2_girls_mommy
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Posts posted by 2_girls_mommy
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I just meant intimidating to me.. because I haven't even begun to look at or research for those!! I hope it didn't seem like I meant intimidating to your 2nd grader! :001_smile: I hope you guys have a great year~!
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WOW, that first list looks intimidating to me! I am not starting logic or latin until next year (3rd grade) so I am overwhelmed just thinking about it!
Here are our 2nd grade plans for fall:
Math: Rod and Staff grade 3
English: Rod and Staff grade 2
Handwriting: Rod and Staff grade 2 & copywork & dictation
Phonics: Rod and Staff grade 2
History: SOTW vol.2 & A.G.
Science: WTM Astronomy & Earth Science (I have the 2 Usborne Encyclopedias and Rod and Staff Patterns of Nature and a teacher workbook from teacher store. Will check out Mudpies to Magnets from the library and other experiment books that I like.)
Music: Rod and Staff grade 2 & What Your 2nd Grader Needs to Know
Art: What Your 2nd grader Needs to Know & SOTW 2 suggestions
Co-OP on Fridays. Hoping for P.E. or dance and whatever else looks fun!
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I do use Rod and Staff a grade level ahead, as I thought it was easy too (so my 2nd grader will be in grade 3 next year and my Ker will be doing grade 1 math) But when I check concepts that should be learned each year the grade levels really do match up with most standards that I check.
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I like the way Rod and Staff introduces new topics. Everything is discussed in the oral lessons in small chunks a few days before it even appears in the workbook. So by the time they see it in the workbook, it is not new.
I am not sure if R&S would be considered spiral or mastery. I have heard people describe it as both:001_smile: Personally I think they really master a concept, so I would call it mastery. But there is review daily as well in the oral and in the workbook. You may want to look into it.
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That kind of planning works for me. I do plan out the whole year, but I do it by months. I take the math book, the phonics, the history, music (anything with lesson numbers basically) and divide them by the number of months I want to do schoolwork. Then I divide it up. So I have a montly plan of the entire year. I know that in Aug. I want to do lessons 1-17 of math, 1-4 of history and music, etc. Then during the month I keep an eye on where we are. At the end of a month, I check to see if we are in the right spot, and what I want to do.. Can I skip a lesson, or double up one day? Some things I realized just weren't going to work and I had to accept that. But I got a feel as we went about what changes I needed to make.
For the subjects that I plan myself, I had a general plan of the topics to be covered each mo.. Like for Science I had which animals or habitats I wanted to study each month. As It got closer, I had to gather my materials. I had planned ahead for planting seedlings in Feb. inside the house, gardening in Spring, and studying plants and trees in May. So as it got closer I gathered the books I needed. This plan worked well for me, and I have next year begun. Good luck!
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My dd6 is a strong reader but enjoys all different levels of books. Some of her favorites are:
The Magic Treehouse series (there are enough of these, that she will be busy for a long time w/them!)
Little House on the Prairie series
American Girls series
Magic Schoolbus series
But she also still likes things like:
Amelia Bedelia & Curious George
Also, most of the Story of the World selections have been a hit. She especially likes to read "how to" type books like how to do magic tricks or crafts.
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For 2nd Grade and K next year: I did better than last year and found quite a bit used and bought some Rod and Staff during their half price seconds sale. I am also including books for me in this like the new Well Trained Mind and What Your 2nd Grader Needs to Know and the encyclopedias I bought for Science that are not necessarily curriculum, but that are crucial for me to homeschool. So let's see.. I would say about $250 so far. I have not yet bought new supplies like paper and crayons for next year either. But grand total will be around $300 tops.
That is not including activity fees (scouts & co-op) for next year or printer ink, which will be monthly expenses.
