Homeschool Reading List #2: Third Grade

Gradually getting the learning thing together here, in the doldrums of midsummer. My aim is to have some plans nailed down before we take Epiphany to college in late August, so that come September, when we resume what passes as our regular routine, I can commence ignoring them. What else are plans for? I ask you.

Nevertheless, I make them, and occasionally I actually follow what I've written. The other day I shared our projected second-grade reading;  now for third grade.

Goals for third grade:

* For a fluent, fast reader, to increase "depth" and comprehension in reading

* To improve proficiency in handwriting, which right now remains a struggle, despite huge improvements last year

* To make strides in and feed enjoyment of mathematics

*To nurture a well-furnished historical, scientific, literary, cultural, etc. imagination

*To maintain good habits of prayer and expand understanding of our faith

*To cultivate a greater sense of personal responsibility via life skills and chores

Much of our reading will happen in a "combined-school" setting  with the second grader;  that booklist to follow shortly. Meanwhile, here's the third grader's individual reading list, which will be scheduled, like the second grader's, in small doses so that books are spread out over at least a semester, if not the entire year:

For the Children's Hour
School of the Woods
Story Book of Science
Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children
The Secret of Everyday Things
The Boy's Book of Sea Fights
The Book of Saints and Heroes
Poems Every Child Should Know (copywork)
Our Island Saints
This Way to Christmas
Great Inventors and Their Inventions
When the King Came
The Bears of Blue River
Boys and Girls of Colonial Days


Math:  MEP Year 3

Head of the Class: I'm using this, in all honesty, as a way to keep people gainfully occupied while I'm working one-on-one with someone else. If an MEP math lesson is going to take the full 45 minutes -- and my experience so far is that really, though in general I believe in short lessons a la Charlotte Mason, the full benefit of this program lies in doing it as it's written, and not skipping or breaking lessons in half -- then I need the person who is not doing math to be doing something quiet and learning-ish and independent for that amount of time, which is just becoming possible with these younger two.

So the third grader, once he's finished his independent reading for the day and finds himself at loose ends, will work his way through a complement of online applications in spelling, science, geography, and music, via a customized curriculum I've set up (nifty feature, that). The curriculum for each grade level also includes a "fun" component;  the third grade "fun" is a series of little multimedia presentations, a.k.a. narrated slide shows, on various career options. This is one of those Gee, I wouldn't have thought of that offerings, and it does look like fun, so he'll be doing that as well. Plus we'll be printing out Spanish vocabulary words and geography goodies like the flags of Europe to put in lapbook/folders in our notebook.

He'll also do liturgical-year lapbook projects with the second-grader, but I think I'm trespassing into "Combined School" territory now.

That booklist, plus Grade 8, up shortly.