3rd Grade Homeschool Curriculum in Review

It is that time of the year where we look back over our school year and see what worked and didn’t work and where we want to make changes for next school year.  Below, I share with you how our choices for our 3rd grade homeschool curriculum worked so you can make better informed decisions about the curriculum that might work for you. Here were our plans for 3rd grade this year.

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Math

RightStart Math Level B and C

Math is where Little Fish really struggles.  He finished Level B and started Level C of Rightstart Math this past year.  Level C aligns more with second grade and early third grade.  Like his brother, Little Fish has difficulty with visual processing skills, which impacts his math development.

Righstart Math really focuses on strengthening these visual math skills so it makes this program a good fit for him.  We add in extra review at times before moving ahead from lesson to lesson.  We prioritize laying a good foundation of math skills over getting through the curriculum in a timely manner.

If you are interested in this curriculum and want to see where you should start, their placement test is very helpful.

3rd Grade Spelling

All About Spelling Level 3 and Level 4

Little Fish finished Level 3 about mid-year and is most of the way through Level 4.  His spelling skills had been weak due to his difficulty with visual memory, but this program has really made spelling an area of strength for him.  To read more about why this program has worked so well for him, check out Homeschool Spelling Curriculum that Makes Sense.

3rd Grade Reading

This year, Little Fish read a few Roald Dahl books and several Who Was? books.  With the Dahl books, we really spent time practicing his reading comprehension skills, developing his knowledge of descriptive language, building his vocabulary, and improving his understanding of grammar.

You can see some of the activities we did while reading James and the Giant Peach here.  We also spent a lot of time learning vocabulary with this particular book:

Between reading books by Roald Dahl, we read a book about him: Who Was Roald Dahl?.  We also completed this unit study about him.

Little Fish also worked through a Reading Comprehension workbook because I wanted him to have some practice finishing an entire task independently.  He also needed to work on connecting pieces of information as this is an area of challenge for him.  This reading comprehension workbook was a good way for him to work on those skills in a subject he enjoys.

3rd Grade Writing

Writeshop Primary Level C and Writeshop Junior Level D

Little Fish finished Level C of his writing program this year and started Level D.  He continued to progress with support and this has been a good program for him due to the level of structure it gives him.  He enjoys that the activities are fun and games are incorporated.

Cursive: Handwriting Without Tears

Little Fish completed the Handwriting Without Tears: Cursive Workbook.  He did well with this book and we are continuing to practice cursive with some copy worksheets that I have purchased or found.

3rd Grade Geography

Little Fish enjoyed learning about different states this year.  Check out Fun and Easy Ways to Learn the US States to see the resources we used.  We may continue this fall with the states we have not covered, yet.

3rd Grade History

Little Fish picked what he wanted to learn about for history this year. We started with a unit study about the Ice Age and then moved on to Native Americans.  We learned about different tribes and read On This Long Journey about the Trail of Tears.  Then, he shifted gears and went on to studying some artists, such as DaVinci and Claude Monet and black history such as Dr. King and Rosa Parks.

3rd Grade Science

R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey-Physics and Biology

We finished our R.E.A.L Science Odyssey Physics curriculum in March, which is designed for 3rd through 6th grades. Little Fish participated much better this year with this program than he did last year.  He enjoyed it greatly and often experiments with what he has learned during his play time.

We started the middle school Biology Curriculum from R.E.A.L Science Odyssey when we finished as I had bought this for Big Fish for this school year.  This is definitely a level up in how the information is presented and what is expected on worksheets and lab sheets.  Little Fish has been able to participate with some extra support.  And it continues to have lots of hands on activities, which is what he loves.

I did start a set of Biology Vocabulary Concept of the Day cards to make sure the boys were really understanding and remembering what we were learning.  They are available for purchase here if you would like them to support a biology program of your choosing:

To learn more about the physics curriculum we finished in March read Teaching Physics to Your Children.

Art

So we didn’t do much art again this year.  Sigh…  This is always the subject that falls off our schedule!  Little Fish did do some drawing videos from Art for Kids Hub.  There is always next year, right?!

Music

Music was not on our original plan for this year, but Little Fish enjoyed his State Songs Course during geography so much that we decided to add some more.  We enrolled in the Music In Our Homeschool Plus program, which provides monthly music lessons as well as open access to all of their elementary music courses!  Little Fish has enjoyed these greatly!

Have you used any of this curriculum or have others you have loved for 3rd grade? Comment below!

If you are interested in seeing our curriculum choices from the year before or Big Fish’s curriculum from this year, check out: