Hey there, Mamas!
Today I’m sharing the core curricula we have started the year with for our “3rd grader”/8-year-old boy. We have used all of these for him before, so we already had a feel how they would work. I’ve linked below to where you can find sample pages of each curriculum to look through. You can also head to my Instagram to the “3rd Grade” highlight for a little flip-through.
Here’s what we have started our year with:
Language Arts: The Good and the Beautiful Level 3
Math: Math Mammoth Level 3
History: Beautiful Feet Early American History (finishing from last year) + selected Who HQ books
Science: The Good and the Beautiful (Space Science, Geology, and Safety are the planned units so far – used as a spine for our unit studies)
Language Arts
My son has been using The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts since Kindergarten. So this is his 4th year going through the curriculum. The Good and the Beautiful is a great option if you’re looking for quality instruction at a lower cost. It’s also a great option if you want a Christian curriculum. For levels 1-5, you can download the entire course from their website, so definitely check it out there if you’re considering!
This curriculum is very thorough and gets into concepts I’m pretty sure I never learned while in elementary school! It’s a spiral approach to teaching Language Arts so each day will be something different than the day before. I really like the way it incorporates the accompanying readers into the lessons. Overall, The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts levels are very thorough and well-rounded.
Math Mammoth
This will be his second year using Math Mammoth, and we are still enjoying it. My 3rd grader has a very mathy-brain (thanks husband!) and doesn’t need a lot of extra fluff to get the concepts. Math Mammoth is straight to the point, which I like! The mastery approach works well for my kiddo because I can easily see when he has caught on. Then we can just move to the next concept instead of doing a bunch of unnecessary practice. He hasn’t needed a lot of review for the concepts he has learned up to this point.
Math Mammoth is a mastery-based math curriculum. There are 10 “chapters” per level (at least in the two we have used), and each chapter focuses on several related concepts. But, you go through them one at a time and review as needed, or at least at the end of the chapter. You can find the contents in Level 3, as well as tons of sample pages here!
History
For history, we are continuing where we left off last year with Beautiful Feet Early American History. I really really like the approach of reading living books as a history curriculum, especially in the younger years. My kids enjoy listening and it gives a good feel for the times we learn about. They also really seem to retain a lot from the stories.
This year, we will also be adding in some Who HQ books. I LOVE THESE BOOKS! We got into these a few months ago, and I just think these books are awesome. My 8yo can read one in about 20 minutes, but the information is presented in a way that he can soak it all up like a sponge and then spend the rest of the day educating me on whatever topic he read about that day. We will be adding the Who HQ books that go along with our learning of Early American History.
Science
We have used two of The Good and The Beautiful science units: Marine Biology and Arthropods. Marine biology was the first one we ever used. I chose this unit first because it was offered as a free download. When we attempted this unit with my new kinder and new 2nd grader, it was way over their little heads. I do not recommend this one for your first if you have kids younger than 3rd grade. Arthropods was a better fit for their ages.
For this year, I let my oldest choose the first unit since he is the one most likely to participate. He chose Space Science! We are halfway through now and he is LOVING it! The level of information provided in each of the science units we’ve tried so far has been appropriate for the elementary ages. However, I don’t feel like there is as much of a fun factor, at least in the units we’ve tried. I have decided to use the units from The Good and the Beautiful as more of a spine and supplement with findings from my own research. I will be sharing all of the resources we’ve used to supplement our space unit as we complete our study in september! It’s been so much fun to really get into it this time!
Well, there it is!
Our 3rd grade core curricula choices for 2020-21. We are so happy to be in the swing of things, and happy with the familiarity of our curriculum. However, we are also getting ready to try out some new things and spice things up, and I’m excited to report back how it goes!
Also, if you’re just getting your feet wet with homeschooling, be sure to check out my Homeschooling 101: Getting Started post!
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