Program Guide

Welcome to Third Grade. This is a complete third-grade curriculum for teaching at home or in a small class. It covers 180 days in 36 weeks, and every day has four lessons: Math, English Language Arts (ELA), Science and Social Studies. Specials (Art, Music and Physical Education) round out the week.

You do not need teaching experience. Every lesson tells you what to do, step by step, with a time for each part, the materials you need, the questions to ask and the answers to expect. Most lessons use everyday things: paper, pencils, a ruler, dice, cups, string, a magnet and things from the kitchen or the yard.

Everything lives on the website, thirdgrade.com. There are no accounts and nothing to sign up for. Your place in the year (the last day page you opened) and the subjects you mark complete on each week page are saved in your web browser on your own device (see Keeping Records).

Third grade is a big year. Your child moves from adding and subtracting to multiplication and division, meets fractions as numbers for the first time, and starts reading to learn about the world, not just learning to read. Children write longer pieces, run real investigations, and finish the year with a Civic Action Project about a real issue in their own community.

This guide explains how the pieces fit together. Read the first five sections before Week 1: this welcome, How a Day Works, How a Week Works, Units, Quarters and Flex Weeks, and Getting Started. Keep the rest for later. You will come back to the sections on weekly checks, unit tests and catching up as the year goes on.

One idea runs through the whole program: short, focused, hands-on lessons, done every day, add up. Follow the plan, adjust to your child's energy, and trust the rhythm.

Four subjects, every day. Each day has a Math lesson, an ELA lesson, a Science lesson and a Social Studies lesson. Each lesson is about 45 to 60 minutes. Together they make about 3 to 4 hours of lessons, plus breaks. On days you add a special, plan another 30 to 45 minutes.

Every lesson has five timed parts. A Math lesson runs Warm-Up, Mini-Lesson, Guided Practice, Independent Practice and Exit Ticket. ELA follows the same pattern. Science runs a Wonder Warm-Up, a Mini-Lesson, an Investigation or hands-on activity, a Science Notebook Entry and a Wrap-Up with an exit ticket. Social Studies runs a Warm-Up built around a big question, a Mini-Lesson, an Activity or Source Work, a Notebook Entry and an Exit Ticket.

Each lesson also gives you an "I can" goal, the materials, the exit-ticket answers, a Watch for / Try note (the most common mix-up and what to do about it), a Support idea and an Extend idea, and a short home task.

A sample day. Math, 8:30–9:20, starting with the Remember? box; a short break; ELA, 9:30–10:30, also starting with Remember?; a snack and a run outside; Science, 10:50–11:40; lunch; Social Studies, 12:30–1:20; then the practice pages or a special, and independent reading. Treat this as a sample. Many children do math best first thing; others need a story to settle in. What matters is that each lesson happens, not when.

If you have less time. Some days you will have two hours, not three. Here is what to keep, in order:

Keep Math and ELA every day, including the Remember? boxes. These two subjects build step by step, and a missed day is felt later.

For Science and Social Studies, keep the Mini-Lesson and the hands-on part, and talk through the notebook entry and exit ticket out loud instead of writing them. That trims each lesson to about 30 to 35 minutes.

On a very short day, teach Math and ELA, read the week's Reading About Our World passage together, and pick up Science and Social Studies the next day.

Times in the lessons are a guide, not a rule. You can split any lesson into two sittings, move a read-aloud to bedtime, or take science outdoors. Movement breaks between lessons help most third graders.

Every week follows the same pattern: prepare, teach, check.

Prepare (the weekend before). Open the week page (for Week 12, type thirdgrade.com/go/w12). Read the week's topics and gather the materials. Look at the "Standards this week" panel and the week's Home Connection sheet, so you know what success looks like. If a lesson names a library book, reserve it now.

Teach (Monday to Thursday). Follow the day pages. After each lesson, your child does the matching practice page. At the end of the week, mark each subject complete on the week page, so you always know where you are.

Check (Friday). Day 5 in each subject pulls the week together and ends with the weekly check: four short checks, one per subject. Mark them together and use What to do next (see Weekly Checks).

