2nd grade reading

[hisforhomeschooling]

My DS is going to finish OPGTTR this year. The short lessons and doing it together on the couch as our only schooling in the afternoon has been great. I was reading in WTM about 2nd grade and am concerned with oral reading being once a week. I want him to read something out loud to me each day. I think it is great practice and helps me to see where he struggles. Is there any curriculum that has paragraph long passages from classics on a 2nd grade reading level? Like WWE, but daily reading. Has anyone used WWE2 in this way, and had the child read the passage instead of the parent? Any suggestions about what you did to practice after OPGTTR would be appreciated! Thanks!

[Guest]

I want him to read something out loud to me each day.

 

 

Get books.

 

Tell the student to read them for a little while every day.

 

Congrats on your new reader!

[hisforhomeschooling]

Get books.

 

Tell the student to read them for a little while every day.

 

Congrats on your new reader!

 

Haha, the problem is, we just don't get to the library consistently enough for me to rely on that. And he does really well with concrete lessons. Like, the OPGTTR lessons are 1-3 pages. He will do 1 page, every time, with no fuss. When it is 3 pages, there is definitely fussing. When I have him do a chapter in the Pathway Readers, there can be fussing. I want to find something where we are reading something meaningful at his reading level, but there is a clear starting and stopping point so he can focus without worrying about how long it is. I downloaded the McGuffey 3rd Eclectic Reader and it is incredibly confusing with all the numbers. But that is the kind of thing I am hoping for. A page of meaningful literature that we can read together each day. Am I making any sense?

 

ETA: We definitely have books! Don't want anyone to think we don't :) I am just hoping to have what I want in one book, tied up in a neat little bow, like so much of the Peace Hill Press material is. I need a Daily Reading with Ease for 2nd grade, please!

 

I would be interested in the Evan-Moor daily reading comprehension to tackle this, if the passages were not twaddle. But that's the idea. 

Edited February 12, 2016 by hisforhomeschooling

[HomeAgain]

Scroll down here to Everyday Classics. http://www.survivorlibrary.com/?page_id=1792 They have the 1st reader, and the 3rd, but not the second.  However, it should give you a good idea of what they're like.  Each has short fairy tales, fables, and classic stories for the children to read aloud.

[wendyroo]

This isn't exactly what you asked for, but what about Jerry Pallotta alphabet books?  High interest, about a paragraph per page that can be read intermittently without losing continuity and they appear to mostly be 2nd and low third grade reading level.  You can buy most of them used on Amazon for a couple bucks, so you could let your son pick a couple that interested him and just have him read a page a day...unless of course the pictures enticed him into reading a couple more pages... :thumbup:

 

Wendy

[ElizabethB]

Phonics until they are reading at the 12th grade level, everything is free to print!

 

Other resources that you can buy instead to teach multisyllable phonics and spelling are Megawords or Marcia Henry's Words.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/WellTaughtPhonicsStudent.html

Edited February 12, 2016 by ElizabethB

[ElizabethB]

You could also do readings from the 1879 McGuffey readers, the ones with the blue and orange covers, they have difficult words diacritically marked and the passages slowly build in difficulty level through the books. See the online versions at Gutenberg Press for free to see if they will work for you, you need the PDF versions to see the markings.

Edited February 12, 2016 by ElizabethB

[nature girl]

The only thing I'd be wary of is that it's hard for a one-page story to be high interest, you know? I've always felt like if you want kids to grow to love reading, they should be reading books that really will be fun for them (even if it is twaddle.) I've saved the more quality literature for our read alouds. Classic novels are more challenging to read, and to understand while a child is still improving reading skills.

 

One thing we've done to keep longer books from feeling too intimidating is to co-read. Typically we'll alternate, each of us reading the page on the side where we're sitting, but you could have him read just one page while you read the rest of a chapter (and if it really is high interest, he'll be more likely to be willing to read more than one page.) You can buy good series, like Wrenly, Dragon Slayers Academy, Dragon Masters, etc. for cheap, if you don't have a chance to get them from the library, I think they're under $5 each, less if you buy used or buy as a set.

 

Another idea, the I See Sam books (ARI level) are great, short, high-interest stories for increasing fluency, and it's also possible to get them for free (or really cheap if you want a hard copy.)

[FO4UR]

I keep on with the child reading aloud to me for a long while.  I think reading aloud is an important piece of the whole literacy puzzle.

