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3rd Grade

Everyone says that 3rd grade is a leap. And I would definitely agree.

I would add though, that even though it’s a leap. Pushing my 3rd grader to achieve has not been extremely hard. She was definitely ready for 3rd grade.

Heading into 3rd grade? Here’s a few differences I’ve noticed between the first couple years of school and 3rd.

  1. You must be reading – everything for a 3rd grader assumes that the child is reading on or above grade level. A lot of books are for 3rd to 5th graders. It’s really important that your child be reading on at least grade level or you can have them there before the end of the year. Even her Sunday School teachers assume that all the 3rd graders are reading, capable of finding a specific page in their Bible, and can follow along while other kids in the group read.Just a quick plug for reading comprehension worksheets. If you want to know how your 3rd grader is doing reading, these are awesome! The ones I have give her 4.5 minutes to read a one page story and answer 5 questions on the back of the page. She’s usually done with about a minute to spare. It’s been great for increasing her reading confidence. And for increasing my confidence in her reading. We done one a week and it’s like a quick little test just to check that she’s where she should be at with her reading.
  2. More Independent learning – it’s assumed that a 3rd grader is capable of achieving some things on their own with minimal assistance. I can help her understand instructions as needed but unlike K-2nd her school work is not designed for me to be standing next to her assisting every second.I’m not saying I just hand stuff to her and tell her to figure it out. We definitely walk through new concepts and challenging concepts together. For example, multiplication with more than one digit in the multiplicand. Sometimes she gets it, sometimes she doesn’t. So, I walk her through problems as needed. But sections with concepts that she already knows well, I tell her to do them and grade them when she’s done.There’s even a couple of subjects, handwriting, spelling, Bible, and sometimes English, that she’ll tell me she wants to do on her own without any assistance. She does them well on her own and lets me know if she doesn’t understand something. So I’m happy to let her do it.
  3. More Independence – This kind of goes hand in hand with point #2. It’s perfectly acceptable for me to drop her off at dance lessons and return 2 hours later to pick her up when her class is over. She can handle her class change, shoe change, and between class water and snack on her own.  And I’m not alone in this. None of the moms of 3rd graders are sitting in the lobby for their child’s entire dance class.
  4. Critical Thinking Skills – You can teach a kindergartner critical thinking skills every day and most of them just don’t fully get it. In 3rd grade, you actually have a chance. A 3rd grader can handle thinking through things.In math, this would be your story problems. In science and history it’s your open-ended questions like what happens if we do something different? Or why do you think this person did this? No more blank looks of “what are you talking about mom?”. My 3rd grader has lots of opinions about how science experiments should turn out before I even finish telling her what we’re going to do.
  5. More Steps per problem – She’s expected to remember all 11 capitalization rules and find all the missing capitals in a sentence. In math she is doing more complex problems like long division. We still practice our addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division tables because she needs to get faster, but it’s assumed that she at least knows how to do this.
  6. Independent Thinking – 3rd grade is where I’m seeing a lot more independent thinking. More questions like why is this actually a rule? And why do we do this this way?I just love the questions! I want my children to ask questions. If I don’t know the answer, we look it up. Sometimes the answer isn’t what she’s expecting. (sometimes we just do something a certain way because that’s how I like it, there’s no other reason). Sometimes it’s fun (like is the cheetah or the ostrich faster?). But, overall, it’s an increased awareness and curiosity about the world around her. A greater awareness of how others around her are feeling and what they might think about something. Or the realization that just because we’ve always done something a certain way doesn’t mean it’s the only way to do it.

I really just love this age! We can finally have more interesting conversations and she likes to sit and talk with me about what’s going on in her life. It’s such a fun age of discovery, asking questions, and engaging more.

 

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Kindergarten Necessities

So, you want to homeschool? You’re starting with your Kindergartner, and you have no idea what you should do. You start researching curriculum, you even buy a bunch. There’s not a lot of Kindergarten – compared to other grades. But you still manage to get quite a pile.

Your Kindergartner is less than thrilled. Teaching reading is frustrating. And don’t even get me started on math! Your child doesn’t seem to be learning, and is definitely not having fun. Actually, what is a Kindergartner supposed to learn? If you do a google search, you’ll find a huge list of Kindergarten readiness and even more lists of what your child should know by the end of Kindergarten. It’s overwhelming.

So, let’s start at the top. Kindergarten is from German and literally translated means “Children’s Garden”. It’s supposed to be a time of learning, fun, and adventure.

But how do you do this and still teach the necessary academics?

For starters. What exactly is necessary in Kindergarten? When I was a kid, it was reading, writing, and math. And lots of time on the playground. And even then, it was less than is expected of my kids now. It was totally normal for half the class to be reading by the end of Kindergarten and the other class to just not quite be there yet. But, everyone would be reading by the end of first grade. Nowdays people want their kids to read before they start Kindergarten (check out those Kindergarten readiness lists I mentioned) Speaking of reading, what exactly does that look like for a Kindergartner?

