Grade 3 Language Arts Comparison of Homeschool Programs

Key:
Seton Home Study – Seton
Kolbe Homeschool Academy – Kolbe
St. Thomas Aquinas – STA
Our Lady of the Rosary – OLR
Our Lady of Victory – OLV
Mother of Divine Grace – MDG
Catholic Heritage Curriculum – CHC
Mater Amabilis – MA (Catholic Version of Charlotte Mason Style)
Angelicum – Angl

3^rd Grade Language Arts Homeschool Curriculum Comparison

Whether you want to design your own curriculum or just see what all the HS programs have to offer, over the next week I will be doing a curricula comparison overview of several Catholic Home Study programs. Keep in mind this is an overview to get more in depth you should visit their websites. Some come with perks, some are free, and some are not. It’s very important to keep in mind that if you are interested in a particular text book or curriculum you should further investigate if it comes with a Teachers Manual, not just an answer Key. Some of the courses come with a teacher’s manual/guide, some schools offer them for sale and some do not. If you are not sure if a teacher’s manual is available I suggest visiting the publisher’s website; then you can make an informed decision. Do not just stop at the teacher’s manuals and answer keys because some programs offer lesson plans at a price$ even if do not belong to their program. I would recommend that you consider purchasing lesson plans. They will save hours in your week. Plus, you can always adjust them to your own school assignments.

English/Grammar

Kolbe: Voyages in English 2006 Grade 3 with Voyages in English 2006 Grade 3 Teacher Edition supplements are: McGuffey’s Third Eclectic Reader (you can also get McGuffey’s free online) English from the Roots Up Volume I , Writing Strands Level 3 (Writing Strands Ser)

OLV: Voyages in English 2006 Grade 3or God gave me the gift of Language 3

OLR: Voyages in English 2006 Grade 3

STA: Voyages 2 and/or Simply Grammar

Seton: English 3 for Young Catholics – Seton Grade 3, Basic Skills Better Sentence Structure Through Diagraming, Book 1

CHC: Language of God Level C

MDG: Primary Language Lessons by E. Serl and Sound Beginnings

MA: Primary Language Lessons E. Serl

Angl: Sing, Spell, Read & Write 3^rd grade kit; Shurley Grammar: Level 3

Phonics

Kolbe, Seton: Phonics Workbook: Level C (MCP) Teacher’s manual with answer key for Phonics workbook, level C (MCP phonics program)

OLR, OLV: Word Study Level D (MCP)

Reading

Kolbe, OLV: Catholic National Readers – Book 3

STA: Catholic National Readers – Book 2

Seton: Reading 3 for Young Catholics, Comprehension – Seton Grade 3

Seton, OLR: Faith and Freedom Readers – This is Our Town, This is Our Valley

CHC: Catholic Tales for Boys and Girls; More Catholic Tales for Boys and Girls , Little Apostle on Crutches

MDG: Primary Language Lessons by E. Serl

MA: Program of your choice

Literature

MDG, MA: Harp and Laurel and living books

CHC: Catholic Tales for Boys and Girls; Little Apostles on Crutches

STA: A Landscape With Dragons: The Battle for Your Child’s Mind

OLV, Seton: Catholic Stories of Saints and other stories check their sites.

Handwriting: All unique programs

Kolbe: Handwriting Book D – Cursive

STA: Writing Without Tears 3- Cursive

Seton: Handwriting 3 for Young Catholics – Seton Grade 3

OLR: Basic Handwriting

CHC: CHC Handwriting 3

MA: D’Nelian Cursive

MDG: Primary Language Lessons by E. Serl

OLV: Exercise in English

Spelling

Kolbe, OLR: Own Syllabi

STA: The W.I.S.E. Guide for Spelling

Seton: Spelling 3 for Young Catholics – Seton Grade 3 , Vocabulary:Wordly Wise A, B, C

CHC: CHC Catholic Speller 3

MDG: Write Road to Reading

OLV: Traditional Catholic Speller 3 After my own investigation into all the 3rd grade curriculum has led me to make the following decision in my daughters Language Arts program.

English, Phonics, Reading, Spelling and Vocabulary Words will come from these sources:

“English from the Roots up,” “Easy Grammar 3 And 4 – Student Edition: Grades 3 And 4
” (not listed), Sentence Diagramming.
“McGuffey Reader” or “Primary Language Lessons” (because I have these books.)
Also have “Saxon phonics” (also not listed) I will be supplementing with when necessary.
SpellingCity.com is where I will go to drill spelling words, play games with them and test.

