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If you have a 2nd grader...what curriculum do you use?


ChristusG
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I'm trying to get a feel for what I should/could/might be doing with my upcoming second grader in the fall. She's not reading well at all, so that does hinder our choices somewhat. But I'm curious as to what others are doing with the second graders. If you could list your subjects and curriculum, I'd be very grateful!

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For our up and coming 2nd grader, we are going to use the following:

 

Language Arts:

Language Lessons for the Very Young, Vol. 2

Copywork for Little Girls

Spell to Write and Read

 

 

History/Geography:

Living History of our world: America's Story, vol. 2

supplement with living books

 

Math:

Singapore Math 2a, supplementing with MM

 

Science/ Nature Study

Apologia: haven't really decided yet

Nature walk with Aunt Bessie (queen homeschool)

 

Foreign Language:

haven't decided on which latin curr to use yet

 

Bible: Child's Story Bible, Veritas Press Cards

Edited by flobee76
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This is what we've done this year for my 2nd grader...

 

First Language Lessons 2

All About Spelling 2

Explode the Code 4

Writing With Ease 1

Math Mammoth 2A/B

Memory Work

30 min. free reading (to herself)

30 min. structured reading (to me)

Lots of read alouds.

 

Every once in a great while we will throw in a little Latin, History and Science. But for the most part, we've focussed on the 3 R's since this was our first year homeschooling and I needed to build a good foundation for dd after coming home from PS. It's been a HUGE success and has worked out better than I could have imagined.

 

We're going to stick with the same curriculum for 3rd grade.

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How well is she doing with what you are doing?

 

With Abeka math, is she moving along as expected, understanding the concepts, etc.?

 

With reading, are you using a phonics program, or just ETC?

 

With DS6, reading has been a bit of a challenge too, but I set aside a number of things we've been doing to concentrate on the reading more so he'll be up to grade by the end of the year.

 

His not reading as well as I thought he would by now hasn't hindered his progress in other subject though (and shouldn't IMO) - we just adjust and adapt more to oral and visual, or hands-on stuff, to accomodate the reading gap at the moment. What I'm saying is, don't let her reading gap slow down other areas she is doing well in....!

 

What's worked for us with reading is Horizons Phonics - we started with K and have quickly progressed to the 1st grade book 1 (and I'm using pages from within the K books as practice pages since the K program is very similar to 1st, just more pages to work on and books to go through....had hte spines taken off the workbooks)....it's a colorful program and it seems to keep DS's attention and focus better than other programs we've tried.

 

Now that we have reading going along nicely, we've started FLL 1 and GWG for grammar and writing skills. We're pacing slowly with these and will move to a more robust schedule once we start 2nd grade.

 

I'd go with something a bit more structured for science, but that's me.

 

Are you doing any narration, copywork or dictation with her? Those add a lot of value at this age I think and are worth doing, even if just a couple of times a week - they can easily be added in to almost any subject if you don't want to do it as a separate item.

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Here's what I did with my second grader ( he reads well, but absolutely HATES it!):

 

FLL 2 ( supplemented by CLE 2 LA, not necessary, but I love CLE and am having a hard time with our break up:))

 

CLE Math 2: We just like the spiral, workbook style

 

Apologia Anatomy: I thought this was a little over a seven year olds head.

 

WWE: I really wanted ds to like it. He didn't:( A year later and he still cries over the dictation....

 

Sequential Spelling

 

History was a mix of SOTW 2 and books related to the subject.

 

Sonlight 2 readers: Easy reading (too easy) and the comprehension questions

lacked any depth IMO

 

Overall it was a great year and I was happy with our choices. Our only change for next year will be to use IEW in place of WWE.

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My 2nd grader is in my signature too. We are doing math at a relaxed pace, so we're still in MUS Alpha. Before we finished phonics instruction we were also using A Beka's Handbook for reading and their leveled readers to build fluency/practice. I'm very happy with our choices this year (except for Apologia!).

