Our 2nd Grade Curriculum Choices

It’s hard to believe I have a second grader! Well, I suppose it’s getting a little easier to grapple with, because we’ve been back to school for about a month now. Maybe that sounds crazy, but we were off school for half of April, all of May and all of June. We unintentionally took our summer break early 😜

I thought I would share our curriculum choices this year, as I have in previous years. I’m always curious to see what other homeschoolers use as curriculum, so maybe you are too. Either way, it’s fun documentation for me to look back on.

If you’re interested in my first grade curriculum choices, you can check that out here

If you’re interested in my kindergarten curriculum choices, you can check that out here

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Daily Subjects

Language Arts

Brave Writer

For second grade, we are continuing to use Brave Writer’s products. We use the Arrow guides to teach the mechanics of writing through literature, copywork and French-style dictation. I’m preparing to do a more in-depth curriculum review of Brave Writer’s products soon, but that’s the gist of it. The idea is to use one guide per month, but copywork is something that easily frustrates and overwhelms Claire. She has come a very long way in the past two years, but we take our time going through the guides. When the guide has longer copywork passages, we tend to go through a guide in about 6 weeks, rather than 4. That’s the beauty of homeschooling! You set your own pace. At the end of each month, there’s a writing project. We’re currently working our way through The Wind in the Willows.

We are also continuing to use Brave Writer’s Jot It Down program. Rather than teaching the mechanics of writing, this program gives writing projects to nurture and promote original thought. It’s geared toward ages 5-8, where children have so many creative ideas, but struggle getting them on paper because their thoughts flow faster than their pen. Instead, the children dictate to their parents, who “jot it down” for them.

In first grade, we didn’t use it as consistently as I had planned, but that’s okay. We still completed several of the projects. My goal this year was to work on a project involving rewriting fairy tales (but I considered using Shakespeare or Greek myths instead). I found the most adorable little blank books at the Target dollar spot that would be perfect for this project! I still want to complete this project, but lately Claire has been working on a newspaper (completely her idea) that she “publishes” a few times a week. It’s called The News of Town. We’ll keep working on this creative writing idea until she decides she wants to move on to the fairy tale (or Shakespeare … or Greek myths … I’ll let her decide) project.

Pro tip: Join Homeschool Buyers Co-op for FREE and get a 40% discount on Brave Writer products! Brave Writer is pricey, but Homeschool Buyer’s Co-op is a great way to purchase the products. You can also earn points for all the products you purchase through them (they offer a wide variety of discounted products). The points add up and you get can get free products! Sign up here

Phonics

During first grade, we stopped doing phonics. As you know, we have adopted much of the Charlotte Mason philosophy (read more about that here). Charlotte Mason recommends ceasing phonics instruction once the child has attained fluency in reading and then picking up more formal grammar instruction around 4th grade. We’ve decided to do the same. We were using The Ordinary Parent’s Guide to Teaching Reading (which I still highly recommend!), but Claire was reading so fast, that she was not absorbing any of the rules. She already knew all the words, so it was boring and not very useful to her. We may add a lesson here or there to help sound out bigger words, but other than that, she’s too far past it for it be useful to her.

Math

We did some switching around with math during first grade. We used Miquon during kindergarten and much of first grade, but we seemed to be hitting a wall. Math was frustrating and overwhelming. I stepped back and decided to try something different for a time. Enter Life of Fred! Life of Fred is a story based, super fun math curriculum. Some people may not think it’s enough on its own, but it definitely made math more fun for us. We are still using Miquon as well; we’re just going back and forth.

However, Claire seemed to be struggling with anything beyond simple addition. I realized it was because she was mentally counting to add things in her head. The bigger the number, the longer it would take. So, we decided to try Addition Facts that Stick. This 6 week book is about teaching and memorizing addition facts. Some of the facts she does already know, but we’re cementing facts that she couldn’t instantly recall. We’re already halfway through the book and then we will go back to Miquon/Life of Fred. They also have books for subtraction, multiplication and division, which may be books we check out in the future.