A sample week (Week 12). Week 12 ends Unit 2 in every subject. In Math, your child solves multiplication and division word problems by finding the equal groups, then finds unknown numbers in equations like 6 × ? = 42. In ELA, your child plans, writes and shares a short story with a clear problem and an ending that solves it. In Science, your child builds food chains, sees that their energy starts with the sun, and links them into a food web. In Social Studies, your child learns how Native nations in four regions used the land and water, and how they live today. On Friday come the weekly checks and the four Unit 2 tests.

Each week also has a Home Connection sheet: the week's big ideas in child-friendly words, plus a short activity and a talk question for each subject, using things you have at home. It is an easy way for another adult in the family to join in.

Planning your calendar. Before you start, mark your start date, holidays and breaks on a calendar, and count the teaching weeks to your hoped-for finish date. If you have more than 36, you have spare weeks for sick days and trips. If you have fewer, the flex weeks give you room (see Units, Quarters and Flex Weeks).

Units. Each subject has six units of six weeks. Every unit ends with a unit test in Week 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 or 36. Each unit page on the site (for example thirdgrade.com/go/u/math-4) gives the big idea, what mastery looks like and the standards in plain words.

Math: (1) Place Value, Adding & Subtracting, Multiplication Begins, Weeks 1–6; (2) Multiplication & Division Facts, Weeks 7–12; (3) Properties, Patterns & Two-Step Problems, Weeks 13–18; (4) Fractions, Weeks 19–24; (5) Time, Measurement, Area & Perimeter, Weeks 25–30; (6) Shapes, Data & Year Review, Weeks 31–36.

ELA: (1) Stories, Evidence & Text Features, Weeks 1–6; (2) Main Idea, Opinions & Narratives, Weeks 7–12; (3) Revising, Poetry & Comparing Texts, Weeks 13–18; (4) Opinion Essays, Inference & Point of View, Weeks 19–24; (5) Figurative Language & the Research Report, Weeks 25–30; (6) Publishing, Speaking & Year Review, Weeks 31–36. A word-study and spelling strand runs through all 36 weeks.

Science: (1) Forces & Motion, Weeks 1–6; (2) Magnet Design & Ecosystems, Weeks 7–12; (3) Life Cycles & Living Together, Weeks 13–18; (4) Weather & Climate, Weeks 19–24; (5) Forecasting, Adaptation & Traits, Weeks 25–30; (6) Environment, Fossils & Science Fair, Weeks 31–36.

Social Studies: (1) Communities & Geography, Weeks 1–6; (2) Early Communities & U.S. Regions, Weeks 7–12; (3) Movement, Culture & Immigration, Weeks 13–18; (4) Government & Citizenship, Weeks 19–24; (5) Economics, Weeks 25–30; (6) Saving, Giving & Civic Action, Weeks 31–36.

Quarters. The year also has four quarters of nine weeks. Quarter 1 (Weeks 1–9) is Foundations: Place Value, Stories, Forces and Communities. Quarter 2 (Weeks 10–18) is Building Meaning: Division, Narratives, Ecosystems and Regions. Quarter 3 (Weeks 19–27) is Reasoning: Fractions, Opinion Essays, Weather and Government. Quarter 4 (Weeks 28–36) is Synthesis: Area, Shapes, Research, Traits and Civic Action. Units are six weeks and quarters are nine, so some units cross from one quarter into the next. Unit 2, for example, runs from Week 7 to Week 12.

Quarter reviews. Weeks 9, 18, 27 and 36 end each quarter with mixed review in every subject.

Flex weeks. Weeks 5, 14, 23 and 32 are flex weeks in every subject. They have full lessons, built as mixed review, fix-it practice and projects on the weeks just before. Use a flex week in one of three ways:

Catch up: if you fell behind, use the week to finish earlier lessons, then do only the flex lessons that review what your child found hard.

Deepen: if your child is on track, teach the flex lessons as written. They mix the recent skills together, which helps them stick.

Enrich: if your child is flying, do the flex projects (a garden designed with arrays, a marble run that uses friction, a relief map, an original fable) and add a library trip or field trip.

Because of the flex weeks, a family that loses a week or two to illness or travel can still finish the year's new learning on time.

Step 1: the placement check. Before Week 1, spend 15 to 20 minutes on the placement check at thirdgrade.com/go/placement. It covers the second-grade skills that third grade builds on: 12 math questions, 6 reading questions and 4 writing and language questions. Sit together and read each question aloud. Your child reads only the word lists and the short story. Let your child use paper, fingers or objects. Don't help and don't time it. It's fine to take a break or finish another day.

