I’m so excited about today’s post! Today I’m sharing our 2022-2023 3rd Grade (Form 1A) Charlotte Mason homeschool curriculum with you. And the reason I’m so excited is because after some trial and
error in a few different subjects, we’ve finally honed down our curriculum to a beautiful, full, rich feast of ideas.
You guys, it’s going to be a great year!
THE SUBJECTS IN OUR 3RD GRADE CHARLOTTE MASON HOMESCHOOL
Okay, so before we dive into the curriculum, here’s a list of the subjects we study each week:
- Bible*
- Theology & Church History
- Literature
- Natural History
- Geography
- History (1700-1800 A.D.)
- Poetry*
- Solfa
- Spanish*
- Handicrafts*
- Composer Study
- Artist Study
- Handwriting/Copywork*
- Math*
- Reading*
- Spelling*
- Recitation*
- Brushdrawing
- Drill/Dancing*
(*Denotes subjects that we do daily.)
This year in history, we’re studying Colonial America from 1700-1800. So you’ll see below that not only our history readings, but also our composers and artists fall within that time period.
So what curriculum are we using in our homeschool this year?
OUR 3RD GRADE CHARLOTTE MASON HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM FOR 2022-2023
BIBLE CURRICULUM
This year for our homeschool Bible curriculum, we’re reading Joshua, Judges, and 1 Samuel for Old Testament study and the Gospel of Luke for New Testament study. Just as we did last year, I purchased A Delectable Education’s Bible lesson breakdowns for both. They’ve already done the legwork to schedule the reading over the course of the year, and those breakdowns save me so much time. I highly recommend them!
Again this year, I also purchased the Patterson Smyth commentaries, just because I did enjoy reading those last year. I didn’t read them for every single lesson, but he had some thoughts and insights I enjoyed prior to teaching the lessons and I felt like it was worth it to have his commentaries this year, too.
And finally, I’m doing something new this year. In the past, I’ve simply read the commentaries and pre-read the Scripture we studied each week. This year, though, I really want to dive deeper in my own study of the Scriptures. I’ve used and loved these Scripture journals before, so I bought one for each of the three books we’ll be reading.
THEOLOGY & CHURCH HISTORY BOOKS
This year, we’ll actually be re-reading The Ology as our theology text, because there were some chapters that we skipped in order to fit the entire book in. I plan to spread this second time reading through it over the course of 2 years so that we can read each and every chapter now that Mr. Seven (on the eve of turning 8) is grasping so much more.
And we’re going to read Trial and Triumph as our church history book this year. I’ve been warned by fellow homeschooling mamas that there are some graphic scenes in the book (which makes sense, given that it’s a church history book), so I definitely plan to pre-read this one.
LITERATURE CURRICULUM
This year, literature is really just a continuation from last year. We schedule literature twice a week, so we’ll continue reading Little Pilgrim’s Progress one day per week and Greek tales the other day.
Just a couple of notes. First, Charlotte Mason would definitely have encouraged us to read the full, unabridged version of Pilgrim’s Progress. And while we did consider it, ultimately I decided that because it’s such an important allegory, I wanted my kiddos to fully understand it. So we chose this beautifully illustrated version of Little Pilgrim’s Progress. We read it as part of our morning basket, and all three of my kids (ages 7, 5, and 2) understand and enjoy it. I have no regrets about that choice.
And second, we started reading A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys last year, and my boys LOVED it. We’ll finish that first term, and then move on to the second book, Tanglewood Tales, for the rest of the year.
NATURAL HISTORY BOOKS
Nature study is such a huge part of a Charlotte Mason education, and it’s definitely one of our favorite parts of the feast! In addition to our weekly nature hikes, our object lessons, and our nature journaling, we read 3 different spines each week: 2 nature lore books and 1 special studies book. Here are the books we’ll be reading this year for this part of the feast:
GEOGRAPHY CURRICULUM
Geography has quickly become another of our favorite subjects! Mr. Seven loves everything to do with maps, so he’s really loving the map questions and mapmaking activities. Last year, we purchased A Delectable Education’s Map Questions, and we’ll continue using those this year. You can get the companion book, Guyot’s Geographical Reader and Primer, here or here for FREE.
In addition to the map questions, we also utilize Mapmaking with Children for some additional mapwork activities. This book felt a bit pricey to me, but it’s absolutely been worth it! It has the activities carefully divided by children’s developmental stages, so it helps us parents make sure that the map activities are well-suited for our kiddos.