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Bible: Grace & Truth Memory Books, we might do BSGFAA or VP Bible cards, or we might just read through the Bible, not really sure yet. :001_smile:

 

English: Phonics Road

 

Math: Rightstart, plus 1 CWP problem and 1 MM page per day

 

History/Geography: We are just getting started with TOG

 

Science/ Nature Study: WTM Science, AO readings (nature)

 

plus AO goodies: poetry, one over breakfast daily and term artist/composers

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First of all, I plan on going through the summer. Summer is hot and mostly horrible here, outside playing is generally only possible in early morning hours and in the late evening hours, provided one marinates in mosquito repellent. So we might as well pull all the shades and go to Antarctica.

 

Summer schedule

Math-They will finish Saxon 1 by mid May or sooner. Bridge the math gap with Singapore 1B.

 

Language Arts-

Grammar-they will have finished FLL level 1. I will likely relax in grammar for the summer or move into FLL 2.

Spelling-an area of needed improvement. I'm using OPGTR as something of a spelling curriculum, but I am considering Spelling Power for the fall.

Writing-copywork and dictation, and I will start using some short dictation sentences weekly as spelling improves.

Memory-we memorize a poem every three weeks or so.

Reading-McGuffey 1, continue OPTGR work to improve confidence.

Penmanship-copywork

 

Ancient History-I did not get to do as much biography work as I would have liked this year, so we will probably pick a few great men and women for close-up history.

 

Science-We will be working on Plants into early summer which will transition nicely into second grade Earth Science by fall-Astronomy is often best in October here. The mosquitoes are not so fierce by then.:001_smile:

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Here's what my dd 7 is currently working on:

Grade 2

Faith:

St. JosephĂ¢â‚¬â„¢s First Communion Catechism

Bible

Saints stories

Memorisation

History:

Story of the World Vol. 1

Science:

Noeo Biology 1

English:

Primary Language Lessons

Independent Reading

Read Alouds including poetry and Shakespeare

Memorisation

French:

LĂ¢â‚¬â„¢Art de Lire 1

Math:

Singapore 2A and 2B

Music:

Violin

Appreciation and Biographies

Art:

Drawing, painting, etc.

Appreciation (focus on ancient)

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DD will be in second grade next year. We've kept things pretty simple this year, just doing LA, math, and foreign languages. DD reads and writes well. She does fine in math, but she is much more interested in other things and does best when her math work is easy. Next year she'll be doing:

 

LA: Classical Writing Primers

All About Spelling: We'll just continue the series. She'll be finishing up level 2 in the next month or so, and is going through it quickly. We'll start level 3 right away.

 

Math: Finish RightStart B and Singapore 1A/1B, then move on to the next level in each.

 

History: Story of the World 1 and Connecting With History 1

 

Science: Earth Science with a geology emphasis (probably Ring of Fire materials unless I find something that I like better) and Apologia Botany

 

Latin: Prima Latina and Minimus

 

Spanish: La Clase Divertida

 

Art: Artistic Pursuits K-2 book 1

 

Faith Formation: Faith and Life 2 plus other materials for First Communion prep

 

 

I would highly recommend AAS. The word building approach helps with reading as well as spelling. It allowed dd to jump from reading words to reading books.

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I am using HOD Beyond with my second grader this year.

 

He is reading the Emergent Readers pack and we supplement with with WWE2 and Apologia Science: Swimming creatures.

 

We do Singapore math and R&S 2 as suggested by HOD.

 

HOD Beyond was a very good fit for my son. His reading has taken off and I can see improvement on his writing tolerance.

 

We are looking forward to Bigger!

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I would highly recommend AAS. The word building approach helps with reading as well as spelling. It allowed dd to jump from reading words to reading books.

 

:iagree:

 

My dd7 is currently in 2nd grade & she's doing...

 

LA: First Language Lessons 2

Handwriting/Grammar: HWT 2 & WWE1

Math: MM2A/B

Spelling: AAS2

Reading: HOP2 & Chapter Books

 

I also purchased OPGTR and I'll dig into this and begin where dd7 is on the reading level.

 

Next year we'll start up Science, History and Geography again. I put it on the back burner to focus on the other subjects this year :)

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I don't have a second grader, but when I do, I'll be using what I use for all the other grades- Oak Meadow. :) (I've loved OM4, I'm loving OM5, and I'm looking forward to OM6 next year with my daughter and (re)starting OMK with my son and going through all of the grades with him.

