We have finally wrapped up our second year of homeschool and I can finally say that I feel 100% confident in our schedules. When we decided to start homeschooling for 1st grade after our little guy had a rough pre-school and Kindergarten experience, I was terrified and overwhelmed. Even though I read all these amazing homeschool blogs, books, and curriculum reviews, I couldn’t get out of my head the “what if’s”. I prayed..I prayed for guidance and I prayed reassurance that I was actually doing what was meant for our family in this season of our lives. If it wasn’t for prayer, I seriously don’t think I could make it.
Our first year the curriculum we chose was just ok, but I’m not going to mention which one is was (and no I didn’t blog about it). When it comes to learning, every child has a different style. I have finally figured out what works for my upcoming 3rd grader, and hopefully it will work with four-year old as well. However, only time will tell. This coming year my eight year old asked for some work on the computer. We have agreed on a couple of subjects and hopefully it will go well.
Our 2nd grade curriculum was Sonlight with a few extras tossed in. So let’s begin…
History & Geography
As you can see below there is an awesome selection of books added. Our absolute favorite out of all these were: A Child’s History of the World, Roman Diary, and The Usborne Book of World History. We aren’t huge fans of the People and Window on the Worlds. Also, we really enjoyed reading the George Muller and Gladys Aylward books and will be purchasing more from this collection.
Peoples of the World
George Muller
Roman Diary
Castle Diary
The Usborne Book of World History
Window on the World
Audio Memory Geograp
hy Songs CD Kit
A Child’s History of the World
Gladys Aylward
Language Arts:
The language arts is perfect. I admit that I have a lazy child when it comes to having to actually write, but he learned a ton.
Explode The Code 4, 5 & 6
Worldly Wise
Cornstalks: A Bushel of Poems
The Aesops for Children
Bible:
The Bible curriculum isn’t bad. Some parts throughout the year were harder for my eight year old to grasp and I could see him drifting off. That’s when it was time to do it a little different depending on what we were studying. Along with these two items, we read the Bible daily.
The Awesome Book of Bible Facts
Sing the Word: God Our Provider
Science:
All in all at the end of the year we were pretty happy with the Science. I did end up purchasing extra experiments, dvds and books to go along with it. I felt the book could be rather vague and needed a little extra depending on what we were studying. I wasn’t a fan at all of the Discover & Do and it wouldn’t be something I would purchase. I think we only used it three times. I also wasn’t crazy about the Science Activities book. There are better experiment books out there in my opinion.
Weather
Planet Earth
The Usborne Book of Knowledge
Dinosaurs Unleashed
Discover & Do Level 2 DVD
The Magic School Bus Inside the Earth
The Magic School Bus Lost In The Solar System
Science Activities, Vol. 3
Marie Curie’s Search for Radium
The Magic School Bus: A Journey into the Human Body
The Magic School Bus: The Secrets of Space
The Magic School Bus: Back in Time with the Dinosaurs
The Magic School Bus: Human Body
The Magic School Bus: Space Adventures
Handwriting:
Handwriting Without Tears 2
Spelling:
All About Spelling
Math:
Horizons Math
Read Alouds
When we would do the read alouds, my four year old would join in as well. A few of our favorites were: Gooney Bird Greene, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Little Pear, The Twenty-One Balloons, Strawberry Girl, Red Sails to Capri, & The Cricket in Times Square.
Gooney Bird Greene
Homer Price
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle
Detectives In Togas
Little Pear
The Twenty-One Balloons
The Door in the Wall
Strawberry Girl
The Little Riders
Red Sails to Capri
The Cricket in Times Square
Tales of Robin Hood
The School Story
Hidden Tales from Eastern Europe
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!
Readers
My son loves all the Frog and Toad, Nate the Great and Owl books! Those are his absolute favorite.
Frog and Toad are Friends
Frog and Toad Together
Owl at Home
Pompeii: Buried Alive!
Titanic: Lost and Found
Wagon Wheels
The Big Balloon Race
Mouse Tales
The Beginner’s Bible
Nate the Great
The Fire Cat
Frog and Toad All Year
Amelia Bedelia
Surprises
I feel like we had a great year! We are still putting together our 3rd grade curriculum and then I’m also adding curriculum for my 4 1/2 year old as well. As soon as I have that all sorted out, I’ll be sure to share!
Happy Homeschooling!!
2 comments
What a fantastic resource! Thanks for sharing, Samantha. I love hearing what everyone is doing in their home schools!
Author
You’re welcome. I love looking at the different resources people use too. That’s how I build for the next year. I didn’t do one our first year of homeschooling..I just wasn’t confident enough. Now that we are heading into our third year I’m becoming so much more familiar with all the different resources out there and more confident with building my own curriculum.