Starting homeschooling mid-year

[annas]

We are strongly considering taking our 2nd grader out of public school mid-year and homeschooling the rest of the year. She will probably go to a classical school next year. My problem is how do I start new curriculum mid-year? She has obviously been learning grammar, math, etc. but I’d like to not continue with her school curriculum (it was very test based). I don’t want to do a ton of review, but I also don’t want to miss anything. She is an accomplished reader (eg. Little House on the Prairie, Matilda, Babe).
 

Last year we basically “unschooled” and just focused on math and reading. I want something more structured this year, but I want to mainly focus on language arts and math. We live in Philadelphia and will probably go to the science museum and do some American history for our other subjects.

[HomeAgain]

Honestly?  I'd pick something, and then spend a bit getting into the new routine, skipping through material until there's a sticky point.  I'd make note of any specific skill our program is working on and keep incorporating those skills even if a lesson assumes it has been learned in the previous lessons.  Curriculum is only a guide, not a ruler.

Alternatively, you could go for unit studies like Moving Beyond The Page and focus on learning through literature.  But I think it's not going to ultimately matter which you pick as long as you decide to be the master of it.

[2_girls_mommy]

I think math would be the hardest part here.  Every curriculum will have a different scope and sequence, so picking that starting point will be hard, because obviously the beginning of anything will be a lot of review, but it also sets up how the program works.  So I don't have a lot of advice there.  I have never had to do it.   I think I would just pick a grade level book of some sort (and since it is only for a few months, I might even just buy a store workbook of some sort, not a full curriculum,) and work through it, maybe starting half way, maybe just trying to work through the whole thing.  

As for the rest, there are SOO many options of what you could do.  Pick what you like and go with it, like pp said, and just work through what you want. If you picked a 2nd grade textbook class for English like Rod and Staff (the one I am using,) I would probably do the reviews at the end of the first couple of sections to make sure she has those skills about what is a noun and a verb, etc, then just jump into unit 3 about midway through the book.  If you go with a unit study or literature based approach where the lessons are built into learning about the story, just choose a story and go with it.  

If you want to learn some great history and do some amazing projects, get Story of the World and the Activity Guide, start at the beginning and work through as much as you can until she starts a new school.  You guys will have so much fun with it.  Read the Well Trained Mind for how to use it to teach writing skills (at least the grammar stage sections.) 

 

 

[lulalu]

I have never been in your position, so take this for what it is worth. For math I would buy the series Math Facts the stick. There is a book for addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. I would work on facts for the rest of the year. And use that as a jumping point to see what needs work. 

I would do a lot of read alouds, and have your child do a lot of reading. Write simple letters to family, keep a journal, etc for writing. 

[Lori D.]

Welcome!

Since the plan is for homeschooling to just be a 1-semester bridge between the current public school and the future private school, I'd look at what materials the private school uses for grade 2 Math and core Language Arts (LA) subjects. Then you can plan to cover those topics either with the same materials used by the school (skip any tests -- if you're working with your student, you can see for yourself what she knows and what needs more work). OR, use other materials to cover the same topics that the private school covers in 2nd grade Math and LA.

Either way, you won't have have "gaps" for when your student starts grade 3 with that private school, if you've covered the same scope & sequence that is covered in the school's 2nd grade.