I told you Quarter 2 goes fast! Here is my recap of Quarter 1, if you missed it.
Math
After I cross-referenced and double-checked and aligned and re-aligned three different math curriculums plus supplemental materials for 2nd grade, I have determined that he is done with 2nd grade math. I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything. It's been a few years since I taught math. He's done *mostly* 2nd grade Go Math for this 2nd quarter. We also went into multiplication so I'm incorporating some of that practice every day.
What I've used: The Good and the Beautiful, Envisions, Go Math, and a variety of workbooks/pages I've sourced elsewhere.
TGATB isn't rigorous but I don't *not* recommend it. It's just not for him, specifically, since he had a couple of years of math instruction already.
Same with Envisions: I don't dislike it at all but he would probably need the 3rd grade book and I don't feel like buying it when I have other resources. I did enjoy teaching Envisions in the classroom.
I've heard a lot about Beast Academy and I've heard great things about Mammoth Math, as well. So I have researched those a bit.
ELA
Someone told me that you end up cobbling together ELA no matter what you use, so I've definitely cobbled it together.
For starters, we finished The Good and the Beautiful print book for Level 2 and I ordered the Handwriting Without Tears for 2nd grade (Cursive Kick-off). We're in the middle of that right now. I love it. He does too, and he loves cursive. That book is my #1 recommendation if you want to introduce cursive!
He's still working through the Zaner-Bloser 2nd grade spelling book. I like this a lot. We've finished 11 units in half the year. Each unit is 7 days, I believe. Honestly, I don't think it matters what you use for spelling as long as you have some sort of spelling book. There are review weeks built in every 5 or 6 weeks so I like that feature of this book.
I have The Good and The Beautiful Level 2 Language Arts book. I have a love/hate relationship with this book. While I really like it, it's a little fluffy. My favorite lessons are the ones that center on geography and art. My least favorite are the grammar lessons because they seem to be taught in a vacuum without context. And the writing lessons aren't for me: it asks the child to narrate a story while the parent types. No. Absolutely not. I printed out a quick narrative organizer and he wrote it himself, thanks. I do like how diverse the lessons are and the variety it includes. We just run out of time a lot.
Instead of the direct instruction ELA lessons, then, I've been making him read short novels and answer questions. Now, I did this to myself but it's turned into an enormous amount of work on my part. I think it's the most beneficial to him, though. My friend asked me the other day if I use ChatGPT to do the questions and I was like NO but honestly it never occurred to me to use ChatGPT.
My tirade on middle-grade reading: Kids don't read books in school anymore because they're not asked to read books. I've discovered that some basic questions to reinforce comprehension go a long way. Bonus points if they have to cite page numbers. We've made it too complicated, asking them what they think or to synthesize information. They need to be able to do those things but we forget to teach them basic recall (independent recall, not oral/verbal recall). I also don't like novel studies with fluff. I downloaded one and honestly consider it a waste of money. The book was great but he didn't need all the extras; he needed comprehension practice. We spend all this time teaching kids to read and then don't ask them to do anything with it independently until like 5th grade.
Anyway.
He read My Father's Dragon, Thanksgiving on Thursday, and Christmas in Camelot this quarter. I don't think Magic Treehouse is the pinnacle of children's literature but it's a great place to start for chapter books. I think we're going to do The Whipping Boy after Christmas because I remember reading it in 2nd grade.
I am using DIBELS each month to track progress, just for "fun" on my side. No one actually has to do this..I just like DIBELS.
I have more grammar/short story ELA plans/content for 3rd quarter...stay tuned! I actually love teaching grammar and I've been working on a more systematic way to incorporate it.
Science/Social Studies
While, in a perfect world, I would be planning for these subjects, it's not practical for a 7 year old. In the primary grades, S/SS is incorporated into ELA most of the time. I appreciate the geography in TGATB for this reason. I was thinking of doing a geography course in the 2nd semester but we'll see. He gets a lot of this from just living life and not being in a school all day. My heavy recommendation is that, if you're going to do anything, focus on geography. Most 3rd/4th graders have no frame of reference because it's never been explicitly taught. It's a lot easier to teach a 7 year old about maps and globes than it is to teach a 9 year old about maps and globes.
Co-op
We finished out co-op days for the semester in the middle of November. It does not start up again until mid-February. I did volunteer to teach a class, mostly so Wells is guaranteed a topic I want him to know about :) When it comes to the three of us, I would say Sutton gets the most out of the co-op. She absolutely loves it.
Sutton
At 3 years old, I haven't really asked her to do anything in the first semester. We've read a lot of books; a few new ones from a "living book" list each week. I'm really going to focus in on letters this spring but I'm considering this Math at Home book for her. I've tried the units or themes and she's not into it as much but she thrives in a group setting so...she'll have the co-op on Fridays and we'll think about what's best for next year. Her classes for co-op will be a math class and a music class.
Extras
From what I've witnessed here, homeschool kids actually have more time for activities. While we don't jam-pack our weeks by any means, Sutton has dance class once a week and Wells was offered sports and he wasn't interested. He just wants to play outside. Instead, a friend invited him to Awana and I started taking him to that one night a week. He loves it! The teachers said oh my gosh, he's caught on so quick and I'm like yeah...he thrives in a classroom setting because I don't know what else to say. I am hoping he can catch up in the Awana book maybe over Christmas because he started the program in November instead of September.
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This was the quarter that the schedule dissolved. I didn't even try a lot of days. As long as he accomplished what I put in front of him, I was happy. And we do homeschool 5 days a week if there's not co-op. It literally will take this kid 6 hours to do 2 hours worth of work because he will fill the time he is given, much like his parents.
We read a lot of Thanksgiving books and Christmas books and Sutton completely dropped her nap, which has really thrown my desired schedule into a tailspin. We still spend an hour walking the dogs each day and snacks are needed, apparently, every 23 minutes. The days actually go really fast, and the progress doesn't always feel like it's happening, but I know it is.
Questions and suggestions welcomed!
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