OLD HOMESCHOOLERS NEVER DIE . . . THEY JUST WRITE CURRICULUM


"Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass,
like abundant rain on tender plants."

Deuteronomy 32:2

Courses of Study

To view the Course of Study for each grade level, you can click on the "Course of Study" label
or "Search This Blog" for the specific grade level you wish to see.
To date, I have courses of study completed for kindergarten through fourth grades.

Newsletter Articles

In 2013 the Lord started me producing a newsletter for the homeschool group we are a part of. Every other month I write an article on a topic the Lord has put on my heart. I've decided to add these articles to this blog. I hope you will find encouragement through some of my ramblings. You can click on the label "Newsletter" to find the articles.

Saturday, October 25

Third Grade, Bible, Set Six

Hymns:
  • Give of Your Best to the Master
  • Now I Belong to Jesus
  • Tell Me the Story of Jesus
Bible Memory
  • we used the Verse Strips to review a passage each day during this set of weeks
Games
  • I found the book, Games for Bible Discovery, by Monte Corley and Roy Nichols. I made some of the games to help us review facts about Moses, Abraham, and other Bible stories.
  • We played Bible Order, which is like Rack-O, but with the books of the Bible. This is a very old game, and I don't think it is available anywhere, but if you have Rack-O stands, you can make cards with the names of the books of the Bible on them.
Catechism
  • Learned #44, 45, 46
  • Reviewed catechism each week
Prayer:
  • Countries/Peoples
    • Garifuna
    • Gonds
    • Greece
    • Greenland
    • Guinea-Bissau
Read-Aloud
  • Short and Sweet by Katherine Loop
  • Other books from our "Bible Shelf"
The Princess and The Kiss
  • Lesson 21 in Life Lessons -- God wants you to pass on a godly heritage.
    • The activity we did was to trace around one of our feet and then to write names of people we know who follow Jesus. People we can look to as good examples to follow. (1 Corinthians 11:1)

Third Grade, Math, Set Six

We worked through the book, Safari Adventure, by Deborah Underwood. This book takes you on a safari in Africa to make graphs from the data they give you. It was a fun way to do more work with graphing. The last two graphs are made on the computer, using Create a Graph.

I printed out some work pages to practice:
  • reading time
  • drawing time
  • calculating elapsed time
  • using a calendar
We completed more pages in Map Skills Made Fun: Neighborhoods and Communities.

We started practicing our skip count sheets out of order.

In geometry:
  • we made flat and solid shapes of clay
  • we reviewed what a polygon is, and made a poster
  • we reviewed edge, vertex, and face, using signs and counting them on our clay shapes
 
  • we cut a shape out of the clay with a cookie cutter and practiced: slide, flip, and turn

Saturday, October 18

Third Grade, Reading, Set Six

We read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. We had one book, but I thought it would be nice if we each had our own to read from, so I picked one up from the library. It had larger type and some of the original pictures in it, and K. enjoyed using it. I had a study guide for the book, put out by World for Learning. I picked a few things from it for us to do:
  • Vocabulary
  • Comprehension
  • Recipes - Poppyseed Muffins and a Rainbow Cookie (below)
  • Cinquain Poem
  • Venn Diagram comparing the book and the movie
  • L. Frank Baum: Author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Carol Greene -- this is a Rookie Biography and was very interesting and added to our reading the book.

We have decided to use The Wonderful Wizard of Oz for our Book Day on October 31. We already had a Scarecrow and have made a Tin Man. I'm not sure if we will try to make a Lion or not. I'm working on a Dorothy costume for K. We are going to cut flowers out of tissue paper to make our dining room into poppy fields. We are still working on our menu. Book Days are lots of fun!

Third Grade, Grammar, Set Six

Since we completed the work I had planned for this school year in Set Five, I did not schedule anything for Grammar in this set. This also allowed us more time for Writing.

Friday, October 17

Third Grade, Writing, Set Six

We continued learning the upper case cursive letters.

We started the Young Novelist Workbook. This is the third year we have done this program, and I am getting better at allotting the time needed and in presenting the work. K. is getting better at coming up with ideas and answering the questions.

This year I decided to print out the entire workbook in sections, but have K. write in a spiral notebook so I don't have to print the workbook again.

We started with the "Create Awesome Characters" section. We spent two weeks developing the main character, supporting character, and villain.

The next two weeks we worked on the "Make Up Your Story" and "Outline Your Plot" sections.

When K. was bogged down with the plot, we took a couple days to complete the "How to Write Really Good Dialogue" section.

The last we we worked on the "Map Your Setting" section.

Third Grade, Spelling, Set Six

We finished the last five units of the spelling book, making sure K. knew how to spell the words, was familiar with the spelling generalizations, and completing the skills activities.

Third Grade, Science, Set Six

Along with reading Nature Friend Magazines, we completed about five work pages from the Long Beach Aquarium. We went there on their homeschooler's day. I had printed out these papers to do while we were there, but we were too busy enjoying ourselves to do them then. I decided we could do them as well after our visit, using the Internet to find answers to questions we didn't know. It was actually fun, and made the experience last longer and we learned more.

