Today I am thrilled to share with you all about our form 1A (third grade) homeschool plans! You can find our previous 1st grade plans here, and our second grade plans here, as well as a few other articles I’ve written below for further context into our homeschool:
What I’d Do Differently Preparing For Ambleside Online Year 1
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If you’ve been reading along on the blog, it won’t come as a surprise to read that we are continuing to use Ambleside Online for Year 3. Recently I shared our reason for choosing Ambleside Online in this article.
Below I have listed out the subjects we are covering in 3rd grade. Most of the books we are using are included in AO year 3’s schedule, so I will not be linking those specific books in this post to respect Ambleside Online’s terms of use. You can find AO’s year 3 schedule of the books on their website here.
Subjects In Our Third Grade Year
Bible
We will continue using AO’s Bible reading rotation picking up in the book of Joshua and ending in Ruth for our Old Testament reading, as well as reading Matthew in the New Testament. We are only using our own Bibles, with no additional commentary at this time. My ESV study Bible will be the extent of any additional context when needed.
We’ll also continue memorizing and reciting catechisms either from our church’s Sunday School “big questions” they learn in class, or from The New City Catechism we are still working through.
Church History
This is the first year we will use Trial and Triumph as scheduled. I plan on having my daughter listen on audio and then narrate and discuss it with me afterward.
History and Timeline
By following AO’s history rotation, we will be studying the late 1400s-1600s Renaissance and Reformation, and early American history. My daughter will continue to add entries to her timeline.
As we begin reading early American history this year, I’ll be including additional books that introduce some of the Native American tribes that were already in America when Columbus reached the new world with this book. Over the next couple of months I’m reading The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhay: Life in Medieval Africa by Patricia and Frederick McKissack and They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America by Ivan Van Sertima and may include parts of these books into our medieval/early American history schedule.
I am still playing with our reading schedule for history so we don’t overdo it with readings per day. I’ll have a better idea after reading the books myself over the next couple of months.
Biography
Following our history time period, we’ll be reading Leonardo DaVinci for term one, Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare for term two, and ending with The Landing of The Pilgrims for term 3.
Leonardo has longer chapters so I will probably be splitting up those readings a couple of times per week.
Geography and Mapwork
Alongside our journey with Marco Polo, I’ll be including mapwork questions for my daughter. We will begin our geography lessons with mapwork questions related to our reading we will cover that lesson. I pulled my own questions for this during my pre-reading for year 3. We’ll then read from our book, and she’ll narrate as usual.
I loved this practical idea from A Delectable Education’s Conference which they demonstrated and I found so helpful! We’ll be using this world atlas for our mapwork questions, which I wrote up myself after pre-reading each chapter. We won’t be keeping a map showing Marco Polo’s journey along the way this year like in previous years.
We’ll continue to use the Seterra app occasionally, and my daughter will work on Draw Asia Volume 1 for the year.
We’ll also include the selections from Home Geography and Elementary Geography spread throughout the year.
Natural History
Alongside our Pagoo reading, I found multiple youtube playlists (just search “Pagoo” on youtube) of videos to watch by the subject of each chapter reading! I am not planning on watching a video for every chapter, but the visual resources will be very helpful to see some of the ocean life more realistically (especially because we don’t have easy access to the ocean here in AZ). We are hoping to make a trip to a beach in the near future so I think reading Pagoo will be an excellent read before then!
I imagine we’ll use youtube for our wood animals and with both natural history reading selections, my daughter will keep a notebook where she’ll add some written and illustration narration.
Science and Nature Study
I know Drops of Water is under the Natural History subject category in AO’s schedule, but I am including it as part of our science for our first term. Science and nature study will be on Fridays.
Term 1: Trees
Term 2: Delighting In Our Solar System by Delightfully Feasting
Term 3: Amphibians
I am hoping to use a special study guide for each term that’ll help me stay more on task with our nature studies this year. I am currently looking at Nature Study Hacking guides but may end up using the Handbook of Nature Study‘s specific sections as a springboard for our own special studies, along with other living books we find at the library.
Nature journal entries will continue to be scheduled for 1x a week, although I am aiming for 2x a week (one during our object lesson, and another during the week’s nature walk or backyard observation).
Literature
This year I am going to have some of our literature books on audio for my year 3. She will follow along with her own book but have a chance to listen or read at her own pace. I will use this time to focus on my kindergartner. I’ve found some of our literature books on Scribd so I will have her pick a cozy spot, plug her headphones into my iPad and listen for 10 minutes.
I am choosing Greek Myths by D’Aulaires in replace of The Heroes for term 1 simply because we already own D’Aulaires’ book. With this reading, I will read it aloud with her. For all the literature books, she will still narrate orally to me after each reading.
Poetry
We’re continuing to use AO’s poet rotation by reading a poem a day.
Math
We’re moving right along with Right Start and this year she will use Level C. I am going to be more diligent about review work before lessons and at the end of our week we may do a more formal, prompt review of the week to better evaluate if we need to keep working on a concept or are ok to move forward.
I decided a math notebook would be a good idea to keep this year so I purchased the digital download of SCM math grid paper and will print it out for her to work problems on.
We enjoy the occasional math games during family game night, which you can find our favorites here. She may also occasionally do math drills from xtramath.org which was a recommendation from several other AO moms.
Handwriting/Copywork
My daughter will continue to finish A Reason For Handwriting Level C: Cursive as her handwriting practice, and she will have copywork to complete each day from her readings. She will be able to choose the book from our stack of the day and copy a section from the book for 10 minutes. Our goal at this point is consistency with letter formation, proper spacing, and punctuation. I require her to keep her copy work in print but might have her transition to cursive down the road this year, or wait until next year.
