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What does a real 3rd grade schedule look like?
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We’ve had a tough fall and I’ve lost sight of what the “average” 3rd grader should be doing. I want to challenge him without overwhelming either of us. I also have a 1st grader and a preschooler.
What does your child’s actual schedule look like and what would you like to change?
My ds is 9, so I don’t know if you consider that 3rd grade or 4th grade, but here’s his weekly schedule:
Monday:
Sing hymn and folk song (Family)
Scripture memorization (Family)
History reading w/ oral narration (Family)
Math facts drill (Family)
Poetry reading (Family)
Map Study (Family)
Science reading w/ narration and notebooking (Family/Independent)
Copywork (5 minutes)
Math-U-See (Independent)
Independent Literature w/ narration
Typing (Independent)
Independent History Reading w/ narrationTuesday:
Sing hymn and folk song (Family)
Scripture memorization (Family)
History reading w/ oral narration (Family)
Math facts drill (Family)
Poetry reading (Family)
Picture study (Family)
Math-U-See (Independent)
Independent Literature w/ narration
Copywork (5 minutes)
Independent History Reading w/ narration
Dictation (Independent)Wednesday:
Sing hymn and folk song (Family)
Scripture memorization (Family)
History reading w/ oral narration (Family)
Math facts drill (Family)
Poetry reading (Family)
Science reading w/ narration and notebooking (Family/Independent)
Copywork (5 minutes)
Math-U-See (Independent)
Independent Literature
Typing (Independent)
Independent History Reading w/ narrationThursday:
Sing hymn and folk song (Family)
Scripture memorization (Family)
History reading w/ oral narration (Family)
Math facts drill (Family)
Poetry reading (Family)
Map Drill (Independent)
Independent Literature w/ narration
Creative Writing (Independent)
Independent history reading w/ narration
Dictation (Independent)ETA: His independent history reading are books that are either assigned for grades 1-3 or 4-6 in the SCM modules or something that I assign to go along with our history studies. His independent literature are just books that I’ve chosen for him to read for enjoyment and narration purposes. Examples from this year include Baby Island, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, Caddie Woodlawn, Mary Poppins, and Island of the Blue Dolphins. This is one of the very few things I do that are not part of the SCM Curriculum Guide.
Family literature is read aloud during or after lunch. Family Bible time is in the evenings before bed. Does that help at all?
Lindsey, how long does he spend on that? Do you guys do family subjects, then he proceeds with the independent work? And does he work for a set amount of time or a set amount of work to be completed? Is the independent lit like a chapter a day, or more of a timed thing?
Sorry for all the questions, but I’m re-evaluating over our Christmas break.
That amount of school takes us 2.5 to 3 hours per day. I typed it out in the order that we do it. We do all family subjects first, since each child has a different amount of independent work to do. His independent reading for history recommended in the modules is one chapter or part of one chapter, whatever the guide says to do. His independent literature is one chapter per day, but he almost always asks to read additional chapters. Sometimes I let him; other times, I have him move on in the interest of time. Copywork is the only thing I set a timer for.
My son is in second grade. Here is his schedule:
Daily Family Subjects:
History
Math
Scripture Memory
Literature Reading (with daddy at night)
Art/Composer/Poet Study
Independently he works on the following:
Math – 15 minutes every day
Reading – 15 minutes every day, plus 30 minutes of “silent reading time”
Handwriting – 3x/week for about 10 minutes/session
Music (an online program) – 2-3x/week for 15 minutes
Geography – 2x/week drill (we are working on Europe this year)
Nature Journal – 1-2 entries/week
Spelling – he’s not old enough for dictation yet, but I’ve decided to work with him on studying 8-10 words/week.
Religion – Pflaum Gospel Weeklies each week (Catholic religious ed)
On top of that, he participates in a weekly memory co-op, he does scout achievements, and starting in January he is going to do a Minecraft Homeschool course for fun.
He’s the type of kid who likes to follow a schedule, so every day we have our family readings and he has about 8 scheduled items he has to do on his own. His work for the day takes about 2-3 hours, including silent reading and the family items.
