Boo's Third Grade Curriculum

Boo heading on into third grade.

This year Boo will be completing the second half of Sonlight's Introduction to American History, starting with the Civil War and ending with modern times. She did a great job last year, enjoying the books and the additions of some lapbooks, history pockets, and a unit from Download N Go. The book basket approach was a hit, so I'm keeping it in place, with a new wrinkle. Now she will have to complete a question packet on the assigned books, but doesn't have to do any book reports on the basket books. This fills in my desire to know that she's grasping character development and plot constructs within the Sonlight readers. It also takes away the "book report for every book read" assignment, which actually just made her hide the books she had been reading in order to avoid the report.

Bible is done through Community Bible Study. This is a wonderful program where the mother and child study the same text side by side during the week, and then participate in small group discussions about the week's lesson on Friday morning. Boo loves it so much that she cried when she had to miss one because of a sick sister.

Boo will be back to Singapore Math this year, having taken a slight detour last year. She was never challenged with that program and I'm honestly not sure that she is as ready for 3A as I'd hoped. I'm steeling myself for more than one whiny math morning. She did the first four books of Life of Fred this summer and loved them, so finishing off the set of ten is my fall back plan.

The spelling program for Boo is taken from her home education program's reading resources. Sequential Spelling became too frustrating for her and she would cry when I pulled out the book. I finally ditched that plan and decided to use the spelling program that her "mentor teacher" had provided at the start is the school year. She loved it and we are sticking with it for this year. Boo reads aloud a story from the basal reader on Monday, does the worksheets for the corresponding spelling list on Tuesday and Wednesday, and tests on Thursday. I think it's the story on Monday that hooked her, and I'm happy that she enjoys spelling so it is one more curriculum change that I will happily make. :-)

The rest of her curriculum is complied from Evan Moor's Daily Series. She will be doing Daily Language Review, Daily Reading Comprehension, Daily 6 Trait Writing, Daily Geography, and Daily Science. I like these books because they are strait forward enough for the girls to do them independently, and yet comprehensive and the girls really learn the skills they need.

Boo loves to play basketball, and we are looking forward to the coming Upward basketball season when her dad will coach her team for the second year in a row.  She will also take swim lessons through the Y as she felt that she was becoming a strong swimmer during the summer and wanted to keep going.  And then there are the Spanish, art, and science classes that she will take through our local home education program. Oh, and she has requested that she begin violin lessons through a program that is geared toward homeschoolers.  They take lessons during the day (a bonus because "after school" stuff fills up fast) and there are concerts twice a year where the entire group comes together to play as a "full orchestra."  That should keep her busy enough.  :o)

See what a strong swimmer she is?  :o)

As I mentioned in last year's curriculum post, Boo keeps me guessing. I think that I have a way to make Sonlight work for us, and 6 Trait Writing has brought out the writer in my daughter so language arts seems to be well in hand. Math is still a question mark, and we will see if Boo can build the perseverance she will need to complete the assignments.  It should be an interesting year.  :o)

 

I'm linking up with Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers for her annual Curriculum Wrap-Up.  I have also linked up with the Not Back to School Blog Hop.  So many curriculum choices, so little time...  :o)