The Book Saints (The Lives of the Saints According to the Liturical Calendar) by Victor Hoagland, C.P.
The Boxcar Children Series by Gertrude Chandler Warner
The Catholic Vision Book Series
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Daniel Boone-Boy Hunter Augusta Stevenson
Faces of Courage-Stories of Five Great Friends of God by the Daughters of St. Paul
Fifty-Seven Saints for Boys and Girls by the Daughters of St. Paul
The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Man Who Fought the Devil-The Story of the Cure' of Ars by Eva K. Betz
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Our Lady of Guadalupe by Helen Rand Parish
Ramona and Her Mother by Beverly Cleary
Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Shortstop from Tokyo by Matt Christopher
St. Joan of Arc by Margaret and Matthew Bunson
Stuart Little by E.B. White
A Tournament of Knights by Joe Lasker
Wishbone Series
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
These are books that our son read in the third grade or books that I have personally read. Please feel free to suggest more books for our list.
CURRICULUM
When we began exploring the possibility of homeschooling, we checked out elementary curriculum resources on the internet. We found a myriad of information available to us! However, it took some time before we developed a curriculum we were comfortable with and one we knew would best suit our son. The curriculum we utilized (personally designed to suit our son's needs) was based on a few different sources. One of the sources we used was our son's previous elementary school. The Overview of Curriculum complies with the State of Hawaii's Department of Education's guidelines. We also referred to the World Book's website regarding the particular grade's typical course of study. With all these excellent resources, we were able to come up with a fairly decent elementary grade curriculum for our son. The guidelines also require that Hawaii students take a standarized aptitude test. The DOE offers the testing free at their local schools. However, we chose to purchase and administer the Seton Home Study test.
OVERVIEW OF CURRICULUM
LANGUAGE ARTS
READING
Develop decoding skills (phonetic and structural analysis)
Develop comprehension skills and study skills to use a variety of printed materials from daily life
Silent reading
Reading aloud
WRITING
Develop writing skills in order to communicate; using correct grammar; parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc.), punctuation, captialization; developing a more extensive volcabulary; undertanding subjects and predicates and spelling in legible handwriting as well as beginning cursive writing
Dictionary skills (The student should be given a list of words each week. He or she should be able to look up the word in a dictionary, find part of speech it belongs to and look up its meaning. The student should also be able to write an original sentence for each new word.)
Writing short, original stories, poems and book reports with opinions, every week or so
Speaking and listening
Express opinions, feelings, information ande experiences orally using appropriate language and vocabulary
Listen and respond to oral and non-verbal messages with discrimination
Ask questions to gain assistance and/or information
Student should be able to give oral presentations; reporting experiences with accuracy
MATHEMATICS
Read and write numbers to 100,000
Place value through 1,000.
Addition and subtraction involving regrouping through 1,000.
Basic multiplication facts and operations to 2-digit multiplier.
Basic division facts and operations to 1-digit divisor.
Addition and subtraction of fractions having like denominators.
Identify space and plane figures.
Interpret bar and picture graphs
Measure length to nearest centimeter.
Addition and subtraction of decimals expressed in tenths.
