I Ain't Scared of Third Grade!

I have to admit, at first I was a bit apprehensive. We've just gone whole-hog on Unschooling, and here I am whipping out What Your Third Grader Needs to Know, worried beyond reason that there is going to be something life-changing in there, one thing that Tex NEEDS to know and cannot get without me sitting him down and telling him about it, and probably doing worksheets. Frankly, I wouldn't mind a bit, I love doing worksheets and seeing how many answers I can get right, 'cause I'm a smartypants like that. :-) But if there's one thing Tex can't stand it's being led down a path he's not independently interested in traveling, so it was with much trepidation that I opened up this "helpful" book.

Turns out I had nothing to worry about! Without further ado I present to you our third grade goals:

Language Arts
- continued reading of folk/morality tales, mythology, and fantasy (specifically mentioned are Tales of the Arabian Nights and Norse mythology)
- explore other genres of literature, particularly biographies
- grammar focus is on parts of speech, sentence structure, punctuation

History
- World focus is from the Roman Empire through the European exploration of North & South America
- National focus is on the original colonies through the American Revolution

Art & Music
- continued experience with and discussion of art and music, particularly how they can convey emotion, a story, etc. I would also like to tie music and art to any historical periods in which he is interested.

Mathematics
- using correct mathematical notation. Lately I've begun writing down equations as Tex and I have solved real-life "word problems", since it's what I do if I'm solving one on my own, too, and I imagine continuing that will spark him to do the same eventually.
- practice, practice, practice all the math he can, including the maths of time, money, geometry, and graphs

Science
- Life Sciences - keeping ecosystems in balance (may include applied experiments such as a terrarium, or discussions of food chain interruptions, or following of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill); also the nervous system of the human body
- Physical Sciences - beginning to gather an understanding of: electricity, forms of matter and how to measure them, molecular vocabulary, astronomy
- biographies of scientists in any field of interest

So, that's it. Granted, I winnowed it down to the key focuses without worrying too much about the details, because I don't think it matters whether we read Pollyanna or The Tale of Desperaux if either way we get the same message of working hard and sticking to your principles in the face of adversity. But by and large these topics seem to be ones either A) lend themselves to being learned at any point in life, such that we could cover the Renaissance this year if that is where Tex's interests lie, and save the Middle Ages for another year when he is more engaged, or B) are so vital to being a functioning member of society that he can't help but learn them as a part of his daily life, such as grammar and the mathematics of time, area, or money. So I'm not really worried. If Tex wants to delve into WWII this year instead of the Roman Empire, I'm going to be okay with that. If Egyptian mythology catches his fancy instead of Norse, I think that's workable, too. Most of all I have faith that there's nothing Tex can't learn if he is motivated to do so, and that therefor anything he doesn't learn must be something he doesn't need badly enough at this time. That doesn't mean I'm going to take down our poster about punctuation until he asks for it, or that I'm going to avoid putting the electronics kit on the kitchen table too see if it catches his eye, it just means that I'm going to help him explore his interests to whatever depth he chooses without judging their worth according to the needs of my own life.

In other news, we've seen a recent surge in Tex's reading confidence lately. Just a few weeks ago he was still insisting on us reading everything, but lately he's started to take the initiative and read things for himself, only needing to spell out to us the occasional word. It's actually astounded both myself and Daddy-O some of the words he does NOT need help on. Tex would probably still tell anyone who asks how much he dislikes reading, but hopefully those days will be numbered as his confidence continues to grow.

I'll be back soon to post a little about some processes and projects I'm thinking of trying this year, to help make our learning time rich and memorable!