| Author | |
joann10
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 10 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3493
|
| Posted: May 22 2014 at 9:12pm | IP Logged
|
 |
|
After my husband and I have spent time discussion our finances we have come to the conclusion that there is little to no money available for this year's homeschool purchases. (Our never-ending medical bills are out of control)  If fact it is hard to keep food on the table.
We have only 2 third graders this next year. The others have moved on to a wonderful Catholic School.(we work at the school to pay for that)
I would love to hear of the free sites online which have helped you school. I do live in NY and have to write pretty in depth reports for the local school, if I didn't live here I think we would just "wing it".
I am thinking if I could find a scope and sequence for 3rd grade I could go from there. Math, language arts, history, science, reading...It seems like so much to put together, but I don't know if we have a choice.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I also need pretty low key suggestions so I can keep my anxiety and depression in check.
Thanks,
Joann
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
KellyB
Forum Newbie
Joined: Feb 09 2014
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 49
|
| Posted: May 22 2014 at 10:32pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Joann -
I have nothing practical to add at this late hour, only to let you know I am sorry for your struggles and will pray for you tonight!
Peace,
Kelly
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
guitarnan
Forum Moderator
Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: Maryland
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 10883
|
| Posted: May 22 2014 at 10:59pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
For history and science, I would find out what interested my children (Egypt? Birds? Trees? Castles?) and use free resources at my public library to cover those topics. (Books, DVDs, websites, living books) This is what we did, for the most part, when my children were in grades 7-8 and 2-3 (they are far apart in age). We did nonfiction read-alouds for ancient Egypt studies, plus some living books (The Golden Goblet, for ex.). For my younger child, we used free bird coloring pages I found online and created a bulletin board of birds, looked at bird identification books (and a nest identification book - who knew?), watched DVDs, laughed at our cats' reaction to the birds on the DVDs, went bird watching...you get the idea.
You can build reading around your history and science topics, again via the library. I'm guessing that if you bring us some topics, we'll be able to help you find past threads with book suggestions and maybe even some websites that could help you.
Your library also may have the "What Every Third Grader Needs to Know" book (or could get it via inter-library loan) - that book will have a subject by subject scope and sequence that you could look at for math and language arts.
You could also look at museum collections online for things like Egyptian art, dinosaur skeletons, artifacts from famous battles...many museums do virtual tours or offer exhibit highlights online.
If it's too stressful for you to wade through library catalogs, perhaps you could ask your older children to help you.
Re: low key - lots of read-alouds and good-quality DVDs, playtime outside so they can blow off steam and be more focused afterward (or exercises in the house during the winter, or dancing to a DVD or streamed music - libraries have CDs, too), art time - crayons or whatever you have, plus back-of-rejected-office-paper (ask family members to save discarded memos, etc., for your children so they can draw on the back), a camera if you have one (or more paper and pencils if you don't, for sketching birds or rocks or lizards or whatever science topic you are studying). Maps are geography (social studies!), so you could do some basic map reading, learn to use a globe, draw floor plans of bedrooms, etc., if you need a quick and easy social studies topic outside of history. (My own third grade learning experience linked map skills and reading - our reader was "A Trip Around the World" and we had to draw every map in that book...freehand...and I loved it. Nowadays you can get maps online for free!)
I know from your post that you are feeling very stressed, and that's very understandable. I think you can easily pull together a great learning experience for your children, one that includes lots of together time and hugs and smiles.
I know we can help with specifics...maybe someone here has found and used math printables and could share. Third grade math is multiplication tables, basic fractions, division of one-digit numbers (undoing times tables), geometric shapes, measurement and addition and subtraction review. I know there are printables out there.
Sending lots of prayers and cyberhugs your way...and I am standing ready to share reading suggestions once you've selected science and history/social studies topics.
__________________
Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
CrunchyMom
Forum Moderator
Joined: Sept 03 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 6385
|
| Posted: May 23 2014 at 6:41am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Have you seen Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool? I have only actually used the Pre-K and K, bjt my boys really like the format. I was able to copy and paste her recommendations into my own private blog and substitute/add in my own librivox links for my struggling reader. If your child is reading at level, you could sub in your own selections from the Baldwin Project. I also added in links for xtra math and explode the code online (not free).