The placement check is a guide to a good starting point, not a test or a diagnosis. Almost every child should start at Week 1. Each question shows the Grade 3 week where that skill is first needed, so you know which catch-up activity to add, and when. Each part has three results:

Ready for Week 1: start at Week 1 and keep the daily Remember? boxes going.

Start Week 1, with a little extra practice: start at Week 1 and add about 10 minutes a day on the missed skills. For a math skill needed in Weeks 1–6, use that week's catch-up activity during the first two or three weeks. For a skill needed later, do its catch-up activity the week before you reach it.

Build the foundation first: spend one to two weeks (math) or two to three weeks (reading) on the foundation activities the results page lists, then start Week 1 with short, hands-on lessons. For writing and language, start Week 1 right away and add about 10 minutes a day of sentence practice.

If your child found everything easy, still start at Week 1, and use the Friday checks to move faster (see Catch-Up and Reteaching).

Step 2: materials. Most lessons use everyday things. A few basics are worth having from the start: base-ten blocks (or bundles of 10 straws), counters or dried beans, dice and a deck of cards, a ruler marked in inches and centimeters, an analog clock, graph paper, index cards, a magnet, a kitchen scale and measuring cups, a reader's notebook, a science notebook and a social studies notebook. Each lesson lists its own materials.

Step 3: set up. Choose a spot for lessons and a box for the week's materials. Set aside a folder for your child's best work. Pick your state in the state selector at the top of the site if you want state notes (see States). Print the Weekly Lesson Log from the Templates page if you keep paper records.

Step 4: the first week. Read all of Week 1 over the weekend (thirdgrade.com/go/start). Week 1 opens with place value to 1,000 and rounding, story elements and a fable's central message, pushes and pulls, and what makes a community. Expect the first week to feel slow while you both learn the routine. That is normal. By the end of the second week, most families have found their rhythm.

Tips for Week 1. Keep the Remember? boxes quick, about two or three minutes. Stop a lesson a few minutes early rather than pushing through a meltdown. Give the Friday checks even in Week 1, so the routine is set. The site remembers the last day page you opened, so thirdgrade.com/go/today takes you back to it.

Math and ELA each open with a Remember? box: three quick questions on skills from earlier weeks. There is one box for each subject on each of the 180 days.

Every question reviews something taught at least a week before, and the questions are spread out over the year, so old skills keep coming back. In Weeks 1 and 2, the boxes review second-grade skills. Each question shows where it came from, for example "Week 4: arrays" or "Grade 2", so you know where to look if your child is stuck.

A math box might mix a multiplication fact, a rounding question and a fraction from a few weeks back. An ELA box might mix a spelling pattern, a grammar point, a word meaning and a reading term.

How to use it. Your child answers out loud or on paper, without looking back at old pages. You check the answers right away. It should take two or three minutes. The point is pulling the answer out of memory, not getting every one right. If an answer is wrong, give the right one, show it quickly, and move on. If the same skill keeps tripping your child up, use that week's catch-up activity or reteach step.

Don't skip the boxes on busy days. They are the cheapest few minutes in the program, and they do a lot of the work of keeping skills from fading.

Every lesson has a matching practice page: 720 in all, one per lesson. Open a day's page from the day page, or type the day's short link with an x (thirdgrade.com/go/w12d2x for Week 12, Tuesday).

Each page opens with an "I can" line that names the day's goal. Many pages then show a Look box with a short worked example. Then come a few sets of practice items, and most pages end with a challenge. The practice uses fresh numbers and texts, not the ones from the lesson, so the page shows whether your child can do it alone.

How to use them. Let your child try the page alone first, after the lesson. Then check it together. Circle anything that needs another look, and let your child fix it. A page with a few mistakes that your child has fixed is a better page than a perfect one you helped with.

The challenge is optional. Offer it when the page went smoothly. Skip it on a tired day.

Each week also has a print view of the lesson plans (thirdgrade.com/go/w12p for Week 12). Practice pages print one day at a time from the Print Day practice link on that view or on the day page, so you can print extra copies for a sibling.

On Friday (Day 5), your child does a short weekly check in each subject: Math, ELA, Science and Social Studies. Each check starts with two or three "I can" goals for the week, followed by 6 to 8 items. Each answer comes with a one-line explanation you can share. Open them from the week page or at thirdgrade.com/go/w12c.