 

 

I made up lessons for my kids to prepare them for the stories in the Treadwell readers.  The 2nd and 3rd readers assume that the child already knows phonics and is reading fairly well.  I take large words found in the stories and build them up by morpheme (stand  understand  understanding  misunderstanding) so that when a child sees "misunderstanding" in the story they already know the word and how to decode it.  It helps the stories flow smoothly, giving a chance to review the phonics & decoding in short lessons before the story is read.

 

By the time they finish the 3rd reader, they are reading anything on my shelf.  

 

 

[mathmarm]

My DS is going to finish OPGTTR this year. The short lessons and doing it together on the couch as our only schooling in the afternoon has been great. I was reading in WTM about 2nd grade and am concerned with oral reading being once a week. I want him to read something out loud to me each day. I think it is great practice and helps me to see where he struggles. Is there any curriculum that has paragraph long passages from classics on a 2nd grade reading level? Like WWE, but daily reading. Has anyone used WWE2 in this way, and had the child read the passage instead of the parent? Any suggestions about what you did to practice after OPGTTR would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

I don't know if this will meet your need exactly, could you invest in (several) used kids' encyclopedia/book of knowledge and have your son read a passage/article from it each day?

 

Your son has a thorough foundation in phonics, so you could order some reading anthologies that are used in classrooms and read from those each day. Go on Amazon and search for student anthologies by companies like Houghton Mifflin, Open Court, Story Town, Scott Foresman, McGraw Hill, or Silver Burdet and Ginn on Amazon and you'll find tons. Get the books in the 2nd-4th grade series and you'll have a lot of "bite sized" reading material to pull from.

 

We paid for a subscription to Reading AZ and if you have multiple kids then it is worth it. If you only have one it is a bit too pricy in my opinion. However, the subscription gives easy access to hundreds of leveled readers ranging from PreK to a 5th grade reading level. If getting to a library and buying used online are problematic, then you could look into RAZ as an alternative. You can either print the books or read them from a screen.

 

You can also do an internet search for 2nd grade fluency practice and 2nd grade oral readings and you'll find tons and tons and tons of 1-page stories, and passages for free through schools and teachers websites.

 

[carriede]

I tried using McGuffey readers for read aloud practice, but DS6 did NOT connect with the stories and hated reading to me.

 

Somewhere on these boards, someone mentioned the Treasures readers. They're a school textbook, but I buy them used (for cheap!) on Amazon. There is a series for each grade level. There happened to be ONE book in our library system so I was able to try it out before I bought anything. DS6 loves reading Treasures - we go through 1 unit a week and each unit has 3 stories (at least at the 1st grade level).

 

Here's a link to the first of 2 books for 2nd grade. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0021988099/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1455325853&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=treasures+grade+2

[hisforhomeschooling]

Scroll down here to Everyday Classics. http://www.survivorlibrary.com/?page_id=1792 They have the 1st reader, and the 3rd, but not the second.  However, it should give you a good idea of what they're like.  Each has short fairy tales, fables, and classic stories for the children to read aloud.

 

Of course they don't have the 2nd one, right? Haha! Thank you! What they have looks lovely!

 

This isn't exactly what you asked for, but what about Jerry Pallotta alphabet books?  High interest, about a paragraph per page that can be read intermittently without losing continuity and they appear to mostly be 2nd and low third grade reading level.  You can buy most of them used on Amazon for a couple bucks, so you could let your son pick a couple that interested him and just have him read a page a day...unless of course the pictures enticed him into reading a couple more pages... :thumbup:

 

Wendy

 

Wendy, those do look fun! Thanks!

 

Phonics until they are reading at the 12th grade level, everything is free to print!

 

Other resources that you can buy instead to teach multisyllable phonics and spelling are Megawords or Marcia Henry's Words.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/WellTaughtPhonicsStudent.html

 

Thanks for the suggestion! There is a lot of information on that site, so I need to look through it more. I am confused about how to implement it, but I was looking on my phone, so I need to look at it on a computer. 

 

You could also do readings from the 1879 McGuffey readers, the ones with the blue and orange covers, they have difficult words diacritically marked and the passages slowly build in difficulty level through the books. See the online versions at Gutenberg Press for free to see if they will work for you, you need the PDF versions to see the markings.