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A.G. is activity guide. And it is suggested that you have one of the listed encyclopedias and read the corresponding encyclopedia page when you read your history section. FWIW, we did not have one most of the year. We gleaned facts and additional info from the suggested reading. I did recently purchase the Kingfisher History book (the red one) for next year and have started to look it over with dd after we have read SOTW. It is the more mature one, and my younger dd (age 4) is not interested in it at all. But I figure they will be using it through middle school, so I went ahead and got it.
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For us, I did not purchase this. I checked it out from the library for the classification week. For our subsequent animal studies we read library books and went with the seasons (spiders and owls in October, Reindeer in December, hamsters when we got a pet hamster, etc.)
I did forget to say that we introduced some studying of different animal habitats as well since my dd was pretty familiar with the animals and characteristics. We used a Magic Schoolbus book on habitats and read from various sources.
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I have never used Sonlight. I have used SOTW1 and A.G. this year, and do not feel like I do any planning at all, really... Here is how I do it.
We go to the library once a week anyway. While I am there and the kids are busy looking at books or puzzles, I get out my A.G. and sit at the terminal and request books for the next couple of chapters. If any are on the shelf I go get them. Then I also peruse the video shelf to see if there are any videos that pertain. I request them when I search by subject on the terminal, but you never know what you will come across looking in person too. Since we are at the library once a week or every 2 weeks anyway, this is no big deal. I pick up my reserves that are in while I am there that I requested last week which should pertain to the chapter of SOTW I am on.
I do not worry though if a book comes in later and we have moved on to a new subject. If it looks interesting, we go ahead and read it. For instance, my dd is still reading a long book on Cleopatra, but we have moved on in SOTW to the end of the Jewish Nation. I do read some in the same week, but it has not hurt us to read books from earlier chapters. And We do NOT try to read them all! I get as many as my library has. We read whatever is interesting, the right level, and if we don't get to one, then we don't. Sometimes I read them for extra knowledge, and my dd doesn't get to them.
We do 2 days a week of History. I read the first section of the chapter aloud as dds color a coloring sheet. I ask the review questions and dd gives me a narration. She then copies it neatly. The 2nd day of the week that we do history I read any remaining sections of the chapter and we do the questions and narration and then the map. I do have to take 5 min. to make copies out of my A.G. right before we start. As for projects, we have done a lot this year, but still I would say one a month. We have really enjoyed the ones we have done, but don't have time to them all.
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We had kind of the same problem this year as we covered so many animals in K. But we started with the Kingfisher Encyclopedia and learned about Classification. That was something new. She was somewhat familiar w/it, but we went more in depth w/that. We also dumped out their huge tiny plastic animal collection and divided them up into the different groups. They enjoyed that. We did continue to do some animal reports, but we did not do the whole 20 weeks. Things picked up for us when we went to the Human Body study which was all new for her. We just did that longer than the 10 suggested weeks. We used the Usborne Internet linked encyclopedia for online games after we read books about a topic and that was something fun they looked forward to. I wish I had had an Usborne internet linked encyclopedia on animals the first half of the year. If one exists, that might give you something fun to add....
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I am bumping for you, as I have been pondering the same thing today. I will have a 2nd grader next year and will be adding my Ker. I have been doing preschool type stuff with her here and there throughout a day and am hoping to continue that with K. But I will be adding a math curric for her, and I teach like you. I do the oral work in the T.M with them, work example problems, and then assign the work. Altogether, I spend about an hour on math w/my Odd. I teach every subject that way! So I know for sure that I will be adding close to another hour to our schedule next year.
I wrote out my plans and have it somewhat worked out. I plan to begin the day an hour earlier than I do now (we don't start as early as we could.) I will assign my older dd her copywork or handwriting work at that time. Then I will do math with my Ker. Then if Odd finishes her work before we are done I hope to have her do some of her silent reading at that time. Then I will give Ker free time while I do math and other core subjects w/my odd. Then I will have to do phonics work w/my younger while Odd does the written assignments.
