A little 2nd grade homeschool update

We've been plugging along for a few months now with second grade and my two little preschoolers, so I thought it would be fun to do a bit of a homeschool/curriculum update.

As most of you know, we homeschool part-time, through a hybrid charter school. Gigi goes to school for enrichment 1-2 days a week. If you don't homeschool, maybe some of the resources we use might be helpful for your kids for afterschooling or keeping fresh over school breaks.

This year, we've made some schedule and curriculum changes and they've been really good for us. We feel more connected with our schooling community than ever and we've tried, and liked, some new things.

Language Arts

Grammar~ We are still on Level 1 of First Language Lessons, working our way through, and I love this book. It works great for my mostly-auditory learner and isn't stressful at all, but also gives us concrete proof of what we've learned with its copywork. {We do this 2-3 times a week.}

Spelling~ We liked All About Spelling a lot, but honestly, Volume 1 was really too easy for Gigi and it was a bit too complicated for us with all its steps and components with how chaotic our family can be. We've moved to a simple workbook that we really like. It even includes some scripture in it (but I have non-Christian who also use it, too). {2-3 times/week.}

Handwriting~ Gigi has moved on to Handwriting Without Tears' cursive and loves it. She still does all her other work in print though at this point. She's almost done with Kick-Start Cursive and will start the first full cursive book next. {2-3 times/week.}

Writing~ We don't use a writing curriculum yet but Gigi is doing  more of her own journal entries, and also does lots of writing in her other subjects.

Extras: Gigi is a pretty voracious reader already and is plugging away on age/grade-appropriate chapter books, and we are still reading to the kids of course (right now it's Little House with mom, and Lemony Snicket with dad). She still dabbles at Starfall just for fun, and has a project going on Storybird. She was progressing nicely in Rosetta Stone Spanish but we've taken a break from that partly to simplify and partly due to computer issues.

Math

Singapore workbooks weren't really doing it for us. For two years I've fought Gigi and her math, and when we ended first grade I felt like she was behind, and not mastering her math facts.

After some research and talking to some other parents and our E.F., we decided to make a change. We switched to Math-U-See and essentially started over (!!).

We're now over halfway through the "Alpha" level, and it's been a great fit for us. It incorporates a DVD lesson with Mr. Steve as we refer to him (I think he wrote the textbook), manipulative blocks, and the workbook. I also bought the Math U See iPad app so she can virtually manipulate the blocks while on the road or just to mix things up.

She might be "behind" compared to other second graders, but she's really learning and progressing, and I think in no time she'll be caught up and maybe even ahead eventually. The most important thing for me was to find something she gelled with where we wouldn't have to fight over it and she could learn to appreciate numbers more than I ever did. She still protests sometimes but now it's more a general not-wanting-to-do-school which feels normal, rather than a specific math fight. {We do new DVD lessons 1-2 times a week, and try to do math worksheets 3-5 days/week.}

Bible

We go to a weekly Bible study called CBS where Gigi gets to hang out with other homeschoolers in the Primary/Jr. class and do a kid version of the Bible study that the adults do. This year we are studying Daniel and Revelation.

She loves it, and I love that she is in the Word and getting loved on by the sweet ladies who teach her class, and in another community with other homeschool kids who love Jesus. {We try to work on Gigi's lesson 4-5 days/week.}

P.E.

We started off the year with swimming lessons and now Gigi is taking skateboarding lessons, which is pretty darn cool. We live near a world-class skate park (at our YMCA) where she is taking lessons. In the spring, she's going to play softball for the first time.

Science & History

We do these subjects with a co-op, which I'll share about later. :)

Thanks for stepping into our homeschool! I'd love to know what your kids are up to.

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