Who is planning for second grade?

[inkslinger]

What are you planning to use for your 2nd grader? We homeschool through a charter school that provides us with state public school curriculum, which we are mostly using this year for first grade with a bit of supplemental materials. Next year I would like to supplement more, but I don't know what exactly I want to use yet. I have already ordered Miquon and Singapore for math, and I am planning to order Story of the World for history. What else are you planning to use?

[Naturallove]

We don't have it all locked down yet, but I think we are going to use Oak Meadow for our spine, Rightstart Math, finish up Headsprout (we started part way through the year) and Explode the Code for spelling and writing practice. Our goals for 2nd grade are to keep it simple and keep it fun.

[eli's mama]

We are planning for 2nd grade next year, kinda jumping in feet first here as we have been in PS until now.  I'm haven't bought a thing yet but I'm really enjoying reading about what everyone else uses and why.  I'm thinking about getting mathondvd and all about spelling.  I've been using the baltimore curriculum projects lesson plans to kind of flesh out what I want to cover, but I'm still in the planning stages.  

[kanga2roo]

We are technically doing second grade now, but really homeschool year round so I am looking into our home stretch and making some adjustments, so wanted to join in if thats okay....

  We use Oak Meadow, loosely.I am finding some challenges with that, but really do like it for the most part. We've used Christopherus second grade math and I also use a more traditional workbook-type program.

  We've added in some concepts from Moving Beyond the Page and I am happy with the addition they have at this level of literature units. There is a lot to them! Since I feel like we have soooo much, I've narrowed down the MBTP units that I want to do before the end of the summer. I still don't think I have it worked out with a good balance of OM and MBTP. My original plan was to do one a few days a week, and the other a few days a week ( depending on our travel schedule).....wea lso do some of the flash kids critical thinking/logic books....

[Humnmilk4Humnbabes]

We use Oak Meadow as well for our main curriculum. This summer we are doing the "100 days/lessons to read book" to practice with the basics of reading more ... we are a little behind with 1st grade b/c I had a baby and we ended up taking some time off. Next year my son will be in 1st grade & 2nd grade as we kind of push through both curriculums to catch up.

I love Beautiful Feet. We are *very* excited to start the Early American history program next year!! I found an early american crafts curriculum which will supplement beautifully to the reading & lessons by WinterPromise.

I also bought the Teaching Character through Literature curriculum from Beautiful Feet and some of these overlap with the history curriculum. Looking forward to weaving these themes together.

We will do science experiments weekly, inspired by OM and we also have a French tutor that comes and teaches French to the kids once a week.

Art- we watercolor paint & use OM. Music- we sing and learn to play recorder. P.E.- He does karate (year round), soccer & baseball (seasonally) and swimming. Camping/hiking, etc.

My husband gets up in the morning and does a Bible study with the kids using "Glo" software.

Next year should be fun!!

Edited by Humnmilk4Humnbabes - 4/19/11 at 12:36pm

[ambersrose]

We will be doing 2nd grade next year.  We will be using MEP for math, Advanced Progressive Phonics, Story of the World, as well as Macmillian McGraw-Hill 2nd grade Science.  My daughter loves science so she requested we work in a structured science book next year. 

[cloudswinger]

I'm pretty happy with the stuff we used this year(1st grade), so will continue with them with the 2nd grade versions. So we will have:

History - Sotw- Medieval - using Mosaic Curriculum. They don't have curriculum for the 3rd book so I'm going to wing it then. I'm going to get a pass for the ren fest next spring and we'll dress up as different characters each week.

Math- RightStart C

Science - BFSU

Writing - Writing with Ease

Spelling - SWR

Vietnamese - 2nd grade - VN national curriculum.

Art - Artistic Pursuits book 2

Music - somewhere between the recorder, keyboard and ukulele.

I did get behind in some subjects due to an injury, but am also ahead in math, so once we finish the RS B book, we going to switch to some of the subjects we're behind in. The good thing is that most of the subject books are multi year, so I'll only have to buy SOTW and RS for this coming year.

[broodymama]

I'm happy with the things we have been using for 1st grade also so I'm not planning any major changes so far, but we'll see what catches my eye over the summer!  I would like to find a good French program to add in.