 

The version I got for the kindle was SO confusing with tons of numbers! I think it would really confuse my son. How did you handle that?

[hisforhomeschooling]

The only thing I'd be wary of is that it's hard for a one-page story to be high interest, you know? I've always felt like if you want kids to grow to love reading, they should be reading books that really will be fun for them (even if it is twaddle.) I've saved the more quality literature for our read alouds. Classic novels are more challenging to read, and to understand while a child is still improving reading skills.

 

One thing we've done to keep longer books from feeling too intimidating is to co-read. Typically we'll alternate, each of us reading the page on the side where we're sitting, but you could have him read just one page while you read the rest of a chapter (and if it really is high interest, he'll be more likely to be willing to read more than one page.) You can buy good series, like Wrenly, Dragon Slayers Academy, Dragon Masters, etc. for cheap, if you don't have a chance to get them from the library, I think they're under $5 each, less if you buy used or buy as a set.

 

Another idea, the I See Sam books (ARI level) are great, short, high-interest stories for increasing fluency, and it's also possible to get them for free (or really cheap if you want a hard copy.)

 

Oh, I absolutely agree. We have a lot of high-interest books for independent reading and read-alouds. I am looking specifically for short things he can read out loud to me daily. Co-reading from our read-alouds is a good idea, though. Thanks!

 

I keep on with the child reading aloud to me for a long while.  I think reading aloud is an important piece of the whole literacy puzzle.

 

 

I made up lessons for my kids to prepare them for the stories in the Treadwell readers.  The 2nd and 3rd readers assume that the child already knows phonics and is reading fairly well.  I take large words found in the stories and build them up by morpheme (stand  understand  understanding  misunderstanding) so that when a child sees "misunderstanding" in the story they already know the word and how to decode it.  It helps the stories flow smoothly, giving a chance to review the phonics & decoding in short lessons before the story is read.

 

By the time they finish the 3rd reader, they are reading anything on my shelf.  

 

Exactly how my husband and I feel. How do you know they're struggling if they're not reading to you?

 

I love the treadwell readers, but how do you stretch those out for a whole year? Move up to the next level as soon as you finish? 

 

I don't know if this will meet your need exactly, could you invest in (several) used kids' encyclopedia/book of knowledge and have your son read a passage/article from it each day?

 

Your son has a thorough foundation in phonics, so you could order some reading anthologies that are used in classrooms and read from those each day. Go on Amazon and search for student anthologies by companies like Houghton Mifflin, Open Court, Story Town, Scott Foresman, McGraw Hill, or Silver Burdet and Ginn on Amazon and you'll find tons. Get the books in the 2nd-4th grade series and you'll have a lot of "bite sized" reading material to pull from.

 

We paid for a subscription to Reading AZ and if you have multiple kids then it is worth it. If you only have one it is a bit too pricy in my opinion. However, the subscription gives easy access to hundreds of leveled readers ranging from PreK to a 5th grade reading level. If getting to a library and buying used online are problematic, then you could look into RAZ as an alternative. You can either print the books or read them from a screen.

 

You can also do an internet search for 2nd grade fluency practice and 2nd grade oral readings and you'll find tons and tons and tons of 1-page stories, and passages for free through schools and teachers websites.

 

This is so simple and so brilliant! I LOVE the encyclopedia idea. Your other ideas are helpful too, but I definitely think the encyclopedia idea would fit in well with the kinds of things we already do regularly. Thanks so much!

 

I tried using McGuffey readers for read aloud practice, but DS6 did NOT connect with the stories and hated reading to me.

 

Somewhere on these boards, someone mentioned the Treasures readers. They're a school textbook, but I buy them used (for cheap!) on Amazon. There is a series for each grade level. There happened to be ONE book in our library system so I was able to try it out before I bought anything. DS6 loves reading Treasures - we go through 1 unit a week and each unit has 3 stories (at least at the 1st grade level).

 

Here's a link to the first of 2 books for 2nd grade. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0021988099/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1455325853&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=treasures+grade+2

 

Thanks for the suggestion! I am not big on the McGuffey readers either, but Treadwell seems more interesting and engaging. And I will look into the Treasures reader. Thank you!

[ElizabethB]

Here is the version of the McGuffey readers you want, it uses diacritical marks, not numbers.

