Our Curriculum for 3rd Grade

Here is what we are using for our 2012-2013 school year.

Our core (or backbone) is My Father's World Exploring Countries and Cultures.  It includes Bible, Social Studies, Geography, International Cultures, Science, Nature Study, Music, Art, and Literature.  The focus is geography and  missionary studies.

It includes these books:

• Flags of the World 
• Exploring World Geography
• Hero Tales
• Window on the World
• God Speaks Numanggang
• Illustrated World Atlas
• Classroom Atlas
• Maps and Globes
• Geography from A to Z
• A Trip Around the World
• Another Trip Around the World
• Properties of Ecosystems
• Living World Encyclopedia
• Global Art
• Wee Sing Around the World
• Kingdom Tales
• Christian Heroes: Then and Now - six book set
• The Great Animal Search
• Fun with Origami

Additional Bible:
 A Beka Video Streaming 3rd Grade Bible.
Answers in Genesis Sunday School Curriculum
Grapevine Studies - The Birth of Jesus
  

Language Arts:
A Beka Spelling and Poetry
A Beka Language
A Beka Letters and Sounds
Copywork:  Verses, Math facts, Mommy-made sheets, and Lessons in Manners from Queen Homeschool
Additional Literature:  Simply Charlotte Mason List

Math:
Teaching Textbooks 4 (Fall Semester)
Teaching Textbooks 5 (Spring Semester)
(*Rose enjoys doing two grade levels a year in math.  Last year she did 2nd and 3rd grade and wants to try to do 4th and 5th this year.  Great initiative!  So far she is on track to complete her goal.)

Composer Study:
Mozart
Bach

Artist Study:
Monet
Leonardo di Vinci

Home Ec:
We will continue our Keepers At Home Club.
At home we will sew, bake, cook, clean, create, etc.

Foreign Language:
We will lightly do Visual Latin.

Hymn Study:
Christmas Carols For A Kids Heart (Fall Semester)
Passion Hymns For A Kids Heart (Spring Semester)

Additional Art:
We will continue Barry Stebbings I Can Do All Things.

Additional Science:
Apologia Zoology 1

Additional Music:
Piano Lessons

P.E.
Swim Lessons to continue stroke refinement
Biking, hiking, etc

Character Development:
We Choose Virtues
Doorpost book- Honor Your Father and Mother

Supplemental Learning on the Computer:
Timez Attack
Reading Eggs
Always Ice Cream

Family Bible Study:
Balancing the Sword

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May ~ finishing up 2nd grade, a new kitten, and various other happenings

Rose was so excited that summer break was almost here.  But on some days we had to double up on work to make sure we would be done by Memorial Day.  We know that just because you are doubling up on work doesn't mean it can't be fun...

Here we are doing school outside on a nice sunny (and windy) day.

 ...finding north with our homemade compass....

...and doing schoolwork with a kitty....

Wait!  What?  A kitty?

Yes, that's right!  We got a cute little kitten!

 Rose is such a good mommy to her new kitten.  I wanted to keep the kitten in the bathroom a couple of days so she could learn to use her litter in the right place.  (which is actually on the toilet, because we are using the  litter kwitter system to train her to use the toilet)  anyways.....we stayed in there with her all day, but at night when Rose was in bed the sound of her meowing just melted Rose's heart.  So she slept in the bathroom to comfort her baby kitten.

  
We named her Tigris (like on Kung Fu Panda)  because she kind of looks like a black and white tiger.

 how precious is this?

 Now Tigris sleeps with Rose in Rose's room...

Here she is waiting for Rose to wake up.

Rose makes toys for Tigris to play with...

And here are more photos from various days, showing that school work is just better when you do it with a kitten in your lap.  :0)

  

And waking up to a kitten is pretty nice, too.

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A photo from Mother's Day

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Neighborhood freinds doing some dot painting with Rose....

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Rose at ballet...

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Keepers Club end of the year award ceremony....

Oh, I love this.  A few days before the ceremony the coordinator asked if anyone else would like to perform something during the program, so Rose decided she would brush up on her American Sign Language and perform.  She did a fabulous job.  Here is the video of her signing....

The girls also performed using their choral skills, singing a few hymns they learned.

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Veiwing the eclipse....