I have 3 academic goals in Kindergarten for my kids. Reading, Math, and Writing. We cover other subjects like history and science. But not in a formal book learning manner. My Kindergartner often sits in while I’m working on history with my 3rd grader. She definitely participates in any and all science experiments – because those are always cool. And we do lots of fun field trips like the local symphony orchestra, replicas of Columbus’s ships, the local science museum, zoo, etc.

But as far as formal teaching. I can’t effectively teach anything else until my child can read, have a basic understanding of numbers, and write legibly.

Because Kindergarten shouldn’t be frustrating. And you should be working with your child at their pace. Here’s what I do. It worked well with my now 3rd grader and it’s producing a non-frustrating year for my Kindergartner.

1. Reading – I love, love, love Hooked on Phonics. I tried it out for my first child and I’m just loving it! Did I mention how awesome it is? The preschool level is all about learning your letter names and sounds – my 3yr old loves to get his book out and “do school” with us. He’ll get out crayons, markers, etc. and trace letters for a good 30 minutes and we’ll discuss the sounds and letter names that he’s tracing.

The K level is all about short vowel words. It’s divided in segments that are easy for a young child to handle. My 5yr old who insists she can’t read, is reading these books just fine. And since each lesson builds on the past one, your child will be reading more and more without realizing how much they actually can read. – Seems to be a common problem in my house. “I can’t read that!” declares the child. Who then reads it, and is shocked that it was way easier than expected.

We barely made it into the 2nd grade level when my oldest decided that she didn’t need them any more. She reads to herself every night when she goes to bed plus other reading for school and such throughout the day. She really didn’t need any more teaching on how to read by this stage, so we dropped it. I do have the books through 4th grade in case I need them though.

One awesome things about hooked on phonics, if you’re on a tight budget, these books can usually be found at your local library and you can just keep borrowing them over and over as you need them.

One other thing that has really helped our reading is these blend ladders from Abeka. We work on a sheet a day – sometimes the same sheet for a couple of days. And it’s great at helping kids get comfortable putting two sounds together. It’s always amazing to me how my children’s reading makes a huge leap forward at the exact same time that reading blends becomes easy.

Education2. Math – My favorite math is Abeka. It’s possible that this is because this is the math I grew up with. However, it also seems to work well for my girls. The pages are colorful. And everything is in short segments. There’s one clock, 5 addition problems, 5 number order problems, a color by number, etc.

Here’s the thing about math. I know Abeka is this way, and I assume a lot of other math curriculum is this way as well. They repeat the same thing every year. So, if your child doesn’t get it completely the first year. Don’t stress, they’ll get it next year or the year after. If you’re child is way behind, I would be concerned. But if your Kindergartner is basically on par with their peers and can generally do their math with assistance from you. They’re just fine.

For my oldest, I spent the entire Kindergarten year explaining what addition and subtraction are. She figured it out just fine by 1st grade. For my current Kindergartner, she already knew this somehow. I think my oldest must have taught her. Teaching her math is so easy! Addition, subtraction, number sequence, telling time, and patterns are all Kindergarten skills.

For you parents with a struggling Kindergartner, the key is just perseverance. Keep teaching them and they will get it. How do I know? you ask. Well, I would classify my current 3rd grader as struggling in math until this year. K through 2nd grade was just hard. She’s very literal and just struggled if you changed anything (like 5+2 and 2+5 being the same thing was hard for her to grasp). This year, in 3rd grade – which is WAY harder than previous grades – things seem to have finally clicked. Math isn’t her favorite subject, but she’s no longer struggling with it – and we’re already doing long division 1/4 of the way through the year. (actually, spelling somehow tops the list as “most hated 3rd grade subject”).

So, if your child is struggling, just keep patiently explaining it to them over and over. Sometimes it’s just a matter of their ability to analyze things catching up with what you’re trying to teach them. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” is a great motto for math.

3. Handwriting – First things first, don’t stress if you can’t read your kindergartner’s handwriting. It’ll be a few years before most kids can really hold a pencil perfectly. The key at this age is that they’re at least trying to form the letters and numbers properly. Writing some numbers and letters backwards is perfectly normal. Just keep modeling the right way to write and they’ll get it eventually.

I did get a writing curriculum – just the worksheets – because I like having a curriculum. But, to be honest, my Kindergartner’s best writing practice is done on this dry erase book. It’s $4 on Amazon and has free shipping if you have prime. Well worth the money, in my opinion. She’ll spend a good deal of time each week tracing, erasing, and re-tracing her letters. I’m perfectly happy to let her do this instead of her handwriting curriculum. The goal is that she learn how to write her letters and any method that she likes is good with me.

