My 2nd born has been a breeze to school. She picked up reading in kindergarten, has joyfully done lessons, narrates beautifully, and does it all with minimal fuss. However, this is my 2nd time with a seven year old girl and I tried to anticipate the challenges. My experience has been that 7 brings a lot more emotions, more awareness of getting answers “wrong”, and a much harder time focusing. (We are almost 2 weeks into this year’s school and I’m 2/2 on this being the case).
Anyway I’m sharing her tailored 2nd grade curriculum because many have asked, but this is your reminder to pick for your kid.
I have a 4th grader, this 2nd grader, a boisterous and talkative 3 yr old, plus a 7 month old and a 3 year old, so I took that into account when picking curriculum. I can only read so many lessons to each kid. Many of my choices reflect trying to find a balance of interaction, one-on-one instruction, and for all 4 kiddos and naptime.
So, let’s start…
•Math- We did two years of Saxon with her and she loved it. She also flew through the program. So much so that I just took her cues and when she needed a break during March of kindergarten (after already finishing Saxon K and 30 lessons into Saxon 1), we just stopped until August. Last year for 1st grade, she started her 2nd grade. We chose not to do Saxon again because while it is very thorough, with her, she didn’t need that much repetition. She’s loved The Good and The Beautiful for Language Arts and after much research, we chose that. It has a manipulative component like Saxon, but there’s comes in a cute little math box that keeps everything contained and organized. There is teacher interaction for 10-15 minutes and plenty of independent review.
•Language arts- I mentioned above that we had used The Good and the Beautiful before. We actually started with their pre-K when she was 4. I initially had reservations about the LDS background of the creator of the program, but we have encountered zero issues through our 3 years of using it. Level 2 Language Arts continues with reading booster cards that practice phonics principles. They also have booster books that practice the same principles. These books have a student read section and a parent section. B is an excellent reader so she doesn’t really need me for this, but we enjoy the story time together. So far, she needs me for about 15-20 minutes for Language Arts and then does her independent section as well. If I am working with another child, she can pull out her handwriting, which is also TGTB and work on that. Another option is to do her personal reading. TGTB suggests 20 minutes at this age. One thing I didn’t mention in my blog about fourth grade is that I really like that TGTB adds in art, geography, and artist studies throughout the course book. For 2nd grade it’s watercolors; 4th grade it’s chalk pastels. Geography is woven throughout as the text to look for grammar principles. The same with artist studies… they use the reading they do to help with comprehension and more.
Now for personal reading. I selected “assigned reading” for each of my children. They read plenty on their own, but I picked books that had themes I wanted them to spend time in or harder books that they could only focus on for shorter periods of time. I read A LOT of lists and formed my own. As she reads each book, we log it on a reading tracker.
We are also memorizing a poem a month from our Morning Time selections. More on that later.
•Science- We are doing a mash of Christian Liberty Readers and Apologia’s Botany. The CL readers aren’t enough, in my opinion, so she will read them on Tuesdays, research the animal/insect on Thursdays while writing a small presentation, and present it to me on Fridays. We will incorporate Apologia as it fits in our schedule. Honestly, I am focusing most on adding a new history curriculum this year, so science will happen, but it’s taking a back seat to history’s time slot.
•History- We did CC for 2 years and I loved the timeline. We also love learning history through living books, which is why I loved The Peaceful Press’s Playful Pioneers last year. So this year, I picked Mystery of History I. We are starting back at Ancient History and while I read the brief lesson aloud to them, they then have supplemental reading they can do on their own that really makes it come alive. She suggests an activity for each day, but I am picking one a week. The biggest time investment for this curriculum is the timeline that you add figures to each Friday, but it’s so cool and thorough that I committed anyway. We also do map work and review quizzes on Fridays. It’s 3 lessons per week, plus the Friday work.
•Morning Time- We do this as a family and here is where we incorporate MANY things.
-First, we do Bible. This year, I chose Catherine Vos’s Child’s Story Bible because we have a 3 year old listening, but also because it’s rich in catechism and doctrine in its very approachable, detailed storytelling of Scripture. I’ve tried many story Bibles and while I do love The Biggest Story Bible that we tried 2 years ago by Kevin DeYoung, this one takes the prize.
-I also went back to Truth and Grace from Founder’s Ministries. We are using it for catechism, hymns, memory verses, and creeds. Instead of bouncing back and forth between so many tools, we are going to knock this one out. I did add some hymns to makeup enough for the year.
-Loop of art, composer, Shakespeare, virtues, and Christian heroes. We only do this on Fridays and it’s a 4 week loop.
Loop week one- Art AND Composer. I selected different paintings to discuss and then use as we paint our memory verses. We also listen to history on a composer through Classics for Kids and listen to a different piece while we paint.
Loop week two- Shakespeare. We are alternating comedy/tragedy and using Usborne’s Complete Shakespeare and Tales from Shakespeare by the Lambs, depending on which my theater degree self likes best. :)
Loop week three- I picked selections from William Bennet’s adult version of The Book of Virtues. We will loop each virtue twice, so I jotted down 8-10 selections for each week. This is also where I picked one for our poetry memorization for each month.
Loop week four- Trial and Triumph. Learning about different Christian heroes and martyrs.
-Read aloud- I am alternating between a work of literature, historical fiction that aligns with our history, and a biography. Here’s our current book lineup for morning time.
-The last part of morning time. Defining words and setting expectations in our home. Whether we are talking about what love means biblically or breaking down our list of 10 “rules” for our home, this is a chance for me to address current events, apologetics, and home habits. For instance, the first “rule” is to speak respectfully to one another. Well, I decided to ask them what that meant. Let’s just say they didn’t understand it as well as I would hope, so I busted out a dictionary and we went from respect, to honor, to value, etc. Then we spoke about ways we could do that in different situations we commonly see in our home. This is done imperfectly and whenever it comes up, but I pray this opens doors for larger conversations as they grow up.
Some other tidbits I’m doing for my 2nd grader. Every Thursday we have a written narration from our read aloud. When we finish a book, she will write a simple book report. When we finish our 3 loops of a composer, she will write a short biography. Otherwise, she can work on sketching, coloring, or painting narrations.
I am also using different resources to help with Scripture memory. Songs, hand motions, videos.
I bought a watercolor class that we will be trying for 6 weeks.
We have some sign language videos we are all interested in doing on Tuesday afternoons to help us converse with baby brother.
Here are her core subjects.
Oh and I almost forgot… we joined Bible Study Fellowship to study the book of Revelation. This will be our weekly outside class. What I love about BSF is that what I’m learning in Bible study, each kid will be studying the same thing in age appropriate ways. I really wanted my bigs to start learning the fundamentals of Bible study.
For extra curriculars, she takes jazz once a week. When she stretches and practices at home are on her daily schedule. As well as chores, playtime, alone time, etc.
I probably left a few things out, but important notes are that we don’t do everything every day. I left Fridays for presentations, a longer morning time with our loop, history activities and maps, as well as time to paint our memory verse for the week. This also allows us to catch up on anything we may have gotten stuck on during the week.
I hope this gives you some ideas that you can apply (or know you don’t want to do) for your family.
My goals for her this year are:
A larger grasp of the world
Ability to communicate her thoughts on paper
Neater handwriting
More patience
Listening skills
In Him,
Natalie
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