Thursday, February 12, 2015

Update on Third Grade Plans for 2014-15

Several subjects had me guessing when I posted our plans for this school year back in July, so I thought it was time for an update since writing this post.

Our first formal history curriculum this year was The Story of the World (vol 1) by Susan Wise Bauer. I wasn't sure if we would like it or not, but we've been pleasantly surprised. The lessons are short and engaging, which he likes. The accompanying Activity Book has map work for every chapter, which I like. It's a keeper!

Hey, Andrew, Teach Me Some Greek has been a big hit. He breezed through Level 2 in just a few weeks and is working on Level 3. He is not happy that the higher level actually requires a bit of work, but on we go. The Level 2 book teaches a word and then has pages and pages of games, puzzles, and worksheets to help you really learn the word. So you don't actually have to try to learn the word, but you will learn it by completing all the pages of activities. Level 3 teaches you a new word, or ending, and then gives you just a page or two of activities to complete, so you do have to spend time purposely learning the new material.

Student didn't like doing Greek every single day of the week and wanted to vary days. He also wanted to pick up the Latin we had worked on last year and continue with that, so we are alternating days with Greek on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and Latin on Tuesday and Thursday.

We likewise alternate between history MWF and science TTh. Language Arts has us doing Writing with Ease on MW and Winston Grammar on TTh. This really helps us to be able to fit more things that we want to do in our schedule without having a list as long as your arm to do each day. The things we do every day are Bible, read aloud, and quiet reading. So our daily schedule looks something like this:

BIBLE
MATH
QUIET READING
WRITING or GRAMMAR
HISTORY or SCIENCE
GREEK or LATIN

Read aloud time varies and is most often during or after lunch. The student is learning the mandolin, as well as piano and guitar, so we practice those in the afternoon.


2 comments:

  1. Sounds like a good plan, Sherry! And we're 'bout halfway through already!! :-) Warm weather and the pool beckons...

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  2. Great to hear from you, Pat! Would love to hear what your kiddos are working on.

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