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Back to School

We’ve had a super busy summer. And covered many, many miles between my husband traveling for work and me & the kids traveling for family stuff. I had a sister get married, a brother come home on leave, my parents moved, two sisters graduated, and we threw in a few miscellaneous things just for fun.

I’m still finishing up my summer. It’s still HOT here in August – like in the 90’s, so we’ve got another good month of summer weather to go. I don’t even feel like starting school. But it’s that time of year, and since it’s important that we not fall behind, we’ve started school.

Part of the reason for starting when public school starts is because I’m required to do 180 days, and in order to get those all in plus all the fun things we like to do. I have to start on time. My books arrived Saturday, and we started Monday. Which means, we have plenty of days in our school year to still take breaks this month and take several trips to the local water park this year. Actually, the best thing about the water park this time of year, there’s fewer and fewer people there, by the end of the season we have the park to ourselves.

My kids all hate the cold, so come Christmas break, they don’t want to go outside. This means I have several extra weeks of school already planned in and we end early every year because of this. And snow days are school and then game days because there’s nothing else to do.

You ever had bored kids inside when it’s 10 degrees outside? It’s miserable! So, we do school instead. And play outside extra in the summer.

I think my kids are ready for school. They’re ready to see their friends at lessons and co-op and they’re super excited to be moved up to the next grade in Sunday School. I’m ready to see all my friends again too.

Summer was way too short, but we’re ready to move forward with things like learning to read, learning to multiply, and as many science experiments as I can stand. My 7yr old has requested that she be allowed to “blow things up” for science this year. I’m thinking the usual volcano, and a few other experiments like that. It’ll be a messy year for sure, but we’ll have fun and learn a lot!

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C is for Creativity

One thing I just love about Homeschooling is the freedom to be creative. And by creative, I don’t specifically mean art supplies.

Though, we do love art at my house. Paint, markers, glitter, scissors, paper, boxes, clay, etc. We have so many art supplies! And we go through them so quickly. I’m always requesting art supplies as birthday and holiday gifts because it’s impossible to keep up otherwise. Right now, I have poster paint and plaster of paris on my shopping list. Of course, I need thread for a sewing project so I’ll be going to the hobby store sometime this next week and the’ll get their paint and plaster of paris while I’m there.

BTW, plaster of paris is worse than glitter. The dust gets everywhere! And because it heats up right after mixing it, it’s always a project that I have to be heavily involved in. We have these princess doll molds for plaster of paris and they’ve sadly broken most of them. So sometime while they’re sleeping, I need to make some new ones and then they’ll spend the next week painting and decorating them.

Back to creativity in homeschooling… For example, history doesn’t just have to be from a book. You can go to a museum, watch a movie, or read a fun biography. We’ve even done a themed meal or other project to help the kids learn about the historical period we’re currently discussing. History is so much fun!

Science, trip to the zoo, growing your own garden (my 7yr old has be begging for years to have her own garden, this spring I’m going to let her have her own), experiments, museums, and anything fun that helps kids learn about the world around them.

Reading, I strongly believe in finding things for kids to read that they want to read. I have grade level readers, but I always have those a backups for if we don’t have anything else to read. Right now, my 2nd grader wants to read Childhood of Famous Americans: Andrew Jackson. It’s a bit above a 2nd grade reading level and she’s all into it. I’m getting reading AND history in one easy swoop! She’d rather read this than her grade level reader, so that’s what we read. It’s all about getting them reading.

English, or Language & Grammar, whichever you prefer to call it. Now that we’re to 2nd grade I combine this a lot with handwriting since it’s pretty difficult to accomplish one subject without the other. I do have a curriculum for this but I’ll take breaks for fun projects like writing thank you notes, addressing Christmas cards, writing a story, etc. It’s important to learn the rules, but you also want there to be room for some fun.

Math, no surprises here, with a girl, math is our toughest subject. Here’s the interesting part, physical math skills like telling time, measurements, temperatures, etc. are not a problem. It’s the more abstract skills like addition and subtraction problems, counting sequences, and I’m not sure how she’ll do with multiplication in a month. I encourage her to use her math through the day on things like cooking (since she loves to cook and you can’t cook without basic math), art (think of all those shapes you can measure and create),  daily calendar, etc. Maybe this is why her physical math is easy? And think of all the fun math we’ll use this spring when we plant her garden!

What are some fun things you do with your kids to help them learn?

 

 

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Homeschooling Mondays – 4 ways to save money on books

I love homeschooling, and I have my favorite curriculums, but seriously, all these books can become really expensive! Here’s a few ways I save money.

photo_18977_201011091. Don’t buy the teacher’s keys – My kids are 2nd grade and pre-K. I can do their math in my head like it’s second nature. There’s no reason to buy the teacher’s keys when I can come up with the right answer faster than checking it in the book.