Give the check without help. Read directions aloud if your child needs it; the check is about the week's skill, not about reading the directions. Then mark it together.

What to do next. Every check gives three routes, based on how many items were right:

Ready (all or almost all right): move on. Many routes add a short game or challenge, like writing three clues for a mystery number for a family member to guess.

Practice (about half right): practice the skill a new way, then redo the missed items. The route tells you exactly what to do, for example redoing one day's page and then rolling dice to build and round new numbers.

Reteach (only a few right): reteach the named days, hands-on, for about 10 minutes a day while the next week begins. In math, the week's catch-up activity is made for this.

In most weeks, the right move after a shaky check is to keep going and add a short daily reteach alongside the new week. Skills come back in the Remember? boxes, in later lessons and in the flex weeks. Holding the whole program back for one skill usually costs more than it gains.

Keep the marked checks. They are ready-made work samples for your records and a quick way to see progress across a quarter.

Each subject has six unit tests, one at the end of each unit, for 24 in all. They fall in Weeks 6, 12, 18, 24, 30 and 36. Each test has student pages and a scoring guide. Open them from the Assessments page or with a short link such as thirdgrade.com/go/t/math-4 (Math Unit 4) or /go/t/sci-2 (Science Unit 2).

Each test has four or five sections, and each section tests one part of the unit. In math, science and social studies, every section has at least one item where your child explains their thinking or solves a problem in more than one step. The ELA tests include an original reading passage and a short writing task scored with a 4-point rubric. Tests take about 30 to 40 minutes in math, 45 to 60 minutes in ELA, 35 to 50 minutes in science and 30 to 35 minutes in social studies. Split a long test over two sittings, as the ELA tests suggest.

Each test has short directions for you at the top. In short: give it on a calm day after the unit's last lesson, read directions and items aloud if your child asks, don't time it, and don't teach or hint during the test. Your child may use the tools from the lessons, unless the directions say otherwise (for example, most math tests ask you to put the multiplication chart away).

Scoring. Each section's scoring guide gives the answer, the points, and notes for partial credit. Add the points, then find the level. The four levels are set from the total points:

D, Developing (under 50%): the unit's main ideas are not yet secure. Reteach step by step.

A, Approaching (50% to 69%): partial understanding. Your child applies the skills with errors, or only on simpler items.

P, Proficient (70% to 89%): meets the grade-level goal. Your child applies the skills accurately and on their own.

E, Exemplary (90% and above): your child explains reasoning, extends ideas and applies skills in new situations.

Proficient is the goal. It means your child is ready for what comes next. Exemplary is a bonus, not a requirement.

Look at the sections, not just the total. Every section names the exact weeks and days to reteach, for example "Week 1 Days 4–5 (rounding on a number line)". A child who does well on most sections but misses half of one needs a short reteach of that section, not the whole unit again.

A unit test is a snapshot, not a verdict. A child who scores A in October and P in January has learned exactly what the program is built to teach.

Math catch-up activities. Every week has a math catch-up activity, 36 in all, aimed at the most likely stumbling block that week. Examples: "Trade Ten Ones for a Ten" (Week 2), "Groups and Rows" (Week 4) and "Draw the Groups" (Week 12). Each one says why the skill matters and which earlier skills it builds on, lists simple materials, gives four hands-on steps of about 10 minutes a day, and ends with three try-again problems with answers.

Reteaching in ELA, Science and Social Studies. The reteach step is written into each weekly check's What to do next, and into each unit-test section: reread a passage, redo an investigation, sort word cards, or retell the unit with the vocabulary words.

How to reteach well. Keep it short (about 10 minutes), hands-on, and alongside the new week. Go back a step: in math, from numbers back to drawings, or from drawings back to blocks and counters. There's no shame in using counters in March. Change the approach rather than repeating the same explanation louder.

Short weeks and sick days. For a four-day week, keep Math and ELA every day and combine the Science and Social Studies lessons you miss with the next ones, or talk them through. Still give the weekly checks; they tell you whether anything important was lost. After a sick day, don't double up. Just pick up where you left off (thirdgrade.com/go/today).

Falling behind. If you are more than two weeks behind the calendar you had in mind, use the next flex week to catch up, extend the year into the summer, or trim, don't skip: keep every Math and ELA lesson, and teach Science and Social Studies in their shorter form.

