ease (from teacher's manual) along with CAP's Writing and Rhetoric (He saw the samples and is super excited.

Story of the World 3 with some American History supplements

Elemental Science Biology

CAP's God's Great Covenant

CAP's Song School Spanish

We will finish Saxon 3 and do the Life of Fred elementary series to give him a bit of a break before starting 5/4 and supplementing with LOF. I want to practice his math facts with him more too so he knows them more solidly and with more speed.

Piano

Drawing with Children along with Draw Write Now and Discovering Great Artists for art

 

He's also going to start scouts and possibly 4-H. He's begging to do horse back riding.

I noticed that you are skipping Shurley 3- can you explain why you are skipping a level? I just finished Shurley 2 with DD and was planning to start Shurley 3 for third grade, but now I'm wondering if I should do 4? Any insight would be great! Thanks!

[iona]

middle son's individual work

 

Reading oral-mcguffey3rd

Assigned-various lit following sonlight readers, books of interst in history and science

Memory work (from fll and catechism)

 

L.A. wwe/fll 2 (narration, copy work and dictation)

wrtr (May shadow little brother through early levels of aas)

cursive copy work

 

Math finish mm 2a/b and get into 3a ( May shadow little bro in education unboxed activities with rods)

Need to cement math facts through drill and games

 

Music- piano lessons-practice most days

 

Together with big bro and little bro

 

Lit-read aloud various good lit and picture books. May have one going at each kid's level or cycle through one at a time.

 

History- sotw 1 read/listen. Activity book question/narration coloring pages and map work. Additional titles as

needed/wanted. Activities if they seem fun.

 

Geography(drawing)-mapping the world (this keeps getting pushed back)

 

Science-nature study- (ideally) observe and investigate local plants, animals, weather, night sky

May try to dive into bfsu concepts, may not

 

Spanish-watch through salsa videos

 

Activity-play outside a considerable amount of time/get dirty

 

That's the plan!

[RootAnn]

LA- I am thinking of trading FLL2/WWE2 for English Lessons Through Literature, but can't decide if I should get vol 2 or vol 3. DD seemed bored with FLL1/WWE1 this year.

 

I'm not completely familiar with LTL, but perhaps if the levels aren't too different you can decide based on the books - which ones she would be more interested in?

[Murrayshire]

I think I am finished with planning my 3rd graders year. It is hard for us to stick to one science plan..... We will add a little this and a little that. If we aren't indoors doing school work, we are outdoors discovering all sorts of things!

 

 

Writing: 2nd half of WWE2 & EIW3

 

Grammar: FLL3

 

Spelling: finish AAS 3 then AAS4 with Homemade Worksheets, LOE games & journal, Spelling City

http://www.murrayshire.blogspot.com/2014/06/all-about-spelling-student-workbooks.html

 

Literature: Mosdos Press Opal, book basket full of readers & chapter books, TTC discussions

 

Math: MM 3 with Saxon 3, Reflex Math, right start games

 

History: SOTW 2, project passport with sisters, Art Study, Renaissance Fair, American history read alouds at night

 

Geography: finish Complete Book of Maps.... Then dabble in EM Daily Geography

 

Science: Bird / Animal Study, Sassafrass Zoology, Weather, Science videos ( LOTS of them) (using Elemental Science life & Earth topics & DK's The Practical Naturalist)...... Building with Dad......Following his footsteps for this.

 

 

Getting Started with Spanish with Complete Spanish workbook... Watch Elementary Spanish

 

Begin Typing

 

Cursive: use LOE cursive then Pentime for practice

 

Cooking/nutrition, health topics for boys, PE class at YMCA

 

Logic: lollipop logic series or puzzle workbooks

 

Art in the Basement with Dad

 

Thinking of starting guitar or banjo

[Another Lynn]

Time to tweak, right?  Anyone making changes?

[jaderbee]

I could have sworn I posted plans to this thread.... Anyhow, 3rd grade plans:

 

Wheeler's Speller (I have been going back a forth about this for months now)

Ray's Primary Arithmetic followed by... ???

SSL2

Killgallon's Sentence Composing

AO Y2/3 lit and bios

McGuffey's 2nd reader (we use the unpopular brown ones) and Webster's Speller

 

So really just Language Arts, math and Latin. Multum non multa right?

 

The rest of the subjects are all one room schoolhouse stuff we'll do as a family. I hope she enjoys it all and we have another fun year. :)

[AsgardCA]

So far, I'm thinking...

