Not Back To School - Curriculum Week

Even though I've only been homeschooling for one year, I feel much older and wiser.  I'm much more confident in my curriculum choices.  Here's what we're going to do for 3rd grade this year:

Math - Saxon math 3.  Millie got 100% on the math portion of her standardized test.  Saxon seems to really work for her, so I'm not going to change a thing!

Language Arts - Queen Homeschool Language Lessons for the Elementary Child.  I love this course.  I wish I would have found it last year!

Spelling - All About Spelling.  Millie bombed the spelling portion of her standardized test, so I had to get something that is proven to work.  Fingers crossed that this does the trick!

Cursive - Queen Homeschool Pictures in Cursive Primer.  We'll start this after Christmas.  Until then, we'll work on her printing using Draw Write Now and other copy work.

Reading - She's going to work on her reading out loud skills by reading to Elise every morning.  She's also going to read several Classic Starts novels.  Millie finally loves reading for fun, so exposing her to some great literature will be really cool.

Science - I've developed my own hybrid science curriculum using the Usborne Encyclopedia of Science.  We're going to focus on plant and animal biology and physics this year.  We're also going to do a lot of nature study.

History - We're doing American History 1 this year, using guesthollow.com as my guide.

PE - She'll take skating and polka dancing in the Fall, and we'll swim in our pool whenever possible.  While it's still nice out we'll ride bikes, play tennis, and take lots of walks.  In the Spring she'll take a school yard games class.  We'll also attend open gym once per month or so.

Art - She's doing photography through our homeschool group, art at the Children's Museum when possible and, a homeschool art class once per month.

Other activities - Millie will be taking Jr. Ranger classes with her homeschool group once per month.  They'll do all kinds of cool stuff like fossil hunting, star gazing, ice fishing, and canoeing.  Both girls will take Farm Explorers class at Gale Woods Farm in the Spring.  There are so many "other activities" I can't possibly list them here.

This year we're going to try to socialize a little less.  Things got a little out of control last year.  We're going to try to limit our outings with friends to two days per week.  Don't worry, two days with friends will not an awkward child make ;)  She'll still get to interact with humans when she goes out with Grandma Susie on Wednesday while I work, Sunday school, regular "lunch break" outings to the library, children's museum, science museum, weekend play dates with friends and cousins, etc.

Let's get this party started!

Check out other curriculum blogs at the Not Back To School Blog Hop!