As I said, I have only used the first two levels, but she has done all the legwork in compiling free resources (including printables and such) for a complete curriculum. It would definitely give you a starting place or you could use it as is 
__________________
Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
ekbell
Forum All-Star
Joined: May 22 2009
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 747
|
| Posted: May 23 2014 at 9:42am | IP Logged
|
|
|
When my oldest was in grade three, we moved half way across the continent and then spent two months staying with a BIL's family before finally moving into a house. I think my oldest ended up with less then three months of formal schooling that year, not that you'd know it now. She learned quite a bit, if not in a structured manner, and what she didn't learn in regards to writing and math wasn't difficult to teach the when we resumed formal lessons.
If all you can manage is strewing the books you already have or have taken from the library and talking about them - they'll learn. A bit of math practice and copywork/dictation will keep the skills most likely to be neglected in shape.
As for more directed studies a good place to start would be a survey of what you have on hand.
For example, I own a set of Childcraft books from the 1980's which have in the past been my main science spine for early elementary (I still read from them as 'supplemental' science).
I also have a battered copy of Aesop's fables which I AM using for narration with my eight year old son (Aesop's fables can also be easily found online) plus a number of Classical story collections to read and obtain copywork/dictation selections from.
For religion I have a copy of the St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism #1plus a number of Saint and Bible story books.
And so on
About the only subject for which I would need a spine would be math.
After selecting spines/primary resources for English, Math and Religion and any other subjects I felt up to adding, I'd then use the library and internet to supplement the spines.
BTW the classicsforkids website is a good place to find free music apprecation podcasts, each month they look at a different composer and all the old material is archived.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
SallyT
Forum All-Star
Joined: Aug 08 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2489
|
| Posted: May 23 2014 at 10:00am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Do you follow the Homeschool Freebie of the Day blog? I've discovered lots of great .pdf books and other resources that way, mostly for history and science, but occasionally they'll list a math resource as well. Sometimes it's even a whole math book as a free .pdf download.
Here's a link to a "curriculum boxes" site for science that I found via Homeschool Freebie the other day -- possibly some useful stuff there?
We use MEP for math, and while it's different and takes some getting used to, it's an *excellent* free program with a yahoo support group for homeschoolers. We had a very Life-of-Fred-heavy year this year, but after a lot of angsting I'm leaning toward going all-out with MEP for next year for my rising 5th and 6th graders, not least because it's free. Each year/grade comes with detailed lesson plans -- it's mom-intensive, but also very open-and-go. The yahoo group offers excellent advice about where to start in the program and how to implement it at home.
Khan Academyalso has early math, with videos and interactive online exercises. I'm not sure I'd quite use it as a stand-alone, but it is another excellent, totally free resource, with a basic scope-and-sequence. I think their grade levels start at third as well.
Mathdrills.com is a good resource for free worksheets. If you followed Khan as a spine, letting the kids watch the video(s) for a given concept, then do some practice sheets, then do the interactive exercise as a "test" -- they earn little badges as they progress, which my kids find fun -- then that's a nice straightforward program for free.
Free audiobooks on Librivox are another excellent resource for covering history, literature, geography, nature, etc.
KISS is a good grammar program, again totally free. There's also Grammar-land, which my 5th grader will be using, with accompanying free .pdf worksheets. This covers parts of speech, which is appropriate for 3rd grade as well.
If you wanted to do Latin, Visual Latin has free, very straightforward worksheets with exercises that could stand alone, I think from their video program if necessary. Obviously they want to sell the video program (which is very good, and we plan to use it next year), but anyone can access the site and download their printables. Actually, their site is worth searching around on, because they cover a number of subject areas and have a number of .pdf resources available. Again, I know they want to sell their video programs, but they do seem to offer these resources with no strings attached, so I think it's worth a look.
If you have a Kindle, or can download the free Kindle app onto your computer, then you'll have access to any number of free classic books. We lean very heavily on free Kindle books for our CM/literature-based homeschool -- it's really a whole world at your fingertips for free.
Donna Young has no end of free printables for handwriting, math, notebooking, etc.
I haven't used Easy Peasy Homeschool, but that is a great suggestion -- as Lindsay says, so much of the legwork is done for you, and I really like her suggestions for customizing those offerings to suit your needs. Starting this early, you have the summer to investigate free printables -- you could put together a binder for each child of everything needed for a core curriculum of math, language arts, and handwriting, and maybe science if you wanted to do notebooking or worksheets for that, then use literature to cover all the subject areas.