“Catholic Tales for Boys and Girls,” Catholic Saint Stories, “Our Town,”
Living books from MA and other home study reading lists.

Handwriting:

I really should try Writing Without Tears because handwriting is her least favorite subject.
I have “Handwriting 3 for young Catholics.”
- I read bible stories associated with the pictures in writing book while my daughter writes out her lesson. She loves that.

Videos on St. Anthony of Padua

Learn about the history of Saint Anthony of Padua through videos.
St. Anthony’s Feast Day is June 13th. He died in 1231 in Padua, Italy.
He was born in Lisbon, Portugal
He was Cannonized a saint by Pope Gregory IX and is the Patron Saint of Italy and Portugal.

This Video comes with a music background pictures and mostly text written about St. Anthony.

One minute video summarizing St. Anthony’s Conversion and life.

Saint Anthony of Padua Movie

Watch now a full featured Movie in Spanish on St. Antonio de Padua- 6 parts each approx. 10 minutes (Sorry no subtitles in English)

Part 1

Part 2 St. Antonio

Part 3 St. Anthony continued

Part 4 Saint Anthony Continued

Part 5

Part 6

Music and Songs for St. Anthony’s Feast Day

Hymns to St. Anthony



Song Celebrating Saint Anthony's Feast Day which is June 13th.

Summer Time Traveling

Don’t leave home without checking Mass times!

Whether your traveling across states or across countries. Masstimes.org is the website you need to memorize. You will always know where to find a Mass and what time it is offered when your traveling.

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Masstimes.org is a website that covers all languages and locations of masses all over the world. Choose your destination location and your language preference. See where Masses are going on all over the world every day.

While on the road consider the following radio stations. You may be able to find them on satellite radio. The following links offer online Radio stations and include local Catholic radio stations.

Ave Maria Radio

Domestic Church Media

EWTN AM/FM radio stations

EWTN Satellite Radio for US and Canada

Take some audio books along:

There are lots of link on this website to free audio files. However, if that’s not enough you should check with this website called Simply Audiobook you can browse over 11,000 titles to choose from. Browse Now! You can rent audio book with no time limit on returns.

Be Safe, Love God.

Recycling

Recycling – makingfriends.com

http://www.makingfriends.com/recycle.htm

Very good site for kids to go on when they’re bored. It has lots of fun craft ideas from things that can be recycled in your home. I it makes on think about ways of being a good steward to the environment before throwing something away – ask how I can recycle this.

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See All that You Can Do With Notebooking and Lapbooks

Just what is notebooking?

That was my question the first time I heard about it.

Grab a cup of coffee sit back with you kids and watch these videos on lapbooking or notebooking they should help explain and give you a better understanding of the concept.

If you already know about notebooking then click the free resource link to find out all about what my homeschool mom friends are talking about. Free resources for Notebooking pages

Sample of States, Insects

First Lapbooking Adventure Doing Lap books with themes.

OKAY so how do I start. The kids can go play now, mom get another cup of coffee.

My List – Free Science and Nature Study

PharmaOmega Learn is designed for school-aged children who need omega-3 to help them focus and do their best in school.

Interactive Homeschool Fun and Learning find hours of Educational Website for Science, Nature Study, Spaces Exploration and Environment.

ll the activities listed below are free of charge. You may be asked occasionally on a site for your email address, if it wasn’t a safe site it would not have made it on my list!

More of my lists are coming soon and being updated I hope you enjoy them.

4H Virtual Farm

http://sites.ext.vt.edu/virtualfarm/main.html

Learn everything about living on a farm. Dairy, Beef, aquaculture, Poultry, Horse Farm, wheat Farm; view videos, live cam, see live chicks hatched, read all about farming. Meet other Farm kids.

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Virtual Forests

http://sites.ext.vt.edu/virtualforest/

Virginia Cooperative Extension virtual Forest

Click the Tree Detective help identify trees or solve mysteries.

Old Field Succession see how the land is used.

Photosynthesis interactive; very good educational tool that can be used for teaching photosynthesis.

Fun inviting learning activities.

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Zoos

Smithsonian Zoo Animal links

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/default.cfm

They have live webcams and audio to hear what the animal sound like. They also offer photogalleries.