Language Arts/Phonics
Following the progression of my daughter’s reading and writing skills, we will use Learning Language Arts Through Literature (yellow book), as well as Explode the Code 3 which she will do as more independent work. I am not following the LLATL schedule and may slow down or speed up the weeks depending on my daughter’s pace. She will use Explode the Code in her independent basket which is simply a basket full of additional practice/brain work while I need a moment or so with my son, etc. I will share our independent baskets in a later post.
Spelling
We’ll be trying out a spelling program using Simply Charlotte Mason’s Spelling Wisdom curriculum. It appears to be very open and go and on the pace of the child which is important for us. I think this is a great resource for continuing her reading skills, taking a mental picture of words, and learning to write them accurately upon hearing them. I see us using this book for 2-3 years if it’s a good fit.
Foreign Language
We are very slowly making our way through TalkBox.Mom Spanish. I think it is still an excellent curriculum for learning a new language in a way that can be integrated into every day, but I just need to be better at including it in our weekly recitation practice. This is the year!
Recitation
Ambleside Online recently updated its schedule to reflect recitation selections for OT, NT, and poetry! We will follow their rotation this year and practice memorizing and reciting daily.
Artist/Picture Study
It has been a great fit to study the artist’s works in our morning time together, and then hang them up for display over the term. At the end of each week, we will try and replicate the artwork piece by drawing or watercolor. We are following AO’s artist rotation and get our prints for free from AHumblePlace.
Drawing
Bestowing the Brush has been one of our favorite homeschool resources to date. This year I finally invested in some higher quality brushes and paint for our lessons and we both are eager to get back to the tutorials Dallas offers in her course. This year I am also including additional drawing practice in our schedule than just 1x a week. My daughter already loves to draw in her free time, so I think more formal drawing instruction would be a good challenge for her this year.
Handicrafts
Our first term’s handicraft will be paper modeling using this book. We will sit together and have a more formal instruction lesson on Fridays, and then have the weekend and the following week to spend practicing during afternoon occupations.
Our handicraft for terms 2 and 3 will be crochet, working on her own blanket with granny squares. I already know how to crochet, so this will be a fun mother-daughter project together!
P.E./Drill
Aside from her ballet classes, we will work in some P.E. at the end of our lessons just before lunch. This might look like jumping jacks, obstacle course in the backyard, jump rope, soccer drills, playing red light, green light, or a drill lesson using The School Yard’s desk drills.
Music
Folk songs, hymns, and composer music will be from AO’s rotation to make things easier for me. We really enjoy Folksandhymns youtube channel when listening to and learning them! The hymns are part of our morning liturgy every morning before lessons, but the folksongs and composer music will be on rotation throughout the week. We often try to memorize and sing along with our folksong so I usually print off and include the lyrics in our morning menus as well as the hymns. For the composer’s music, we just listen and enjoy! Sometimes I ask if they can point out any specific instruments in the piece, or how the music makes them feel (excited, playful, frightened, sad, tired).
I also find several playlists on Spotify from others who have compiled the music for each AO school year. We will have those playlists playing in the background during afternoon occupations. (I searched “Ambleside Online 2023-2024” to find the playlists)
Reading
Even though my daughter is off reading on her own most of her time, I will have her read aloud to me 2x a week for 10 minutes. It’s one thing to learn to read, and another to keep the love and enjoyment of reading, but reading aloud to others is an entirely different art and skill to learn. Learning to read aloud for the sake of someone else to enjoy the book is something I find to be a valuable skill and one I want to cultivate in her as she continues reading great books.
We’ll be utilizing AO’s free reading list more this year than in previous years and while I don’t mind her reading other books, I am going to require she read a few of the selections this year before reading something she’s already read over again (Anne of Green Gables or Little House on the Prairie books). I think using the free reads booklist will continue guiding us in finding good, wholesome living books to enjoy in our free time. As more books become available from other booklists, we may add those to our home library as well!
Typing
Typing.com has been a great success in our homeschool and a skill I think will one day serve her well in the evergrowing technology age we’re in.
She is beginning to type words together and formulate sentences in a good amount of time. I will have her practice 1x a week, but more if this is something she would like to continue doing in her afternoon occupations after reading.
Out of Doors
Our subject list is quite lofty, but comparing it to Years 1-2, we aren’t really adding on too much more than what we’ve already been doing. We still will plan to get outside (yes, me too!) 2-3 hours a day, broken up throughout our day. During the heat of AZ Summer, we may opt for just 2 hours with plenty of shade and water play included. We also enjoy camping up in the northern parts of AZ between now and November which will provide us with many hours of time spent outside.
Things she might do outside while we’re home:
- Water the garden
- Sidewalk paint with water
- Water our tree
- Jump rope
- Play with the dog
- Take pictures of our flowers and feathered friends that come to our feeders
- Jump on the trampoline
- Imaginative play
- Bird watch with binoculars
- Run in the sprinkler
- Nature journal
- Ride her bike around the neighborhood/visit a park (with her brother and me)
With all this written out, I’m even more excited to get going in July! However, from experience, our plans sometimes don’t always go exactly as we hoped for. While I do try and hold to and commit to our plans, things may need to be changed slightly (timing of a lesson, a book taking too long in one sitting, etc.) and so I hold this plan loosely but faithfully.
I look forward to sharing our progress with the new school year in the Fall!