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We are using

Bible this year we read the Chronicles of Narnia; The Magicians Nephew and use the study guide Roar.

Reading: The ordinary Parents Guide to Reading.

Lang Arts:First Language Lessons, for the Welltrained mind Level 2

Writing with Ease level 2

All About Spelling level 2

Math we use Professor B

Science: Real Science-4-Kids

History: THe Story of the World Volume 2

Music: Themes to Remember

Spanish: La Clase Divertida level 2

I have also started cursive

I am planning on starting Latin next year, although I have not decided what I will be using!

 

Hope that helps! Good luck!

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My 2nd grader is a slow reader too.

 

LA

Apples & Pears Spelling

Copywork & Narration (I read WWE textbook and CM on these. Our spelling covers dictation for now.)

McGuffey's 1st Reader

 

I just bought Dancing Bears Fast Track for him, and CW Primers. We have started them...and school through the summer, so they will mesh on into 3rd grade as well.

 

Math

MEP

Singapore CWP

Miquon

(and "other"...I keep trying to simplify math, but alas...:tongue_smilie:)

 

 

SOTW 1, Apologia Anatomy and lots and lots of read alouds pulled from ambleside, found at library sales, sent by grandma, etc...we read aloud for at least 2 hours per day.

 

The *work* of our day goes to the 3R's. The kids stretch our read alouds into hands-on fun when inspired, but I do not plan those kinds of activities.

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Just finished second grade with my youngest in December.

History -- Sonlight Core 2 (Core C)

Language Arts -- Sonlight LA 2

Math -- Horizons Math 2nd grade

Spelling -- Sequential Spelling

Science -- Abeka

 

Really have loved using Sonlight. It's a great fit for our family. I believe it's been really helpful to develop this guy into a great reader.

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Here is my list for my 2nd grader this year. We are really enjoying our year, and I love my curriculum. I am keeping most things the same, though I am probably going to change vocabulary to something different for 3rd grade because my son hates Wordly Wise and isn't retaining much.

 

Reading: Sonlight Advanced 2 Reader list

Vocabulary: Wordly Wise 3000, grade 2 (going to change this next year as above)

Spelling Power

Rod and Staff English

WWE 2

Evan Moor Workbooks for writing (How to Write a Story grades 1-3, How to Write a Report grades 1-2)

Critical Thinking workbook (Steck-Vaughn)

Literature selections from Honey for a Child's Heart

Math: Horizons 2

Science: BFSU (love it!)

Geography: A Child's Geography of the World (Hillyer--out of print book)

World History: CHOW

American History: A First Book in American History, and Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans (Edward Eggleston)

State history workbook

Art: Drawing With Children (Brookes)

Music: Ready to Use Music Reading Activities Kit

Computer: www.abcya.com, dance mat typing program, some typing on Word and drawing on Paint

German: free language program through our library

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For my 2nd grader we used and finished early Adventures in My Fathers World, loved it, and started Exploring Countries and Cultures recently. Math Teaching Textbooks 3, and Singapore on the side. I just added Writing Tales, which I used with my older kids way back when and really like.

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My up and coming 2nd grader's year is mostly planned. She is not a great reader yet, but she is progressing well. Currently she is finishing up unit 3 of R&S 1st grade reading and is just starting R&S phonics unit 4. It has 5 units each, so obviously we are not going to finish by June, and we are taking a summer break. So to begin 2nd grade we are going to go ahead and continue those.

 

She will be in R&S 2nd grade math and spelling, and will begin English and phonics 2 when she finishes the 1st grade reading/phonics. At that point also she will begin the reading plans from WTM as well.

 

I have recently decided to look at Memoria Press' copybooks for her penmanship. So far she has done R&S penmanship and copywork by me. But I am considering doing them together in the copybook.

 

She does dictation and narration across her curric.

 

We do SOTW 3. We will work on that and move into 4 sometime next year.

 

Science will be following along in WTM style physics with her older sis.

 

She follows along in Latin. Next year we will be using Latina Christiana. I don't have her do any bookwork for this. She is mostly memorizing vocab. She will start in earnest in 3rd.

