Third Grade Texts

My previous post about third grade was supposed to include a brief description of the texts that we chose, but I was taken away by philosophical meanderings and never got around to it.

Our homeschool curriculum is roughly based on The Well Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer. Years ago, before we seriously considered homeschooling, I randomly found Bauer's book in a bookstore and was inspired to research classical education. I was quickly hooked. Though the Hubs isn't quite as fired up about the whole thing as I am, he's given me his reasoned support.

We plan to continue our study of the Bible with Christian Studies Book II from Memoria Press. Last year we used a Bible curriculum from Veritas Press, but we tired of it about 1/3 of the way through. Fortunately, this year's study picks up right where last year's left off, with Joshua and the settling of the Promised Land. Of course our Bible study is always complemented with family-centered prayer and study as well as awesome teaching from the Children's Ministry at our local church.

This will be our third year using the RightStart math curriculum. Three years ago, at a homeschooling convention, I attended a break-out session on mathematics. I became interested in programs that emphasized conceptual understanding, as opposed to rote memory. Though this approach isn't classical and though these texts are kind of pricey, we have loved them. Chase has enjoyed the hands-on activities and I have come to understand more deeply some elementary math strategies I had either forgotten or was never taught.



The part of classical education that I was most taken with from the start was the learning of classical languages like Latin. In Kindergarten, we started with Latin and in first grade was started Greek and a little bit of French. We have continued these three languages and now that we are entering third grade, our curriculum will become a bit more demanding. In prior years, we used workbooks from Greek 'N' Stuff to learn the very basics of Latin and Greek (and my own head for French, since I have a degree in that language). We also used Prima Latina from Memoria Press on and off for Latin. This year we're using texts from Memoria Press for Latin, French, and English roots, and a Greek curriculum from Open Texture.

We have followed a winding path of language arts for the last few years. There's not enough room to list here all the many plans and texts that we've tried in the past. For spelling this fall, we will try Spelling Wisdom Book 2 from Simply Charlotte Mason and for grammar we will follow First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind Level 3 from Peace Hill Press. I routinely have Chase perform oral readings for me from scripture or literature and we memorize poetry, too. We are always in the middle of a classic work of literature. This year I hope to finish the Little House books and move onto The Little Prince, A Christmas Carol, and others.

Having completed Life Science, Earth Science, and Astronomy in first and second grades, we'll be moving on to chemistry this year. We'll learn about some very basic chemistry concepts from our Usborne Science Encylopedia and then follow up those lessons with some small experiments. Hopefully we'll be inspired for the science fair this year. We will learn about the Early Modern period in history this year with The Story of the World Vol. 3 by Susan Wise Bauer. We've used this history curriculum for the last two years and have enjoyed it a great deal. We'll also spend a great deal of time studying scientific and historical topics with the help of our local library.

These texts comprise the rough plan for our upcoming year, but we will add or subract as needed to meet our needs or the leading of the Spirit. There's always more to do than time to do it and we've found that there is no text or curriculum that perfectly 'fits' our homeschool. I'm looking forward to jumping into the work in a few weeks. Chase might have a different opinion after his fun-filled summer-- one that involves a week or two of feet dragging and potentially some kicking and screaming. Lord willing, we'll be chugging along smoothly by the end of September.