I think we have similar tastes in curricula :)

Can you share your full lineup for these grades and how you used it? For example, did you use the Abeka 3rd history text as a reader or did your child answer questions and test?

I would love to see what you used if you have time!

Good to see you again. :)

My situation was a bit different from yours -- I had K, 2nd, and 3rd all in the same year. So you can take what I say here with a grain of salt or two.

They did the core subjects separately each morning, at their own level.

For the K, that was SSR&W (phonics/reading/handwriting/spelling) and BJUP Math K.

For the 2nd and 3rd graders, they each did BJUP English, Reading, Spelling, and Math. The 3rd grader did BJUP H/W 3 (cursive) that year.

After lunch, we did everything else together.

I used Beautiful Feet's 'A Literature Approach to Early American History' as a guideline, mostly just using their book list that year. I was able to check out the great majority of the books through our library system (taking advantage of interlibrary loan). I had to buy one book -- Stories of the Pilgrims, by Margaret Pumphrey.

I made three copies each of the line drawings in the books and they would color them as I read. Each of them had a slim binder for their finished pages which had a clear cover so they could design their own cover.

Many books were by the D'Aulaires (starting with Leif the Lucky). Then I used their books by holidays, starting with their bio of Columbus in October; also books by Clyde Bulla, such as Squanto in November, and other authors such as Jean Fritz.

Science was library books (and a few books I bought, including The Animal Atlas*) and lots of outdoor activities (like gathering fall leaves and identifying the trees with a field guide, using a bird feeder to identify local birds, as well as those which come this way in winter time, planting things, observing the night sky/eclipses, etc) and field trips which correlated with what we were learning.

* The Animal Atlas was a very large HB book by Dorling Kindersley which featured a huge, very colorful 2-page pic of each continent, showing pics of animals which are native to that continent, and info about each. This was a HUGE hit. For us it turned out to be a combination of science and geography and the dc learned a LOT.

Yes, I recently mentioned using A Beka History 3. I used this when the K I mentioned above was in 3rd grade. It is a compilation of biographies w/a time line, and we also used the accompanying workbook utilizing map studies and other things.

You asked if I used it as a reader, or answered questions and used tests. The dc would read each lesson to me (after having read it silently), then write the answers -- there were usually only a few. I did not use the tests.

That dc always wanted to read a full bio of each person, so I checked out age-appropriate ones at the library. The Childhood of Famous Americans series was especially enjoyable.

That year we took a vacation to the coast of our state and explored its original historical settlements. (Our vacations have often included such field trips.) We read the bio of our state's founder (James Oglethorpe, Childhood of Famous Americans) before we went, and this added a HUGE dimension to their understanding and enjoyment of the trip.

As we toured St. Simons Island / Fort Frederica, they remembered the significance of the Battle of the Bloody Marsh. Dh learned a lot that day, lol. Then when we went to Savannah, they recognized the names of the squares, including famous settlers.

Didn't mean to go so long. But I hope this helps. :)

This post was edited on May 03, 2012 09:18 AM

Thank you! My upcoming 3rd grader did BF Early American in third grade :) I was consideridering doing animals this year for my first grader. He would love it, but it is so hard to find resouurces without evolutionary references! I have decided on BJU math/english/reading/spelling for the 3rd grader and we will keep doing our own thing for sci/hist/bible. Thanks for giving me a peek at what worked for you!

VAmomto4, I don't remember any evolutionary info in The Animal Atlas -- and that's something I always notice. It *may* be that I skipped over a few pages at the beginning, but I honestly do not remember doing that.

ETA: I didn't make this clear before, but we actually used the BF history two years. I filled in the gaps between Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln with other books -- I just couldn't let all that time go by without a mention, lol.

Hope you and yours have a great year, whatever you do. :)

This post was edited on May 05, 2012 02:54 PM