In my last post I shared our 1st grade curriculum picks for the 2020-2021 school year. Today, I’d like to share our 2nd grade choices. My first and second grader are only 14 months apart in age. My second grader tends to work and learn at a slower pace than my 1st grader, so using the same curriculum for both of them tends to work out quite well in most instances. Many of the items are the same, but there are a few differences. Let’s jump in!
Language Arts
In second grade, we’ll be using The Good and the Beautiful Level 1 Language Arts. Henry has actually already started using the program during the summer and is comfortably through the first unit. I foresee that he’ll be working in the Level 2 book by the spring and into next summer. One of the convenience of homeschooling is that we can simply just move on to the next level or a new book once we finish. We don’t have to wait an entire school year to continue progressing in our learning, especially if the child is ready to move on!
I love that TGATB lays out everything for the parent to follow for each lesson. It’s very much an open-and-go curriculum. It tells me when to have him work on word ladders (common sight words for his grade level), phonics cards, individual or shared reading, and the lesson itself. There is typically independent practice in each lesson as well, where he will apply the concepts learned that day or the day before on his own.
Henry will also use The Good and the Beautiful for his handwriting practice, working in the level 2 book. In Explode the Code for phonics practice, he is a book ahead of my first grader, starting the school year in book 4.
Something new for Henry this year will be Easy Grammar for Grade 1. It’s a page-a-day approach to grammar, parts of speech, and sentence structure. He does get some exposure to this in The Good and the Beautiful, but I find that it’s nice to have just a bit more practice each day with grammatical concepts.
My goal for Henry this year with his reading is to begin to read comic style chapter books (such as Narwhal & Jelly or the Bad Guys series) and shorter chapter books, maybe that still have quite a few illustrations. Titles like Nate the Great, Henry & Mudge, Hey Jack!, and The Mouse and the Motorcycle come to mind. We will continue to use books from TGATB library for shared reading during instructional times as well.
Curriculum Links:
The Good and the Beautiful Level 1 Language Arts
The Good and the Beautiful Handwriting Level 2
Explode the Code Books 4-6
Easy Grammar Grade 1
Daily Journal
Levels 1-3 books from The Good and the Beautiful Library
Math
Henry and Sawyer do their entire math block together everyday. I basically sit between both of them, present the lesson, show some examples, and offer support if they need it while completing independent work. We are nearly 3/4 of the way finished with Saxon Math 2, so my plans are to finish that curriculum in the first couple of months of school. Once we’ve completed it, my plan is to work in a Math Skills workbook for 2nd grade until about January. In January, I plan to start Teaching Textbooks Math 3 for both of them.
My oldest began using it at around the same time, and he’s had a lot of success with the curriculum. I have learned that it’s best to keep a spiral notebook to complete scratch work and take lecture notes. I’ve also learned that sitting with them during the lecture and the 4-5 practice problems presented after the lecture sets them up for success during the independent portion of the lesson each day.
In addition, he will have a workbook full of addition and subtraction basic facts that we can pull out to work on a few times a week. Keeping those basic facts memorized truly helps set them up for a successful math lesson each day. I anticipate that by the end of his school year we’ll be doing some basic multiplication and division memorization as well.
Curriculum Links:
Saxon Math 2
Math Skills for 2nd Grade
100 Days of Timed Tests: Addition & Subtraction
Teaching Textbooks Math 3
Science
As I mentioned in the first grade curriculum post, Science is a subject we work on together as a family. I forgot to mention that I usually alternate Science with History lessons (think 2-3 days of each subject a week, depending on the unit we’re working on).
During our morning time (some homeschoolers call this their “morning basket”), I take part of that time to read anything that needs read aloud from our science lesson for that day. Then, when it’s time for us to sit down and do our science experiment or activity for the day, we have the background reading done and out of the way.
Another tip or trick I usually take advantage of is letting our morning snack fall during our science lesson. Why? Well, sometimes we have a documentary or a few movie clips that go along with our lesson. If the kids are occupied with a small snack, nine times out of ten, they’re doing a good job of just taking a break and listening to the movie being presented.
Curriculum Links:
The Good and the Beautiful Science Units
-Botany, Marine Biology, Energy, and Meterology
Gather ‘Round Homeschool Oceans Unit
Nature Journals
History & Economics
Again, History & Economics are subjects that we do together as a family and alternate 2-3 lessons per week with Science units. We are using The Good and the Beautiful History 1 and the Tuttle Twins Books. I did forget to mention I’m also adding some Heroes of History books to our History studies this year.
These books will be read aloud during our morning time together. I’ll go into morning time more in a future post, but essentially it’s a time when my kids are working independently and quietly while I read aloud from A LOT of different materials.
The historical heroes we’re going to be reading about this year include: George Washington Carver, Laura Ingalls Wilder (we are almost done with the entire Little House series), Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Boone, and Davy Crockett. I will say I just previewed the first chapter of the book on George Washington Carver, and WOW, it was so good. If the rest are as well written as that first chapter, I think we’re in for a big treat.
Curriculum Links:
The Good and the Beautiful History 1
The Tuttle Twins Books
Heroes of History read-alouds
Other Resources
Don’t forget to see what we’re using for First Grade Curriculum here. Stay tuned for our Fourth Grade Curriculum picks early next week as well!
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