 

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14668/14668-pdf.pdf?session_id=08b1c8b52a1a925b59f6bb564295d009784d0b95

 

If you like it, you can get reprint of the books from Amazon. The earlier readers do have each sentence numbered, that was all they had small children read, one sentence per child, the numbering helped keep track for classroom use. The later readers they read silently or the children read longer passages.

[ivey_family]

A little late to the 'party', but my 2nd grade ds is loving this reader made up of Aesop's Fables. (Discovered through Don Potter's site)

 

https://books.google.com/books?id=a5YNAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=ladder+to+learning&hl=en&ei=18fzTeHGE4aXtwfDqp30Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CE8Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

The language is older and the book is divided into three sections based on syllables. The first group of fables are only one syllable words. The second group have one and two syllable words, and the third group have up to three syllable words.

 

We're doing about one fable a week, reading it daily. I'm very pleased with his response to it. It's quality literature and leads to good discussion of the moral, too!

 

Regards,

C.

[Guest]

All of my second graders have been very different as far as reading--one devoured twaddle faster than I could buy it for her, another was still struggling with basic phonics while asking for Stephen Hawking and Charles Dickens for bedtime stories, and now I've got this kid who looks at the warning label on the dryer and asks, "Mom, what does spontaneous combustion mean?" but doesn't do much independent reading yet.

 

My rule of thumb is that they read aloud to me every day until they get to the, "Just let me finish one more chapter before schoolwork/chores." stage and I read aloud to them every day as long as they want me to.

 

ds now-24 and I chose one last final read-aloud. It was Centennial by James Michener. ;)

Edited March 9, 2016 by Guest

[pamela722]

Some great ideas here.

 

We use Bob Jones Reading 2 for our daughter. We removed her from school halfway through year 1. She was a very reluctant reader due to very poor teaching (she was newly qualified and nobody kept checks on her). I had already bought the curriculum but was really worried it would be too much for her because she would be behind. We are now halfway through and her reading is amazing! I could easily move her up a grade but her decoding skills are far more better than before. 

 

Bob Jones Reading 2 has 2 reading books with lots of stories in each. They generally read 2 or 3 pages per day and usually the reading takes up half the page. Then they complete 2 workbook pages. Very colourful. The workbook teaches spelling rules as well as reading comprehension and other skills and they correspond to the reading they just completed. I don't use the teacher's manuals but they would just add more to it but seeing how far she has come and time constraints, I choose to just use the readers and the work text. 

 

The only downside is it's expensive so for grade 3 we have had to change but I think she's been given a great stepping stone to reading success. 

[Mommy_of_4]

I am using Heart of Dakotas emerging readers for my 2nd grader.

[smarson]

Did you say you wanted to use WWE and want something like the short paragraphs there?  What if you follow the WWE guide and just read the book they're taking the excerpts from?  You can read aloud to him and just have him read a paragraph or two every day?  That way you still get through a book (instead of only getting a paragraph of a book) and he gets the practice you're wanting him to have.  Just an idea... :) 

 

[Cake and Pi]

I second the McGuffey readers.  I've been pleased with this Kindle version: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015PYNK7K/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

 

You might check this post about the McGuffey reading levels before you start though.  If he's reading at a 2nd grade level, the 2nd reader may be too challenging past the first couple of lessons.   http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/113647-mcguffey-reader-reading-levels-from-lexile/

[UnlikelyHomeschoolingMama]

My 2nd grader is a reader.  Loves to read anything I give her.  At that stage though she LOVED the readers by ABEKA, BJU, CLE, etc.  Short stories, good character building themes and generally phonics that she could handle.  We started the CLE Reading curriculum halfway through this year to make sure she still reads to me and give some comprehension practice, since I generally can't keep up with all the chapter books she reads now.  We have enjoyed it.  But she also will read "Who Was..." books to me at night (or American Girl or whatever she is into at the time).  But we like the CLE curriculum...it may be a good option for you.  Even just buying the reader, which is inexpensive!! 

[hisforhomeschooling]

Here is the version of the McGuffey readers you want, it uses diacritical marks, not numbers.

 

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/14668/14668-pdf.pdf?session_id=08b1c8b52a1a925b59f6bb564295d009784d0b95

 

If you like it, you can get reprint of the books from Amazon. The earlier readers do have each sentence numbered, that was all they had small children read, one sentence per child, the numbering helped keep track for classroom use. The later readers they read silently or the children read longer passages.

