And then I realized...

So we have been schooling at home for 8 weeks now.  I spend a lot of time on Pinterest.  Not while schooling but just in general.  When I search for homeschool on there I see pins called And then I realized I was doing it all wrong, One change that transformed our homeschool year, and Secrets of a successful homeschool mom.  I looked over them to try and avoid making the same mistakes that other homeschool moms have made.  It made sense to me that if they had already made the mistakes that I could learn from them.  Well the only way to learn is to make your own mistakes!  

I purchased my curriculum and we set to work back in week one.  Most of our classes have been going smoothly.  However, we have had one of those And then I realized moments!  

Kiera absolutely hated her Science book!  She hated the days we had to do Science.  By the third week, she was starting to hate the whole homeschool idea.  And I was getting more and more frustrated because of it.  Something had to change.

So I began obsessively searching the internet and Pinterest for a new Science curriculum that wouldn't put me out a bunch of money.  I found nothing.  

I started thinking about the kinds of things that a third grader should be learning in their Science class.  I started with three categories: animals, earth, and space.  Then I just started pinning, downloading, and printing different topics under each category.  I decided that we would start with the animals unit.  The first bit is on Habitats.  I have tried to make all the lessons more hands-on... more interactive.  For habitats, she is making a flipbook for each of the different ones.  Each book has a world map on the cover that she colors in, there is a page about the climate, a page with facts about four animals that live in the habitat, and a food chain specific to that habitat.  When the book is done, I three hole punch it and it goes into her science notebook.

Also in our animals unit will be adaptations and an animal study that will include a trip to the zoo.  

She is loving her new Science class...

I want to help other homeschool teachers who may be struggling with finding Science curriculum for third grade.  As we go, I'm going to list all my resources for each unit that we do as we do them.