History

History is a subject that we totally revamped. While there were parts of Mystery of History we enjoyed, I could tell it wasn’t the correct fit for us right now. The way the lessons were ordered chronologically was great, but they would hop from one civilization to another. There was no continuity. We’d leave Ancient Egypt and by the time we came back, Claire wouldn’t remember what had happened before. It also read like a conversational textbook, making it hard to narrate, which in turn made it hard to remember. Claire’s favorite part was the projects, so I’m trying to ensure I include some fun activities and projects in our history this year. We may come back to Mystery of History during our next history cycle, to see if it’s a little easier when she is older.

Initially, I was planning to use Simply Charlotte Mason for history, but I decided not to for several reasons. The first being that they take an entire year on Ancient Greece and another on Ancient Rome. The second reason was that it was very heavy on Bible reading. Obviously we love our Bible reading around here (and include it every homeschooling day), but the schedule required you to read 2-4 chapters aloud per day. For an older child, that wouldn’t be at all strenuous, but it was a bit much for a second grader. I didn’t want Bible reading to be something that dragged on forever. Instead, I wanted it to be fun, engaging and leave Claire wanting MORE, not counting down the minutes until we were finished.

So my solution was using the Simply Charlotte Mason booklist and creating my own schedule. We are studying Ancient Greece the first half of the year and Ancient Rome the second. We are using Nothing New Press’s editions of H.A. Guerber’s Story of the Greeks and Story of the Romans . We are about 20 chapters into Story of the Greeks and I have seen a massive improvement in Claire’s narration and her engagement with history. The lessons read like an interesting book, rather than a dry textbook.

In addition, we are also using some fun history read alouds that we read a few days a week. For the Ancient Greece, we are reading Our Little Athenian Cousin of Long Ago and Our Little Spartan Cousin of Long Ago. I was unable to find these at my library, so I purchased them blind. The covers don’t look very interesting, but the books are stories of children in those time periods. The stories are interesting and chock full of interesting facts about the time they were written in. Claire knows so much about the Parthenon, thanks to Our Little Athenian Cousin. Hopefully the Spartan book is just as good 🙂

For Ancient Rome, our read alouds are Detectives in Togas and its sequel, Mystery of the Roman Ransom. We haven’t read these books yet, but I’ll be sure to let you know what we thought after we’ve read them. I’m also assigning some picture books and simpler chapter books for Claire to read independently and then narrate to me. I try to do these sparingly. This is our first year really focusing on narrating, so I don’t want it to be too overwhelming.

Science

Science was the subject we struggled to do consistently ever since the beginning of homeschooling. It’s ironic, because science is my favorite subject! But I was struggling to find a curriculum that was age-appropriate, held Claire’s interest (AKA not textbooks!) and was manageable for me as a teacher.

We finally found our solution halfway through first grade in The Good and the Beautiful. We tried Marine Biology first, because the PDF was completely free (it still is, if you’re interested in trying it!). It was such a good fit for us.

This year, we’re returning to the Good and the Beautiful! I let Claire choose the topics she was most interested in studying. She selected Botany, Meteorology and Space. We’re currently working our way through Botany and we are enjoying it!

Bible

We’re not really completing a curriculum or devotional this year. I was struggling to find a good devotional that was deep enough for her level. Instead, I decided to just read the Bible, rather than over-complicating things. I used the Bible reading plan provided through Dan Bohi Ministries. This plan focuses on familiarizing children with some of the greatest Bible stories. It has 252 readings, so it’ll likely take 2 years to get through it.

Claire is also continuing to study for Junior Bible Quizzing (JBQ) at the church we have been attending on Sunday mornings. It goes over a plethora of material and requires quite a bit of Scripture memorization, which I absolutely love. Claire enjoyed JBQ immensely last year and can’t wait to quiz again this year!

Loop Subjects

Geography

For geography this year, we are using Simply Charlotte Mason’s Visits to Europe (they have one for each continent). In addition to mapping, Visits to Europe uses the books Hungry Planet and Material World to show what life is like in other countries. When I received these books, we all enjoyed looking at them! They’re a fascinating depiction of other cultures, what they eat and own. As a small disclaimer, I will let you know that there are a few pages that depict nudity in the African culture. If that’s something that you’d prefer not to see, these pages are easier skipped.

