2nd Grade LA--is this complete or too much?

[julikins]

Hi all,

 

I've asked a few questions and scoured the boards as I try to decide what to do for my sons 2nd grade LA. This year he is finishing A Beka's Phonics 1 program, does a Reason for Handwriting (along with some Writing Road to Reading recommendations for handwriting), reading aloud to me, and we are enjoying the School House Rock Grammar songs and Grammarland.

 

So next year this is what I'm thinking.

 

• R&S Spell by Sound and Structure—reviews phonics, goes over homophones, etc., syllables, and spelling. Maybe use MCP PHonics Workbook C alongside to add variety and color--20 minutes per day
  
• (1st Semester) MCT Island for grammar but won't require the written portions or vocabulary--this will be overview and fun with older sister--20 minutes per day
  
• (2nd Semester) Primary Language Lessons by Emma Serl--20 minutes per day
  
• Narration/Copywork: WWE1--10-15 minutes per day
  
• Handwriting: New American Cursive--15 minutes
  
• Vocabulary: Vocabulary from the Roots Up—Greek Portion (Part of our MFW Creation to Greeks program) 5-10 minutes per day
  

I'm afraid it's going to be too much. But if I add it up timewise, it seems to be an hour or less per day. Is it too much? I'm doing MCT with older dd and thought it would be good exposure for him. I like the gentle idea of PLL while including narration and picture study with grammar usage. I think WWE will be valuable for him, but don't know if it's redundant with PLL. Are my time estimations accurate or underestimating?

 

Thanks for helping me!

[Julie Smith]

I know it would be to much for my 2nd grade son, but we don't even do an hour of school a day.

 

We were doing HWT, but his handwriting is well enough now that we are done practicing unless I see a need come up.

 

He does Spelling, no more then 13 words a day with sequential spelling.

 

He listens to "Grammar land" with younger brother. I don't make him do the worksheets with it since he is already doing writing (as in pencil to paper) by doing spelling. To much pencil and paper and his mind shuts down and I am left with a grump who needs a 2 hour recess before he can think his way out of a paper bag.

 

He does creative writing by skyping several sentences to various people. Since starting this his grammar has really improved. I am finding this is working well with him. Here are some messages he skyped to me yesterday during our creative writing class:

 

jigo is a big teddy bear (I reminded him sentences begin with capital letters)

 

Mousey is a very small bear (I told him good work on the starting with a capital letter.

 

Are you listening Mom (I reminded him that questions end in question marks)

 

Are you listening Mom? (I then sat down and skyped him the following message, "Yes I am listening, as in reading what you are typing. I am also busy cooking breakfast for a cute little boy who is not eating it." He read the sentence out loud and I helped him with the word listening)

 

I lof you (I told him how to correctly spell love)

 

I <picture of heart> you (He told me that to make a heart appear you type the letter h in brackets)

 

I then typed him the following sentence, "Ted wants me to send you this picture: <picture of teddy bear>"

 

jigo wants me to send Ted this picture: <picture of teddy bear>

 

Send you a cake <picture of a cake> (I told him good work on remembering to use a capital letter. )

[Embassy]

The R&S Spelling for 2nd grade won't take 20 minutes a day. My son typically completes one week's lesson in 20 minutes, but he may be a little fast. I can't imagine it taking 20 minutes a day for 2 pages. When you get into the 4th grade book it takes a bit longer to complete.

[FairProspects]

I know it would be to much for my 2nd grade son, but we don't even do an hour of school a day.

 

 

:iagree:It would be too much for mine next year too. Do you still need phonics? If you do, I don't think you need both R & S and MCP Phonics. Another way to come at it would be to do spelling (this may be what R & S is, I haven't used it). Personally, I would try to streamline programs too, it looks like a lot of jumping around between books, but that may be just a personal preference.

[lakotajm]

The R&S Spelling for 2nd grade won't take 20 minutes a day. My son typically completes one week's lesson in 20 minutes, but he may be a little fast. I can't imagine it taking 20 minutes a day for 2 pages. When you get into the 4th grade book it takes a bit longer to complete.

Dude, my kid takes 20 minutes to get around to writing 4 letters of her handwriting! Your kid must be a little more focused.

[Bloggermom]

You are forgetting Writing With Ease (WWE) and First Language Lessons (FLL). Did you not want to use them? Oh wait... I see you added Writing With Ease into your schedule. I do want to give two big thumbs up for FLL though. :)

[Tigger]

The only things I see - do you have time scheduled for reading? Reading comprehension?

[raceNzanesmom]

I have a second grader this year. It would be too much for him to do every day. We switch off on handwriting/copywork, he does one or the other. Narration is mostly oral at this point. Grammar is only on Fridays, with reminders/discussions as he works. He also reads to me everyday, usually 2-3 times broke up over the day.

[julikins]

The only things I see - do you have time scheduled for reading? Reading comprehension?

 

Tigger, You're right, I didn't remember to schedule that. This year we've been doing our reading (where he reads to me) in the afternoons cuddled on the couch, so it's been a separate time, so I forgot to include that. I usually have him read for about 20 minutes to himself as well.

 

Oh I wish I knew how to multi-quote!!!!

 

Wehomeschool, I'm not super familiar with the time required for R&S Spelling, but the purpose is for him to have a spelling program that also reviews phonics rules he's already covered. He's a good reader, but I feel more comfortable with making sure he's got the phonics rules down. Is that what this program does?