Chad bought us some eclipse viewing glasses and made this huge cardboard viewer.   What a neat daddy!

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 Now is this retro phone attached to my cell not nifty?  I purchased it for Rose to use when she calls her grandmas, but I use it too.  :0)

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 I greatly appreciate my wonderful husband.  Here is just one ...of the thousands things he does that I really respect.   After supper he reads a chapter or two from the Bible to us.  Then asks us questions from Balancing the Sword about that chapter.  

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 Rose and Carissa playing with sand in the backyard...

And even though we had some some great sunny days this month....I am throwing in this picture to show that we also had snow.  The weather sure is crazy here in the high desert.

April~MFW weeks 24-28 (with Easter, sledding, and friends)

On Rose's actual birthday we went to the Discovery Museum and then Olive Garden....or as she calls it "Oliver" Garden.

Grandpa and Grandma Anderson were able to stuff all these gifts into a USPS box.  Now I see were Chad gets his space defying packing skills from :0)

Legos and Anatomy gifts from mommy and daddy...

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Resurrection celebrations...

Here is Rose next to the Easter shelf.

...a (rare) family photo.

We went to an egg hunt hosted by a local church.  Candy, eggs, lunch, and puppets on a sunny day was fun.

After 8 years, Rose's hair is finally long enough to put in a single french braid.  She was so pleased.  Plus, Grandma and Grandpa Anderson sent these cute Easter hair pins and bow.

Coloring Easter Eggs...

Every year at Easter, Rose enjoys her Resurrection Eggs.  She memorized the story of Jesus' death and Resurrection with the eggs when she was a preschooler and still loves to use the eggs to go through the timeline of events.

Her Easter basket this year was filled with Audio books from Jim Hodges.  It is fun to give great Biblical worldview resources as gifts.  Last year her basket was filled with books and dvds from Answers in Genesis.

At church assembly....

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Rose spent part of her birthday money to put toward buying the computer game Timez Attack.  She is memorizing her times facts and this is a fun game to help her along.  (As a side note, even though they have addition and subtraction as well....I do not recommend this game to children younger than 8 years old... unless they are already desensitized to video games.)  

This game has really helped improved her skills and is better than using boring flashcards :0)  I do have some tips for those of you who may have a more tender child, like Rose.  You can adjust the brightness of screen.  We brightened it as high as it would go to make it a little more cheerful appearing.  I also sat with her the first several times she played it... as there are some cartoon ogre creatures that a 'rainbows and flowers' type of girl is not accustomed too.

 In our States studies we learned about FL, TX, IA, WI, CA, MN, and OR.

Rose was so cute.  After studying solids, liquids, and gases in science she spent the rest of the day making up songs and singing about these three forms of materials.  This girl sure does enjoy science.

Her favorite books this month are the Amelia Bedelia books.

We had a great Music Field Trip to the Reno Chamber Orchestra.  We all loved it.  Rose especially enjoyed the cello solo.

Our homeschool group took a Field trip to Rocksport which is were she takes her rockclimbing lessons, so it was fun for her to show the 'big kids' around the place.

She continues rockclimbing classes and ballet lessons.  In co-op she continues her Etiquette class and Fencing class.  She also is taking swim lessons this month to brush up on her strokes before summer gets here.

History is another beloved subject...."Can we please read more?" ... is often heard during the day referring to history.
Her notebook page about Samuel Morse...

Draw Write Now page about the trails heading west...

John Sutter notebook page...

Draw Write Now about the Gold Rush...

Notebook page about Abraham Lincoln...

Draw Write Now about Abraham Lincoln...

Just for fun, I am including a picture Rose drew of me and her sitting outside.  

After ballet class, her friend Carissa often gets to come over and play.  

It is nice having sweet friends.  Here is a photo of our friends, the Becks, playing the board game 'Carcasonne' with us.

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Keepers At Home Club this month was fun as always.  At one meeting the girls learned to make ice cream.

At another meeting the girls learned about Hospitality.

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There is still snow on the mountain so we went sledding one afternoon.

 Then Rose and daddy dug a cave in this wall of snow...

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 This photo is our church meeting at the park for assembly one Sunday.

The girls had fun exploring the woods.

I will end the post with another family photo.  Two family photos in one post!