3rd Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices

[insert stack photo]

But wait! Didn’t your AppleBlossom start Third Grade in the fall of 2016?! Well yes, but in the February following, we kinda started over. So she is currently third grade, she is currently still seven-years-old, or at least she will be for one more month eight. Oi! She will turn nine in the summer. We really found ourselves to be unhappy with the overall scheduling of the Veritas Press Scholars Academy Homeschool Diploma Program and only satisfied with a few of the curriculum choices. Therefore, we kept what we liked and kicked the rest to the curb. (Note: We love materials published by Veritas Press!)

About AppleBlossom’s progress… Finally, when I gave myself permission to quit we jumped back to what we love, namely that of Memoria Press. So onward with 3M (or what is known as the homeschool moderated track based off of the Highlands Latin School 3A/accelerated – 3M is half-pace and will continue subjects into 4M to complete a similar equivalent to 3A) and we are much happier.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

*NOTE: I originally drafted this post back in June, and after discovering some Relaxed Homeschool videos on YouTube from There’s No Place Like Home @RedHeadMom8 and then falling into The Good & the Beautiful from the recommendations of another YouTube of Jane at the Salty Tribe Co., my word shifted. I then had this post ready to go in August, but decided to wait for photos to insert. Then I realized in January, if I didn’t just publish it as text it would just sit in my drafts forever… My editor tells me I have 108 revisions on this post. Haha.

I still love Veritas Press products. I still love Memoria Press. I still love Logic of English. Yet this year, we’re taking a few hiatus routes to find our grove and love of learning back.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

3rd Grade Curriculum Choices

• Reading: Adventures in Phonics B-C, Logic of English Essentials 2ed Levels A-B (Phonics, Spelling, Grammar, & Vocabulary), Weekly Practice 3rd Grade Language Arts, maybe Weekly Practice 4th Grade Language Arts, Core Skills: Language Arts 3, Memoria Press Grammar Recitation (orally)
  • Literature: Farmer Boy, Charlotte’s Web, Mr. Popper’s Penguins, A Bear Called Paddington
  • Update on Reading: In July, we started experimenting with The Good & the Beautiful Level 3 for AppleBlossom and it has been a total game changer. I love Essentials but she just wasn’t having it. So for now, we’ve set it aside. We are 17 lessons into the Good & Beautiful Language Arts curriculum and I’ve just placed an order for the physical set. We’re talking Phonics, Reading, Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation, Literature, Art Appreciation, Writing, and Geography all under one book and it is truly beautiful and so very very good. I’m still pushing her to complete Adventures in Phonics, but the other books are available to her, but only if she desires to do them. I plan to pick up LOE at a later date.
  • She has also requested English Lessons Through Literature and Serl’ Primary Language Lessons. While we haven’t started PLL, we have picked up ELTL Level 1 again and are working through it together (little sister too) as requested and desired. No9orfv cxt often.
  • Both girls have also started reading aloud to me from the McGuffey Readers. AppleBlossom is reading from the Second Essential Reader. They are also working through Reading Eggs and AppleBlossom is working through Reading Eggs Press.
• Writing: Institute of Excellence All Things Fun & Fascinating as outlined in Memoria Press 3rd Grade Moderated Classical Core Curriculum Lesson Plans, maybe IEW Fables, Myths & Fairy Tales to follow; New American Cursive 2-3, Copybook Cursive
  • Update on Writing: She is loving IEW and refuses to give it up even though we’re getting writing in with The Good & Beautiful Language Arts. I’m totally fine with that! She is still working on Cursive.
• Arithmetic: Last year, we started enthusiastically with Saxon 5/4. While she was able to do it, it was a fight and a real attitude struggle. We both missed the gentle introduction and review we had gotten used to with Rod & Staff’s Mathematics for Christian Living Series and I personally missed the Christian word problems. So we’ve jumped back to Exploring Arithmetic. She is also going back, at her request, and completing the books she missed in Working Arithmetic also. CTCMath, MathSeeds, ESA, Weekly Practice 3rd Grade Math, maybe Weekly Practice 4th Grade Math, Math Mammoth 3
  • Update on all maths: This kid is freaking out. After wandering down some rabbit trails, I discovered that Master Books has adopted Angela O’Dell’s Math Lesson for a Living Education and tried a few samples. We ordered them and it is a new day! AppleBlossom is backing up and working through Level 2 and loving every single minute of it. We are still doing Working Arithmetic (Unit 4) and Exploring Arithmetic also, but not at a rigorious pace. She hasn’t touched Math Mammoth. (Please use our Master Books referral link!)
• Religion: Last year, she completed the Veritas Press Self-Paced Judges to Kings and did not do well in the end. Her grade was not to my satisfaction, so I got an eText of Judges to Kings and we are starting over with paper and pencil writing it all out and here’s to hoping that the double exposure will be more durable come test time. Apologia What We Believe Who is God? (Junior Notebooking Journal and Coloring Book). Memoria Press Christian Studies 1
  • Update on Religion: Discussion all the time, but loosely what I mentioned above as she desires. No timeline or rather deadline set for completion.
• Foreign Languages: Latin for Children A (color!), Latina Christiana 1, Ludere Latine, Prima Latina Copybook, Hey Andrew! Teach Me Some Greek Level 2, Greek Alphabet Code Cracker
  • Loving Hey Andrew! and slowly working through Latin for Children A as well as letting her interact and go back with her little sister in Song School Latin.
• History: Veritas Press Self-Paced Online New Testament Greece and Rome, Memoria Press Greek Myths with D’Aulaires’ Greek Myths, Wayfarers Ancients reading list, Memoria Press Third Grade American Studies
  • She has finished NTGR and has started in on MARR (Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation) self-paced online history with Veritas Press. We’re also looking to adopt in the Wayfarers Medieval list if I can arrange it. Continuing Greek Myths, but at her desired pace and have also added in Master Books’ America’s Story 1 by Angela O’Dell for a bit of a close to home history. We also have re-picked up Beautiful Feet Books American History for the Primary Grades and both girls are participating enthusiastically.
  • This year I’m also adding in having her take notes or notebooking what she is learning while watching the VP lessons online. She needs something to keep her more attentive and so far two weeks in, this method seems to be working.
  • She is also self-pace working through The Adventures of G.A. Henty online through the Live the Adventure Club and loving every second!
• Geography: Memoria Press States & Capitals, Wayfarers Ancients (Australia and Asia) reading list
  • She is loving States & Capitals and has added in Little Passports U.S.A. to that as well. We will also be getting a good deal of organized Geography in The Good & the Beautiful Level 3.
• Science: Memoria Press Mammals with Master Books The World of Animals, Apologia Astronomy 2ed (Notebooking Journal), Wayfarers Ancients reading list
  • As I started a review working personally through Apologia’s Marine Biology course 2ed, my girls became eager and excited to jump in and they are now loosely working through Apologia’s Swimming Creatures. We’ve decided to shelve Astronomy for next year.
• Art: Continuing to slowly move through Veritas Press History of Art as it aligns with History. Adding in Art Techniques from SchoolhouseTeachers.com and a plethora of studies from The Good & the Beautiful as well as refreshing with Memoria Press Art Cards. Contemplating also pulling sheets from Confession of a Homeschooler’s World Greatest Artist series as this kiddo’s dream is to be an artist one day.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