Somewhere in these forums is a really good thread about "living" video programs and cartoons -- many of the items people suggested in that conversation are available on YouTube. We've made much use of YouTube in our homeschooling, to watch things like Magic Schoolbus, etc. Again, free.
Does your parish have any kind of library? If so, that's a good place to check for saint books and so forth. Otherwise, again, I've found some really nice resources free for Kindle. One sweet book I acquired recently is about a group of English Cub Scouts who go camping together and tell a saint story every night of their trip. It's called Stories of the Saints by Candle-light, if you're interested. I'm assigning it as an independent read for my rising 5th grader, but it would make a nice read-aloud for a younger audience. (and whoa -- I just looked at the reviews, and the 5-star reviewer is a friend of mine!).
You can do this! We have done many years of homeschooling for -- not quite free, but sometimes really, really close. The internet makes so much possible, and makes it so easy for those of us who hate doing physical legwork, as in to and from the library! (really, I am the personification of sloth, but also we're terrible at taking books back, so the library is a huge source of stress, so we tend not to go . . . ) Even in years when I have more money to spend, my MO is to whittle my shopping list down, and down, and down, until I've replaced as many items as possible with free things.
Again, you can do it! As you refine what you'd like to do for third grade this coming year, we'll all help you hunt down free resources. I really enjoy doing that, actually!
God bless you and keep you from anxiety as you plan.
Sally
__________________
Castle in the Sea
Abandon Hopefully
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
anitamarie
Forum All-Star
Joined: Oct 15 2008
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 819
|
| Posted: May 23 2014 at 11:39am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Here's a typical course of study for third grade:
World Book Typical Course of Study.
Hope this helps!
Anita
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
joann10
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 10 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3493
|
| Posted: May 23 2014 at 12:33pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
This is a great resource...thanks. I've already printed it out. It will be a great help in the planning.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
roomintheheart
Forum Pro
Joined: Jan 08 2013
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 110
|
| Posted: May 23 2014 at 3:59pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
I second Lindsay's suggestion: Easy Peasy All in One Homeschool. Free, Christian, complete curriculum for K-12. They have a Facebook support group to check out what others in your state do to meet requirements. It really doesn't get any easier.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Martha
Forum All-Star
Joined: Aug 25 2005
Location: N/A
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2291
|
| Posted: May 24 2014 at 10:17am | IP Logged
|
|
|
I have a section on my blog that's nothing but free home school stuff.
Educating on the Cheap
__________________
Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
Yes, they're all ours!
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Elena
Forum All-Star
Joined: Aug 13 2006
Location: Ohio
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 592
|
| Posted: May 26 2014 at 7:56am | IP Logged
|
|
|
I just want to encourage you to continue. My husband and I have homeschooled all of our six children. When we just started out, my husband also decided to start his own business and we went many, many years living below the federal poverty line quite well. Here's what I learned
You really don't need a lot of fancy curriculum.
The library is your friend!
Better living through e-Bay and Amazon! - Lot's of inexpensive stuff there and also Cathswap
Lastly, I think I would reconsider having my older children in the Catholic school. Even if the tuition is free there are lots of fees for other stuff and even clothing and gas costs add up. Volunteer time could be used for something at home or part time that generated income. Best wishes to you for a good school year!
__________________
Elena
Wife to Peter, mom of many!
My Domestic Church
One Day at a Time
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Kelly
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 21 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1211
|
| Posted: May 26 2014 at 9:44pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Is Andrea C still on this list? She might know something about New York and available resources. Andrea, are you around?:-)
Praying for you and your family! Hang in there!
Kelly in FL
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Mary K
Forum All-Star
Joined: May 14 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 945
|
| Posted: May 27 2014 at 2:14pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Hi,
I don't know what library system you're in but the libraries in ontario, Wayne, Wyoming and Livingson counties (NY) have a program called Books Plus. It's a set of themed boxes you sign up for that have books,dvds, audio, books, games, puzzles, toys, printouts, etc. Ypu keep the box 2 weeks, then return for the next one. It's all free. Perhaps you're near or in one of those counties or your library system has something similar.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
|
|
4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Severe Budget restraints