K. was sick during our week off, so I decided not to insist on her doing a project.

Third Grade, History, Set Six

From Abraham Lincoln's World, we read pages 210 - 283.

We added presidents Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan, along with the states of California, Minnesota, Oregon, and Kansas to our American History notebooks.

We completed two more lessons of California History, learning about the desert plants, animals, and the Chemehuevi Indians.

We read chapter six in Industrial Revolution.

Here are other books we enjoyed:

Women's Suffrage
  • The Ballot Box Battle by Emily Arnold McCully -- a picture book story about Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
  • If You Lived When Women Won Their Rights by Anne Kamma -- this book is mostly about the years 1848 to 1920.

The West
  • Wagon Trains and Settlers by Ellen H. Todras -- we did not read all of this book. Each page is stuffed with information. It will be a good book to get again. Some topics it covers are: Manifest Destiny, outfitting a wagon, daily routines on the trail, major trails, and settling in the West.
  • Projects About Westward Expansion by Marian Broida -- this book lets you travel to Kentucky in 1788, along the Oregon Trail around 1850, and visit homesteads in Nebraska in 1885. This is a fun quick book to read because it has so many projects.

California Gold Rush
  • The Legend of Freedom Hill by Linda Jacobs Altman -- a picture book about two girls, Rosabel and Sophie, who find gold to buy the freedom of Rosabel's mother after the slave catcher finds her.
  • The California Gold Rush by Mel Friedman -- this is part of the "A TRUE Book" series. It has lots of illustrations and is well written and understandable for children.
  • Life During the Gold Rush by Janey Levy -- this book covered a few things that the previous book didn't, so I just read those pages to K.
  • Treasure in the Stream by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler -- a story about a farming family whose daughter finds gold in a stream on their property.
  • Bronco Charlie and the Pony Express by Marlene Brill -- this book is in the On My Own History series. Relates how, in 1861, a boy named Charlie Miller became the youngest rider for the Pony Express.
Pony Express
  • They're Off! The Story of the Pony Express by Cheryl Harness -- tells the why and how of the Pony Express, with great illustrations, including maps. It even has a list of all the Pony Express riders. It gives details of the first rides east and west along with other highlights, such as Bob Haslam's 380 mile ride during the Paiute war. Ends with the end of the Pony Express, just two days after the telegraph line was completed to the west coast.
  • Off Like the Wind! The First Ride of the Pony Express by Michael P. Spradlin -- this book has a day by day account of the first ride east and west.
  • Hoofbeats of Danger by Holly Hughes -- this is in the American Girl History Mysteries series. This was a fun book to read as a family. It was very exciting and educational.
People:
  • Who Was Abraham Lincoln? by Janet B. Pascal -- this is a well written chapter book for children. I read it, then had K. read it on her own. It tells about his entire life, but over half the book in on his presidency and the Civil War.
  • The Brontes: Scenes from the childhood of Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne by Catherine Brighton -- delightful picture book with good information about their childhood
    • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte -- the one we read was in the Treasury of Illustrated Classis series. It was adapted by Sara Thomson and Illustrated by Richard Lauter.
  • John Charles Fremont: Western Pathfinder by Barbara Witteman -- interesting biography written for fourth grade and up.
  • How to Draw the Life and Times of Zachary Taylor by Roderic Schmidt -- interesting information about our twelfth president.
  • John Brown by Tom Streissguth -- this is an On My Own Biography book. It contains lots of illustrations and presents the facts of John Brown clearly, without condemning or condoning.
  • Florence Nightingale by Shannon Zemlicka -- this is from the On My Own Biography series. It is well written, covering her life in good detail, with lots of illustrations.
    • Florence Nightingale . . . and a new age of nursing by Sarah Ridley -- we read this book first. It is for younger children and gives the basic facts of Florence's life in an interesting manner. The other book fills in more details. This book has a timeline throughout, showing events in her life and the world.
  • My Tour of Europe by Theodore Roosevelt -- this is a picture book about Teddy Roosevelt's tour of Europe when he was 10 years old (1869).
Books for Older Children:
  • Annie Quinn in America by Mical Schneider -- this is a really good book. I read it and enjoyed it tremendously! It is about a family in Ireland, who are poor and hungry due to the potato famine; how they get to America and their adventures (sometimes sad) on the journey and in America.
  • Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun by Rhoda Blumberg -- this book has lots of illustrations, and looks interesting for a high school student.
  • Charlotte Bronte and Jane Eyre by Stewart Ross -- although it has many illustrations, it also has lots of text.
  • Young Man in a Hurry: The Story of Cyrus W. Field by Jean Lee  Latham -- this book is the story of the man who "... was just the man that -- well -- held things together." and after thirteen years, the transatlantic cable was successfully laid.
Books we didn't have time to get to:
  • 1848: Year of Revolution by R.G. Grant
  • The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson
  • You Wouldn't want to sail on an Irish Famine Ship! by Jim Pipe
  • Gold! Gold from the American River! by Don Brown

Third Grade, Fine Arts, Set Six


Here are a couple birthday cards we made.

We are also continuing to creep forward in piano.