 

We do Drawing w/Children and Alfred Piano.

 

For Bible I don't have a clear plan yet. Right now she does R&S reading. And we are still working our way through R&S preschool Bible stories for children and coloring book. After that I am still looking for next year.

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2nd grade we did: all of GWG 1/2, WWE1 and 3/4 of 2, SM 2A and B, ZB level 2, SOTW 2, RSO Earth (and a 2 week field trip through the west), Atelier Art, Coop PE, Victory Drill, and a try at AAS but ended up doing books B and C of SWO. We had a slow start in 1st (hung up on reading) and then he blasted off, so we caught up. :)

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This is what we're planning to move (currently transitioning into it--we school year-round):

 

Math: RightStart C

Grammar: FLL

Writing: WWE 1

Spelling: AAS Level 2

History: SOTW 1 - 2 (we'll move on to 2 whenever we finish 1 . . .)

Reading/literature: Mostly history-related ala WTM

Latin: Prima Latina

Science: not sure, still working on life science ala WTM, but once we finish plants and the human body, I'm thinking of going to a more structured curriculum.

Bible: not sure yet; right now we're reading through one of our story Bibles and doing activities I find/come up with or coloring pages.

 

I'm hoping to start using How to Teach Art to Children for art and to incorporate music as well. Still mulling that one over.

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We are currently using the following:

 

Math - Singapore 2A/2B w/ IP & CWP

Writing - WWE 2

Grammar - Rod & Staff 2

Spelling - AAS

History - SOTW vol. 2 w/ AG

Science - we started using RSO: Earth & Space, but it's turned into science the WTM way for year 2.

Geography - Rand McNally's Beginning Geography (found it at amazon)

Art - Discovering Great Artists

 

We have Song School Latin, but have yet to do it. I'll introduce it next year, and start formal latin in 4th grade. Ds loves (and so do I) all the curriculum we're doing this year.

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Language arts:

R&S English 2

Copywork

Lots of reading (SL list)

 

Math:

MUS Beta

Lots of math games

Dr. Wright's Kitchen Table Math book 1

 

Science:

The human body (I chose all the books, along with some games and visuals)

Nature studies, with nature notebook (We are always doing this, just a natural part of life)

 

 

 

History/Bible/Geography:

Greece and Rome- I do my own thing with this also. I use the VP cards (both Bible an History). I write them down in order by date. For the Bible cards I use Children's Story Bible by Vos. For the History cards I use what I think my children will enjoy and learn from. I am all over the board on this. For the Olympic card I bought the The Story of the Olympics (Usborne young reader series). I use SOTW for other cards. Basically whatever I think would work well. I add in fun hands on activities. Geography is as it comes up. We are always looking at the map. Doing things with the VP cards in order means we do a lot of Bible with History thrown in :).

 

Picture/Composer study: SCM suggestions

 

Spelling: She is required to asks me how to spell anything she doesn't know. Then I ask her how she thinks it is spelled. Making her think about it really works to improve spelling. When she is in 4th grade we will use Simply Spelling from SCM (what big sister is doing now)

 

Memory work: Scripture (printed out from Bible Gateway) poetry (from When We Were Six) and Spanish (I got these for Spanish memory work:http://www.lakeshorelearning.com/seo/ca|searchResults~~p|JJ341~~.jsp) I use SCM Scripture Memory System in a big binder instead of card box.

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We are currently using:

 

SL Core 1 (now B) with Mystery of History integrated with readers

Singapore

Rod & Staff - spelling, readers, etc.

Apologia Human Anatomy with the Junior Notebook

Rosetta Stone Spanish

Chess

Soccer Team

Awana verses

 

He seems to like and do well with all of it, although he would prefer zero handwriting.

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Still fleshing it out, but here's what we got planned for next fall.