Moving faster. If the placement check was easy, or the weekly checks keep coming back all right, try the Friday check first, before the week's lessons. If your child gets it all right, move through that week more quickly: do the practice pages, skip the parts your child already knows, and spend the time saved on reading, the Extend ideas and the flex-week projects. Keep the investigations, discussions and writing, since those build much more than the tested skill.

Don't jump ahead to fourth-grade content. For a child who is ready for more, go deeper: "Can you solve it another way?" "Can you prove it with a drawing?" The Extend notes in the lessons are written for exactly this.

If you have concerns about your child's learning or development, talk with your child's doctor or a qualified specialist. This program is not a substitute for a professional evaluation.

Reading About Our World. Each week has one original nonfiction passage about that week's science or social studies topic: 19 link to science and 17 to social studies. Each passage has 5 to 7 short sections with headings (about 300 to 450 words), a word box with 4 or 5 key words and child-friendly meanings, and four questions: two you can answer right from the text, one that asks your child to figure something out, and one about a word or how the passage is built.

How to use the passage. Read it aloud first while your child follows along. Then read it together, and let your child read the parts they can. Talk about the words in the word box, then do the questions. Many families read it on Thursday as a lead-in to the Friday checks, but any day works.

Why it matters: what children already know about a topic makes it much easier to understand what they read about it. Reading about forces in the same week your child pushes toy cars, or about Native nations in the same week as the social studies lessons, builds knowledge and vocabulary together.

Word study and spelling. Every week has a word-study list: a spelling pattern with a one-line rule, 12 list words, 2 challenge words, a word sort and a dictation sentence. The year moves from closed and silent-e syllables, vowel teams and r-controlled vowels, through dividing longer words and adding endings, to prefixes and suffixes, homophones, contractions, possessives and tricky words, and ends with vowel sounds like oi/oy and ou/ow, soft c and g, and endings like -en, -al and -el. The weekly lists are at thirdgrade.com/go/spelling.

A simple weekly routine: Monday, read the rule and sort the words; Tuesday and Wednesday, practice (write each word, build it with letter cards, use it in a sentence); Thursday, the dictation sentence; Friday, a quick spelling check: say each word, and your child writes it. Five to ten minutes a day is plenty.

My Word Book. The glossary at thirdgrade.com/go/words lists the year's key words in all four subjects, each with a short meaning and an example sentence. It is a good place to send your child when a word in a lesson or passage is new.

Read aloud every day, even to a child who reads well alone. Reading aloud builds vocabulary and opens up books your child can't yet read alone. When a lesson names a book, a library copy is all you need. If you can't find a title, use another good book on the same topic; the skill matters more than the particular book.

Specials round out the week with Art, Music and Physical Education. The Specials page gives you two ways to plan them. Pick the one that fits your family.

Themed units. Each special has six themed units across the year. Art moves from drawing and composition through painting and color, sculpture, printmaking and art from many cultures to art about the world and personal identity. Music moves from reading and writing rhythm through melody on the staff, harmony and form, and instrument families to world music and composing and performing. PE moves from locomotor skills and balance through throwing, catching, dribbling and striking to team games and lifelong fitness.

Homeschool weekly menus. Each special also has a 36-week menu: a focus for each week and a few activity choices. The suggested time is about 90 minutes of PE a week (three 30-minute sessions), 45 to 90 minutes of Art (one or two 45-minute sessions) and 30 to 60 minutes of Music (one or two 30-minute sessions). Each menu ends with a year-end task (a PE skills check, an art portfolio or a music performance check) and a simple 4-level rubric, scored out of 16.

Making specials work at home. Specials are the easiest part of the week to fit around family life. A bike ride or a park visit can be PE. Singing in the car or clapping rhythms can be music. A co-op class, sports team or lessons you already do can count toward the special they cover. Many families do specials in the afternoon or on the weekend.

Safety and comfort. In PE, warm up first, choose a safe space and let your child go at their own pace; the goal is joyful movement, not performance. Adapt any activity to your child's needs.

Keep a few pieces of art, a photo of a project or a note about a performance with your records.

The site has a video hub with about 152 short videos, roughly one for each subject in most weeks. Each video is matched to a lesson and its standard. Open a week's videos at thirdgrade.com/go/w12v, or browse them all at thirdgrade.com/go/videos.

