2nd grade reading?

[MJB]

Okay, we are getting settled into homeschooling this year. We very loosely homeschooled for K (with "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" and some math workbooks) and my son went to public school for 1st.
I feel pretty happy with our curriculum in all areas except reading. We are using Writing with Ease, First Language Lessons, and Spelling Workout B for the other areas of language arts but for reading, I've just been choosing books for him to read and having him tell me about them. I'm not using any particular list; so far he's read Freckle Juice, the Fantastic Mr. Fox, Matilda, and some Little House chapter books (not the actual Laura Ingalls Wilder books) that he picked out himself.
Should I be using a reading or phonics program? He's reading right at grade level (he missed the last few weeks of 1st grade because we moved, but had already reached the end of 1st grade benchmark). Money is tight so I'd prefer not to spend a ton on a phonics curriculum but I do want him to develop his reading skills.
Also, recommended books for a 2nd grader?

[4evermom]

I was just googling around because I was wondering what grade level different books were considered to be. Freckle Juice is 4th, btw.

This is a teacher made list:
http://www.readingtokids.org/Books/BooksGrade.php#3

[MJB]

It's possible that he's reading better than he tested (well, plus 4 mos. have passed). I got those books off of a 2nd grade reading list somewhere on the internet, and just assumed they were fine. When he reads them aloud to me he occasionally gets words wrong, but he seems to comprehend the stories.

It doesn't help that my husband and I, along with my second son, all taught ourselves to read at 3 or 4 so my perception of what a 2nd grader should be reading is warped. I was reading Stephen King (omg!) at 8.

[4evermom]

This site is kinda cool because you can input the age and grade level of a child and it will come up with suggestions. But they don't give that many suggestions. I wish it were more comprehensive It's a good idea, though. Just as it's hard to find age appropriate books for young advanced readers and it's hard to find interesting books that are the right reading level for kids who are later beginning readers.

http://kidsbookseries.com/search/7rl2.html

[jlpumkin]

http://www.bookadventure.com/ a friend gave us this site. We don't use it much since last year we used Sonlights reading program. We did however use the sit for The Magic Treehouse books - their quizzes my kids loved! I guess bc we love their books.

As for Phonic - I wish I would have kept that up in 2d grade. We did some but didn't do it the whole year. This year we started again and I can see that my dd definitely needs that repetition ~ not so much for reading but very much for applying spelling rules. She is really weak in spelling and I think the phonics books are helping. Last year for a while we did Explode the code. This year we are using MCP. Both seem equally effective and interesting for at least my dd.