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Smithsonian National Zoo

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Education/ConservationCentral/walk/default.cfm

At Conservation Central there are live webcams and audio to hear what the animal sound like. This website also offer photo galleries. The fantastic multimedia section comes with or without narratives. Great for the Charlotte Mason types to use on a rainy day. There are other selections too, such as, Dirt Detective Tree and soil, Forrest layers, Tree ID walk, Observing Seasonal Changes.

Have Fun with this one!

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Bird Habitats and sounds

Your family with have fun with these sites and use them time and again.

Bird Calls by Habitat

http://www.learnbirdsongs.com/habitats.php

Country, Forest, Cityscapes and wetlands

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Bird Calls Audio only

http://www.enature.com/birding/audio.asp

List of several birds by category with their calling sounds, Great for testing Bird lovers

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Fish Game

http://www.epa.gov/fishadvisories/kids/arcade.html

Find and catch the fish that are safe to eat and throw back the fish that are not safe to eat. You think it’s just a game until you realize the types of fish that are safe and which types of fish are not safe to eat. Good Game.

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Nature Sounds – Natural Museum in California

http://www.museumca.org/naturalsounds/home.html

Listen to what nature sounds like in California – from the Great Basin, Coast Mountains, desert, coastline and more. Learn about the animals that live in those areas of California.

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Field Guide Indexes

http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/index.asp

All types of critters and animals. Find a field guide to just about everything, insects, mammals, reptiles, butterflies, trees, seashore, wildflowers, spiders, ocean, poisonous, dangerous, endangered and native plants.

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National Geographic Videos

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/

Kids Sections -
Animals

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/kids/index.html

Games Animals and stories

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/

Activities

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/Activities/

Science – Equinoxes, Moon, Solar System, Sun, Solar Blast, Missions to Mar, voyager, Hubble Telescope. Also learn about the environment, travel and culture tells about different countries and hurricanes in the special video section.

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/science/index.html

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Yellowstone National Park Service

http://www.nps.gov/yell/forkids/index.htm

Main Kids Page includes – website scavenger hunt, Alphabet animal and sounds live book, online Coloring book, print coloring pages, puzzles, word games and Wolf Quest

Game: What’s the difference between Antlers and horns? Match the horns and Antlers to the animal.

http://www.nps.gov/yell/forkids/ahdiff.htm

Go on an electronic Virtual Field Trip to the following locations

http://www.windowsintowonderland.org/

Go on a Geyser Quest, Bison Roam and Yellowstone Exposed field trip. Sounds like fun check it out!

No cost it really is free.

National Park Service

For home school kids who can’t leave the area this Web Ranger option with over 50 interactive games, would make summer a little more fun. You must sign up before you can join in the fun yet, definitely worth it and it’s free.

http://www.webrangers.us/index.cfm

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Printables from National Parks

Find all the Junior Ranger zones at http://www.nps.gov/learn/juniorranger.cfm

Become a Junior Ranger with a Free printable Activities book – Lincolns Historic home

http://www.nps.gov/abli/forkids/junior-ranger-booklet.htm

Big Cypress National Preserve Florida

http://www.nps.gov/bicy/forkids/beajuniorranger.htm

Bandlands in South Dakota – Fun Pages -

http://www.nps.gov/badl/forkids/parkfun.htm

Be a Fossil hunter; learn about Geology, Animal tracks, make an Armored Mud Ball and more.

Find more fun at the National Parks Fun pages for a park near you.

http://www.nps.gov/learn/parkfun.cfm

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Free Public Domain Images from Yellowstone National Park

http://www.nps.gov/features/yell/slidefile/index.htm

Use them for your school Projects! What a resource!

Public Domain – over 13,000 in the collection; over 23 categories main categories and several subcategories to choose from of birds, animals, people, plants, scenery, weather,

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Free Sound Effect

http://www.a1freesoundeffects.com/animal.html

Teach your children what animal’s sound like. This site has a wide selection of animals, just click and listen; very simple. You could also download the sounds if you’re interested in doing an audible story and need the sound of an animal to enhance the story.

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Free Fishing without a License 2009

To Kick off National and Boating Week the Several states are permitting families to fish without a license on June 6th, 7th, or 13th and a few other dates. Check with your local state for dates.

Fish Free without a License in Georgia on these days!

Georgia wildlife.org

June 6, 2009

June 13, 2009

September 26, 2009

Several other states are having a Free Fishing weekend for families the same weekend. So check your state information to find out if your state is one of them.