Owen's Second Grade Curriculum

I finally wrapped up all the stuff Owen will need for 2nd grade.  And I am feeling pretty good about it!  Here's what he will do.

Math:  Horizons grade 2


Truthfully, he's already doing this now. But we'll take a short break before we start up school again, so he'll just pick up where he left off.  It's considered advanced, and I believe it.  He does three pages a day, which equals out a lesson and a half.  (That's by his choice, he excels at math and loves it.)

Reading:  No formal program, just good books.  Hopefully, I'll post his list like Ava's soon.

Phonics:  Rod and Staff


I wasn't originally going to do this, but it's so cheap, and consistently praised so we are going to give it a whirl.

Grammar:


Since we pulled Owen from public school in March, he has been using First Language Lessons of the Well Trained Mind.  I picked it because people raved about it all over the homeschool boards. After using it for 2 months, I literally want to poke myself in the eye.  Owen doesn't mind it, but if I have to teach using it again, well, let's just say that I'd rather not.

So we will be using Easy Grammar grade 2.  I did just attend a homeschool conference that highly stressed less is more, and that a formal study of grammar really doesn't even need to start until 4th-ish grade, but since he was already doing it, and seems to be good at it, we'll just keep going.  If life gets busy, then we'll drop it for now.

Vocabulary:


This was a last minute addition.  I hadn't thought to do vocab. words with Owen, but I really like the format of this so we added it in.

Spelling:


Again, something new for us.  We started out using All About Spelling, which was basically praised so highly by everyone and their mother, that I thought we couldn't go wrong.  We liked level 1, which focused on teaching all the sounds the letters make at one time, and using tiles on a magnet board.  He finished that like lightning and we moved onto level 2.

I do not like it, Sam I am.  And here's why.  It gave so many rules about why we do things, that words I knew Owen already knew became complicated because he was constantly stopping and thinking about all the spelling rules that he had been taught.  Before, he would have just whipped it out.  I think he is a good instinctual speller, and all the explained rules are not helping him.  They are actually hindering his ability.  I was pretty bummed, because it's $40 per level.  I'll hold onto it for the babies when they come up, because I think it could be an excellent program if it fits the kid, but it just doesn't fit Owen.

Science:

    

We are doing this right now too.  And Owen loves it!  It's a textbook that I read to him, and then we use the junior notebook journal for activities.  This series is done by Apologia.

History/Bible:


We're doing volume 1, from creation to Jesus' resurrection.  I am super excited about this because it teaches biblical history and teaches what was happening in the rest of the world at the same time!

Art & Music:

These are going to be pretty informal at this stage in the game.  We will be using Confessions of a Homeschooler's curriculum for both of these.  Found here.  We're leaning towards school Monday through Thursday, with Friday devoted to art and music and if the kids need additional practice with anything.

Science and history will be alternated for Owen during the week. Right now we are also doing Writing with Ease, and he won't finish it before this school year technically ends, so we may finish up level one when we start back up with second grade.

Our plan for right now is to finish this school year out, which for Ava still in public school, ends June 10th.  Then we'll take about a month off and start up again July 7th.  We are looking to homeschool  year round.  About 6 weeks on and then a week off with extra time around Christmas.

So there you have it, Owen's official-as-of-now curriculum.