Do you have a 3rd grader? If so, what are you going to use?

I'm glad you had mentioned the books because I kinda forgot about incorporating them with our history. I had it in my mind that they were more for handwriting practice. I'm sure we'll have to skip around too, to follow HO, but it will be a nice addition. If your 3rd grader gets frustrated at his artwork (mine will sometimes get frustrated because it won't end up looking like the picture in the book), you could always at least start out with letting him trace the pictures.

 

I taught my kids some signs as babies but didn't keep up with it once they could talk. But they want to learn ASL so I'm excited since it's the only language other than English I know anything about! LOL

I've never seen Paddle to the Sea but we're going to watch it (on youtube) at the end of the year. There are also some good videos (also on youtube) for Just So Stories we watch.

 

Well, there you go....I didn't even think about it being on youtube. I never heard of Just So Stories. I'll have to see what those are like.

 

My 3rd grader will be using:

MFW Creation to the Greeks for Bible/science/history/vocabulary/art
English for the Thoughtful Child and Easy Grammar 3/4 (I have the old versions)
Teaching Textbooks 4
Club Swimming for PE

 

My 3rd grader will be with a charter school this year (hope that goes well). Anyways, here's what we'll be doing:

Lang Arts (school provided)
McRuffy Cursive book and/or Copywork for Animal Lovers (switching it up)
Explode the Code online phonics (she's a late-bloomer)
Teaching Textbooks Math 3
Science Fusion gr 3
History (using school textbook as a loose guide)
PE (gymnastics class 1x week)
Meet the Masters Art

We'll be reading some historical fiction books this year (such as Royal Dairy's & American Girl) and incorporating geography work here and there. I want to make things more fun by having art or recipes that corrospond to her reading, history or science lessons.

 

This is so interesting to see the choices everyone makes. By the way, your avatar picture is hilarious. :lol:

 

How nice that the charter lets you choose some of your materials (at least I'm assuming so?). We used McRuffy in K and I've always really liked the look of their cursive. I forgot that we are also using ETC, but the books. I have almost all of them for my dd to work through. I have to check out Science Fusion. Is this an online program or books?

 

While googling Grid Perplexors, I found the neatest site - Mindware.com. There is so much stuff I'd love to buy from there! I filled my cart just for fun =) Now I'll go check out Rainbow Resource, thanks!
Jump In is supposed to be for middle schoolers. I ordered it for my oldest (11y/o) and when we got it, I found it broken down into very simple steps, called "skills" in the book. I then ordered another for my just-turned 9 year old because it seemed like he could handle it (I got him a spiral to write in though b/c his handwriting is too big for the spaces provided in the book, plus it just keeps the book nice for my up and comin' kiddos).
He has been using it 3-4 times/wk for 3 weeks and has a gorgeous opinion essay done! He's really proud and can't wait to type it up and print it out! His whole attitude about writing has changed!

 

I love MindWare. :love: I ordered a bunch of stuff from them last year. Don't forget to check their sale section. I'm sure the sale stuff changes all the time, but I got the Hue Knew game, Hue Knew card game, and Cross-Eyed (dd loves that game) for like a few dollars each. I also got (not on clearance) Quirkle, Skippity, Dizios, Pix Mix, and (my absolute fav) Q-Bitz. These are all great games. Some of them have expansion packs, like for Pix Mix and Q-Bitz. I always compare prices at Amazon and Rainbow though. Oh, and Mind Ware has videos for a lot of the games so you can see how they play.

Thank you for the info on Jump In. How awesome that your son is loving it and doing so well. That's really great! It makes me wish I had made my son do it afterall.

 

We use youtube a LOT for school! I try to find a video for just about everything we read LOL It really helps my oldest a lot to watch a video after reading something. (plus it's free!)

 

BatmansWife:

Yeah, this charter school lets us choose material provided it's not from a Christian publisher. Homeschool materials normally are not set to a particular state's standards so what they do is have the kids use Study Island 15-20 min a day to "fill in" the gaps. I use it as educational games for a fun diversion.

We have several charter schools that serve our area and I checked each one. This one is the most flexible in that you really can use homeschool materials and you aren't forced to use school textbooks.