So in essence:

• Bible: Here, there and everywhere on our own pulling from resources.
• Math: Math Lessons for a Living Education, Rod & Staff Arithmetic, CTCMath and Math-U-See
• English: The Good & the Beautiful, Adventures in Phonics, and continuing cursive
• World History: Veritas Press Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation; Wayfarers
  • US History: Memoria Press States & Capitals, America’s Story, and Beautiful Feet Books
• Science: Memoria Press Mammals and Apologia Young Explorers for interest reading
• Languages: Latin and Greek
• Everything else is just cream on the top! 

Lots of reading. Lots of art. Lots of geography. Lot of integration and snuggle schooling!!!

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Memoria Press Third Grade Novel Read-Alouds

1. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
2. Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
3. D’Aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths by Ingri & Edgar Parin d’Aulaire
4. American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne
5. The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright
6. James Herriot’s Treasury for Children by James Herriot
7. A Day on Skates by Hilda van Stockum
8. The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
9. The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJohn
10. The Borrowers by Mary Norton
11. The Secret Garden by France Hodgson Burnett

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Memoria Press Third Grade Read-Aloud Books

Memoria Press Third Grade Picture Book Read-Alouds

1. Casey at the Bat (Poetry) by Ernest Lawrence Thayer
2. Cupid and Psyche by M. Charlotte Craft
3. They Were Strong and Good by Robert Lawson
4. The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg
5. Persephone by Sally Pomme Clayton
6. Chanticleer and the Fox by Chaucer/Cooney
7. Rikki Tikki Tavi by Rudyard Kipling
8. Squanto and the Miracle of Thanksgiving by Eric Metaxas
9. Over the River and Through the Woods (Poetry) by Lydia Maria Child
10. The Gift of the Christmas Cookie by Dandi Daley Mackall
11. An Orange for Frankie by Patricia Polacco
12. The Nutcracker by Janet Schulman
13. The Nutcracker by Stephanie Spinner (based on ballet)
14. ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas illustrated by Matt Tavares
15. Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck
16. The Tale of the Firebird by Gennadii Spirin
17. Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library by Barb Rosenstock
18. Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky
19. King Midas and the Golden Touch by M. Charlotte Craft
20. Pegasus by Mariana Mayer
21. The Tale of the Three Tress retold by Angela Elwell Hunt
22. The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Anderson
23. The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Anderson/Jerry Pinkney

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Memoria Press Third Grade American Studies Book List (*Beautiful Feet Books Early American History Primary additions as well as **The Good & the Beautiful choices)

1. Leif the Lucky by Ingri & Edgar Parin D’Aulaire*
2. Meet Christopher Columbus by James T. de Kay (Landmark)
3. *Columbus by Ingri & Edgar Parin D’Aulaire
4. Pocahontas by Ingri & Edgar Parin D’Aulaire*
5. The Cabin Faced West by Jean Fritz
6. Meet George Washington by Joan Heilbroner (Landmark)
7. *George Washington by Ingri & Edgar Parin D’Aulaire
8. *George Washington’s Breakfast by Jean Fritz
9. Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan
10. The Story of Daniel Boone by William O. Steele
11. Meet Thomas Jefferson by Marvin Barrett (Landmark)
12. The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dagliesh
13. Benjamin Franklin by Ingri & Edgar Parin D’Aulaire*
14. Meet Abraham Lincoln by Barbara Cary (Landmark)*
15. *Abraham Lincoln by Ingri & Edgar Parin D’Aulaire
16. Clara Barton by Augusta Steveson
17. Riding the Pony Express by Clyde Robert Bulla**
18. Helen Keller by Katharine Wilkie/The Story of Helen Keller
19. Laura Ingalls Wilder by Beatrice Gormley
20. A Penny’s Worth of Character by Jesse Stuart**
21. *The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dagliesh
22. *The 4th of July Story by Alice Dagliesh
23. *Buffalo Bill by Ingri & Edgar Parin D’Aulaire
24. *The Year of the Horseless Carriage by Genevieve Foster
25. *Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin
26. *A More Perfect Union by Betsty Maestro
27. *The Matchlock Gun by Walt Edmunds
28. *Pilgrim Stories by Margaret Pumphrey