Third Grade Curriculum Thoughts

These are my thoughts on the Curriculum we used during 2016/2017 school year for Third Grade.

Overall most of our curriculum was a good fit and we worked our way through it. Some of the curriculum was not a good fit and I will tell you which ones we ended up getting rid of and what I replaced it with! 

Math- Saxon Math 3

This was a great fit for my son. He loved how hands on it was and how well explained it was. I really enjoyed teaching from the Teachers Handbook. We plan to use Saxon for 4th grade this next school year!

Language Arts- First Language Lesson, Level 3

This was one that I gritted my teeth through the whole year. My son did not like it as it was mainly diagramming. I can honestly say we will not be using this the next school year. It just was not a good fit. I feel that Language Arts should be more about structures of sentence writing and more about learning parts of speech. This did touch a little on that but not enough for my liking. 

History- America From the Beginning 

This was one of the books we stopped pretty early on. It was too much reading and just didn't catch my kids attention very well. They were very bored with it and I felt there had to be another option that worked for them better. We ended up using Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool for the remainder of the year and it was a much better fit!

Science- God's Design For Life, Plants, Animals, and Human Body

I liked this Science curriculum. It was very easy to plan with and to teach. We did not get to the Human Body though as my kids started to show signs of interest in Space so I decided to take that interest and find online resources we could use instead. We did do plants and animals and really enjoyed it!

Literature- Classic Literature, Volume 1 

I loved this curriculum! Although we only used a few units from it and ended up just reading books for our Literature time instead of doing activities. It was more enjoyable for my kids to just have read aloud time.

Geography- Road Trip USA

We worked through this curriculum slowly as I wanted them to really learn about each state. We will be continuing on with learning our States this next year. It is a great curriculum I just feel my kids needed a little more with it like using an Atlas and online resources with it. 

Handwriting- Handwriting Without Tears, Cursive Success

Handwriting was another area my son struggled with. He was not ready to start cursive so I decided to focus on building his foundation on printing before continuing on to actual cursive. He also struggled with writing on just notebook paper so that is another area we focused on. We will try cursive this next year!

Writing- Spectrum Grade 3 and Reading- Spectrum Grade 3

I grouped these together because I absolutely hated them as a curriculum for my son. I just did not like them at all. We tried to use them and  ended up just focusing on individual things instead. 

Spelling- Grade 3 List

This worked well but I am looking into something a little more structured for this next year. I want to have activities to do with the spelling words. This is a great basic as it is just the lists. I had my son write the words on one day, then alphabetize them, and other activities. I just think it would be nicer to have a workbook with activities for each list instead. 

Art- World's Greatest Artist, Volume 1

I loved this curriculum. However, my boys just didn't find it interesting. I am holding on to it for the future. We ended up just doing fun crafts from pinterest most of the year. He really enjoyed that and it worked! 

Overall most of our curriculum was a good fit! I learned a lot about what works for my children from this year which made picking curriculum for this next year much easier. 

These opinions are my own and not everyone may agree with them. This is just to share what we ended up using for the school year and what didn't work for my child.

You will notice some links have been removed due to not promoting a curriculum I was not happy with! 

To see the curriculum we had planned on using and explanations from the beginning of the school year check out our Third Grade Curriculum post. 

Third Grade Curriculum

My youngest is 8 years old and going into Third Grade. He is very excited to be homeschooled and this is the curriculum I chose for 2016-2017 school year.

Math- Saxon Math 3

I chose Saxon for our Math as I felt it would give them both a good review of some of the items they know plus introduce new information. It also stayed away from the Common Core aspect which I was wanting to stay away from as much as possible. 

Language Arts- First Language Lesson, Level 3

I picked this as I liked the layout of how the teaching was done and how the lessons were laid out. I feel it will be very easy for me to teach and they will be learning a lot this year.

History- America From the Beginning (Shared Curriculum)

This is an area that my kids have not receive much information on. Our public school didn't seem to teach much History so I wanted to find a program that would start from the beginning and really show them our History.

Science- God's Design For Life, Plants, Animals, and Human Body (Shared Curriculum)

This was a fun area to search through as I knew I wanted to teach my boys about creation and I wanted a Science program that didn't teach about evolution as it is not something we believe in. I wanted them to learn about Science from a Godly point of view and I felt this program was the right one for us. We will be learning about plants, animals, and the human body this year. 

Literature- Classic Literature, Volume 1 (Shared Curriculum)

I knew I wanted to do read-a-loud type curriculum with my boys this year as it would give us a fun sit down time to really go through classic books. I found Confessions of a Homeschooler's Literature Units to be perfect for what I was wanting to achieve. It give them a Lapbook to work on and activities to go along with the book as we read. 

Geography- Road Trip USA (Shared Curriculum)

This is going to be something new for my Third Grader as he knows where the United States is but he doesn't know anything about the states and capitals or where each state is. I feel this will be fun to introduce and teach about each state! 

Handwriting- Handwriting Without Tears, Cursive Success

This is a subject that is no longer taught at public school in our State. So I am excited about teaching it because I feel it is still needed even with how technological our society is, kids need to learn how to sign their name and write in cursive. 

Writing- Spectrum Grade 3

This was an area I questioned on if I really needed. So I looked through some of my sons past papers from the year before at public school. I read through them to realize that he had not been taught how to write proper sentences or even how to be creative in his writing. So I researched through several curriculum and found this one to be the one I liked the best. 

Reading- Spectrum Grade 3

I chose this because it is mainly reading comprehension. This is an area that both of my boys struggle with. So I chose it to work with them and to reinforce how to comprehend what they have read. 

Spelling- Grade 3 List

I knew this was an area that my son is really good at so I didn't want to get to difficult with how he has already been learning spelling from past years. So I chose the basic Third Grade Spelling list that was free and that is what we are using this year. 

Art- World's Greatest Artist, Volume 1 (Shared Curriculum)

Art is extremely important to me as I love to create new things using different art techniques. I am a very crafty person and both of my children enjoy Art also. I wanted to find a curriculum that would teach them different techniques and Art history all together. This one has it all so I knew it was the perfect pick!

Music

This is an area that I am still trying to figure out. We have talked about doing piano or recorders. We just haven't decided as of yet. I will update when we decide. 

You will notice some of the choices say Shared Curriculum. These are subjects that we will work together on as they work well for grades 3 to 5.  I felt it was important to include times to work together as I am hoping to help my children bond, as well as learn. 

This is what we are starting with this year! I will do a look back at what we though of them at the end of the school year!