My almost 10-year-old in 4th grade does the following, but please keep in mind he tags along with 2 13-year-old brothers sometimes and with a 7-year-old for others:
Daily family work:
History (30 minutes)
Religion including scripture memory (30 minutes)
Foreign Language (10 minutes)
Read-aloud (20 minutes 2 x a day – one with me, one with dad)
Grammar/Shakespeare (15 minutes, alternating days)
Then with me and his 7-year-old brother we do:
Science (15 minutes)
Lightning Lit/Nature Study/Life of Fred (one a day) (10 minutes)
Picture/chapter books (10 to 15 minutes, science or history related…or just for fun)
History readings (from grades 1-3 of SCM modules)
On his own he does:
Math – 2 lessons Teaching Textbooks (30 to 45 minutes)
Copywork (5 minutes)
Explode the Code (5 minutes)
20 minutes reading in book of his choice
History reading (from SCM 4-6 history suggestions)
Personal scripture study (5 to 10 minutes)
When we’re on the co-op schedule we have a few more ‘family’ activities each day, spread out over the week. When we’re off track I move all the little extras to one day (Monday). They include map drill, computer programming, composer, artist, poetry, logic, fairy tales, nature study, geography, drawing lessons. Each of these take 10 to 15 minutes.
Lindsey what do you do about some of the random subjects and nature studies. Like the real foods study, habit training, handicrafts, geography (or is that just lumped in with history), spelling and grammar. I am wondering if I just have to much on my days. Thoughts?
Crazy4boys, how are you doing those things so fast? Or why are we taking so long?? Nature study in 10 minutes, drawing lessons, geography in 10 minutes, copywork in 5. Grammar, Shakespeare, foreign language. How are you doing these so quickly? Even science in 15…what are you using? And do you lose much time in transition? I used to be so good at this, but just feel like I have no idea how I used to do it.
Amy,
Nature study is a random thing. If the kids are playing outside or observing something, I’ll say, “Go grab your notebooks and draw that!” It’s very rarely a planned event for us.
The Real Foods study was our science curriculum last year. So we did it two days per week, covering one lesson per week. It took us one term to get through the curriculum, and that was our science for the entire year. It was good enough for me!
Habit training is throughout the day. We read Baby Rails twice per week as a family at breakfast. The rest of the time is just as we go about our day, I’ll correct, instruct, remind, etc.
Handicrafts w/ kids is not my thing. Again
. If they color or paint or something, it’s done without me. One child plays piano and practices independently. I can read enough music to help her if she’s having a difficulty with something, but she’s mostely independent. My kids are constantly in the kitchen with me. Not that that’s crafts, but it’s what I enjoy and like doing with them. Ds is getting a stop motion animation kit w/ camera for Christmas, and Daddy plans to be the one to instruct and help with that.Geography is map study and map drill. If we want, we read from Material World or Hungry Planet. Or the kids have the option to do that if they’re waiting for me to finish up with another child.
Spelling for ds is dictation, done twice per week. It takes him about 5-10 minutes to study the passage and go over any unfamiliar words. Then he types as I dictate.
I’m not doing any grammar w/ my kids this year. Next year I plan to start JAG w/ my older one. He has already done both volumes of English for the Thoughtful Child, and my dd has done vol. 1.
Mysterious Lady in Pink – I think it helps a lot that my youngest is 7 so the distractions are fewer than they ever have been! I also keep all our books in magazine file folders or together on a shelf and when we go to do family work (or I work with the littles) I grab the stack of books and bring it with me.
For example, we do our religion studies and history one right after the other. I grab both containers and go sit on the couch. We do the religion for 30 minutes then go get drinks, stretch, sometimes do some exercises, then sit and do history.
With the 2 youngest we are doing Apologia Exploring Creation Land Animals. I just read to them for 10 to 15 minutes and then stop and have them narrate. I don’t worry about a certain number of pages or sections. I do make sure to stop at a logical place, not the middle of a section. We’ve done this with picture books, Outdoor Secrets, whatever we’re using. Same with Nature Study. Right now it’s mostly indoors so we’re reading and looking at things on the computer. During nice weather we’re outside more, and for longer times.
