Our 2018-2019 Curriculum Choices (Grades 3 & 6)

Homeschool curriculum…… there is just so much of it available! Where do you even start?

Of course every family and every student is different and so there will be different curriculum that works for each person. But I’m here today to share with you what we chose to use for our 2018-2019 school year for grades 3 and 6.

Let’s start with what we are using together for both children:

Social Studies Curriculum:

Previously we had been using a complete curriculum program, but this years studies would have been very US History heavy. Because we live in Canada, I wanted to make sure my kids have a good foundation in Canadian History first. So we broke away from the “boxed curriculum” route and chose a few items from Northwoods Press that we will work through this school year. I’m not sure if we will complete all three books this year, but whatever we don’t finish, we will just carry over into next school year. The books we chose all have reproducible worksheets available digitally from their website after you purchase the book. This makes it really easy to use the books for multiple children!

1) The first book I chose from Northwoods Press was Canada My Country. It is a nice easy, simple start to learning Canadian geography, both physically and politically. This book is meant for grades 1-4.

From the Northwoods Press website:

Topics include:  Understanding maps; Canada’s physical regions; Symbols; Government; Freedoms; Outstanding Canadians

• • Lessons are clearly outlined
  • Minimal prep required
  • Includes stories & games
  • Resource lists with lessons 
  • Reproducible worksheets now available digitally for original purchasers 

2) Next I chose Canada’s Natives Long Ago, which is meant for ages 8-12. I feel that it is important for my children to learn about the lifestyles and cultures of Canada’s First Nations people of long ago.

From the Northwoods Press website:

This study includes reproducible workpages, project pictures, eye-witness quotes, stories, activities and biographical sketches. Each chapter has a full resource list including books for various ages, videos and novels. You can fast-track through the curriculum, or meander and enjoy the captivating resources and activities. Its all up to your style and your children’s delight. Students are guided to complete a project book suited to their age level (lap-books work perfectly) along with a worksheet and hands-on activities for each unit.

3) The last book I chose for our Social Studies is Courage and Conquest: Discovering Canadian History. This one is also geared towards ages 8-12.

From the Northwoods Press website:

Courage and Conquest is a chronological study of Canadian History including all major events in the settlement of Canada to Confederation. Each lesson includes references to literature sure to captivate the student’s interests. Text, reproducible workpage and time line picture with each lesson. Includes: suggested reading for each lesson; easy to read text and reproducible workpage; full bibliography with over 80 titles including historical fiction; visual reinforcement with line drawing and Time Line pictures; suggestions for further research for older students; basic full-year program or can be a unit study resource.

Science Curriculum:

For Science we are using a number of the science topics from Jenny Phillips. I won’t go into detail of all the units we bought because there are a LOT of them! We are starting with the Arthropods unit and will work our way through them. I highly suggest heading over to her website to check out her Science units (and other subjects too) to see if it’s something that might work for you.

Now for the subjects they do separately:

Math:

We’ve tried a few different Math programs in the past, but for one reason or another, they haven’t been good fits for us. This year we are using Math Lessons for a Living Education grade 3 and grade 6. I am enjoying teaching with this program, but because we are Canadians, and this is an American program, there are a few areas where we have to adapt or workaround. Mostly for topics on money and measurements. I’d still love to find that perfect Math curriculum that is Canadian and will work for us, but for now, this program is pretty close 🙂

Language Arts:

This year we are using Language Arts from Jenny Phillips’ Good and the Beautiful program. She offers her level 1-5 programs as FREE pdf downloads! Like the WHOLE course for free, that’s just amazing to me! Because we get funding through our homeschooling program I opted to order the physical copies from the website (which also includes the pdf files) so that I didn’t have to print things out myself. When they arrived I was really impressed by the quality of the books, complete with full colour pages, and the quality of the paper they were printed on.

For the LA courses, Jenny has a placement test so you can more easily decide which course to start with. Level 5 for example is meant for a 5th or 6th grader, and level 6 is best for 7th and 8th graders. They are labelled as levels and do not correspond directly with public school grades levels. Because of this I had my kids take the placement tests, and decided to start my 3rd grader with level 2 and my 6th grader on level 5. We’ve been using these levels for a while now and they seem to be good fits for where both of my children are at, so I’d say the placement test is very accurate.

In addition to the LA courses, we’ve also added Handwriting and a Nature Notebook from Jenny Phillips as well.

Art:

Art is kind of integrated into some of our other subjects, but we also have the Art Book from Jenny Phillips that we’ve been choosing some crafts from.

Music:

We bought the kids each a ukulele this year. We haven’t done any formal lessons, but we have been using YouTube videos along with some free apps to start learning the basics and some simple songs.

French:

Only my 6th grader is doing French this year. We’ve decided to use the FREE app called DuoLingo for French and it seems to be going well. My son is able to work through the lessons on his own without any issues.

If you’ve enjoyed reading about what curriculum we’ve used this year be sure to check out my other curriculum posts:

Our Curriculum Choices for 2019/2020 (grades 4 and 7)
Our 2016/2017 curriculum choices