I’m about to homeschool a second grader for the fifth time! Some things have remained the same, and some things have changed. Curious as to what we’re using for curriculum and resources? Check out this post for second grade homeschool curriculum ideas.
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Now, obviously, a disclaimer is in order. These are not the only resources you could use to homeschool second grade. These are just here for recommendations and inspiration. These options might not work for your unique kid! And, truthfully, we might change paths part way through our year if these resources don’t work for us.
So, bottom line: get lots of recommendations and ideas for others, but take these suggestions with a grain of salt. That’s one of the things every first time homeschool mom needs to know.
Okay, let’s get started. Here’s our plan for 2nd grade.
Math
We still love BJU Press for our elementary math curriculum. In the elementary years, I only buy the student work text, which runs about $30. Sometimes you can find a copy cheaper on eBay.
The pages are colorful and laid out nicely. The amount of work for each lesson is not overwhelming or purely full of busy work.
The new concept is introduced clearly on the top of each work text page, and if my daughter doesn’t understand, we’ll pull out the manipulatives or come up with another way of talking about the topic.
In the elementary years, there’s no reason to require your children to take tests. Testing is for the teacher in the classroom to have an objective assessment and also a grade for the report card.
We work on a concept until we understand it. I know right away if my child understands the math lesson. If she doesn’t, we work toward understanding and mastery. Once we achieve that, we’re done math for the day! It really doesn’t have to be complicated.
Check out these related math posts:
Language Arts
Language Arts is an umbrella term that includes spelling, phonics, literature, reading, grammar, and writing. Whew! It can sometimes feel overwhelming and many curriculums don’t do a great job of covering all of these areas.
We have found the best success with finding curriculums for each sub-category of language arts. Here’s what we’re using for 2nd grade.
Hands-down, our favorite spelling resource after years of trying many options is All About Spelling. This is my fifth child to use AAS and we’re sticking with it. She was able to zoom through levels 1 & 2 during her first grade year, so we’re starting with AAS level 3.
AAS is not based on “grade levels” but you can go at your child’s pace to achieve mastery. So, your child might spend two years on a level, or speed through two levels in a year. It doesn’t matter! The beauty of this curriculum is that you go at a pace that provides mastery of the content.
At the 2nd grade level, you can choose to go with a “reading curriculum” but we will just read classic books at her reading level and discuss them orally. Since AAS includes phonics rules, I don’t think it’s essential to have a graded reading and phonics curriculum.
ClassicalReader.com is an awesome resource for looking up book titles to fit your child’s grade level, genre preference, reading ability, and more!
We’ve used First Language Lessons for our oral grammar studies. These are scripted, open & go lesson plans. We’ll still hit the main topics in this book, but I decided to go with Language Fundamentals from Evan-Moor to give us a written component of grammar topics.
I’ll continue to use the principles of narration and copywork for our writing component. You can check out Writing With Ease for a structured approach to these skills.
Social Studies
I’m still not settled on our plan for social studies yet, but we’ll either study various continents, countries, and cultures around the world or begin Mystery of History volume 1 with Creation and Ancient History.
We used Mystery of History for many, many years in our homeschool and loved the chronological approach to learning world history. Your kids are never too young to learn history from the very beginning! They love stories, and history is full of interesting people, places, and ideas.
Either way, we’ll use notebooking to give us a student-produced written component of the learning.
I bought The Tuttle Twins books for my younger kids (ages 5-11) to learn about economic principles and the proper role of government. These are great discussion starters! If you want to hear my interview with Connor Boyack, the author of the series, check out episode #62 of the Homeschool with Moxie Podcast. He also has a Free Market Rules economics curriculum for kids.
Science
We plan to use notebooking through living books as we learn about fun science topics. You could also call this “unit studies” as we’ll do a few weeks about a certain topic (or longer, if she’s really into it).
The fall in the Northeast U.S. is a great time to get outside and learn about trees. We’ll collect leaves, learn to identify trees, and learn about photosynthesis, climate zones, leaf patterns, and more.
Other Subjects
I purchased a handwriting book from Zaner-Bloser this year to introduce cursive to my daughter. She’s so excited to learn cursive that she started working on her handwriting book right away during her summer break!
My daughter is taking piano lessons (from me!) so we’ll continue daily practice.
She’s also learning some conversational French with weekly lessons from The Cultured Home Language Program.
If you want to see what this foreign language program is all about, then check these links:
- 7-day free trial of the Cultured Home Language Program
- free video series about How to Teach Your Kids a Second Language at Home
- Checklist: How to Teach Your Kids a Foreign Language Even If You’re Not Fluent
Check out these ideas for homeschool art:
Our Bible studies will continue on with using a Bible Memory Box for regular review of Scripture memory plus catechism memory work. My second grader will also be starting to learn how to study a short passage of Scripture using the Inductive Bible Study Method! Once kids are reading fluently, they can definitely learn to dig into a text of Scripture and understand it. Want to learn more? Check it out HERE <<
You can find our other homeschool curriculum recommendations HERE.
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