Click to load. A video shows only a picture until you press play. Nothing loads from YouTube before you click, and when you do, it plays through YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com). The player is also set so that any suggested videos at the end come from the same channel.

A short list of trusted channels. Every video comes from one of 19 children's education channels on the site's allowlist, such as Khan Academy, Math with Mr. J, SciShow Kids, Homeschool Pop, Learn Bright, Miacademy Learning Channel, Teaching Without Frills and PBS.

Videos are optional. Every lesson works without its video. Use one to open a topic, to show something hard to do at home, or as a second explanation when a lesson didn't click. Preview each video before your child watches, and watch together when you can. Keep videos short and stop to talk.

If a video won't play, has been removed, or doesn't fit your family, skip it. The lesson stands on its own. The videos belong to their creators; the program links to them but is not connected with them.

Third Grade follows national standards (see Standards and Notices), and many states use those standards closely. Social studies is the subject where states differ most, so the site has a state selector at the top of every page.

How it works. Choose National, or one of ten states: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania or Texas. The site remembers your choice in your browser. For those states, social studies pages then show your state's third-grade course name, a short summary, quarter-by-quarter swap ideas (for example, using your state's place names and landmarks for map skills, or studying the Native nations of your own region), the state codes those swaps cover, links to the official state documents and, for some states, watch-outs.

You can share a link with your state already chosen: the selector has a Copy Link button. New York families can also use the New York pacing calendar on the site.

State pages (coming soon). We plan to add a short guide for every state and the District of Columbia at thirdgrade.com/go/states, each with its own short link (such as thirdgrade.com/go/st/tx for Texas). Until then, use the state selector for the ten states above.

Standards are not homeschool rules. Standards describe what children should learn in a grade. Homeschool rules describe what a family must do to homeschool legally: for example notifying an office, teaching certain subjects, keeping attendance or arranging an evaluation. Those rules are set by each state and they change. This guide can't tell you what your state requires, and nothing in it is legal advice. Check your state's current rules with your state's department of education or another official source.

If you move during the year, the rules of your new state apply from the move. Check them as soon as you can, and keep your records from before the move.

Good records help you see progress, plan the next step and answer any questions about your child's year. Keep them simple: a few minutes on Friday is enough.

What the site saves, and where. There are no accounts. When you mark a subject's week complete, bookmark a page, choose a state or brand your PDFs, that is saved, along with the last day page you opened, in this browser on this device only. It is not sent to us, and it does not follow you to another device or browser. Clearing your browser's site data, or using a private window, erases it. So treat these check-offs as a handy view of where you are, not as your official record, and keep a paper or file copy too.

Printable templates. The Templates page has printable logs and planners, including a Weekly Lesson Log, a Weekly Reading Log, a Multiplication Fact Fluency Tracker, a Weekly Spelling List, Writing Conference Notes, a Reading Running Record, an End-of-Week Reflection and a Student Goal Setting page.

Attendance and hours. If you keep them, note each day's start and end time and the subjects taught. The Weekly Lesson Log works well for this. Count lessons, read-alouds, specials and field trips.

A portfolio. Keep a folder of work that shows what your child learned and how they grew:

A few work samples per subject each quarter, including an early piece and a later piece of the same kind, so growth is easy to see.

Writing across the year: an opinion essay, a narrative, a poem and the research report.

Weekly checks and unit tests, with the D/A/P/E levels.

Photos of investigations, projects, the Civic Action Project poster and art.

The reading log.

Date every piece and add a one-line note: what it is and what it shows.

A five-minute Friday routine. Note the week's days and hours. File the marked weekly checks and one or two pieces of work, dated and labeled. Add the week's books to the reading log. In a unit-test week, record each test's level.

Keep records safe. Store the folder somewhere dry, and consider photographing or scanning key pages. Keep records for at least as long as your state asks you to.

Do I need teaching experience? No. Every lesson gives step-by-step directions, things to say, the answers and a time for each part. Read the lesson ahead, then teach it in your own words. The Watch for / Try notes tell you the most common mix-up and what to do about it.

How long does each day take? About 3 to 4 hours of lessons, plus breaks: four lessons of about 45 to 60 minutes. Add a special on some days. See How a Day Works for what to keep on shorter days.

