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2nd grade is an exciting time in our homeschool! Reading, Math, Science and more all getting planned out for the coming year.
As we enter our 7th year of doing school at home, I have another first. Homeschooling 2nd grade!
When David & Emily were in 2nd grade, they were attending a cyber school (online public charter school). The teacher was constantly pointing out the areas where my child was behind. That they weren’t reading well enough. That they weren’t spelling at grade level. It was stressful.
When I transitioned to homeschooling, I swore I would not focus on what my child “should” be doing and instead, I would focus on what my child can do. Specifically, I was not going to push reading and formal academics before my child was 7 years old.
And now, that is where we are. Michael turned seven in June, and this year we are doing 2nd grade-ish. The last few years, Michael has asked to do school so we were doing a few lessons here and there in a variety of workbooks, but this year, we are going to do a bit more formal lessons.
Math
There are so many great math resources available and most are inexpensive. We have chosen to use an older version of McGraw-Hill Math which is available on Amazon. We used this series for kindergarten and first grade as well. It is a workbook that many schools have used, and this edition predates common core standards, so it is less expensive than the newer versions. Since this is second grade, I don’t worry about purchasing the teacher’s edition.
Phonics
Since my older children weren’t taught phonics in their cyber school, I have started teaching phonics to my youngest and have seen quite a bit of progress in the last year as we moved from letter sounds to sounding out word chunks. This year we are using Plaid Phonic Level B. We also do a little focus on sight words (you know the ones that don’t follow the phonics rules). For that, we like these free sight word coloring pages.
Reading
We are using a variety of materials for reading this year.
- Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
- Scholastic Success with Reading Comprehension (workbook)
- McGraw-Hill Wonders: Grade 2 Literature Anthology
- Reading Eggs (online)
- picture books, chapter books, and library books that are subjects my son is interested in
- Pop! Letters and Pop! Sight Words
Handwriting
Teaching handwriting is one of the biggest concerns many families have which surprises me since I expected it to be reading. We are continuing with Handwriting Without Tears using the Printing Power workbook this year. Since it will not take all year to complete that workbook, I also plan on making practice sheets using ZB Fonts Online by Zaner Bloser Handwriting.
Social Studies
I asked Michael what he wanted to learn about for Social Studies this year and he told me maps. I picked up a copy of Scholastic Success with Maps Grade 2 and we will work out way through that over the fall.
Science
All three children have asked to learn about outer space this year. We have the elementary and middle school copies of the Real Science4Kids Astronomy textbook that we are using as our jumping-off point. We also have several Seymour Simon books that we will read, a puzzle of the solar system, a telescope, and some fun projects that I have found on Teachers Pay Teachers.
Everything Else
What about art? Music? Health? Phys Ed?
These subject areas are covered through Cub Scouts and just being a kid in our family. We don’t stress about them. We spend time outside. We don’t use a homeschool music curriculum, but we do listen to music at dinner and while doing chores. There are always craft supplies around. We go on field trips. It’s the one area where we truly unschool and let the kids just be kids.
What do you get from a side of beef?
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