For our spine readers, we’re continuing through Charlotte Mason’s Elementary Geography and beginning The British Empire this year. We’ll read these slowly and spread them out over the entire year.
Finally, we’re reading Minn of the Mississippi this year, and completing Beautiful Feet Books’ corresponding map. We really enjoyed Paddle-to-the-Sea last year, so we’re excited to follow Minn on his journey this year!
HISTORY CURRICULUM
I love history and I’m pretty excited about this year, as we’ll be studying the American Revolution later in the year. It feels like a pretty big, important year in our history rotation. Our spine for the year is America First (the updated edition)**, and we’ll be supplementing with several living books to add even more depth and greater context to our spine:
The Fourth of July Story
The Winter at Valley Forge
A More Perfect Union
Benjamin Franklin
George Washington
**EDITED TO ADD: We didn’t end up sticking with America First as a spine, as I didn’t end up caring for it. We switched to This Country of Ours, which we all liked much better!
POETRY
This year we’ll be reading A.A. Milne, Robert Frost, and James Whitcomb Riley. These poets obviously don’t fit within our historical time period, but we’ve enjoyed samples of their poetry before and want to dive a little deeper. We read poetry for just about 5 minutes per day during morning basket, and then we also have Poetry Tea Time one afternoon each week.
SOLFA CURRICULUM
Last year was the first year we really implemented Solfa into our curriculum. We used Sing Solfa, which is completely free, and really enjoyed it. It’s gentle enough that all three of my kiddos got something out of it, and Mr. Seven and I really enjoyed learning the tonic scales.
This year, I really wanted to add a bit more structure to our solfége lessons. I’d seen Miss Mason’s Music recommended a number of times, and then got to watch an immersion lesson where this curriculum was used. I’m still trying to wrap my head around exactly what this will look like in our homeschool, but I’m pretty excited to include it in our 3rd grade homeschool curriculum!
SPANISH HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM
Last year, we struggled with Spanish a bit. We had been using The ULAT, which I love, but it moves pretty quickly and after several lessons, Mr. Seven started to seem like he was drowning. So, we trialed One Third Stories and actually really enjoyed them. But they’re really not in line with Charlotte Mason’s philosophy for foreign language (and a bit pricey), so we only used a few boxes before cancelling it.
After a lot of reading and research, we landed on Charlotte Mason Simple Spanish and LOVE it (there are other languages, too). It’s totally in line with Charlotte Mason’s philosophy, and it’s written by a native Spanish speaker. The mama who writes the curriculum is WONDERFUL and a huge help to those of us using her curriculum. We started it at the beginning of Term 3 last year, and for his exam, my son was able to beautifully recite an entire poem in Spanish!
For our “everyday life” portion of Spanish, we’re using TalkBox.Mom, and also LOVE that, too! We just choose a few phrases to work on each week, and my kids have learned SO MUCH Spanish in the time we’ve been using it!
HANDICRAFTS
We had a blast with our handicrafts last year! We learned how to needle felt, hand-dip beeswax candles, and make some impressive origami. This year, we’ll begin Swannell’s Paper Modelling curriculum, as well as add in Unwin’s Clay Modelling (you can find it for FREE here). Additionally, I plan to focus on sewing, gardening and preserving, and hopefully more candle making – one major skill per term.
COMPOSER STUDY CURRICULUM
Before last year, our composer study consisted of reading a picture book biography of our chosen composers and then listening to his music. About halfway through last year, I discovered Tillberry Table’s composer guides, and let me tell you, they are AWESOME! I still check out some picture books from the library, but the guides give a lot more information about specific compositions.
This year we’ll be studying the composers Scarlatti, Purcell, and Haydn.
ARTIST STUDY CURRICULUM
A couple of years ago we started using Simply Charlotte Mason’s Artist Study Portfolios, and they are fantastic. Much like Tillberry Table’s guides, these portfolios provide rich background information on the artist, as well as more specific information about each piece of art, questions to consider, etc.
This year we’ll be studying Gainsborough, Rubens, and Vermeer.
HANDWRITING CURRICULUM
In addition to the CM-style copywork that we incorporate into our days, we also use a more formal handwriting curriculum called Rhythm of Handwriting from Logic of English. We needed something a bit more structured and intentional to help with ongoing letter reversals. And since beginning this curriculum this past January, I’ve seen a pretty drastic improvement, so we’ll be continuing it this year.
