2nd grade Archives - Growing In Grace

Second Grade Homeschool Curriculum Favorites

May 15, 2020Tracy4 Comments

This homeschool year, my youngest began second grade. It’s hard for me to believe that after all these years, I’m done with rainbow counting bears and letters of the alphabet. I’m savoring every moment of these younger years with him; they are some of my favorite in the homeschooling journey. These are the years of enthusiastic wonder, and lots of energy! I love his boyishness and his sense of humor, and how these characteristics play a part in all of his learning.

He has his own set of struggles, working through some mild dyslexia and dysgraphia. And with a family full of ADHD, it’s hard to tell right now how much is second-grade boyishness and how much is his own potential ADHD presenting. He’s my clown and a regular performer, and often after our once a week class at a local charter school, I was informed of his frequent interruptions. When I questioned him about one of those incidents, he answered so matter of factly: “It was interesting and I had lots of questions!” I have no doubt he did, too.

So here’s what it looks like to homeschool a second-grader like mine and the homeschool curriculum favorites that worked well for us this year.

Next Year Plans 2015-2016

May 20, 2015Tracy1 Comment

I must confess, planning for this next school year’s homeschool curriculum was much less difficult than it has been in the past. We had so much success this year that I had little to research and change. And while it was very nice to have those decisions pretty well made, I kind of missed the search-and-find part of the process. I’m thrilled that we’ve found the pieces that fit just right for us. It’s been a great fit this year, a perfect balance. So, here is our master list for next year’s plans, our homeschool curriculum in 2015-2016 (4th grade, 2nd grade, and preschool).

Plans for Grade 4:

Christian Light Publications Grade 4 Math

Alpha Omega Grade 4 Language Arts

Easy Grammar/Daily Grams 4

Spelling Power, 1st edition

Visual Latin 1 (second half)

Legends and Leagues geography (North, South, East—one for each school term)

My State Notebook, A Beka

Tapestry of Grace year 4, Upper Grammar (with Draw through History and Time Travelers Pak activities)

Plans for Grade 2:

Christian Light Publication Grade 2 Math

Logic of English Foundations D

Legends and Leagues (original book and workbook)

Tapestry of Grace Year 4, Lower Grammar (with Draw through History and Time Traveler Pak activities)

We’ll also be studying Norman Rockwell and Kandinsky for art, as well as jazz and Louis Armstrong for music.

Plans for “Preschool” (3 year old)

Nothing heavy here, trust me. But I have to plan something to keep Little Man out of trouble. And he loves “plojects.” Honestly, I’m aiming for exploration. And while I don’t have anything finalized, I expect to use a lot of Pinterest ideas, some resources from Letter of the Week (COAH), and some inspiration from The Homegrown Preschooler. I also want to implement a lot of Montessori activities with him.

Littlest is such a sponge. He does a lot of counting, can recognize a few different letters, and knows his colors pretty well with absolutely no formal instruction from me. He’s too little to have a learning style just yet, but he clearly loves to explore rather than pursue anything structured. I’m really okay with that for now. I love setting out the supplies and letting him explore them on his own.

We do have a “summer school” schedule that I’ll post more details about soon. And I can’t wait to get into that learning mode. In the meantime, I’ll have to satisfy my curriculum-hunting instincts by delving into some preschool pinterest boards.

Stepping into Grammar

October 18, 2013Tracy

Being a former English and writing instructor, I have had a difficult time finding a grammar program that fits my expectations, especially for introductory (i.e. 2nd grade) grammar. I have very definite opinions about how I want to teach it and what I think it should include.

After an exhaustive search this summer, I feel like I’ve found the perfect blend of activities for our grammar intro.

Logic of English Essentials

Essentials is the program I am using with Oldest for his phonics and spelling, and it also integrates grammar into the lessons. The grammar is taught from his spelling words, which I love! He learns parts of speech, uses his spelling words to form dictation or copywork exercises, and labels those phrases with the parts of speech. Essentials is not the most colorful program I’ve seen, but I love its thoroughness.

Winston-Grammar

I happen to have this program because my mom saved it from the days when my sister and I were homeschooled. While I am not using this program in its entirety right now, I have loved using some elements of it as we learn grammar in our Essentials. For instance, the parts of speech cards are a fun kinesthetic way to label the parts of speech. (Don’t own Winston Grammar cards? You could always make your own.)

Tapestry of Grace

This is our core curriculum for the humanities. It incorporates some basic grammar and progressive writing activities that tie in with our history studies. Though I wasn’t comfortable using the Tapestry “Writing Aids” as our only grammar, I have loved using the ideas to supplement what we are doing. One of the activities, for instance, is to make a word bank. Each part of speech has a card it’s own color, but Oldest gets to choose the word to write on that part of speech card. For example, Oldest is working on nouns for his word bank right now. We are using red index cards, and he gets to think of the nouns to write on each card. Most of these nouns are coming from our history or his own reading: knights, dragons, King Arthur, sword, hero, rain, dog, etc.

I’ve been excited not only about what he is learning but how much fun he’s having learning it. He’s not just filling out a worksheet; he’s finding grammar in his everyday. What could be better than that!

Making a Beginning

October 2, 2013Tracy1 Comment

It was with much excitement and a little trepidation (on my part) that we began school this week.