 

Thank you! I didn't know that about the numbers. Interesting!

 

A little late to the 'party', but my 2nd grade ds is loving this reader made up of Aesop's Fables. (Discovered through Don Potter's site)

 

https://books.google.com/books?id=a5YNAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=ladder+to+learning&hl=en&ei=18fzTeHGE4aXtwfDqp30Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CE8Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

The language is older and the book is divided into three sections based on syllables. The first group of fables are only one syllable words. The second group have one and two syllable words, and the third group have up to three syllable words.

 

We're doing about one fable a week, reading it daily. I'm very pleased with his response to it. It's quality literature and leads to good discussion of the moral, too!

 

Regards,

C.

 

Thank you, C! They do enjoy the fables that come up in First Language Lessons. 

 

All of my second graders have been very different as far as reading--one devoured twaddle faster than I could buy it for her, another was still struggling with basic phonics while asking for Stephen Hawking and Charles Dickens for bedtime stories, and now I've got this kid who looks at the warning label on the dryer and asks, "Mom, what does spontaneous combustion mean?" but doesn't do much independent reading yet.

 

My rule of thumb is that they read aloud to me every day until they get to the, "Just let me finish one more chapter before schoolwork/chores." stage and I read aloud to them every day as long as they want me to.

 

ds now-24 and I chose one last final read-aloud. It was Centennial by James Michener. ;)

 

I want to be you! I hope my boys will be 24 and still asking me to read to them! My grandfather read to us on vacation every year until I was an adult. Even though he died several years ago now, the sound of his voice is so clear in my memories, always reading Mother West Wind :)

 

Some great ideas here.

 

We use Bob Jones Reading 2 for our daughter. We removed her from school halfway through year 1. She was a very reluctant reader due to very poor teaching (she was newly qualified and nobody kept checks on her). I had already bought the curriculum but was really worried it would be too much for her because she would be behind. We are now halfway through and her reading is amazing! I could easily move her up a grade but her decoding skills are far more better than before. 

 

Bob Jones Reading 2 has 2 reading books with lots of stories in each. They generally read 2 or 3 pages per day and usually the reading takes up half the page. Then they complete 2 workbook pages. Very colourful. The workbook teaches spelling rules as well as reading comprehension and other skills and they correspond to the reading they just completed. I don't use the teacher's manuals but they would just add more to it but seeing how far she has come and time constraints, I choose to just use the readers and the work text. 

 

The only downside is it's expensive so for grade 3 we have had to change but I think she's been given a great stepping stone to reading success. 

 

My boys started reading on Bob Jones K5 before we switched to OPG. I was looking at the 2nd grade reading program last night after reading your post. They don't have a good look at the teacher's guide so I couldn't tell if it was something that would get us through a year or if a lot of the week is used on reading comprehension and things like that. Is the 2 or 3 pages a day a whole story? I am assuming there are not 180. 

 

I am using Heart of Dakotas emerging readers for my 2nd grader.

 

I haven't looked at those yet. Thanks!

 

Did you say you wanted to use WWE and want something like the short paragraphs there?  What if you follow the WWE guide and just read the book they're taking the excerpts from?  You can read aloud to him and just have him read a paragraph or two every day?  That way you still get through a book (instead of only getting a paragraph of a book) and he gets the practice you're wanting him to have.  Just an idea... :)

 

Thanks! It's a good idea. 

 

I second the McGuffey readers.  I've been pleased with this Kindle version: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015PYNK7K/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

 

You might check this post about the McGuffey reading levels before you start though.  If he's reading at a 2nd grade level, the 2nd reader may be too challenging past the first couple of lessons.   http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/113647-mcguffey-reader-reading-levels-from-lexile/

 

I have no idea what reading level he is on. I feel like OPG goes through several levels. He can decode words with several syllables and spells well enough that it doesn't work to spell things in front of him with my husband or mother anymore. 

 

My 2nd grader is a reader.  Loves to read anything I give her.  At that stage though she LOVED the readers by ABEKA, BJU, CLE, etc.  Short stories, good character building themes and generally phonics that she could handle.  We started the CLE Reading curriculum halfway through this year to make sure she still reads to me and give some comprehension practice, since I generally can't keep up with all the chapter books she reads now.  We have enjoyed it.  But she also will read "Who Was..." books to me at night (or American Girl or whatever she is into at the time).  But we like the CLE curriculum...it may be a good option for you.  Even just buying the reader, which is inexpensive!! 