 

 

  • Singapore Math 2B/3A using HIG, text/workbook, CWP, IP
  • Math Mammoth as supplement when needed

 

 

  • Spelling: All About Spelling 5
  • Grammar: Growing With Grammar 4/FLL3
  • Writing: Write Source 2
  • MCT

 

 

  • R.E.A.L. Science Earth and Space
  • Discovery Education Streaming/Netflix/Brain Pop/books for rabbit trails

 

 

  • SOTW 2
  • American History - various resources

 

 

  • Elementary Spanish/GSW-Spanish
  • GSW-Latin and move into Lively Latin later in the year

 

 

  • Meet the Masters for art appreciation
  • Artistic Pursuits - general art
  • Piano lessons from a teacher?

 

 

  • Geography - various resources
  • Critical Thinking/Logic - various resources

 

Edited by Satori
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Seems like you have enough responses to get a good idea, but I will share mine anyways!

 

 

My Father's World Adventures for history, bible, science, literature

 

Spelling: Rod and Staff, Spelling by Sound and Structure

Grammar: Rod and Staff, Gr. 2

Math: Math Mammoth 2

Cursive: Handwriting without Tears 2 and some Classically Cursive

Writing: WWE 2

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We've scaled back a bit because of DS's premature arrival and ongoing medical appointments. For 2nd this year DD (an excellent reader) is doing -

 

Math Mammoth 2b once completed back to Miquon Blue

All About Spelling 3 then on to 4

Writing with Ease 2

MCT Island or Getting started with Latin (work from 1 each day)

REAL Science Life or SOTW 2 (work from 1 each day)

Reading from school shelf which is stocked with quality lit and SOTW go-alongs

 

We are addressing everything else in an informal manner.

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Ariel is doing pretty much all 2nd grade work. Right now we are using Oak Meadow 2nd grade, Math Mammoth 2 + Professor B level 1, Dancing Bears Reading B, Apples & Pears Spelling A, Jolly Grammar, GEMS chemistry units to balance the nature study in OM, and hope to start Spencerian penmanship in the next month or so. I think that's it.

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We have planned for 2nd grade next year:

 

Math Mammoth

First Language Lessons

All About Spelling

Writing With Ease

Getty-Dubay Italics (transition to cursive)

Read good chapter books ("Reading")

Story of the World + Activity Guide

interest-led, planned science (already have it planned - mostly library books with BFSU, Apologia, and other stuff thrown in)

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IMHO if she isn't reading well, then i would work on that and not worry about formal grammar, or writing. I would do more phonics, more sight words, more practice reading, and I would read aloud to her a minimum of one hour per day from some fiction and many story books.

 

But here's our 2nd grade lineup:

 

Abeka Math 2

FLL 2

WWE 2

Sequential Spelling 1

Piano Bastien Level 1

Elementary Greek Level 1

 

With brother and myself:

SOTW 2

Apologia Botany

Training Hearts Teaching Minds

Verse Memory

 

And lots of reading.

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We've used..

 

FLL 2

WWE 2

Spelling Workout -1/2 of B and will finish C

Handwriting Without Tears Cursive

Poem Memorization on our own

 

Singapore Math- 2A, 2B and just started 3A

 

Lively Latin, Big Book 1 (will get about halfway through)

 

SOTW 2

 

Earth Science- multiple sources, primarily Delta Nutshell kits, classes at our local nature centers and books on our own

 

Artistic Pursuits 1

 

The biggest hits have been Latin and Science. He LOVES both of them. I love the Nutshell kits. Singapore Math and SOTW are also hits but they weren't new this year so not surprises. All the Lang Arts is fine, I like them and they get the job done but it's not his thing. He reads a ton on his own also so I'm ok with that. The only thing that hasn't worked great for us is Artistic Pursuits and I think that is more a matter of scheduling than the curriculum. I like it a lot and continue to want to do more with art than we do.

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You can check my sig. We have added/changed a few things:

Ds reads 30 min. a day, his choice (sometimes I assign appropriate history or science related reading).

He reads aloud from Mcguffeys Reader 3 daily

We have finished Prima Latina and started Latina Christiana.

We have finished up WWE1 and moved to WWE2.

For science we are following the WTM rotation, and studying earth science/astronomy with library books and my own plans.

We are reading the D'Aulaire books--Norse Mythology and Greek Mythology-- for our literature/classical studies.

We use Zaner Bloser free online spelling lists.

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