"Places everyone!" My big 2nd Grader and K5 Kid. — “Places everyone!” My big 2nd Grader and K5 Kid.

Though the first day of homeschool always gives me some butterflies and nerves, this year I was especially nervous. Perhaps it was the fact that I’ve spent the last month or more moving rather than preparing. Perhaps it’s just the fact that I have two in serious homeschool this year (2nd grade and K5). Or perhaps it’s that Littlest is toddling into a lot of trouble lately.

But, in spite of it all, our first day was a roaring success. The schedule ran smoothly, the lessons were enjoyable, and the kids were as excited at the end of the day as they were at the beginning—maybe even more excited!

The only one who didn’t enjoy the day was Littlest, who hasn’t been feeling up to snuff lately. He opted for a long morning nap, instead; and I definitely rejoiced in that unexpected grace.

This was supposed to be Littlest's activity for the morning, but Middlest decided she wasn't too big for this kind of fun. — This was supposed to be Littlest’s activity for the morning, but Middlest decided she wasn’t too big for this kind of fun.

First Day Highlights

We started our memory work review with a video of last year’s memory work. The kids had a blast watching themselves recite our timeline from last year, and it was a fun way to review. We’ll keep doing that much of this week until we feel fully refreshed and ready to add some new facts.

Middlest loved her new phonics lessons. We explored how the letter sounds are made and began our cursive work with a little magic! She used her wand to practice the strokes before we actually wrote on paper. I loved having my teacher curriculum on my NOOK! I wasn’t quite sure how I would like that format, but it was fabulous. Now I wish that all my teacher books were like that!

Middlest practicing her cursive strokes with a little ribbon magic!

Oldest really liked all of his school. When I pulled out his Essentials workbook, he actually kissed the cover; he was so excited to begin again. Of everything, however, I think he liked his audio-history with Story of the World the best. Jim Weiss will read the bulk of their history this year, and I’m very grateful to him for that convenience.

Our first maps of the year! Mediterranean Sea, Rome, and the boundaries of the Roman Empire.

We also took a hot cocoa break during our combined lessons. I’m thinking that may have to be an everyday occurrence. It wasn’t just cozy; it really made the second half of the school lessons something to look forward to. It set the mood for us as we transitioned to history and science (or art and latin on alternate days).

Curious about what we’ll be learning this year? Click the link to see!

Our Curriculum 2013-2014

July 24, 2013Tracy1 Comment

I’ve been busy, busy, busy planning all of our fun for the next year, trying to arrange our schedule and decide how and when to fit it all in. Of course, I’ll probably make lots of changes as the year begins, but for now, I’m so excited about what’s in store!

Want to take a peak?

Tot School

Flowering Baby

Music Together

Misc. activities

A little structure, a lot of play, and hopefully some well-timed naps are in store for Littlest next year. Oh, and potty-training—yea, me.

Kindergarten

Homeschool Curriculum 2013-2014

A Beka Numbers K5

Logic of English Foundations A and B

I am absolutely giddy about Middlest’s phonics program this year. This curriculum is new on the market and mind-blowingly awesome—solid phonics, step-by-step logical instruction, and VERY kid-friendly. It addresses all of the little problems that you meet along the way, helping children form the sounds and tell the difference between sounds, allowing children to experience reading through all of the learning styles, clear explanations for teaching the blending of sounds, and eliminating nearly all of the sight words. It is colorful, engaging, and extremely interactive.

Middlest could probably have started with just the Foundations B, but I thought she could really benefit from a brief review and solid instruction in the basics as Foundations presents it. So she’ll be doing a very fast spin through A before spending the bulk of the year in the level B.

2nd Grade

A Beka Arithmetic 2 and Reflex Math

Logic of English Essentials (phonics, spelling, and grammar—all in one) Read my review.

Leagues and Legends story and workbook (geography terms and concepts)

Shared Subjects and Activities

History Tapestry of Grace Year 2 (studying the Fall of Rome to the War for Independence); Story of the World 2 & 3 audiobooks and activities (my spine resource for Tapestry)

Science Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space

Latin Song School Latin 1

Art Artistic Pursuits K-3 book 2

Bible Teach Them the Faith catechism songs and AWANA memory work

I love being able to share several subjects together, providing age appropriate activities for each child while studying the same material. I’m using some Story of the World resources to ease my load, having audios rather than needing me to do all of the reading and adding coordinating coloring pages and simple activity ideas.

I have been on the search for science materials for awhile. We’ve enjoyed the nature studies and relaxed lapbook studies, but as Oldest gets older I really want him to have the experiments and depth of a real science program. My obstacle was finding one appropriate for smaller kids while maintaining the same depth and quality of instruction. I totally found both in Christian Kids Explore series, and Oldest has been begging me all summer about getting started.

Latin is a very light introduction—fun DVDs, catchy songs, and coloring pages that teach the vocab.

And art combines our history with some hands-on art appreciation from the time period we are studying. Science, Latin, and art will all be spread out through the week on different days; Latin on a couple of days, art on another day, science on the other days.

I can’t tell you how super excited we all are about this next year. It hasn’t been easy making the decisions and searching for the best deals, but by God’s grace I think we have the perfect combination of challenge and fun.