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Your FAVORITES for 2nd Graders


hugsathome
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I have done nothing this week if not research 2nd grade curriculum. LOL Seriously. :/

 

My oldest was in ps through the 1st grade, so 2nd grade was his first year at home. We used whatever we could get for free, thanks to freecycle (and a grandma who taught in the ps for over 40 years). My now-4th grader... well now let me think... 2 years ago we were in San Antonio, with no money, and I was pregnant and/or dealing with twin infants. We did what we could, when we could, and he was behind. Has caught up this past year.

 

My now-2nd grader technically SHOULD be a 3rd grader, but again with that "off" year is behind. He is still in the 2nd half of FLL - which we love for its mostly oral and short lessons. He's still in MUS Alpha - I love MUS because it's usable with any learning style - and working on memorizing addition facts. He can decode small words but is testing right at the end of 1st and beginning of 2nd grade for reading. We don't move on with schooling until reading and math are where they should be. Period. It has worked for me 2 other times now and this kiddo will be fine also. (Repeat to self, again. LOL)

 

 

So. We are studying middle ages with my oldest and I want to do as many subjects TOGETHER as possible. (Remember those twins I mentioned? They'll be 2 years old in September, so I've got twin toddlers causing chaos in my every day in addition to school and housework. Together is a good thing.)

 

We use Mystery of History for chronological studies of history. LOVE it, as it is tweakable for any level of student depending on what you have access to for supplements for the oldest. Less work for youngers, as-is for middlers, some tweaking for junior high, and quite a bit for high school. But we love it.

 

 

For reading, my oldest is using the language arts curric that is put out by the publishers of MOH. It doesn't quite satisfy me for my 2nd and 4th graders though, and it looks like we may end up going with Sonlight. My only concerns with SL are cost and lack of hands-on, but I'm finding so many people online who use SL and supplement it and then share :D that I think we'll be fine.

 

For science we are using CKE. Biology didn't work for my oldest, but so far so good with these younger kiddos. Perfect lesson length, fun "make it stick" during-lesson activities and hands-on afterwards. Lots of variety, never the same activity twice. Great stuff. And cheaper than anything else I've found. ;)

 

I mentioned the FLL already. When we finish that we will move to R&S. Since FLL starts with 1st grade, if you weren't already using it, R&S 2 is a great starter as well. Intense grammar program. Don't use it as it's written, tweak it until it fits your family. We do the oral drills and the worksheets, but none of the written assignments from the book. Lots oral, plenty on the dry-erase board, written assignments on the computer when the level is high enough. Love it!

 

 

Bible we are using CLE Studying God's Word book B. We might have done C instead, but it's Old Testament and our history is New Testament (and we are Old Testament-ed OUT right now). Hasn't arrived yet, but brothers are using D and G and we like this program. :)

 

 

Spelling he is currently using a Houghton-Mifflin workbook, because we have it. I have found that at this younger age, the workbooks are working better for us and we are saving the Spelling Power for until after basic spelling has been mastered. My 4th grader will likely begin using A Reason For Spelling soon; we like the way that one looks for visual child and non-writer's sake goes. Spelling Power has lots of flexibility, but it's easier to open-and-go sometimes, and this is one of those times!

 

Also looking into Draw Write Now and Drawing and Writing Through History programs, and also covet Artistic Pursuits and A Reason For Handwriting. Will have to add in those things later. For now we are doing projects with our reading and history to cover art, and doing copywork from FLL and some spelling required writing (but not daily) to help with handwriting.

 

 

What did I miss? HTH!

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Phonics (if needed): Blend Phonics or Word Mastery.

Spelling: The Logic of English, Spalding (WRTR), or Spell To Write And Read.

Handwriting: Getty-Dubay Italics or Penny Gardner's Italics - Beautiful Handwriting For Children.

Writing: Writing With Ease or Emma Serl's Primary Language Lessons.

Grammar: Nesbit's Grammar Land, Emma Serl's Primary Language Lessons, Grammar Rock videos.

Maths: CIMT-MEP, Math Mammoth, Scholastic Algebra Readiness Made Easy Gr 2, Multiplication Rock videos.

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We are just getting ready for 2nd, but for first we loved RightStart Math and WWE so we are continuing on w/ those.

 

We also plan to use next year (though I haven't used them yet so I don't know if we'll love them of not), LBC, Penny Gardner's Italics, Language Lessons by Sandi Queen and AAS.

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