Perhaps this will sound awful but I have been known to set a timer. When it goes off I find a stopping place and we move on to the next thing. That’s how most of my subjects are lasting ‘about’ that long. I haven’t used a timer in a while, but still reference the clock. I thought, when I first read the suggestion, that it would feel forced or like “school”, but we’ve all thrived on moving from one subject to another. As Charlotte said, it’s refreshing. I also really, really, really don’t worry about getting done what the schedule tells me to do. If we’re reading history (currently SCM middle ages) and we’ve only read part of the day’s lesson and our 30 minutes are up, I just mark where we are and pick it up again the next day. I’m not rigid with this and if everyone is engaged and I feel like finishing, I do. Sometimes not.
We’re using Getting Started with Latin and each lesson only takes 10 minutes, sometimes less. For drawing lessons we pick a YouTube video OR Mark Kistler’s online program. Those take longer which is why they’re on my ‘off co-op’ schedule (they have art class during co-op so I don’t have them draw those weeks). We read 2 to 4 pages in Shakespeare, currently A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Etc.
I read something Sonya wrote a while back about how in Charlotte’s schools the kids would read something like 4 pages from a book a day. But they read from several books. Over the course of a term that ended up being a lot of books! I’ve sort of applied that to all our subjects….if we do a little (or medium) every day we’ll end up doing a lot!
Ahhh, yes…. It’s all coming back to me now! Thank you for the specifics in your examples. It also comes back (yet again) to me being more organized than I currently am, I think. Hmm…here’s to getting geared up for January and a fresh start!
Thanks, Lindsey that helps just to see where/how it is happening. It also helps me to let go of a few things as well.
Chrystal Paine (http://www.moneysavingmom.com) has a 7 day challenge to saying goodbye to survival mode right now. You might find encouragement in the sample of her upcoming book, Say Goodbye to Survival Mode. It may help prioritize things a bit.
My 9yo girl’s schedule this term:
Monday: (dad’s day off)
Math
Bible
Memory Verse
Nature Study or Handicraft/art or fieldtrip
Tuesday:
Math
Science
PLL
Reading
Spelling
cursive
Spanish
Bible
Memory Verse
Hymn
Poem
Map study
Wednesday:
Math
Science
PLL
Reading
Spelling
Cursive
Spanish
Bible
Memory verse
Hymn
poem
Picture Study
Personal Development (just starting)
Thursday:
Math
Science
PLL
Reading
Spelling
Cursive
Spanish
Memory verse
Hymn
poem
History
Composer study
Friday:
Math
Science
PLL
Reading
Spelling
Creative Writing Jar (just stole this from Lindsey, it’s a hit!)
Memory Verse
Hymn
poem
History
Assigned History reading w/mom
Personal development
We are using Joshua-Malachi, Primary Language Lessons, Spelling Power done my own way (wasn’t ready for dictation), Hymns in Prose for cursive, Singapore math, Swimming Creatures of the fifth day, Rosetta stone Spanish. She doesn’t do very many written narrations (maybe once a week). Her morning studies take from about 9-12 w/ a small amount of buffer time in there. Family studies begin at 1:00 and last until 2:00-2:30. We are slow workers/ and big talkers when we are all together. We have fun w/ it though. I read aloud several nights a week before bed. Right now we are reading the Princess and the Goblin.
I have 3rd & 4th grade schedules here…
http://reflectionsfromdrywoodcreek.blogspot.com/2013/10/2013-2014-curriculum-choices.html
2nd grade niece’s schedule here…
http://reflectionsfromdrywoodcreek.blogspot.com/2013/10/new-student.html
mtnmama…I would encourage you to meet your child whereever he’s at. Don’t worry about meeting someone else’s scope and sequence. When all else fails, just breathe and read great books :))
Blessings,
Melissa
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