I am sure we will work after lunch on History, Science, Art, and Music as we do now. I may get lucky and be able to squeeze them in before lunch, but I haven't been able to so far...
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I wish I had bought my own copy of The Well Trained Mind right away :) I read it before 1st grade from the library and did my best to continue with what was already working for us, and to implement the ideas in it. But I had to keep rechecking it all year, and I would get things just a little off..
For instance, I had already ordered Rod & Staff reading & phonics and decided to stick with it, since dd had begun it in K.
So this year for 1st grade, I stayed with it to finish it as we liked it, and it is working. Now as I ordered stuff for next year (2nd) I would have liked to have gone w/ WTM's rec of Spelling Workout. But I decided to stay with R&S phonics since we have used it for a year, and it is working.
I am starting K next year w/my next child. But I will still stick to R&S since I have it. So it will be 3rd grade around here before we are using the references exactly as laid out. (and we are going to use the rec of R&S english instead of FLL.)
Of course if it wasn't working I would switch, so I guess it doesn't matter :) And I recently got my own copy of WTM new edition, so this next year is going to be so much easier for me when I have a question!!!
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What we used in is my signature. We are wrapping up our last week right now... YAY!!
For science, I used library books for animals, but never had a good spine. For human body, I used the Usborne First Encyclopedia of Human Body as a spine and it was awesome, and for plants I used chapters from Rod and Staff's Patterns of Nature and I used tons of library books for experiments and extra info for everything.
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Have you read the Magic Treehouse Series at all? My dd6 has loved those for 2 years now. She reads them independently, but they can easily be read together. Then there are the resource guides that go with them to give more info on the time period.
Or the American Girls series? My dd is just now starting those. So far she is reading the Kit and the Kaya series. Each one of the series is in a period of American History also, and there is a bit more info on the time period in the back of each book. Our library also has some books that go with them that tell more about the time period, but I can't remember what those are called.
And for us this summer we are gardening, but we have pretty much all on plants we are going to for now. We are about to start learning about insects, just because we didn't get too in depth earlier this year when we did animals.
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You have most of Friday open after your lessons. You could squeeze in at least one of the subjects then. And I would start to plan to spend some afternoon time on Science & History. That is what works for us. Sometimes that does mean the evenings. If we get all of our morning work done & we don't have anywhere to go in the evenings & dh is working late then we may take the afternoon easy or running errands or whatever & do an hour of Sotw an hour before dinner.
FWIW, we do history in the afternoons twice a week (sometimes using our free Friday afternoons as a 3rd day for projects or long chapters.) And formal Science one day afternoon a week. Music we squeeze in once a week (we use a curric) and Art I aim for once a week, although that may be a lesson or a SOTW project craft. The Art & Music I squeeze in whereever in the week it works, but we are consistant w/Science & History. Extra reading for all subjects happens at bedtime;);).
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I am wrapping up 1st grade right now, with a very focused, semi advanced non-wiggly girl. Here is a break down of our day today.
Math 45 min to an hour. (she is doing a grade level ahead so there are more pages than a 1st grade program.)
Then some exercises and dancing.
Phonics, spelling/dictation, reading and workbook, & a dictionary worksheet about an hour to an hour and a half total. (Rod & Staff 1st grade)
We do math every day, 4-5 times a week.
L.A. most of the year it was 3 days a week, but we are ramping it up to finish the year. The days we didn't do the formal work, we focused on reading together or we took a break and did some Lapbooks or other projects.
Lunch & playtime.
Each afternoon we do some extra subjects. Generally it is History 2-3 times a week, Science 1 time formally (a lot of extra science & history reading is done in free time & for bedtime reading, etc.) Music once a week and Art or an arts and crafts project once a week.
Today we did Music for about half an hour, lesson & singing together. History was about an hour total of SOTW.. reading, coloring, narrations & her copying them.
So most days we work about 4 hours, but we break it up throughout the day.
