What We Will Learn This Year

What we will learn this year is a whole lot!  I am not quite sure what I was thinking and have yet to know if it is too much, but we are moving forward.  I suppose I was aiming high since we had a rather unusual start last year.

If the creek don't rise we will start school on Monday.  The first two weeks we will ease into the whole routine as I familiarize the boys with their curriculum.  This week we have been playing "operation get ready for school".  In bed by 8:30 for a settle down time, lights out by 9:00 and wake-up at 6:45 am.  It has not been easy, but much needed for all.

So here it is......Third Grade!!! 

I must say as a homeschooler starting our fourth year I truly do not feel a "grade" level matters.  Where one student exceeds at math the other may not.  And that other may far exceed in another area.  Grade levels just make it easier for the general public to know what age group a child is......at least these are my thoughts.

We are once again using My Father's World.  I just love it!  This will be our third year using MFW.  Kindergarten was our first year using this curriculum.  First grade I tried other things and totally missed it.  Last year was a success again so here we are for our third year.  For third grade we will be Exploring Countries and Cultures .  This curriculum will cover our daily Bible and tons of Geography lessons. As well as Art and Music.  It is jam packed of good stuff!!

For math we are back to Saxon Math .  I have tried others to come back to what is tried and true.  With a daily review it is what young minds need.  The math manipulatives set is a great addition to this math curriculum.

Science this year is going to be a BLAST!  We will be Exploring Creation with Astronomy.  We'll be using this textbook along with the notebook journal  .  They can hardly wait.  Over the weekend Daddy hung their glow-in-the-dark solar system.  They have enjoyed going to bed "under the stars and planets".

For Grammar you just can't go wrong for younger children with these books, First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mind . We started grammar a year later so we are now on level 2.  These easy to follow lessons generally take about 10 minutes.  Sometimes five so it's easy to see why the boys love grammar.

We use Spelling by Sound and Structure for spelling curriculum.  This is our second year.  I use it because it seems to work.  Ryan's reading showed improvement with a new word list each week as well as going over phonetic skill of hearing sounds and writing the corresponding letters. 

During our school day we have a Book Basket time.  The Book Basket is filled with books on subjects we are learning at that time.  These books may be checked out from the library or may just be some we already have on hand.  It is generally a time during school they are allowed to sit and go through the basket to read or flip through to look at pictures.  The goal is to encourage a love of reading as well as to allow them time to gather more information on topics they are studying.

Besides the "Book Basket" time, time is set aside each day for "Reading."  The focus of this time is to develop reading skill.  Reading is done with various readers/books we pick up here and there.  I allow the boys to read what they want to read.  You will often find them reading a series of older books we picked up at library book sales.  The wide range of subjects is all over the board!  It might any of these: oil spills in the Gulf, the Arctic, pet care, working trucks, animals and more animals as well so many odd subjects under the sun.  Other times you will find them reading silly chapter books about a mouse on a motorcycle or Star Wars readers. 

Our school week is usually Monday-Thursday leaving Friday open for nature studies, field trips and or make-up days.  Since we are studying Countries and Cultures I have already seen we will be trying recipes from around the World.  I intend to use Fridays for a little cooking class for extra learning.

So there you have it!  I am certain I have left something out, but by the looks of this our days seem quite full.  We are excited to begin learning new things this year......some more than others.  

Happy Thursdays Y'all!