MATH CURRICULUM
Okay mamas, I dedicated an entire blog post (and YouTube video) to our math curriculum, because I love it so much! This year we’re continuing with The Charlotte Mason Elementary Arithmetic series, and will be using Book 2. I’ve been peeking ahead, and I’m really excited about the skills Mr. Seven will be learning this year. If you’re interested in learning more about why we love this curriculum so much, head over to this post or watch the video!
READING CURRICULUM
You all surely know by now how much I absolutely LOVE All About Reading. Mr. Seven is almost finished with Level 2, so we’ll be finishing that up (probably in the first month of school) and then moving on to Level 3 this year. Also, if you’d like a peek into how I organize our All About Reading curriculum materials, check out this video.
SPELLING CURRICULUM
Last year we added All About Spelling to our language arts program, and we really loved it, too! Mr. Seven will be finishing up All About Spelling Level 1 and moving on to Level 2 this year. I love how it teaches the rules in a logical way that does not include lengthy lists of exceptions, and he loves that it’s a pretty hands-on curriculum with the letter tiles.
BRUSHDRAWING CURRICULUM
Brush drawing is one big area where we haven’t been very consistent. We go through periods when we’re on it and actually doing it 2-3 times per week. And then we may not touch it for a couple of months. This year, however, I am determined to be consistent. I changed where it fits into our schedule, so hopefully that helps, and I also bought pre-mixed palettes to save us time getting out supplies and cleaning up.
What I can say is that I love our brush drawing curriculum. Dallas at Bestowing the Brush does a wonderful job teaching the beginner course, the video lessons move at a great pace, and all of the materials are really high quality. I’m excited, too, because since it has taken us so long to get through the beginner course, there’s now an intermediate course available!
DRILL/DANCING
We highly enjoy these two subjects that fall under the P.E. category. They’re fun for all of us, and they’re a great way to get any energy out before transitioning to our seat work. We don’t use any dance curriculum. This year I’m hoping to use some of the resources from Miss Mason’s Music for folk dancing, and for drill, we’ll just keep using this Syllabus of Physical Exercises (which you can get for FREE HERE).
RECITATION
We don’t use a formal curriculum for recitation. Instead, we choose 1 poem, 1 hymn, and 1 Psalm to recite either per term or per 6 weeks (depending on their length). I print out the recitations, put them in one of these menu covers, and that’s it. My son then practices reciting just one of those per day.
This year, we are going to work on elocution and presentation a bit more, as I want him to learn how to confidently recite pieces with just us and then hopefully begin practicing in front of others, like grandparents and co-op friends.
And that, friends, is it.
Phew, it’s always a lot when I actually compile these curriculum blog posts!
OUR 3RD GRADE HOMESCHOOL CURRICULUM
The Charlotte Mason feast is wide, the living books beautiful and treasured, and the time spent together precious.
If you have any questions about 3rd grade homeschool curriculum choices, PLEASE don’t hesitate to reach out! You can find me on social channels, or feel free to drop me a comment below!
Where did you get the recommendation for your History spine, America First? I ask because ADE suggests different books other than this one. Your schedules are very helpful to this homeschool momma!
Great question! I never updated this blog post, but we didn’t end up using America First for very long. I’m part of a Charlotte Mason homeschool group and saw the spine recommended repeatedly, but I found that I didn’t care for it. We ended up switching to This Country of Ours, which I was much happier with.
Thank you, this is really helpful!
Where do find all the books and resources that you choose?
Hi! Did you use the beginner course for Bestowing the Brush? I keep going back and forth between purchasing that curriculum or the Basic Brush Drawing course from Simply Charlotte Mason! We are beginners over here.
Yes, we did and we really enjoyed it! I haven’t used SCM’s brush drawing course, so I can’t compare; however, I loved BTB’s videos! She starts with the very basics of brush care and mixing paints, and then takes you through the different blobs and strokes. I’m excited to do her Intermediate Course this year!
what do you use/do for copy work? you mentioned doing it but how does it look in your schooling?
That’s a great question! I buy each kiddo a notebook with lined handwriting paper (the kind with the dashes in the middle), and then they just copy a hymn, poem, some Scripture, or even book passages from whatever book we’re reading at the time. We keep it pretty simple!