Critique my 3rd grade plans

[amyc78]

You all have been so helpful with my curriculum questions over the past few weeks! I'm starting to make some concrete decisions for 3rd grade. Much of this we will start in the next couple of months. Would love opinions on any holes in our plans, does it seem like too much, etc.

 

 

Math- CLE 300 and MUS Gamma/Delta

 

Language Arts- Abeka Language 3; AAS 3/4; Abeka Cursive;

 

Bible- Vos Storybook Bible; Integrity Time; weekly Scripture memory or Bible grammar

 

Reading / Literature- list of books compiled from Sonlight, VP, BF, etc for independent reading / readalouds

 

History- SOTW 1; VP Self Pace OT-AE

 

Science / Health- Exploring God's World; Health, Safety and Manners 3

 

Other- Classical Conversations, Abeka Art, weekly PE class, soccer and horseback riding, lots of free time for Legos, drawing, creative play

 

Would love to add piano but just not sure we have the time… 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

Looks good to me, provided your child gets appropriate breaks and doesn't fatigue from too much seat work or writing. That would work with my third grader who is nice and studious, but plenty of other students might find it to be too much work, and others too little challenge.

 

You know your student - There is nothing wildly off base there, but it's all very individual at the end of the day :)

[Slache]

We're doing Step By Step Piano. It takes very little time.

[Guest]

Oh. And as for piano practice, we have our lesson Wednesday and the girls do their piano in the evening. Beginning in May, at the start of my next semester, I'm moving them to the morning with it so that one girl is doing her practice while the other is doing their devotional. I think that fits nicely in our day, you may consider something similar.

[Brit29]

The science wouldn't work for my kiddo. She needs something meatier with a lot more hands-on. But she's a science kid!  

 

Have a great year! 

 

 

[HS Mom in NC]

Just a note on SOTW1-It's very chronological from a world history point of view, so it jumps from people group to people group a lot.  Some people are perfectly OK with it.  Others find it too scattered for their personal tastes.  If you find this to be the case, simply reorganize the readings by region and move chronologically within the regions. (Middle East, China, Greece, Rome, Africa, Europe, the Americas, etc.)   You can pretty much do most of them in any order you like, but start with the chapters on What is History? and How Do We Know?  and then go to Mesopotamia. End with the Romans because SOTW 2 begins assuming the Roman Empire in SOTW 1 was the last thing you did.  That way you can still use what you have with just some minor tweaking.

If you haven't considered the Activity Books, you should.  They're not for everyone, but people who like them tend to really like them. If you get the SOTW1 Activity Book you can pull from the lists in each chapter literature for independent reading and read alouds that directly relate to your SOTW1 readings.  Some people like this more immersive approach.  Others prefer not to use history based readings because they want more variety between subjects.  It's up to you.  The Activity Book also includes questions for and examples of narrations if you want to do a little subject integration for history and writing. There's geography, coloring pages and hands on projects for each chapter too.

[Guest]

And then some of us who do SOTW just listen to it and call it good for the first run through of the history cycle ;)

 

By third grade I am beefing up history quite a bit compared to first and second, though!

[amyc78]

Just a note on SOTW1-It's very chronological from a world history point of view, so it jumps from people group to people group a lot.  Some people are perfectly OK with it.  Others find it too scattered for their personal tastes.  If you find this to be the case, simply reorganize the readings by region and move chronologically within the regions. (Middle East, China, Greece, Rome, Africa, Europe, the Americas, etc.)   You can pretty much do most of them in any order you like, but start with the chapters on What is History? and How Do We Know?  and then go to Mesopotamia. End with the Romans because SOTW 2 begins assuming the Roman Empire in SOTW 1 was the last thing you did.  That way you can still use what you have with just some minor tweaking.

 

If you haven't considered the Activity Books, you should.  They're not for everyone, but people who like them tend to really like them. If you get the SOTW1 Activity Book you can pull from the lists in each chapter literature for independent reading and read alouds that directly relate to your SOTW1 readings.  Some people like this more immersive approach.  Others prefer not to use history based readings because they want more variety between subjects.  It's up to you.  The Activity Book also includes questions for and examples of narrations if you want to do a little subject integration for history and writing. There's geography, coloring pages and hands on projects for each chapter too.

 

Thanks for the tips! I have wondered about the Activity Books because I am NOT  a crafty project type (although my kids love them and I'm happy to let them do anything they can do themselves pretty simply). Both my kids would like the coloring pages, though, and the narration ideas would be great for my oldest.

