Until now, your child's geography lessons have focused mainly on the local — his neighborhood, his town, his state. In 3rd grade, children learn that the world extends beyond these familiar borders. You can help him start to expand his horizons with a simple exercise like asking him to find on a map or globe where all the fruit in your refrigerator comes from (the fruit stickers often have the country of origin on them). The apples are from Washington State, the grapes from California, the kiwis are from New Zealand, and so on. If he's intrigued, try to find out more about each place by researching them in books or on the Internet and talk about what makes each place unique. Or ask him to help you plan an imaginary vacation to one of the places that he's particularly interested in. What would you pack? How would you get there? What kinds of things would you do when you arrived?
Make math come alive
Math is more than adding and subtracting, and third graders are starting to grasp this by applying math to the real world. They understand, for instance, that measuring the distance from your house to the soccer field and estimating the cost of a new pair of jeans and a sweatshirt both require math skills. A simple way to bring math home is to give your child the grocery section of the newspaper. Ask him to estimate how much food you need to feed your family for one day, and then have him add up the cost of the groceries he's chosen. Or, when you're at the grocery store, ask him to get you two pounds of apples or two dozen eggs. Third graders are also starting to understand value, so if your child receives an allowance, he may (finally) be paying attention to how much a coveted toy costs and deciding whether or not it's really worth it. When he wants to make a purchase, encourage him to count out the money and the change himself.
Get more great math ideas for third graders
Cultivate a hobby
If your child has shown an interest in a hobby, such as collecting rocks, leaves, bugs or shells, help him use his budding science and investigating skills by encouraging him to sort and group his collections. You can give him a taste for doing research by taking him to the library to check out books about his collection or helping him locate information about his objects of interest via the Internet. Encouraging an interest in a hobby nurtures your child's newfound sense of self and helps him take some responsibility for his own learning — something that, developmentally, he's ready to do this year.
Read more about why kids collect.