Science/Nature

I LOVE nature studies. This site has a phenomenal nature program we follow. Here are the books we've read.

From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman
The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible
Pagoo by Holling C. Holling

Handwriting

Where, oh where would I be without Writing With Ease? This series saved copywork for us. I love Miss Mason's philosophy on copywork, but for years I struggled to implement it. God bless a dear friend who introduced me to Writing With Ease. It's amazing. I'm not particularly fond of the large lines, even for second grade, so I will link sites where you can choose your line sizes soon. Handwriting should be short, only ten or fifteen minutes. This is easy to do with WWE, because there are only one or two sentences to write. Another good thing about this program is it alternates copywork and narration  so children are copying two days and narrating two days each week.

Recitation

This was the easiest subject for us, since we merely used her AWANA materials. My little one likes to finish her books early in the year, so we would spend Bible time reading the Bible biographies and recitation time reciting the verses for all the biographies we read. I will list some verses our family has memorized soon. Also, if your child is in AWANA, consider purchasing a book for yourself or your spouse to work through. Children love helping adults learn!

Poetry

Poetry should be read aloud five days each week. I began the year reading the poem aloud, then H and I would take turns reading each line, then each stanza, and finally she would read the whole poem. On Fridays she chose a poem to review and read it aloud to me. In this way we read four poems each week. Click the link to go to the poems on Ambleside Online

Walter De La Mare

Eugene Field

James Whitcombe Riley

Paul Revere's Ride by  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (We purchased an illustrated edition)

Sing Song by Christina Rossetti

Poetry should also be read for pleasure. Books by Shel Silverstein or Dr. Seuss are a wonderful introduction to poetry. Find a style or author your child enjoys and stock her book basket with books by him/her. 

Music Appreciation

Charlotte Mason referred to this as composer study. I'm calling it music appreciation. It's the same thing. We are reading the "Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers" series. I love it because it offers facts about the composers lives, and describes some of their work and the time during which it was written. I feel this really helps kids to identify with the work. Click the link to buy the books directly from Mike Venezia. I don't get any credit for it, I just thought you would like to find them all in one place.

Titles in the Getting to Know the World's Greatest Composers series:
Johann Sebastian Bach
Ludwig van Beethoven
The Beatles
Leonard Bernstein
Johannes Brahms
Fredric Chopin
Aaron Copeland
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington
George Gershwin
George Handel
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
John Philip Sousa
Igor Stravinsky
Peter Tchaikovsky

THIS SITE has several activities for a group of children to learn rhythm and notes. THIS ONE has a complete composer study for several composers. HERE is a cool composer study for Chopin.

Mathematics

Math for second grade should move to drills, but still use manipulatives. We used Mathmammoth, and LOVED it!

Here's the list of books we use for math, and the topics they cover.

The Addition Book by Jerry Pallotta (Addition)
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs (Place Value)
The Napping House (Word Problems)
One Hunter (Word Problems)
P. Bear's New Year's Party (Word Problems)
Two of Everything (Multiplication)
The Monster That Did My Math by Danny Schnitzlein
The Greedy Triangle (Geometry)

Here is my Pinterest board with second grade math activities.

Second Grade

I'm beginning with second grade because it's the grade my daughter is currently in. I have several lesson plans written that I will post soon.

Subjects:

Math*****

Elocution** (First semester only)

Literature****

Nature***

Hymn study*

Recitation****

Poetry*****

American history**

World history**

Drawing**

Bible*****

Writing****

Geography****

Music appreciation*

Music performance****

Art appreciation*

Spanish****

Handiwork*

I know this list looks daunting. Don't panic! Several subjects are assigned to Fridays. The asterisks denote how many times a week each subject is taught. Remember to keep the subjects short, no longer than 15-20 minutes.

Welcome!

I used to homeschool my daughter. Life interfered and I'm currently unable to homeschool. I still have a passion for education, and would like to share my thoughts and ideas with anyone interested. All content is free, but please give me credit! God Bless!