MarigoldHS Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 I'm new to homeschooling and I've been following TWTM as a guide. Right now, I feel completely overwhelmed by all of the things suggested in the book for language arts. I know they are only suggestions but I find it confusing and a lot to sort through. So if someone could give me some guidance on my Language Arts daily routine for my 2nd grader, I would be so grateful. This is what we do every day: 10-15 mins of spelling power happyscribe copywork for penmanship WWE level 3 MCT Island Level memorizing one poem per month He reads independently everyday for about 30 mins on a book that I pick and we try to discuss it sometimes His dad reads to him and sister every night from a history or science related piece of literature or just a classic chapter book This feels like A LOT to me (and it takes SO LONG), yet it also feels like we are not doing enough work with literature and reading comprehension. Can someone tell me if I should be doing all of this everyday? should I be adding to this list? is there anything I can do less of? part of the struggle is that my son gets easily distracted, but still.....I'm getting worn out. Thank you so much for your feedback! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maize Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 You don't necessarily need to do each subject everyday. My personal preference at that age is to focus on reading, individual and read alouds. Those are the things that build reading comprehension as well as a feel for the patterns and grammar of written language. I would do those things everyday, with copywork and spelling on alternate days. I don't do formal grammar or writing programs until fourth grade. I would keep the poetry memorization. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blondeviolin Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 My 2nd grader does: WWE 2 - M-Th AAS - lesson on T, words from dictation W-F FLL 2 - MWF Assigned Reading - 30 min or so daily Cursive copywork for handwriting daily All in all, about an 1-1.25 hours. We also use narration and dictation in history and science work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 Similar to the previous posters -- we did not do everything every day, and it totaled about an hour a day, spread out with non-writing or non-LA subjects in between. For us, 2nd grade looked something like this: 4-5x/week: - reading: out loud = 10-15 min -- together, "popcorn" style ("you read a page, I read a page") of a book at or just above reading level -- this gives you the chance to check comprehension, learn vocabulary in the moment, and get fluid with reading out loud (we did together read alouds all the way up through high school) - reading: solo = 15-20 min -- book of DC's choice from book basket - spelling, 15 min -- we'd use the 5th day if the words hadn't been learned well for testing 3-4x/week - copywork = 5 min -- copy 1 sentence 3x/week - grammar = 10-15 min -- we often took more than 1 day to do a lesson, to keep it short - phonics = 10 min -- 1 page from the workbook 1x/week - narration = 10 min -- narrates to me, I write it down; sometimes we used that for the copywork for the following week, a sentence a day - games = 15-20 min -- wide variety of educational games/activities to supplement not counted above: - vocabulary = learned in context of reading (not a separate program) - me reading aloud = 2 hours a day, with a morning book, history/science reading in afternoon, and either continuing the morning book or a separate family read aloud at night Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SorrelZG Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 Well, now you have me feeling like my second grader isn't doing enough. :P He does Lively Latin for about 20 minutes daily (grammar is included), WWE 2 four days a week and copy work (short paragraph) on the days he is not writing for WWE 2 (so, two days), a couple of chapters (at least) of assigned reading and does a bunch of his own reading and some creative writing in his own time. Oh, and he's memorizing a poem of his choice. He is a natural speller so I address the occasional word he needs help with as needed. I don't plan different things for different days because I have trouble remembering what day it is but if you don't and you're using more programs to cover everything then it would be a good option to make the daily load more bearable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 In 2nd grade, we did the 'language block': 10 minutes each of Grammar, Spelling, and Handwriting; and 30 minutes of composition using IEW. I had to push him through it, but we got language arts done in two 30-minute chunks. Ruth in NZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petepie2 Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 My 2nd grade DS does spelling (AAS) for about 10 min every day because he struggles with it and needs the review. (If if were not a problem subject, we would only do it 3x a week.) We use FLL 2 for grammar, and that is done 3 days per week and usually takes about 10 minutes. FLL also includes poem memorization. We use WWE2 for writing 4x per week. A Reason for Handwriting is done earlier in the morning along with his independent subjects. We do all reading after lunch. You may be able to cut out penmanship and just use the writing in WWE and other subjects. I can't do that for my DS because he needs all the practice he can get in writing neatly. However, I skipped penmanship with my DD when she was in 1st grade. She picked back up with cursive in 2nd grade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sherry in OH Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 My second grader does: Junior English – 1 exercise/occasional mom designed extras Language Smarts – 2 pages Cursive Handwriting – 1/3 – 1 page Total time 30-40 minutes a day Reading – buddy read 1 chapter, silent reading as desired Listen to me read – minimum of one hour a day, broken into morning, noon, and bedtime sessions. With the programs you have selected, I would alternate copywork and the written assignments in WWE. I would also consider dropping or postponing Island. Although many people use it in lower grades, it is really intended for third grade and up. Your child won’t be behind if you wait to use it. You may find that after a few months, you need a break from one or more of your other programs. If that happens, you could pull out Island for a change of pace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ByGrace3 Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 We didn't do every subject every day. Every day was reading, handwriting, read alouds 4x /week spelling and WWE 3x week grammar Narrations in history and science. We averaged an hour a day sometimes slightly more. At this age, LA does take up the bulk if time as I think it should. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy M Posted September 19, 2013 Share Posted September 19, 2013 I have just been feeling the same way with my 1st grader. It does seem to take a lot of time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MerryAtHope Posted September 20, 2013 Share Posted September 20, 2013 Love the picture of you & your baby, so sweet! Like the others, I would either do things in units, or I had a different focus for different years--you don't have to do everything every day. Here's how I plan LA. Merry :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarigoldHS Posted September 28, 2013 Author Share Posted September 28, 2013 This is awesome. Yall make me feel so much better about this and more laid back. I really appreciate it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarigoldHS Posted September 28, 2013 Author Share Posted September 28, 2013 ha ha ha.....I just outed myself as a southerner with "yall" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckens Posted September 28, 2013 Share Posted September 28, 2013 Yeah. Language Arts takes a lot....but I consider that once we get past "learning to read," it will get better. We are finishing Grade 1 of the K-1-2 books for Saxon. One more year to go!!! For Lit: We are reading through award winning books. We do two a week, and we get them from the library. We are lucky that our library will pull them for us as I request them. --Caldecott (for best artwork) --Zolotov (for best story) --Goldfinch Award (nominated recent books that are voted on by Iowa schoolchildren) My first grader can do more of the reading this year than last year; but not all. For these books, as we read the story, we discuss characters, setting, What is the problem or surprise?, How is the problem or surprise resolved? What happens after? What is the clincher sentence? For comprehension: We read chapter books in the morning and night, for 20 minutes. At the end of each section, I ask, "Could you tell me two things that happened in this section/chapter?" Usually there are 3 or 4 right choices, but it tells me that dd6 understood what we read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErinE Posted September 28, 2013 Share Posted September 28, 2013 Dd is second grade level and our language arts time is about one hour between grammar, spelling, read aloud (her), and writing. She reads independently for 30-60 minutes. I read aloud to the family about 30-45 minutes every day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jessj Posted September 28, 2013 Share Posted September 28, 2013 That is a lot. The fact is, LA is the bulk of grammar school learning. However, if you and he are struggling, it's time to lighten up the load. I have a second grader as well. She is a fluent reader, so no phonics. She is doing FLL2, WWE2, AAS 2-3, A Reason for Handwriting, and she has assigned reading for 30 min per day, plus whatever free reading she does. She does either WWE or FLL, but not both on the same day. Spelling is generally with FLL, and for WWE, I combine days 1/2 and 3/4 to do it on two days. So 4 days of lang arts, 20 minutes doing FLL/WWE/AAS plus her reading time. She does handwriting whenever it fits into our day. I also have a 4th grader who is a sloooooow worker so there is always at least one break for her to fit this in. I wouldn't do both WWE and a separate copywork. There is copywork/dictation in that already. I don't know exactly what's involved in MCT but there is a writing portion to that as well. So you're doubling up on both copywork/dictation and writing. He's a year ahead on WWE, so you could drop that until next year and spend that time doing more reading and informal narration. Are you also doing Latin? There is a strong argument for not doing grammar in the early elementary grades, especially if you are studying Latin. So that's something to consider as well. I think you could safely lighten up his load right now, by quite a bit. He should be enjoying reading and getting hooked on it!The second grader I have now is NOTHING like the second grader I had two years ago. She had very little Lang arts outside of reading and narration. Sitting at seat work was pure torture to her... and me too of course! I tried, but most of it was a battle that wasn't worth it. In the end I backed way off (out of frustration) and she is now in 4th grade and FINE. 8 seems to be a magic age. She still fights too much seat work or working alone, but she is leaps and bounds better than she was two years ago. And despite not doing "formal" lessons, she does very well in LA's. It didn't hurt her not to be doing all that much at that age. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
My3girls Posted September 28, 2013 Share Posted September 28, 2013 My 2nd grader does each week. FLL2 2 days WWE2. 4 days ETC3. 4 days SpellWell 4 days Copy work 4 days She reads a leveled reader for 15-20 minutes aloud to me. Then in the evenings she, her sister, and I read a classic tandem for another 20-30 min. So all together this is about 1.5 to 2 hours a day. It's most of their work. Math is another 30 minutes 5 days a week, we alternate Science and History for another 30 min 4 days a weeks, and then we have our read alouds. So a total of 3-3.5 hours of seat work... Throw in cross-country 3x a week and our nature walk, crafts, and experiments, and we're up to our 4.5 hrs 5 days a week. We do not do all our seat work at one time. We do an hour then take a big break then do another hour. Take another big break and then do the rest. Maybe, breaking things up would help to make it not seem so overwhelming? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redsquirrel Posted September 29, 2013 Share Posted September 29, 2013 With little ones, language arts and math does take up much of the day. My third grader does: Spelling: R&S 3X per week. I divide up a lesson over the week Grammar: FLL 3X a week Composition: WWE 3X a week Reading 30 mins silent reading every day Editor in chief 3X a week (this takes 5 mins and isn't a big deal. I use it to reinforce grammar, not to teach) We also do Latin, but I don't count that as language arts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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