Last year, because we pulled our son out of public school in October, I felt very disorganized and unprepared, despite having previously taught 2nd & 3rd grade for 8 years. This year I feel better heading into the start of our school year. I have been able to try out or preview several different curricula to decide what I think will work best for us and feel very good about my choices, though I must admit, the more curriculum plans I look at on other blogs, the more stuff I see I want to try! I may just have to avoid doing any more reading about other curriculum choices!
So, here's what we're going to be using:
2nd/3rd grade (my guy is 2nd grade age, but using some 3rd grade material)
Bible:
We do a bible reading every day, with a related craft or activity done twice a week. We're using T
he Story for Little Children and will be reading a chapter a week.
Math:
We do formal Math instruction 4 days a week, and one day a week we do fun Math games and fun Math fact reviews (like Fact Baskets where I take him outside and call out a Math fact. Each time he gets one right, he gets to shoot the basketball!)
Singapore 2B & 3A. We used Singapore last year and were happy with it, so we plan to continue (although I'd LOVE to try Teaching Textbooks, but it just isn't in the budget.) We'll supplement with Kids College (an online game for Math & Reading) and Xtra Math (a free online site for learning math facts)
Literature:
We do Literature five times a week, usually reading one chapter a day for four days and then using the fifth day to review and summarize what we've read so far. This year we're focusing on classical literature and will be creating lap books to go along with each novel we read. We're starting out with
Treasure Island.
Language Arts:
We do grammar lessons twice a week and Reading Comprehension Skills once a week.
For grammar, We're using Scholastic's
Success with Grammar, Grade 2, and for Reading Comp we're using Carson Dellosa's
Reading Comprehension, Grade 2. We begun both of these workbooks last year and will continue with them until we complete them. I'm considering going to BJU Language Arts afterwards, but we'll see.
Spelling:
We do short Spelling activities daily. I'm creating my own Spelling lists each week, pulling from the Dolch list of words and other phonetics lists. Most of the Spelling activities are done on Spellingcity.com, though we do enjoy spelling words with letter tiles and writing them in the driveway with chalk.
Writing:
We do writing twice a week. At the beginning of the year it will be mostly free choice journal writing but will progress to more formal writing as the year continues. By the end of the year I hope that he can write a well structured paragraph with a strong topic sentence, supporting details, and good word choice, as well as being grammatically correct. Writing is his biggest weakness, so we'll see how it goes!
Copy Work:
Each week we learn a new Memory Verse and so his copy work will revolve around this verse. We'll do copy work 2-3 times a week.
S
ocial Studies:
We'll do short geography lessons twice a week using Confessionsofahomeschooler.com 's
Roadtrip USA. We're also going to be learning about the history of South Carolina 3 days a week (rotated with Science units).
Science:
We're starting out with Weather as our first unit of the year. We'll also be studying Matter, Rocks & Minerals, Human Body, and Animals. We do Science or History 3 days a week and rotate between Science Units and History Units.
PE:
He'll be attending our local YMCA's Homeschool Swim & Gym class once a week for 3 hours as well as partaking in a karate class once a week for an hour and a half. We also play outside most every day swimming, jumping on the trampoline, riding bikes, playing basketball, or just running around with neighbors!
Pre-school:
For my 3 1/2 year old, we'll be using Confessionofahomeschooler.com 's
K4 program. I won't be following it exactly, but will be pulling from it the things that fit my little guy the best. We'll also be using Tot Boxes for some hands-on fun.