 

As far as reading, I haven't decided yet. We spend a lot of time on history between CC, VP and SOTW, so I'm thinking some fun stuff from other subjects might be in order

[amyc78]

And then some of us who do SOTW just listen to it and call it good for the first run through of the history cycle ;)

 

By third grade I am beefing up history quite a bit compared to first and second, though!

 

Honestly, many weeks that's probably all we will do. My kids will love the coloring pages but I think SOTW + CC Memory Work + VP History = more than enough history studies! ;)

 

[amyc78]

The science wouldn't work for my kiddo. She needs something meatier with a lot more hands-on. But she's a science kid!  

 

Have a great year! 

 

Science is my son's favorite subject and that's actually why I don't schedule much. He does so much on his own, interest-led and we do a weekly experiment in our co-op. He also watches lots of documentaries and reads reads reads. "Exploring God's World" seemed like a good jumping off point and it goes along nicely with our CC Cycle 1 memory work. 

 

And I'll admit- I loathe hands on stuff  :crying:

 

As he gets older and can do more of that stuff on his own, I'll add more to our studies :)

[amyc78]

Looks good to me, provided your child gets appropriate breaks and doesn't fatigue from too much seat work or writing. That would work with my third grader who is nice and studious, but plenty of other students might find it to be too much work, and others too little challenge.

 

You know your student - There is nothing wildly off base there, but it's all very individual at the end of the day :)

 

We won't do all of these subjects every day. I have no problem skipping problems or spreading lessons out. DS8 has really matured this past year and is able to do so much work independently and (generally) without complaining.

 

I'm thinking our schedule will be Bible, Memory Work, Math and Language Arts every day (alternating between MUS and CLE; and spelling only 2 days a week); then rotate between History, Science, Health and Art as extras.

 

[ALB]

My dd really liked that science when she did it last year for 3rd.  It may not be a popular option here, but it worked for us!  

[Aurelia]

Do you really need 2 math programs and 2 history programs? That's an awful lot of work for an 8 year old, and unless your planning to take longer than a standard school year to finish everything. 

[amyc78]

Do you really need 2 math programs and 2 history programs? That's an awful lot of work for an 8 year old, and unless your planning to take longer than a standard school year to finish everything. 

 

I've worried about this too but I think it looks worse on paper than in reality…

 

The math probably won't run concurrently. He is doing MUS Gamma now but I want to use CLE starting this summer to fill in some gaps, mostly in regards to math terminology as well as weights and measures, fractions, money, geometry, etc. However, CLE is a good bit behind where he is with multiplication so we will continue with Gamma and probably do Delta at a very slow pace. MUS has never taken us a full year, in fact he's finished most of the books in 6 months or less. (I thought about just getting some supplementary workbooks but most of those don't teach to the student the way CLE does and the price is really competitive with most of the workbooks I've seen.)

 

For history, we will listen to SOTW at our own pace. The VP is really more for fun for him, he begs to do it every afternoon when his other school work is done. We don't do all the literature and activities along with it, he just does the 30 minute lesson and games on the computer. 

[Meg4]

I've worried about this too but I think it looks worse on paper than in reality…

 

The math probably won't run concurrently. He is doing MUS Gamma now but I want to use CLE starting this summer to fill in some gaps, mostly in regards to math terminology as well as weights and measures, fractions, money, geometry, etc. However, CLE is a good bit behind where he is with multiplication so we will continue with Gamma and probably do Delta at a very slow pace. MUS has never taken us a full year, in fact he's finished most of the books in 6 months or less. (I thought about just getting some supplementary workbooks but most of those don't teach to the student the way CLE does and the price is really competitive with most of the workbooks I've seen.)

 

For history, we will listen to SOTW at our own pace. The VP is really more for fun for him, he begs to do it every afternoon when his other school work is done. We don't do all the literature and activities along with it, he just does the 30 minute lesson and games on the computer. 

Im struggling with this re MUS. I had thought about switching completely to CLE. And I tried to do both but we couldn't get it all done. But, I feel like have some of the same gaps with those topics that you listed. So, I'm not sure what to do....

[amyc78]

Im struggling with this re MUS. I had thought about switching completely to CLE. And I tried to do both but we couldn't get it all done. But, I feel like have some of the same gaps with those topics that you listed. So, I'm not sure what to do....

 

Yeah, I'm not sure if this will work or not but we are going to try. The good thing is, we will finish Gamma in a few weeks and start CLE. Since he is just going in to 3rd grade, I don't feel like we have to start Delta right away. Although when CLE 300 starts covering division, I may break and do a few weeks of MUS Delta so that he gets the conceptual foundation of division first… I don't know, I'll just have to be flexible and see what works!