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I just bought the 2nd grade Patterns of Nature to finish out our year. We have done science the WTM way this year, but as I was placing our order for some stuff from R&S for next year at the same time I was looking for a spine for our plant studies, I just added it to my order.
I was only planning on using it for the next few weeks and using the plants and flowers chapters. We are actually enjoying it and we use it the same as we do our other spines. It is nice to have the coloring sheets and the worksheets already made up. The stories are easy to read aloud and sweet. I do think they are a little light for 2nd grade (and I am reading it to a 1st grader and a Pre Ker.) So we do read other sources as well for more exposure.
Anyway, I like it, but will not continue w/the series. It was just kind of a last minute purchase. We will do more than I planned with it though over the summer. I figure we have it, and enjoy it. We might as well use a few more chapters. Then next year for Earth Science, I can use some of the chapters that line up w/our Usborne Earth Encyclopedia.
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I am using the Usborne First Encyclopedia of Earth (or something close to that.. don't have it right here.) I bought it and the Space one for next year. It is internet linked and will be our spine for the first half of the year. The Space one will be the 2nd semester. We will use the internet links for games and printouts and pick up tons of library books. I also have a copy of a Rod and Staff's Patterns of Nature which has a couple of chapters that match up (like on the water cycle & weather) and I will use some of their printouts. And I also keep the What Your x Grader needs to know books around to read too. Between all of those, the library books, notebooking, and a teacher supply store workbook w/some activities I think I have the year planned. I will need to hunt for hands on stuff, as there is not an abundance in these books.
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My dd had just turned 4 when we started these last fall. We mostly did Letter of the Week activities (colored a letter sheet for her notebook, did the theme word cards and read books and learned the sign for the LOTW) the first day of the week. Then we reviewed that a couple of times each week and did a page or 2 in her R&S workbooks. She did not like the workbooks AT ALL earlier this year. For hearing good books, she has always been around for all of Odd's studies.
After the C one, the counting one, she has changed her tune a little. She really liked having a "math book" like her sister and learned a lot. We have done the Bible stories and coloring only sporadically, and I plan to finish it once a week over the summer and next school year. I bought a copy of the coloring book for my Odd as well. It is supposed to be spread out.
We have only finished A, C, and hopefully D by the end of the month for the whole year. So I plan to finish them the 1st semester of K, then move her into the first unit of R&S phonics 2nd semester of K (really K work IMO.) I will have her doing the R&S 1st math next year.
It seems like a funny schedule, but it worked for my ODD. She is finishing up R&S 1st grade phonics/reading and R&S 2nd grade math at the end of 1st, and will just move up a grade level a year now. But we spread the K and 1st stuff over preK, K, and 1st.
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That would be so nice. I am new on these boards, so I don't know how that works though. Do I need to give you my email address on your profile, so it won't be public? Let me know what I need to do.
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Mich elle, Thanks again for trying to post that.. For some reason the links to the Wkbooks for SOTW 2 don't do anything for me. I was wondering if anyone else had a different link for these?
And here is the one for the SOTW 1 that I was talking about. It is amazing! ttp://www.lulu.com/content/796912
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I don't mean anything illegal!! Someone posted a link to some they had made for each chapter of SOTW 1 which had a schedule and narration pages and project pages, etc. I loved it, but would also love one for next year:) for vol 2.
Anybody know of any? I tried a link from the other post, but couldn't get it to work. Thanks!!
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Mi chelle, thanks so much for trying. I was so excited. But when I click on the links on the page, nothing happens. The first one to SOTW 1 says it is no longer there, but the ones for SOTW 2, just don't do anything for me... Maybe they are in a format I can't read, because it just shows a red x??
If anyone else has links for these, could you post? I would love to have something nice for SOTW 2. I think I will start a new thread too. :)
List of Scripted Programs
in K-8 Curriculum Board
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Rod and Staff math (at least 1st & 2nd grade that I have used are)