Here it is, you guys. Our gifted homeschool curriculum choices post for 2nd, 3rd, and 5th grade.
August in New England is always bittersweet for me.
August is hot and sunny and Kenny Chesney comes to town, so there is a lot to be excited about, but it also marks the end of summer.
And as much as I love fall in New England, I am never quite ready to say goodbye to summer fun.
Alas, our homeschool co-op met this week to plan for fall and so, like it or not, September is coming. I figured it was time to write my annual homeschool curriculum post.
Homeschool Curriculum Choices: 2nd, 3rd, and 5th grade
If you’re new here, you must know that we are gifted homeschool curriculum ‘dabblers’
If you haven’t already, I invite you to read our posts from past years. You can find all previous homeschool curriculum and resource posts on this landing page:
Homeschool resource landing pages:
- Homeschooling: Resources by Academic Subject
- Gameschooling: Resources by Academic Subject
- Books: Resources by Academic Subject
- The Best Homeschool Subscriptions and Memberships
I always tell people that we are ‘curriculum dabblers’
If you haven’t already, I invite you to read our posts from past years.
If you are interested in checking out previous years, you can view them here:
Check out My Little Poppies Course Offerings:
- The Lazy Homeschooler’s Guide to Unit Studies
- How to Rock THE MOST IMPORTANT PART of Your Homeschool Day
- Gameschooling 101: How to Add More Play to Your Homeschool Day
If you are interested in a sneak peek of our homeschool day, be sure to follow us on Instagram. I share Instagram stories daily!
Our Gifted Homeschool Curriculum Choices and Routine for 2018-19
Our family has some scheduled activities such as piano and art lessons, athletics, science courses, and co-op. You can read more about how we opt for a routine over a strict homeschool schedule here.
As always, I will start each morning with Coffee and Books.
After Coffee and Books, our days will follow this routine:
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- Monday – Copywork
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- Tuesday – Music study
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- Wednesday – Nature Study
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- Thursday – Art
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- Friday – Games Galore
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- Saturday – Family Movie Night
This year, our family movie nights will focus on musicals. I have a dear friend with a theater and dance background and she has provided us with her top ten must-see list. We can’t wait to get started!
Gifted Homeschool Curriculum Choices, By Subject
Okay, here we go!
Math
My 5th grader will use the following:
My 3rd grader will use the following:
My 2nd grader will use the following:
All three kiddos will dabble in:
Language Arts
All three children will enjoy:
- Audible
- Curriculum featuring multiple read alouds across subjects (Read more below, or read more about why we adore Beautiful Feet Books here.)
- Beautiful Feet Books Teaching Character
- Coffee and Books
- Marie’s Words
- Journaling
- Language Arts games
Science
Everyone will use:
- Local science/nature courses
- Nature journaling
- History of Science from Beautiful Feet Books
- Building Foundations for Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum
- Exploring Nature with Children
- Science games
- Nature games
- STEM toys
Geography & History
Last year, we joined a co-op with a focus on American History. We will be enjoying that again this year. The co-op uses a Charlotte Mason approach and we will be supplementing with additional books and materials.
Everyone will use:
- Stories of American from Simply Charlotte Mason (for co-op)
- Early American History Pack from Beautiful Feet Books (as a supplement)
- Around the World Stories
- Pin It! Maps
- Geography games
- History games
Art
My oldest two kiddos take an art course. In addition, everyone will dabble in:
- Alisha Gratehouse’s Masterpiece Society Studio (more info below)
- Chalk Pastels | You Are an Artist (more details below)
- Simply Charlotte Mason Picture Study Portfolios
- Art & Music Games
If you love art, I want you to know about two of our favorite art membership sites:
1. The You Are An Artist Clubhouse Annual Membership
We *love* Nana and her Chalk Pastel tutorials. Now, Nana has created an entire clubhouse for artists!
The Clubhouse annual membership includes:
- Instant access to oodles of video art tutorials
- A new art course added monthly
- A new art lesson each week
- … and Chalk Pastels at the Movies
You can read more or sign-up here.
2. Masterpiece Society Studio
I’m not at all surprised, but my kiddos are *loving* this membership site. My oldest was sick as a dog on Valentine’s Day. Everyone was grouchy (self-included) and feeling a little crummy that our day didn’t go as planned.
Music
All three kiddos participate in piano lessons. Everyone will dabble in:
Technology
Once again, I wanted my oldest to learn to type and it did not happen. (This is our second fail in a row!) So, this year, we would like to make that happen. I am deciding between Dance Mat Typing and Typing Club, although I would take suggestions. If you have a typing program you love, please leave it in the comments!
Everyone will dabble in:
(We thoroughly enjoyed Outschool last year. The Harry Potter courses were our favorite!)
Foreign Language
Everyone will dabble in:
Other resources we are thrilled to continue with
- Field Trip Zoom
- CuriosityStream
- Outschool (My oldest has enjoyed the Harry Potter courses for books one and two and also the Harry Potter Junior Film Studies!)
- Seesaw (To see how we use Seesaw in our homeschool, click here.)
Dance Mat is great – both kids have loved it. Being able to hear the songs again is fun too.
Thanks so much!
I am loving the typing program from Jenny Phillips (The Good and the Beautiful) with my 9.5-year-old. Each lesson is short, but that means it’s not onerous to keep going.
Thank you for this!
How do you plan to use Marie’s Words?
I should write a post on this one! We go over them together in the morning and then I tape one to the downstairs bathroom mirror, and two upstairs in the kids’ bath. We try to use them as often as we can during the week or two that they are up there, and then we switch. I keep it light now, because they are young, but I can see this resource growin with our family over time.