 

We sometimes use the Pathway readers and he generally enjoys them. We have used some ABEKA. I will look at CLE, thanks!

[pamela722]

pamela722, on 09 Mar 2016 - 11:47 AM, said:

Some great ideas here.

 

We use Bob Jones Reading 2 for our daughter. We removed her from school halfway through year 1. She was a very reluctant reader due to very poor teaching (she was newly qualified and nobody kept checks on her). I had already bought the curriculum but was really worried it would be too much for her because she would be behind. We are now halfway through and her reading is amazing! I could easily move her up a grade but her decoding skills are far more better than before. 

 

Bob Jones Reading 2 has 2 reading books with lots of stories in each. They generally read 2 or 3 pages per day and usually the reading takes up half the page. Then they complete 2 workbook pages. Very colourful. The workbook teaches spelling rules as well as reading comprehension and other skills and they correspond to the reading they just completed. I don't use the teacher's manuals but they would just add more to it but seeing how far she has come and time constraints, I choose to just use the readers and the work text. 

 

The only downside is it's expensive so for grade 3 we have had to change but I think she's been given a great stepping stone to reading success. 

 

 

My boys started reading on Bob Jones K5 before we switched to OPG. I was looking at the 2nd grade reading program last night after reading your post. They don't have a good look at the teacher's guide so I couldn't tell if it was something that would get us through a year or if a lot of the week is used on reading comprehension and things like that. Is the 2 or 3 pages a day a whole story? I am assuming there are not 180. 

 

 

I have no idea how to quote so I've just put yours in blue, lol. So sorry. I have the older edition (blue books) so can only base my knowledge from that. The stories are quite varied. One might be 3 or 4 sections but you are only reading one section per day and the corresponding work text pages. So each day, she reads 2-3 pages and then completes her work text. Sometimes, the reading is a play, a poem, or a simple story. There are a few odd days where you don't read anything in the book but complete 4 pages in the work text called Skill Days. It really is so much more than reading comprehension. There are lessons of spelling rules and vocabulary. Also, the work is so varied in the workbook, very inviting. We started in Sept and just started the second book and looking at the number of lessons left, she will finish before the end of the school year. I'm not very good at describing but it's very engaging and I couldn't be happier with it seeing my daughter learn to love to read. It took me many times telling her how good of a reader she has become because she had no confidence at all. 

[AdventuresinHomeschooling]

I'd look at purchasing an anthology like the Treasury of Children's Literature or The Children's Book of Virtues where he could read one story a a time. Because second grade is also the year where you want to stretch out their reading more, you could start at the beginning of the year with shorter stories and stretch to longer ones as the year progresses. Maybe let him read some independently that are longer.

 

Another option is Aesop's Fables. These stories are often only one page long and succinct with a moral to boot. There are many different versions, but I know we have a paperback version where each story is only a page, maybe two.

[BrittanyM]

I have my second grader read aloud to me daily but instead of doing a set number of pages or a chapter at a time I just have her read for 10 minutes. This is more attainable to her and is short enough she doesn't get fidgety. So far it has been working great! Just an idea. :)

[kristin0713]

Christian Liberty Press nature readers are great if he likes animals/bugs/nature topics.

[CAtoVA]

We basically rotate through three things: a textbook anthology, a free reading program available from Core Knowledge as a download and high interest "real" literature.

 

My DD (2nd grade) is using a 2nd grade level Houghton Mifflin text this year that is available in two books. I got mine cheaply by finding the ISBN number on Amazon then checking www.bookfinder.com for the best price. The Core Knowledge program is available at http://www.coreknowledge.org/ckla-k3 under the Skills Strand. I have used this program since Kindergarten and love it.  There is a workbook, reader and teacher's guide for each unit. Just print the pages you need and it's not expensive. Finally, the books we have been most recently reading are the Mercy Watson series by Kate Dicamillo (hilarious) and the Ivy and Bean books. I also will introduce the Wrenly series and American Girl books soon. My son really liked The Sword in the Tree by Clyde Bulla when he was in 2nd grade.

 

I also think it is important for my second grader to read aloud to me every school day so she does.

Edited March 28, 2016 by chiefcookandbottlewasher