Second Grade Curriculum Choices

First grade is nearly over at our house. We have a vacation coming up at the end of this month, and we'll tie up the rest of our loose ends in May. It's been a year full of hills and valleys here. We didn't get as much done as I'd wanted, (will we ever?) but we did enough. 

It's time to plan for next year. We typically homeschool through out the summer, so second grade is just around the corner for us. 

Second grade homeschool curriculum.

We're going to be starting a new schedule for next year. Instead of taking several large chunks of time off though out the year, we're going to try taking a two week break every 5-6 weeks. I read about schools overseas using a similar schedule on someone's blog a while back, and it stuck with me. I love the idea of having built in breaks to keep us all from burning out, and I feel like I'll have more time to plan during the breaks.

We've purchased most of the necessary  curriculum, and I've tentatively come up with a weekly schedule for us.(More on that later.) I thought I'd share some of the curriculum we'll be using next year, in case anyone else is brainstorming for ideas. The list isn't all inclusive, and is subject to change. (Obviously we'll tweak anything that doesn't work. I'm also still on the TOS crew until at least late next fall, so we'll be throwing those review products into the mix as well. ) A few of these products will be used daily, most once or twice a week.

(Also I'm linking to Christianbook.com because they're frequently the cheapest source for new curriculum, but for the record I'm not an affiliate, and don't stand to gain anything from your clicks.)

Math: Singapore 2A/2B

Science/History/Social Studies: We're going to be doing some unit studies that will cover these areas, but additionally, we'll be reading Story of the World, and L will be continuing the Christian Liberty Nature Reader  series. (He really likes these.)

Bible: Aside from the actual Bible, we'll be using Studying God's word Book B (also by Christian Liberty Press, and also a continuation of a series that L has thus far enjoyed.) Additionally, we'll be using the wonderful Seeds Family Worship cds, and a Bible study on Revelation, at L's request.

Reading/Language Arts: We read a lot here. I still believe the best way to learn to read and write is to read and be read lots of books. We'll be continuing with the Little House books, and whatever else strikes our fancy. I've also purchased a Spectrum Language Arts workbook to cover things like parts of speech.

Handwriting: We started using the Draw. Write Now. books some time ago, and just sort of lost steam. We're going to pick those up again, because they're fun, and L can most definitely use the practice. 

Art: Artistic Pursuits

Spanish: I recently found out that our public library offers Mango language lessons for free to card holders. We're going to test drive it, and see what we think. (I've heard good things about Mango, and the price is right.)

Extras: The kiddos are going to be enrolled in Awana again. We're also looking into scouting for L next year.

All told, we're probably looking at about a half day of school work for L.