Our 3rd Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices

If you’re looking for ideas and inspiration for your 3rd grade homeschool curriculum, I’d love to show you what we’ll be using this year! We’ve got some wonderful read-alouds lined up, plenty of hands-on learning planned, and a few tried-and-true favorites we’ll be continuing to use.

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3rd Grade Math Curriculum & Resources

We’ll be returning to Beast Academy this year for our main math curriculum, per the request of my daughter. She asked to take a break from it last year since it does stretch your brain a bit, but now she’s feeling ready to jump back in.

We’ll also be using a few fun supplemental math resources, including Hands-On Equations and Developing Fraction Sense from Borenson Math. Both are Montessori-aligned and are excellent for building a strong conceptual foundation by using visual, hands-on learning.

I also plan to include one lesson each week from Geometry for Every Kid by Janice VanCleave, probably as part of our Fun & Games Friday.

It might sound like a lot, but we break math into two parts each day — one family-style lesson we do together and one block for independent work using their chosen math curriculum — with a break in between where we focus on other subjects.

She also has several math games and activities that rotate in her learning basket for extra practice and warm-up, or for days when she prefers to take a break from Beast Academy. These include things like Math Art and Drawing Games for Kids, Adsumudi, Kakooma, Mathological Liar, Infinity Street, and more.

Social Studies Curriculum & Resources

We’ll be continuing to use our Global Explorers curriculum for social studies. This year, we’ll travel through Asia, learning about different countries with some great books and folk tales, hands-on cultural activities, mapwork, art, cooking, and traditional games.

Want more details? Check out our Asia curriculum overview to get a peek at all the fun activities we have planned for this year.

We’ll also continue our American History journey with United Stories: Part II, focusing on the years 1812–1900. This will include notebooking, maps, and historical fiction stories, with the occasional primary source analysis or short video.

Together with our Global Explorers curriculum, this makes up a big portion of our reading, writing, and discussion work for the year in lieu of a separate language arts curriculum.

Language Arts Curriculum & Resources

Our Language Arts this year goes hand-in-hand with our geography and history lessons. Through living books, we’ll explore folk tales and stories from across Asia, along with historical fiction stories from America.

Some of Our 3rd Grade Literature Picks

Here are a few of the books we’ll read together as explore different countries throughout Asia this year:

• Rickshaw Girl by Mitali Perkins
• Tua and the Elephant by R.P. Harris
• The Kite Fighters by Linda Sue Park
• Water Buffalo Days: Growing Up in Vietnam by Huynh Quang Nhuong
• The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye
• Ajay and the Mumbai Sun by Varsha Shah
• The Gate, the Girl, and the Dragon by Grace Lin

For U.S. history, we’ll be learning about Westward Expansion, Pioneer Life, Antebellum America, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. A few books on our list include:

• Lyddie by Katherine Paterson
• Chickadee and Makoons by Louise Erdrich
• Etched in Clay: The Life of Dave, Enslaved Potter and Poet by Andrea Cheng
• Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Freedom Train: The Story of Harriet Tubman by Dorothy Sterling
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
• Stories from Old Squire’s Farm by C.A. Stephens
• Sugar by Jewel Park Rhodes
• Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park

We sprinkle read-aloud time throughout our day, and we love using audiobooks when we can, especially during lunch, car rides, or quiet time.

Reading & Elocution

We’ll continue to use McGuffey’s Eclectic Readers for read-aloud practice each day. Each passage is short, so it’s not overwhelming and helps build reading fluency and confidence.

Writing & Grammar

For 3rd grade, we’ll continue to focus on oral narrations, journal prompts, and writing strong, well-developed sentences.

She’ll start learning about writing personal and informative essays with Building Writing Skills, Level 1 from the Critical Thinking Co, continue to develop her creative writing abilities with Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly by Gail Carson Levine, and we’ll keep using strategies from The Writing Revolution by Judith C. Hochman to learn about sentence structures and strengthen writing skills.

She will also begin to use Editor-in-Chief, Beginning 1 to practice grammar and editing.

Science Curriculum & Resources

Science is one of the subjects we love doing as a family. Our plan this year is to continue Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding, Volume II by Bernard Nebel. We began pairing the lessons with notebooking last year, and it’s proven to be a perfect complement to the program.

We’ll also be incorporating science notebooking as part of our Global Explorers studies. Each country will feature a unique science topic, such as monsoons in Sri Lanka, mangrove forests in Bangladesh, and the Ring of Fire in Indonesia. We’ll also use the Usborne Science Encyclopedia, along with related videos and hands-on activities, to support these lessons.

Electives & Enrichment

This year, my third grader wants to learn how to sew doll clothes. We’ll start with some simple hand-sewing projects and gradually work toward designing and creating outfits for her favorite dolls. To support her, I’ve gathered the following resources:

I hope our 3rd grade homeschool curriculum plan has been helpful! Whether you’re piecing together your own curriculum resources or following a structured program and adding a few fun extras, you’ve got this! Have questions or want to share what you’re using this year? I’d love to hear from you!

If you’re looking for help mapping out our homeschool curriculum or scheduling your subjects, be sure to grab our free printable homeschool planning sheets!