Last summer, I shared our 2nd grade homeschool curriculum plans for my little guy. Now that we have only two weeks left in the school year, it is time to reflect on the year and share how it went.
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Individual Subjects:
Math: RightStart Math Level B
So math has been a challenging subject for Little Fish and I did a lot of research before I picked this curriculum for him. And I am happy to say this has been the perfect curriculum for him! We ended up having to switch to Level A to build his number sense foundation better, which the representative at RightStart math had suggested to begin with. But for the first time, he showed a year’s worth of progress in math over one year’s time on our end of year testing. Yay!! So we will be picking up with Level B this summer. While he remains behind in this area, building a solid foundation is so much more important than catching up to grade level.
Spelling: All About Spelling Level 1
Little Fish started AAS Level 1 in late kindergarten and there were many times we had to pause and just practice the same lesson over and over. His challenges with visual memory and working memory just make this a challenging subject. But, I am happy to say we did complete it and started Level 2 about mid-year. This continues to be a good curriculum for him due to the multi-sensory approach and we will be using it for years to come.
Reading: All About Reading Level 3
This is the area Little Fish showed the most improvement in. He finished Level 3 mid-year and is now well into Level 4. He has started to read simple chapter books by himself and next year we will move into reading books as our reading curriculum rather than having a tradtional curriculum. If you want to see more about how we use All About Reading in our homeschool, click here.
I also read each of E.B. White’s books to Little Fish this year over the course of many months. We used these read alouds to target his comprehension skills. He loved this set of books!
Grammar: Growing With Grammar 1
This was a continuation from 1st grade and Little Fish is almost done with it. He has enjoyed the exercises and this is one subject that he does independently so he likes that. I feel good about the foundation it is setting for him.
Handwriting:
Little Fish did some copy work this year when we studied our poem of the month, but besides that we targeted this skill during his other subjects such as spelling, grammar and writing. We have been continuing to use primary ruled paper with him, which has helped his handwriting come a long way.
Computers: Code.org, Course 2
This is a FREE resource! So Little Fish really liked doing this and he actually was able to be more independent than I thought he would be. Somehow, though, it fell off our weekly plan at some point in the year. Mom fail! He recently asked if he could do the Angry Birds thing on the computer again so we will definitely play around with it more this summer.
Subjects grouped with Big Fish, Grade 4:
History: Story of My World, Volume 1
The boys have really enjoyed this book. It has covered ancient civilizations from China to Greece to Africa to Rome to India. They enjoyed coloring the pages that go with each chapter. We could have expanded on it in so many different ways, but due to time, we did not take full advantage of that. However, they have often gotten library books out on their own that have been inspired by what they have learned in history. They have requested that we study Volume 2 next year so that is what we will do!
Science: R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey-Chemistry
This has been another big hit with the boys! They have enjoyed doing the experiments, even if they have not always loved completing the lab sheets! The lab sheets are actually perfect for them, though, because they aren’t too heavy on writing and incorporate a lot of drawing and short answer questions. We are planning on using another science curriculum from R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey next year!
Art: Take Time for Art
The boys have greatly enjoyed these projects and videos. We bought the Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece packages this year and worked on them along with those sections in Story of My World. They have made watercolors, clay sculptures, papier-mâché Egyptian masks, and metal working so far. We still need to finish the last Ancient Greece project.
Spanish: Foreign Language For Kids
The boys loved this! However, it became a challenge for us because Big Fish was quickly ready to move on to the next level, while Little Fish never mastered the first level. I have realized that we just can not do Spanish as a group study and since it is a video based program that has made it a bit challenging. I am leaning toward not doing a foreign language at all with Little Fish for the foreseeable future as it is challenging for him and his interest in learning one is not consistent.
Poetry: Book of Nature Poetry by National Geographic
The boys enjoyed our poem of the month study for several months this year. We did take a break from it recently as I felt they were getting a little bored with it and the extra time allowed us to catch up some in our history, bible, and chemistry work. The notebooking pages that I made for this study worked great!
I am still working on our plans for next year, but will be sure to share them with you when they are done. To see how I am organizing my plans, you can check out: A Simple Way to Plan Your Homeschool Curriculum.
If you have any questions about any of the curricula above, please comment below or send me an email!
