2011-12 School Year Curriculum - 3rd Grade

It's that time of year again.  Everyone is talking about the 'Back to School' time.  Here in Oregon, school doesn't actually start until after Labor Day, but that doesn't stop people talking about it!

Online, the homeschooling community has been talking about it for months.  The talk isn't about buying school supplies (well, sometimes it is!) and sending the kids off, though.  The big question is "What are you using next year?"

That's the question over at Heart of the Matter this week.  All month, they are hosting the "Not" Back to School Blog Hop.  This week is Curriculum Week.  

We will not be starting our 2011-2012 school year until October 31.  We are still finishing up our 2010-11 year!  But I wanted to join in the fun of "Not" Back to School time!  Even though we don't start for a few months, I've still got our plan figured out.  It's hard not to join in the fun and excitement of thinking about next year! 

Bug will be 8 in just a couple weeks and will be entering 3rd grade! (Seriously, how has this happened?)

Bible: We will continue to work through the New Testament stories.  We read through a small passage then discuss and/or narrate. I've found this to be a good way to impart our specific understandings and beliefs for each section.  

Language Arts: 

~ Bug will continue using copywork, working his way into transcription.  The goal is to get him focusing on the spelling and sentence structure of what he's copying.  Not just the handwriting.  His copywork selections will come from a variety of sources, including Bible scriptures, literature, history, and poetry.

~ I haven't finalized a literature list for the year.  We'll be doing a lot of read alouds and I might assign some books specifically to Bug as literature. 

~ Grammar will be covered using GrammarLand and a variety of living books, including those by Ruth Heller and Brian Cleary.
~ Bug has started learning cursive (at his request) and he will continue with that as well.  I am making practice pages for him using the StartWrite program. 

History: The Story of the World:The Middle Ages: From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of the Renaissance, including use of the activity guide.  Much of our literature will match up with what we are studying in history as well.

Science: Chemistry will be done using Noeo Chemistry 1 as a basic schedule and book list and adding in experiments from Adventures With Atoms and Molecules and Janice VanCleave's Chemistry for Every Kid. 

Hebrew: We'll continue to truck along with our makeshift, homemade curriculum.  I'm still making this up as I go along, but I'm hoping to make it up a little bit more ahead of time this year so we can work harder at it.  I'd like to start reading the book of Ruth in Hebrew by the end of the year.

Math:  Still using MEP (and still loving it!).  We'll be finishing up year 2 and moving into year 3.

Critical Thinking / Logic: Building Thinking Skills: Level 1 (finish and possibly go into Level 2).  Mind Benders or other logic problems.

Art & Music: I'd like to start doing composers and artists of the month.  But I have not figured out what to do for this yet.

As you can see, I haven't completely figured everything out yet.  But since we still have about three months before we start next school year, I'm not worried yet.  As I have the time and resources I'll take care of the last of the details.

Now that you've seen what we're doing this school year, head over to the blog hop and see what everyone else is doing!