Once you get up into the higher grades you’re going to want those teacher’s keys – there’s no way we’re doing algebra without a teacher key. But for the lower grades, you can save yourself a lot of money by only purchasing the books you actually need.

2. Re-use curriculum – My hooked on phonics I only had to purchase once, for all the kids to use. History and science text-books through 2nd grade don’t actually have workbooks that the kids need to do so I only need one set for all the kids. The same thing for reading/literature. You don’t need multiple copies of 1st grade readers. Get one set and use them for all your children.

3. Don’t be afraid of used books – I saved so much money in college by buying lightly used books. The same thing works for homeschooling. Amazon sells used books, so does e-bay. Before you pay full price look and see if you can save by buying used.

One warning with this though – most companies like to put out new versions every few years. It’s confusing to try to mix versions. So if the version 3 workbook is the only one available, you’re not going to want the version 2 teacher key. Usually, they change just enough that it doesn’t work well to mix versions.

Anything that is a complete set or that can stand alone (like readers), if it’s cheaper used, get it used.

Education4. Always accept hand-me-downs – I’ve saved a lot of money because my mom and my mother-in-law both homeschooled. I haven’t had to buy readers (I have 1st through 6th grade on my shelf) because they passed them on to me when they were finished. My mom gave me all their flashcards (and those things can be so expensive!) and a full set of hooked on phonics (K – 4th), and my mother-in-law is constantly giving me random educational items for the kids.

If it’s something I’ll use later (like my 6th grade readers) I save it. If it’s something I’ll never use I pass it on to someone who wants it.

What are some of your tricks for saving money?

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Homeschooling Mondays – My 4 Favorite Curriculums

Having been homeschooled myself I entered homeschooling my children having already formed some opinions about curriculums. So I like to pick and choose what subjects to do from what curriculum based on what my children need.

1. A Beka Book – This is the curriculum I used the most as a child. I really like their math. I tried saxon with my daughter for Kindergarten and First Grade and it just didn’t work well for us. We’re using A Beka this year and it’s going way better.

And I love their reading/literature. They have the kids reading many classic stories and lots of random chapters from classic children’s books (like Little House on the Prairie). This is great for expanding kid’s literary horizons and encouraging them to pick new books to read.

Their history, science, and english is equal to any other comparable homeschool curriculum provider but I tend to buy from them because I’m ordering math anyways so it’s easier to just place one order.

I really like their Bible curriculum but it’s very expensive because you have to purchase the entire kit to do it. So I’ve never actually purchased my Bible curriculum from them.

2. BJU press – I get my Bible curriculum from here. It works well for us and we’ll probably use it for a few more years. Once the kids are old enough to do more of a Bible study format I’ll be searching again for something that does more of this. BJU Press is great for teaching kids the basics of the Bible and the Bible stories.

I have also use their history and science and really like them as well. This year we’re using A Beka for science and history because they’re half the price of BJU Press.

Their reading/literature is acceptable but I don’t like it as well as A Beka’s. And their math and english are pretty much the same as every other homeschool curriculum.

Mostly the differences between A Beka Book and BJU Press are in how they present the information. Depending on how your child learns best you may find one curriculum easier to use than the other.

3. Hooked on Phonics – This is by far my favorite curriculum for teaching my children to read. Once they’re reading the A Beka or BJU Press readers are awesome. But for getting your child to read, I prefer Hooked on Phonics. I started with Kindergarten and about halfway through the First Grade set my child was reading well enough that she didn’t want to read them any more. We actually started First Grade Hooked on Phonics about halfway through her Kindergarten year and took a break for the summer. Over the summer she did a lot of reading and when we came back to the First Grade set to finish it the beginning of her First Grade year she was way beyond it. It had made learning to read easy and fun and with the dvds, books, stickers, and workbook there’s so many ways to teach reading it’s easy to find a method that works for your child.

My 4yr old desperately wants to learn to read this year so we’re working on the Pre-K Hooked on Phonics with her. Another month and we’ll start in on the Kindergarten set!

And they’re easily reusable for multiple children. So, buy one set, and use it for all your kids.

4. Saxon – Even though Saxon Math did not work well for my daughter, I have many homeschooling friends who just love it. My husband used it as a child and he liked it. So, the curriculum itself is great, it just was not the right method for my daughter.

Even if you’re not using their curriculum, the Saxon Math Manipulatives Kit is great for using with any math curriculum!

Education

There’s a lot of great homeschool curriculums available and if something doesn’t work for you, try something else, and eventually you’ll find the perfect fit for you and your child!

This post does contain affiliate links and I do earn a small commission on any sales from those links.