 

Math: Math Mammoth 4, Beast Academy 3

LA: WWE 2/3, FLL 2/3, Spelling Workout C, Canadian Handwriting C, Fix It!: The Nose Tree, Writing & Rhetoric: Fable  (some combination of these)

           I'll have him listen in to AAS 1 with his brothers for a refresher

 

 

With siblings:

History: My First History of Canada

Geography: Canada My Country, Evan-Moor Beginning Geography

Science: Mr. Q Earth & Space science, after we finish up our Mr. Q Life science

Fine arts, nature study, French...

 

I'm probably forgetting some.

[m0mmaBuck]

Our main areas of focus for the year will be:  

Math: CLE 300, LoF as a supplement

LA:  WWE3, FLL4, Pentime for penmanship practice, Spelling Workout C

History: SOTW3, Draw and Write through History... and a focus on the sections of SOTW3 Re: Am History

Science: Elemental Science Chemistry

Geography: Complete Book of Maps and Geography

 

At least 1-2 times/week we will also do:

Foreign Language: GSWL and a Spanish program DH bought at Costco (his class to teach)

Art: Weekly art class, artist studies

Music: Composer studies, guitar lessons

PE:  daily yoga, volleyball through YMCA

Typing: Typing Instructor Platinum

Logic: several books of riddles and puzzles

 

Outside activities:  American Heritage Girls

 

[Runningmom80]

bumping again to ask how long third grade takes for everyone?  Our curriculum is in my sig, we have a similar load to most of you. 

 

 

TIA!

[texasmama]

bumping again to ask how long third grade takes for everyone?  Our curriculum is in my sig, we have a similar load to most of you. 

 

 

TIA!

This is SO hard for me to answer!  My third grader listens in to my boys' subjects and chimes in (and truly benefits from them), which adds time to her schedule.  This happens without her being required to listen in.  She just happens to be in the same room playing with her plastic horses and ends up learning informal fallacies or poetic devices.  I read aloud to my boys quite a lot still so she hears their history and literature.  My boys are learning the preamble to the Constitution, so she is memorizing it right along with them.  She does a fair amount of work independently, and she reads voraciously, both assigned reading "for school" and good classic literature that I hand her 'for fun".  She watches some TV shows/DVDs which are very educational, too.  Do I count that time?  She has gone to my friend's house to drill/learn multiplication facts several times because she melts down and clams up with me and working with my friend is a fun treat.  You see my dilemma.  :)  Also, because I teach three kids together, moving between the three for individual attention, I don't track what time goes towards which student.

 

Best estimate:  3-4 hours a day, four days a week on "schoolish/educational" pursuits, some of which she would not recognize as school because, for her, it is fun reading or fun DVDs.  On Fridays, she attends her science class at co op for an hour.

[5LittleMonkeys]

bumping again to ask how long third grade takes for everyone?  Our curriculum is in my sig, we have a similar load to most of you. 

 

 

TIA!

 

 

I had to go back and look to see if we were still doing what I'd listed in this thread.  LOL!  We are!  That's a major accomplishment. :)  The only thing I added that I didn't list was Essentials in Writing.  

 

Ds8 can complete his core subjects (math, phonics\reading, LA) in about 1.5 hours.  Then we usually complete some variation of Lit, science, history, geography each day in another 1.5 hours.  That's it for subjects that we do formally or semi-formally.  He will do more learning throughout the day with educational games, model building, documentaries, library books, science exploration, etc. for anywhere from another 2 to 5 hours depending on his mood or what we've got going on for the day.  

[freesia]

ETA: Deleted--he's in fourth grade. Looking for my brain right now. LOL

[Runningmom80]

thank you!  We are about the same.  4 hours most days, but the dilly dallying is high here.

[SorrelZG]

I guess when all is said and done it's about four hours for us, too.

 

I had to peek back at the plans I'd made and I am amazed to see that, aside from our shifting math and writing plans and having relinquished my lofty ideas for using the Wile book for science this year, third grade looks just like I planned it to look—all the way back in February! This is unprecedented. :laugh:

[daffodil]

Math: Singapore 3B, Beast Academy 3C/3D

Language Arts: Bravewriter, AAS 5, maybe MCT Island?

Science: BFSU 2

History: SOTW 2

Spanish: GSWS

Latin: SSL 2, Minimus Saving 

Extracurricular: to be decided

Original plan above. Here's what we're actually working on right now:

 

Math: SM 3B, BA 3C

Language Arts: AAS 5, MCT Island, CAP Fable

Science: Interest led (just finished GEMS unit on rocks, about to start studying plants and birds)

History: SOTW 2

Spanish: GSWS, The Fun Spanish + picture books and videos

Latin: SSL 2

Extracurricular: Tae Kwon Do, gymnastics, Girl Scouts

 

We're at about 3-4 hours a day.