Kinder & 3rd grade planning

[Deb Doo]

Starting homeschool this fall. I will have 2 kindergarteners & a 3rd grader. The oldest is currently in public school. I’ve been doing a lot of research! Right now I would love some suggestions on history, science, and nature studies. I would like to do these subjects together as a group. Many history curriculums that I have looked at start at 3rd grade or 8 years old. I don’t want it to be too simple for the oldest or too hard for the youngest. Help a gal out please! Thank you!

Deb

[Kiara.I]

Story of the World works great. You can have the older one do some of the map work from the activity book, and narrate back the chapter. You could let the K kids just listen. Or do some of the extra fun activities!

[wendyroo]

At those ages we really liked Mr. Q science. The (online) texts are conversational and funny, but also introduce deep science concepts. There are optional worksheets, lots of ideas for experiments (don't feel like you have to do all of them), and some of the experiments are extra in-depth and take kids through the scientific method (as opposed to many elementary "experiments" which are actually just demonstrations that don't really test anything).

The best part is that the elementary life science book is entirely free.

[Clarita]

I like Story of the World or Curiosity Chronicles. Story of the World because it connects Western Civilization better and Curiosity Chronicles because it covers all the civilizations more equally as opposed to spending most of it's time in Western Civilization. I do like Curiosity for the younger crowd because it covers more the people, culture and inventions compared to Story of the World which comparatively spends more time on the famous people and events which tend toward the fighting and politics. I do timeline with every chapter and with my Kindergartner and first grader but we just talk about the mapwork and look on a map as opposed to write/color the mapwork. I only do the activities that look interesting so we don't do activity for every chapter. 

I really like Mystery Science. It's video based (online streaming). First grade and above there is hands on work ("experiments", observations, activities). Recently there are accompanying assessments, comprehension worksheets you can print out for the units. These are there for teachers but you could use them if you want. For a 3rd grader you can just go through their lessons. For Kindergartener they can follow along with what the 3rd grader is doing and/or do the mini-lessons which are short 5 min videos which answer science questions posed by children. 3rd grader would like the mini-lessons too but the lessons have the activities and have a little more thinking.

BFSU and Science Connection Through Inquiry (which makes BFSU open and go) are also good choices for science. I'm not continuing with that path because it's a little too serious for what I want in elementary science. I want science and history to be fun, not work.     

[countrymum]

I really like simply Charlotte Mason science. Discovering what God has Made would be perfect for your ages. 

https://simplycharlottemason.com/store/discovering-what-god-has-made/

 

I really would like doing American History of some kind with those ages. I've only had 1 first grader interested in ancient history. I've had 1 who didn't like history at all till I started reading interesting American History stories to him. I almost killed his interest in the subject early on. Not all families are like this though. Find out what your kids would like. I don't have a curriculum suggestion exactly. If you want a textbook Notgrass Our Star spangled Story is nice. You can just use 1 book each year so you have time to add in library books and documentaries. The student books are nice.

Simply Charlotte Mason has nature study ideas integrated into the science books some. They also have nature notebooks and articles about nature study so you can DIY it. If you want a program I like Exploring Nature with Children. It has interesting weekly prompts and going deeper ideas if you get interested. It is from England so some of the prompts are a bit off depending on your climate....it's ok for us as I never get to it weekly anyway and have other ideas on our own some weeks.

[Momof4sweetkids]

This year we did Beautiful Feet Books Seasons Afield for nature/science and liked it. I plan to use BFB for history this coming year.

[OakParkOwlets]

Mr. Q is great for science, I will be using physical science this year with my 3rd grader, but Life would be great for all of them to do together.  SOTW as an audiobook is nice to have, less work on you reading, they can color or play with quiet toys while they listen.  If your kids have a longer attention span I enjoy No Sweat Nature Study, you could even break the videos into smaller pieces if you wanted.  Math, you really only need a "program" for the oldest, I like Math Mammoth. 

I would try to do as much together, as you said.  Read alouds are great for this, the range of age appropriateness for most books is very wide. There are a lot of Charlotte Mason style book lists out there.

Edited April 17 by OakParkOwlets

[alpinegrace]

At these ages, keep it simple with these subjects. Your main focus should be on language arts (mostly getting all your kids to be excellent readers!) and math. That being said, I love the Good & Beautiful for science. You can add more to it or keep it simple. They've got a newer science program for littles too. I think it would be fine to do with your 3rd grader. We've also enjoyed the Sassafrass Science adventures. You can just read the books and maybe do a related Pinterest activity once a month. That is sufficient at this age. 

History is not an essential for kinders, and I don't think its even recommended in WTM if I can recall. But for your 3rd grader, I also love SOTW.  Like someone else also mentioned, you can get the audio for it to save yourself time. Or just read a chapter and choose one activity in the activity book to do. 

Keep it simple, it will serve you and your children well if you spend more time with a reading primer and good books than history or science at these ages, so don't stress too much about it. And if you get busy one week...or two months... and find you don't have the time for history or science, it'll be ok. I promise!

[AnneGG]

For that age range I would go with something that includes science, history, geography and nature study all in one. Pam Barnhill’s Your Morning Basket/Explorations, Read Aloud Revival Premium, Gentle & Classical,  A Year of Tales/Hundred Acre Wood, or something else low key. Even something like Five In A Row would be lovely.
 

It’s been awhile since I looked for something like this so I don’t remember all the good ones, but I would not hesitate to go in that direction  for a first time homeschooler with young kids.