While the Simply Charlotte Mason curriculum is extremely inexpensive, Hungry Planet and Material World are pricier books (especially if you get hardcovers). However, these books are used in each of the Visits to … series. If you don’t mind second hand books, you can find them eBay pretty easily. I was able to snag hardcover copies of both books for around $20 combined!

Picture Study and Composer Study

For picture study this year, I have actually chosen specific artists and their work to study, rather than a themed collection of art. We are studying Impressionists for the whole year, because I happen to have a LOT of impressionist art books I have picked up at thrift stores over the years. I decided to go ahead use what I already have. I’m not doing one artist per term, as the main book we are using only gives 6 paintings per artist. Instead, we are studying an artist for two months before moving on to the next one. Our first artist is Monet.

We have always loved listening to classical music, especially in the background. It always makes our home feel so peaceful. In the past, I have chosen a few artists and put together some playlists on Spotify. This year, I am adding an Usborne book about famous composers. There are little biographies in the book (as well as QR codes you can scan for a clip of their music, if you’re interested in that). Our first composer we’re studying is Mozart.

Nature Walk/Study

This is one of the subjects I have never been able to do consistently, as much as I want to. Part of the issue is that we are without a car during the day, so it’s difficult to go places. The other issue I’ve had is not knowing where to begin. What are we supposed to look at? What if I have no clue what I’m looking at?

Towards the end of the school year, I purchased Exploring Nature with Children . It gives a theme for each week’s nature walk and suggests lots of other resources to go alongside it. We have only used it once or twice, but it’s truly amazing. The price is unbeatable, as well. We’ve also purchased some nature guides to help identify plants, insects and birds we might see. I’ll be learning right alongside Claire! I’m hoping we will get in a better routine of borrowing the car once a week, so that way we can go on nature walks more consistently.

Poetry

Poetry is something else I’ve always wanted to include consistently, but just couldn’t seem to find time for it. This year, we have been beginning our day with bible, a hymn (we follow Happy Hymnody’s schedule. You can check them out here: https://happyhymnody.wordpress.com/ ) and then a poem. Claire and I will usually both read one. Here are a few of our favorite poetry resources:

Typing

Claire started typing this year! She’s wanted to learn for a while now, so she’s very happy to begin. We decided to use The Good and the Beautiful’s curriculum, partly because of how inexpensive it was, but also because I didn’t want typing to be like a video game. Maybe that sounds like I’m an incredibly old fashioned parent, but media usage greatly affects my child. I know it technically affects every child (and adult for that matter), but it doesn’t take much media usage to turn her from cheerful, imaginative and content to cranky, whiny and obstinate. The Good and the Beautiful is a book, not a computer game. You set the book on the stand, open a Word document and type what’s on the page. If you also have a child who is sensitive to screens, this might be a great option for you too!

Piano

We’re searching for a new piano teacher, but we are beginning to ease our way back into daily practice. We haven’t practiced much since we moved here. Last year was a year full of transitions. Not only did we not look for a teacher, but practicing piano was not on my list of priorities. I’m fine with that. Claire is only 7, so she has plenty of time to learn!

Art

Last year I purchased a curriculum through Yellow Spot: Sun. We didn’t end up completing it. While I liked the curriculum, it was a bit much for Claire. We’re going to try it again this year, since she’s a bit older. If your child is artistically inclined, they will absolutely love it. Claire is a perfectionist, so she struggled with her skill level being below the teacher’s. If it’s still a struggle this year, we will probably try to find something else. I want art to be a joy, not something that produces tears.

Well, that’s about it for this year. It looks like a lot, but it doesn’t take very long to do school each day. While we are not purists, we do love Charlotte Mason’s methods. Much like the variety of foods necessary to give the body the proper nutrition it needs, Miss Mason recommends spreading a feast of ideas to nourish children’s minds. We keep our lessons short, so we can include a buffet of a variety of subjects to “taste.”

What kind of curriculum have you chosen?