I can’t believe it is that time again to order all new curriculum and books. I have found as my children get older they demand more effort and time to be put into their selections. I have had a few more years to really focus on how they learn best, and to identify their strengths and weaknesses. When I do this is helps be to be better able to choose the curriculums that will best suit their needs. This can get a little frustrating as a parent of multiple children who thought that all my children would just use the same curriculum and I would save a lot of money not having to buy text books over and over!
About My Second Grader
Auron is my second grader, he is almost eight. His birthday falls right on the age cut off for third grade. I decided to keep him back a year because he really wasn’t up to where he “should” be in terms of academic abilities when he first started kindergarten. However he is now working at a third grade level in every area except spelling. Grade levels are really quite a complicated thing in homeschool!
Auron loves gaming and computers. I do try to limit what he plays because his behaviour becomes less that desirable when he has too much game time.
I think this year will be one of great growth for Auron. In the past 3 years he has really mastered reading and developed a deep love of learning. I can see this love of learning really taking flight into something wonderful if he is directed along the correct path.
Curriculum Choices
Language Arts
Last year Auron completed level two of The Good and the Beautiful language arts curriculum easily. When I used their placement tests at the end of the year he placed in level four however I will continue on with level three for now. I feel as though there is a lot of valuable material in there that he needs to have a solid understanding of. We will skip over parts that he knows well. If we finish early I will simply move on with level four.
Spelling is where Auron struggles a lot. I had previously suspected dyslexia because he struggled with reading terribly in the beginning. If you are concerned about this with your child I highly recommend you go back and read this post. I am confident this isn’t the case now so we will dedicate a lot more time to work on spelling and the spelling rules that are taught in The Good and the Beautiful books. I am sure that with a bit more of a dedicated effort he will overcome this challenge.
Creative Writing
Creative writing is something that Auron really enjoys. He wants to work on his stamina though. It is hard for him to get out everything he wants to say because it is mentally draining to have to try spell so many different words. As a result he will often default to just using words that he knows how to spell but don’t adequately convey his thoughts. I think our focus on spelling this coming year will greatly help in this area as well as allowing him to dictate the story to me while I act as scribe. This is a part of the Charlotte Mason philosophy that I really embrace.
Each week I will give him a writing prompt. He will then spend 10 mins each day working on his writing either with me or independently. At the end of the week he will then present his polished copy to be read for us as a family. This will be also something my first grader and preschooler will do also at an age appropriate level. I love the idea of presenting their work so that they can see the culmination of all the effort through the week and Daddy also gets to be a part of it too.
We also do copy work. Each day he writes out a quote from a book of inspirational quotes for kids, sorry I have no idea where is came from! He will usually do the same quote over and over until he has it memorised.
Reading
I have compiled a list of books for Auron to read. These are all books of high literary content and across different genres. I do not like my children to read twaddle or books that encourage bad behaviour. I have really enjoyed the Good and the Beautiful’s book list. There are hundreds of books sorted by reading levels all which have been reviewed and meet my standards for reading material.
Auron is such a proficient reader I really do want to encourage him to extend himself a bit further than he has previously been willing. He likes to sit in his comfort zone. I know a whole new world can be opened up to him if he pushes himself a little more.
Once Auron has read a book he can fill it in, in a reading journal along with his thoughts and review of it.
Math
I hate searching for math curriculums. I am still not 100 percent happy with any math curriculum I have purchased so far. This year we will be returning to CTC math. I really do love this program because it does the teaching, testing, marking and pretty much everything for me. The kids can easily move through the lessons without much input from me. I can assign the weeks work from my teacher account and they will email me each day the test scores and how a break down of where they struggled etc.
My only draw back to this curriculum is that it is online. I really do prefer pen and paper work where possible. I have used this curriculum preciously and they did great with it so I am just going back to what I know works despite my dislike for online math.
Science
We will be continuing with The Good and the Beautiful science units. We really enjoy these unit studies. This year we will be doing The Human Body, Arthropods, Beginner Chemistry and Space. I let the kids choose which ones they would like to do.
We teach science family style so everyone will be learning the same material but completing age appropriate assignments to go a long with what they have learned.
The kids will also all complete nature journals through out the year.
History
This is another family style subject for us. We will be doing The Good and the Beautiful year one history. We started this in the past school year but did not finish. We spent a lot of last year learning about New Zealand history as that is where we are from. We were taking a family vacation back to New Zealand so I thought it would be nice for them to have a bit of history behind them. I don’t think it worked that great though, they were terrified of all the Maori carvings at the airport we could barely get them to walk through customs! Maybe we need to work on that a bit more, thank goodness we didn’t have to stay at a marae, they would be having nightmares for life.
Art
Auron really loves art. We will be using a combination of Art for Kids Hub and Artventures. These are two programs that have wonderful art lessons directed at children. Art for kids hub focuses on drawing whereas Artventures also teaches how to use different art mediums like water colours and pastels.
Our language arts curriculum also includes art appreciation and artist studies which is fantastic because the less I have to search for and buy these sorts of things the better!
Growth Mindset
This is something that is HUGE in our family. I first discovered it last year and it has been the best investment I have made for my children and myself if I am honest. If you are unsure about what growth mindset is you need to read this post here.
I really want to build on the work we have done already. We do this as a part of our morning basket routine. It takes 5-10 minutes a day and makes such a difference in how the rest of the day flows.
Project Work
Project work is a big deal in our homeschool. The children really love having a project or two to work on after their main school work in completed.
Investing time into project work is invaluable for children. There are so many incredible benefits you can read about them here.
Auron’s project work for this year is to learn how to code. I am hoping this adds another dimension to his love of gaming and computers. We will use scratch to work on this for now.
Another one of his projects for the year is to learn how to play the guitar. YouTube is going to be our friend for this.
For the most part project work is self directed and just facilitated by me. When they are engaged in with something they really want to learn and that interests them they will figure out how to do it with very little help from us.
How Long Does My 2nd Grader Homeschool?
On average our homeschool day last four hours. We do school Monday – Friday. I will break down Auron’s day for you in minutes so you can see how much time is spent on each subject
Morning Basket: 20 Minutes
Spelling: 15 Minutes
Creative Writing: 15 Minutes
Copy Work: 10 Minutes
Language Arts: 45 Minutes
Math: 30 Minutes
History/Science: 45 Minutes
These above subject take up three hours. That leaves us with two 30 minute breaks. We start at 9 and finish at 1pm
After all this work is done Auron uses that free time in the afternoon to do his piano practice and work on his project work. Reading is done before bed.
So there you have it. My 2nd graders homeschool plan for the coming year. It is busy and crazy but we love it. I love seeing how far he has come and have so much joy in watching him learn and grow.