Why four subjects every day? Science and social studies build the knowledge that makes reading easier, and a little every day sticks better than a lot twice a week. If your days are short, keep Math and ELA in full and trim Science and Social Studies to their mini-lesson and hands-on part.

Where should my child start? Almost every child should start at Week 1. The 15- to 20-minute placement check tells you which catch-up activities to add, and when.

My child got about half right on a weekly check. Should we repeat the week? Usually not. Follow What to do next: practice the skill a new way and redo the missed items, or add a 10-minute catch-up alongside the next week. Skills come back in the Remember? boxes, later lessons and the flex weeks.

What are flex weeks for? Weeks 5, 14, 23 and 32 give you room. Use them to catch up, to deepen with the mixed-review lessons, or to enrich with the projects.

Do I need an account? No. There is nothing to sign up for. Your week check-offs, bookmarks and state choice are saved in your browser on your device, so use the same device and browser to keep your place, and keep your own paper or file records too.

Are the videos safe to leave on? Each video loads only when you press play, comes from a short list of trusted children's channels, and plays in YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode. Still, preview each one and watch together when you can. Every lesson works without its video.

My child finds multiplication facts hard. Should we drill? Start with strategies, not speed: doubles for ×2 and ×4, counting by 5s and 10s, and building a new fact from one your child knows (7 × 6 is 7 × 5 plus one more 7). Short daily practice, the Remember? boxes and quick games then build speed. If you use timed practice, have your child beat their own score, not race anyone else.

Can I use only some subjects, or combine this with other programs? Yes. Each subject stands alone. You can use our math with a different reading program, or the reverse.

Does following this program meet my state's homeschool rules? Not by itself. The program is aligned to widely used standards, but homeschool rules are set by each state and are a separate matter. Check your state's current rules with an official source (see States and the State Selector).

Is this program proven to work? Each part is based on published research, summarized on the research page (thirdgrade.com/go/research). The program itself has not been tested in a controlled study, so we call it research-based, not proven.

The standards. Math and ELA follow the Common Core State Standards for Grade 3. Science follows the Grade 3 performance expectations of the K–12 science standards built on the National Research Council's *A Framework for K–12 Science Education* (2012) (codes such as 3-PS2-1), plus the grades 3–5 engineering design expectations. Social studies follows the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for grades 3–5, including the inquiry arc: asking questions, using sources, and communicating conclusions and taking informed action.

Every Grade 3 math and ELA standard and sub-standard, and every Grade 3 science performance expectation, is taught somewhere in the year. Lessons list the standards they teach, and each week page has a "Standards this week" panel.

Plain-language explanations. Each standard has a page that explains it in plain words, with a few at-home activities. Open any standard from the Standards page, or type thirdgrade.com/go/s/ followed by the code (for example thirdgrade.com/go/s/3.NF.A.2).

Short links. The /go/ short links in this guide are permanent. Others you may find useful: /go/today (where you left off), /go/start (Week 1), /go/q1 to /go/q4 (each quarter), /go/w12 (a week), /go/w12d2 (a day), /go/placement, /go/guide (this guide), /go/research, /go/civic (the Civic Action Project) and /go/about.

The Civic Action Project. In Weeks 33 and 34, your child chooses a real community issue, researches it with at least two sources, plans and carries out a safe action, keeps a log, reflects on the results and presents a poster. The project page (thirdgrade.com/go/civic) has the eight steps, step checklists, a planning pack, a reflection and poster guide, and a 24-point rubric. Week 35 adds a year-end community project. Projects are nonpartisan: children pick an issue they can help with, such as a cleaner park, a book drive or safer crossings, not a side in an election.

Research. The program's design is based on published research, summarized with sources at thirdgrade.com/go/research. Third Grade itself has not been tested in a controlled study, so we describe it as research-based, not proven.

Not legal or professional advice. Nothing in this guide is legal advice about homeschooling, and nothing in it replaces a professional evaluation of a child's learning or development.

Notices. Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Social studies indicators are adapted from the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards, National Council for the Social Studies, 2013. The developers of those K–12 science standards were not involved in the production of this product and do not endorse it; the site footer carries the full trademark notice. Videos and named books belong to their creators and publishers, who are not connected with this program.

Questions or corrections? Write to contact@thirdgrade.com. If you spot an error, tell us the week, day and subject, and we will fix it.