Second Grade Curriculum

First off, I have a second grader.

Say what?!?!

I'm much too young to be old enough to have a second grader.  Second grade sounds so, well, like second grade.  I'd say that is the first year of school I have vivid memories of.  I remember a lot, which means I better be extra nice from here on out to Josie.

I am very excited about this school year.

Josie has matured and grown so much in the past year and I'm pumped to see what she does in the next nine months.  She worked really hard all Summer to advance her reading and penmanship.  The progress she made was pretty astounding.  She's starting second grade right on track.

I'm also extra stoked about this year because I've had this curriculum sitting on my shelf since January.

I bought things as I came across them, which is wonderful for the budget, not so wonderful for my impatient self.  I took a week at the start of June to lay out a general plan of attack and plan our first month back to school (we don't start until September).  After taking the Summer to relax and have fun and move across the country, we are all ready to jump in.

Here's what Josie will be doing for Second Grade:

Math - Grade 2 ACE Math PACEs 
English - Logic of English Essentials (includes grammar, spelling, and phonics)
Grammar - First Language Lessons (book 1) (grammar, memorization, dictation)
Handwriting - Handwriting Without Tears Printing Power and Beginning Cursive
Keyboarding - Keyboarding Without Tears Key Power
History - Heroes and Heroines of the Past: American History Curriculum
Geography - State A Week Packets from Enchanted Homeschooling Mom
Science - Christian Kids Explore Biology
  - with vocabulary flashcards from 123homeschool4me
Reading - 20 minutes daily minimum

We won't do them all everyday.  

After all, we have a new state to explore and a Preschooler to teach.

Here is our read aloud plan:

(It's lofty, but I want read alouds to be a bigger part of our day this year.)

  

Beatrix Potter Stories
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling
Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Pinocchio by C. Collodi
The Orange Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew by Margaret Sidney

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll
A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys by Nathaniel Hawthorne 

Our extracurricular schedule is pretty full too.

Scottsdale has an awesome community ed program so each kid can pick an activity to participate in each session.  I'm hoping this gives them exposure to a few different sports and activities to help them see what they enjoy most.  We are still on the hunt for a new ballet studio, but once we find one she will be in that as well.

What I'm most excited about is her new Enrichment School.

Arizona allows partial enrollment in public school.  Basically it means she can go to school part time for free.  After some investigating, I found a program that meets in a wing of a public school, but only homeschool kids attend.  She will go two days a week and have the same teacher and students in her class just like if she were attending a regular school.

It's strictly enrichment, meaning she will get to do art, music, computer lab, library, and recess as well as study work surrounding a different theme every month.  The theme work contains language arts, math, reading, and writing, but I will still be responsible for the majority of those subjects on the days she is home.  We went to tour the school when we were out in Arizona for vacation in April and it is going to be such a fabulous fit for us.  I'm more than a little pumped that Gabe can go next year too!

For now, we are going to enjoy a few more weeks of freedom.

Happy Schooling Everyone!