Math Mammoth 2A/2B 

Handwriting Without Tears  

Explode the Code  

First Language Lessons 2  

Writing With Ease 2  

All About Spelling (2, 3, wherever he ends up starting)  

SOTW - finishing up 1 then continuing on, we're going slow with this so we won't finish Ancients this year  

REAL Science Odyssey Life 

Drawing with Children & Artistic Pursuits 

[AllyRae]

We're pulling our son out of school at the end of the year, and will be homeschooling him this coming year for 2nd grade.  We are using:

Math: RightStart Level C

 

Science: REAL Science Odyssey level 1

 

Writing: Handwriting without tears, grade 2

 

World history: History Odyssey level 1, Hands on History levels 1 & 2

 

Reading:  Montessori-based

 

Ohio history: Along the Ohio Trail book, Kids Love Ohio

 

PE:  martial arts, and Horizon's Health & PE curricula

 

Foreign Language:  Rosetta Stone homeschool edition--Spanish (Latin America)

 

Music: "Stories of the Great Composers" and Piano

 

Art: Artistic Pursuits

 

Geography: Expedition Earth

 

[Googy]

DD really liked what we did this year, so I think we are going to stick with it:

Moving Beyond the Page 7-9

RightStart Math C

Explode the Code Online for phonics review

plus ASL classes, violin, CCD

[Mere]

I've also been pretty happy with what we've been using this year, so I think we'll just keep plugging right along!  Ds is kind of inbetween grades 1 & 2...who really knows!

Math - Ds finished Calvert 1st grade in January, so now he's into the 2nd grade book.

Spelling - Sequential Spelling. 

Reading/Phonics - Even though ds is reading pretty well, he was doing a lot of guessing rather than sounding out. We're now using the Explode the Code online as a phonics review.  Otherwise, for reading practice we just read out loud every night (him to me, then me to him)

History/Handwriting - We listen to Story of the World in the car.  For additional handwriting practice (he finished both of the printing book for Handwriting w/out Tears, but still needs more practice), I've been having him write out the transcriptions in the SOT activity book. 

Writing - we haven't done any formal writing up to this point, but I'm thinking about trying the "Writing w/Ease" workbook.

Spanish - Rosetta Stone

[elizawill]

my little man will be in second grade. we'll be using:

heart of dakota, bigger

CLE math

R&S grade 2 phonics

R&S grade 2 english

he's also is in a co-op, we'll have field trips, etc.

[heatherdeg]

Originally Posted by eli's mama 

I've been using the baltimore curriculum projects lesson plans to kind of flesh out what I want to cover, but I'm still in the planning stages.  

Aren't the Baltimore Curriculum Project plans based on the Core Knowledge curriculum?

We're 2nd grade next year based on age.  I'm already planning.  We've been finding our groove for a couple of years now and I'm a fan of "delayed academics" so I'm actually feeling like this is the year I really need to do a little more with him.  He's been reading for a few years and this past year I did a kind of "check in" on his grammar skills and he did well enough that I didn't worry about it.  Otherwise, this past year we didn't do a whole lot outside of some homeschool coop classes (a history class, Lego robotics class, biology/lifecycles class and "teambuilding" gym) plus a homeschool gym & swim at the Y.  The courses were "enrichment" vs. academic but obviously had some educational value.  We also joined Cub Scouts and near the end of the traditional school year we started working on belt loops--which has been a nice way to ease him into doing "real" academic work.  :)

I'm starting our year on June 1.  We shut down in the winter (December and January) and I'm going to try doing our "school year" on a different schedule.  :)  

For April - May (as homeschool coop ends) we start homeschool gym & swim (an hour of each 1x/week) and group piano lessons.

For the summer, we have lots of stuff--mostly 1 week endeavors for 2-ish hours/day:

• Intro to golf, flag football, and lacrosse  (three separate weeks)
• musical theater
• gross science stuff
• a gifted program related to math outdoors (math in a fun way :) )

We also have a 2-morning pond exploration camp and a full week of full day Cub Scout camp.  Plus another 9-week online program that facilitates family learning and then ties the parents back to real-time online discussions.

Come the fall, we're going to actually do an academic course at the homeschool coop.  They're doing Singapore math and shockingly ds tested out of level 1B, so he'll do level 2 with the coop next year plus whatever enrichment things we can find that he'd enjoy.  Hopefully something related to history.

We're also joining another group that reads history-based chapter books and then discusses them--geared for younger boys (read: active & rowdy boys).  One of the people that runs the group has taught ds in fall and spring at the coop so I feel like if she says he'll be okay there, he will be.  :)

We'll continue working on Cub Scout belt loops and pins--which cover a number of great academic topics that ds is interested in (geology, astronomy, conservation, etc.) and not-so-interested in but would do because he'd earn the loop (like the reading & writing loop).  Next year's level (Wolf) covers some topics that pull in citizenship, faith (whatever your faith is) and other things that don't fall neatly into a curriculum.  :)

I'll use the Core Knowledge Scope & Sequence to guide us for what we're covering and just find resources from there... whether it be museum trips or programs, local stuff, whatever.  We pull lessons and ideas from all kinds of places and resource books.  I have some Montessori manuals and I want to do some work from the Konos curriculum, too.  We're usually really good with science at home and math is going to be covered by the coop.  We do Bible work at night.  So really, I need to cover Social Studies and some kind of language arts (which might be covered by the group we're joining).  I have trouble with language arts and knowing what to do with him because he's such an advanced reader and has picked up a lot of grammar rules and spelling through that--so I'd almost rather focus on something else.