There are also open source programs. We use K Touch Typing, which lets you provide the words they type. We also use G Compris for mouse work, which i realized we needed when my five year old picked up the mouse and pointed it at the monitor like a Tv remote ;).
Question on Curiosity Stream: how does it rate for, how should i put it, “child friendliness”? We LOVE documentaries but sometimes find that things can get out of hand, especially with animal programs for which they used technology such that the animals are uninhibited. For instance, elephant males wanting to mate are terrifying, chasing after the females who are running away screaming, or chimp gangs murdering other chimps. Just a bit much for my younger guys. Do you find Curiosity Stream similarly problematic?
Thank you for this site! Helps me feel less alone trying to cope with my three fellows’ brains.
Hi, Teresa!
Thank you for the typing recs. I will be sure to check them out.
As for CuriosityStream, it’s hard to judge what would work for another family. I have sensitive kids and we’ve been okay, but your family may be different. I would encourage you to check out the free trial and watch when your kids are sleeping. My husband and I enjoy the programming as much as the kids!
Ours is similar for my 2nd and 5th graders.
Morning Basket: Read books on different topics daily (Monday-social studies; Tuesday-Language Arts; Wednesday-Art; Thursday-Math; Friday-Science – we started out with Five in a row, many years ago. and we liked the theme per day concept so kept) Mad libs, handicrafts, our literature for which we will do copy work etc.
For the rest of our education we will use:
History / Geography: US Historical fiction, Board games, Children’s Encyclopedia of American History, Jean Fritz books
Language Arts: Discovering the Logic of English
Math: Beast Academy; Penrose; Khan Academy
Science: Exploring Nature with Children; Mystery Science; Snap circuits
Art: Great American Artists for Kids by MaryAnn Kohl, YouTube, Nature Journaling
Coding: Scratch, Bitsbox, Various DK books
Typing: if I ever get around to teaching them this it will be shocking. We will have to see how it goes.
Loved reading your plans, Tanya! I hope you have a great year!
Great post! I always love to see what you are using with your family. You always have great resources! I would love to hear more about the top 10 list of musicals. My girls do musical theatre and so our family is very into watching musicals lately.
We are going to try to do nature study this year also. I have tried for several years, but I just can’t seem to get it together. We get out in nature, but it seems like none of my kids ever wants to do their nature journal. I’m sure you have some posts that I have read in the past and I have just forgotten about. I’ll have to go back and do my research. Thanks again for your great ideas and content!
Hi, Sue!
I do have a post on nature journaling. You can find it here: https://my-little-poppies.com/nature-journaling-books/
I will probably write a post on the musicals!
Hi Caitlyn! I would first like to say “Thank you” for your amazing posts and everything you compile for you readers. I cant tell you how many resources I have learned about through your site and ideas I have adopted into our homeschool. You are a wealth of knowledge and super inspirational.
Next, I’m wanting to incorporate Spanish into our curriculm this year, but want to make it a family affair. We have 3 boys 2, 7 and 9…does Rosetta Stone work well in this manner?
Thanks in advance for any feedback!
Kindly,
Erika H.
Hi, Erika!
Thank you for your sweet words. They mean more than you know!
As for Spanish, it really depends on a child’s comfort with the computer. My kids started Rosetta Stone around the age of your older two. It would be too tricky for your youngest at this point, though.
Take care,
Cait
I second a post on your friend’s top 10 musical list for kids! My four kids have been obsessed with the Hamilton and Newsies soundtracks, but one of them in particular is going to lose her mind if we don’t move on to something new soon and I have no idea where to turn. My kids are turning out to be huge fans of musical theater, but it’s not something I have ANY familiarity with at all.
What do you uae to actually teach them how to read?
Hi, Tamijoy.
We did not use a reading curriculum. I read The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease, we read constant, kept books everywhere, and had print all over. Closed captioning on the TV, etc.
Hope this helps!
Cait
I would love to know how you use Beast Academy and Singapore together. I have narrowed down to those two for my son for 2nd grade math and couldn’t decide. Now I’m curious about how I might use both together.
Hi, Jennifer.
I mostly use Beast Academy Online for my littles, but if they get stuck or frustrated, I pull out Singapore. They find Singapore easier so it’s a nice ‘break’ when math gets tough. I used to use it more frequently, but we just love Beast!
My younger uses both, preferring Beast Academy most days bc “It is more fun!”, however for some sections he just prefers to run through a bit of Singapore before returning to B.A. My older vastly prefers Beast Academy, but that child is very math-oriented and absolutely hates doing any math drills that are redundant.
Hi Cait,
I have been enjoying your site so much. My husband is a School Psychologist and I’m an Occupational Therapist, so needless to say homeschool was not on radars at all, yet here we, official homeschoolers. resources like my little poppies have been immensely helpful and reassuring.
For typing, I’m not familiar with the other two programs, but I had a lot of success with HWT’s typing program in the schools.
Welcome, Zoey! And thank you for the rec!
Can you, please, tell me why you used Singapore Math and Beast Academy Online together? Do you think Singapore Math isn’t enough alone?
Thank you,
Jill
Hi, Jill.
We used both because we had used Singapore first and wanted to try Beast. I have a couple really mathy kids (who do extra math) and we were trying to figure out the best fit. We ended up with Beast Academy because it was a better fit for us. That said, Singapore is a fantastic math program. It just depends on what works for your unique kiddos.