Not Back-to-School Blog Hop ~ 3rd Grade Curriculum

It's time for the 4th Annual Not Back-to-School Blog Hop hosted by iHomeschool Network! This week's topic is Curriculum.

Last week I eluded to our 3rd grade curriculum for the 2012/2013 school year. But this week I thought I would go into more detail about what we will be using. Although Eli is 8 1/2 and Brynne will be 7 on Wednesday, we are schooling both of them at the same grade level because of their cognitive skill levels.

Bible: We will start each morning "stick figuring" through the Bible with Grapevine Studies "Level 3-4 Old Testament Overview". Each of the kids will keep a notebook to stick figure our Bible lessons.

Grammar: We will continue where we left off last year with our Easy Grammar Daily Guided Teaching and Review for 2nd Grade.

Spelling: We will use All About Spelling Level 1, but will likely blast right through to Level 2 quickly.

Copywork: We will do weekly copywork based on our current unit study. We will copy poems, quotes, paragraphs, etc. A lot of times these are attached to related artwork and displayed in our home.


Handwriting: Both kids are ready for cursive handwriting, so we will use Handwriting Without Tears, Cursive Handwriting.

Creative Writing: As part of the Schoolhouse Review Crew, I had the opportunity to review WriteShop Primary Book A. I will use this through the first semester to help my children with pre-writing and beginning writing skills.

Five in a Row: Although I do many self-built unit studies, a lot of times using "backwards planning", we will supplement with Five in a Row units. Our units are always literature based.

Math: Last year Brynne used the second grade level of Math Enhancement Programme. It is an EXCELLENT program and I absolutely LOVE it! Since Eli learned math in a completely different way in public school, we will back up just a tad in Brynne's second grade material from last year and blast forward. We should be in third grade by mid-year.

Art: We love to use Usborne Art Treasury! It's a beautiful book. The kids spend one day creating a notebooking page about an artist, and then spend another day creating a similar piece of art.

Nature: We will spend EVERY Friday afternoon at the city park exploring. We plan to do some wildcrafting. And we will utilize Barb's Handbook of Nature Study blog and Outdoor Hour Challenges.

Social Studies and Science: These lessons will come as part of our Five in a Row units and other unit studies. We will likely launch into some other science units as well using many different science books and products we have. My kids are also U.S. Geography fanatics, so we will be doing lots of games and activities about the United States, as well as adding to our U.S. States notebook.

It's always so fun to read about what all is going on in other homeschools. You can go to iHomeschool Network to do the same.