 

Bloggermom, I've gone back and forth between FLL and PLL and have finally chosen PLL. I definitely see the value in both FLL and WWE, but can't say that I absolutely love FLL while I do love PLL. Also I'm more a "gentle introduction to ideas" kinds of person what we're doing this year and MCT will provide that for grammar. Then we'll have practice with MCT and PLL. I may change my mind along the way. We'll see how it goes.

 

Thanks for your advice ladies. Please keep it coming so I can process the why's or whynots of my choices! Thanks!

[Embassy]

Wehomeschool, I'm not super familiar with the time required for R&S Spelling, but the purpose is for him to have a spelling program that also reviews phonics rules he's already covered. He's a good reader, but I feel more comfortable with making sure he's got the phonics rules down. Is that what this program does?

 

R&S Spelling 2 doesn't really come out and talk about rules, but it teaches kids to examine patterns and sounds in words. It is kind of like a phonics workout. I use it in addition to Rod and Staff Phonics for second grade. The phonics does talk about rules and gives practice applying those rules so maybe that is what you need. The Rod and Staff Spelling for second grade is 2 pages for each weekly lesson and is much quicker than the time it takes to complete Rod and Staff Phonics which is more like 8 pages per week to stay on track. Also, each spelling page has less work on it than a phonics page. For a slow writer I might think Rod and Staff Spelling for 2nd grade would take (at most) 3x15 minutes. My son is a quite good reader, but needed a good dose of spelling/phonics to help those skills get on track. I hope that helps some.

[boscopup]

It doesn't look like THAT much to me, since MCT and PLL would be separate semesters. You might need to cut down on some lessons when you have PLL and WWE going at the same time though, as there is some overlap there.

 

For handwriting, I kill two birds with one stone and have WWE copywork be our handwriting. Could you maybe teach the letters up front over the summer or something, then use WWE copywork for cursive practice during the school year? I'm planning to teach cursive during our 3 week break between school years, so he'll still have some writing practice and be able to learn cursive, but won't be busy trying to learn cursive AND figure out writing in general all at the same time. We tried it earlier this year, and it was just too confusing. I'd rather get all the letters in there and get him up and running with cursive, then add back in the other stuff. And I'm also not going to let cursive be a hill to die on. If it is horrible, we'll just drop it. He has legible manuscript. Second grade was just a horrible time to try to teach cursive, since he is just starting to be able to WRITE, and then I try to throw in a new way of writing! :tongue_smilie:

[mschickie]

Last year for 2nd grade we did

 

A Reason for Handwriting Transition (every day)

Sonlight LA Core 2 (now C) with Intermediate Readers ( I think it is 3rd grade now)...I loved the program because it was not overwhelming but still covered topics like homophones, metaphores, dialog....The week started with copywork on Monday, Tuesday was Apply which was normally a grammar or writing topic, Wed. was a pre-write and Thursday was a writing assignment. It worked out beautifully without being overwhelming and really taught dd the basics of writing.

 

Spelling we did the weekly lists included in Sonlight's LA program.

 

Phonics we used MCP Plaid. We did about a page a day of the workbook

 

Vocabulary Wordly Wise C we did about 2 activities a week.

[Chelli]

I think it looks fine. My daughter is in 2nd grade and we are loaded in LA about the same:

 

FLL (3 times a week) and WWE (3 times a week)

BJU English (the grammar section only; 5 days a week)

WWW (4 days a week)

 

Cursive (4 days a week)

 

Apples and Pears Spelling (4 days a week)

 

Vocabulary (1 day a week, it's included in HOD)

 

Dd also reads outloud to me every day from her assigned chapter book.

[Tarreymere]

This is what mine did in second grade:

 

FLL 2: three times per week for about twenty minutes each session.

Climbing to Good English 2: three times per week for about twenty minutes per session.

AAS 2 then R&S Spelling (R&S Spelling has three sections in each lesson that take about ten minutes each, so you can do that three days a week or just two days a week, but figure thirty minutes total plus the spelling test)

WWE2: four days a week for twenty minutes each session.

 

Handwriting practice is included in the writing for WWE. We also did reading assignments (Pathway Readers and the workbooks that go with them, and reading aloud from the McGuffey Second Reader) and used words in the reading assignments for vocabulary practice.

[julikins]

I like the idea of making handwriting practice part of the copywork. Thank you. I will probably do the cursive transition separate at some point, do an intensive study for a couple/three weeks before school like you suggested, or wait to start WWE until after we've done that. That would diminish the workload daily and I do think he needs that. Thanks for the suggestions.

[2_girls_mommy]

Dude, my kid takes 20 minutes to get around to writing 4 letters of her handwriting! Your kid must be a little more focused.

 

LOL, same here. My 2nd grader works more than 20 min a day on R&S spelling to finish it in 4 days! I do have her spend 1 or 2 of those days copying the words instead of working in the workbook, but it is not a 5 min. deal here either :) My odd is focused. She can do her spelling workbook first thing the morning quickly, but not my current 2nd grader!

[chepyl]

If tou want spelling grouped around spelling rules that takes very little time, look at Spelling Plus by Susan Anthony. There is a dictation book to go with it. Both books go through 6th grade. Each list has 15 words. We study the list one week. The next week we use the dictation sentences for the list we just finished.

 

The week we do the dictation, that is our handwriting practice. It also provides practice for punctuation rules, they are explained for each list. This has been so easy for us. We use our white board for a lot of the work.