I'm woefully out of ideas for art, music and language--and really need to work on THAT.

We're also trying to plan some traveling before the end of the year--I'm just not yet sure where.  We were thinking of sending ds and dh to Italy to see relatives this summer, but dh isn't all that interested in going if ds isn't old enough to enjoy seeing the actual touristy stuff there.  I feel like he should go to where his family is for a week and let ds see how his family there lives.  Ongoing disagreement. :)  I also don't know that we'll have the money to go when ds is old enough to really take it in!!

Okay... so that's where we're at!

Edited by heatherdeg - 4/20/11 at 9:07pm

[Ornery]

I'd love to join in here.  I'm pulling my daughter from ps at the end of this week and starting 2nd grade in June.  We'll be working on a few unit studies until then.

All About Spelling

Growing with Grammar or First Language Lessons

Writing With Ease

Explode the Code

REAL Science Odyssey

History Odyssey

Right Start or Math Mammoth

Artistic Pursuits

I want to get my hands on the curriculum before buying the majority of it so will be waiting until the curriculum fair in June to check it all out.  And, of course, this is all flexible!  I'm really wanting to give her time to rediscover her love of learning.  We'll be taking things super slow with lots of days off which is why we are starting in June.

We will be doing piano lessons with our neighbor until our local music co-op starts in the fall, she has girl scouts, swimming twice a week, homeschool PE lessons and we will be doing a TON of field trips and all sorts of park dates/nature studies, etc.

I'm so excited!

[Attila the Honey]

We are doing 2nd grade next year, and I figure we will stick to what we are doing now:

Story of the World Book 2 along with the activity book

Math Mammoth, whatever the next level is - 2A?

Real Science Odyssey, probably the Earth and Science level

and the 'what your 2nd grader should know' along with the free online lessons for everything else.  

[kanga2roo]

  Heather-

Whats the gifted outdoor math? That sounds cool!

[eli's mama]

Originally Posted by heatherdeg 

Aren't the Baltimore Curriculum Project plans based on the Core Knowledge curriculum?

You know what?  I'm so new.  I don't know?  Is Core Knowledge bad or good?  I was just trying to figure out what I "needed" to be covering.

[elizawill]

Originally Posted by eli's mama 

You know what?  I'm so new.  I don't know?  Is Core Knowledge bad or good?  I was just trying to figure out what I "needed" to be covering.

Yes, the BCP lessons do follow the Core Knowledge Sequence. No, it's not bad at all. It simply a sequence and many curricula are based on it (K12 for example). You can visit  www.coreknowledge.org You can download the sequence for free there, and they have other lessons available there for free as well. They also have resources there for sale. Very good stuff

[heatherdeg]

Originally Posted by kanga2roo 

  Heather-

Whats the gifted outdoor math? That sounds cool!

Northwestern has a Center for Talent Development that runs all kinds of programs in the Chicagoland area for gifted kids.  They also have a 9-week online program that facilitates families working on a specific topic with their children.  It's called "Gifted Learning Links".  The cost is a little steep (I can't speak to the value because this is our first year).  They address kids from K upward and will take test scores up to 2 years old (with an alternative application process for kids 8+).

http://www.ctd.northwestern.edu/

We are doing the GLL and a camp session for "Math Outdoors!"

Originally Posted by eli's mama 

You know what?  I'm so new.  I don't know?  Is Core Knowledge bad or good?  I was just trying to figure out what I "needed" to be covering.

Core Knowledge isn't bad at all.  At it's most basic, it's a set of objectives laid out per subject per year that allows you to teach them in whatever way you want.  For that, I love it.  You can add on from there.  You can buy the "What your X grader needs to know" series--which is kind of like "Core Knowledge light" and probably cover just about everything you need to for each grade year based on the CK sequence.  There are also the BCP lesson plans and there's another set of lesson plans in Colorado I think.  The link should be on the CK site.

The K-8 sequence IS now free online (and has been updated from the 5yo version I paid for in print) and will give you the objectives year by year, subject by subject, with an explanation of what exactly they mean by the objective.

They sell planners, etc. for CK and I actually bought them to help with pacing--but I found it to be pretty overwhelming.  What I do now is look at the sequence for direction if I'm not really sure what I want to introduce to ds next (especially in history and science).  But otherwise, I just use it to check off what we've learned.  ;)  It's great for that!

[bobandjess99]

We're probably going to do 2nd grade later this year.  We don't really follow a school year schedule though, so it may not be in the fall when school "starts".   We have no real plans.  Probably horse camp, zoo classes, art classes, maybe music?  we basically unschool i guess, so whatever dd wants to do, really.