Although the year isn’t quite over, I think I can confidently share what we’ve used and loved. 2nd grade has been such a turning point year. I can honestly say it’s the year we’ve really found our rhythm. I’ve honed in on my style of homeschooling, which is a blend of Charlotte Mason and unschooling. I honestly feel like my children could adjust to any style of homeschooling; the number one thing that affects their success is my confidence as their primary educator. For 2nd grade, here’s what we used, and loved:
Bible
The way we do Bible time is simple. We read every single morning from whatever devotional, book of the Bible or picture book. We have no specific requirement of what needs to get done by a certain time. We simply read through the resource, then move on to the next thing. Usually, Bible time happens during breakfast or directly after breakfast over on the couch, while the littles build with Magnatiles or something else. Our motto is “You can move your hands, but not your mouths!”
Matthew 5
We started by simply reading Matthew 5, Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, in my ESV Bible. My goal was to read straight from the Bible, and have them narrate back, keeping quotes from their narrations in the journaling margins of the Bible (as pictured above). It went well for a time, until I realized their eyes were glazing over a bit as I read, and then they would sort-of make something up for the narration. While I still read directly from the Bible to them, I decided to support their Bible time with more of a devotional-style reading for a little longer. They really respond to this. We know our kids. Here are some of the picture books and devotionals we used moving forward–
Stories Jesus Told: The Parables of Jesus
We read through this beautiful picture book that is divided into chapters. It’s been sitting on my bookshelves for a while, and I decided it was the perfect time. The kids have so many of the parables hidden in their hearts now, and that started with this book.
Miracles: Wonders Jesus Worked
We loved the above resource so much that we decided to move on to Miracles Jesus Performed, by the same author. Likewise, this book was so wonderful, full of beautiful illustrations and simple to read.
The Advent Storybook: 25 Bible Stories Showing Why Jesus Came
During Christmastime, we read through this Advent Storybook. It was sweet, but I won’t be choosing it again next Christmas. It simply went through the main Bible Stories from Genesis all the way to Jesus’s birth, in a very simple, broad manner. The kids enjoyed it fine, but I was looking for more.
Ahhh, my favorite-ever company for all things devotionals. They created a new product, called The Parables of Jesus, and once again (as with every one of their products), I was in awe at the quality and depth of their work. Saturated with beautiful illustrations, this devotional took us through every parable and then broke it down into what this parable is teaching us. Since we had already read a book on the parables earlier in the year, it was such a delight to see the kids remember the parables, and be taken deeper into them. We all grew and learned so much. If you’re looking to try one of the Lithos Kids devotionals, I would start with this one.
Our 24 Family Ways: A Family Devotional Guide
This is the devotional we are currently working through as a family, and will most likely take us into the end of the year. Either at breakfast or at dinner, my husband reads through it and we all discuss. Because each “family way” is studied out for about a week, this devotional will take you no less than 24 weeks, and that’s if you don’t skip any time, and do the lesson each weekday. You start the week by memorizing the “family way”. An example of one is, “we love and obey our parents in the Lord with a respectful attitude.” Then we open up with a couple questions about authority (all provided by the book), read a passage of Scripture, discuss a little more, and then pray. Although it’s a different kind of rhythm, we are thoroughly enjoying the aspect of intentionally setting the culture of our home with these “family ways.”
Subject of the Day
We start our devotional time during breakfast, and then we break for Blessing Hour, which consists of tidying our rooms and getting ready. We usually blast worship music and take time to praise while we are in our rooms working. It usually takes about an hour, simply because my kiddos are still young and cleaning their room and getting ready are both still such large tasks for them. Once this hour is up and everything is tidy, hair is done and everyone is dressed, we sit down at the table for our Subject of the Day. The two little ones come and go as they please, since neither of them are required to join in on any formal lessons yet (they are 4 and 2!). Our Subjects of the Day are broken down like this:
Monday’s Subject of the Day: Bible
I know, I know- you’re wondering why this is a Subject of the Day, when we already do a devotion time every single morning. What I’ve realized is that, while I love going through a devotional or a Scripture guide for morning time, there’s also a time of equipping, testifying to my children, deep-diving with them. One of my spiritual gifts is teaching, and this is where I use that gift. When you read a devotional, the book determines what you study. But this specific Bible time on Mondays, I determine what we study based on where my children are at and what they need to know. This is also a time that is completely led by the Holy Spirit. He usually speaks to me as I’m planning for the year ahead- what spiritual goals He has for my children. Did you know that Jesus has a specific place He wants your children to get to by the end of the year? Just the same way that your math curriculum’s author has a specific place he or she wants you to get by the end of the school year, Jesus transforms us into His image from glory to glory, and has a specific glory or measure He wants your home to function in as seasons come to a close. When I sought Him for this school year, He told me He wanted them to learn The Beatitudes, and He wanted them to be able to understand (to another degree) The Gospel, and to be able to communicate it back to me, or anyone they shared Jesus with, for that matter. We usually cover a specific topic for 3-5 weeks before skipping to the next thing. Here are the topics, and how we covered it. Note that we always used notebooking to learn these topics, and I do a full blog post on how we notebook here.
The Beatitudes
The first thing we studied was the Beatitudes. This was something I just wanted them to memorize. It’s really important to the Lord, and therefore to me, that my children understands who He calls blessed. This world has a perception of what blessed looks like, but God’s is very different. I wanted God’s paradigm of blessed in my children at a very young age. Each week on Monday mornings after blessing hour, we would focus on 1-2 new verses of the Beatitudes; for example: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” We would make up a song to these two verses, and add it to the song we had already been working on for the previous verses. Then, they would copy down the verses. Lavender would copy down the entire verse or verses, while Lyon (if joining) would copy down the chapter and verse as a way to practice her handwriting. For example, Lavender would write “Matthew 5:7-8: Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Lyon would write, “Matthew 5:7-8.” Then they would draw a picture to go with it, and later they would “watercolor wash” the background. Once again,I talk about all things notebooking in my notebooking blog post.
Books of the Bible
After finishing up the Beatitudes, we decided to focus on learning the Books of the Bible. Once again, this was focused on memorization, but also we added the concept of the different categories that the books fall under. The categories are: the Torah, the Historical books, the Poetic books, Major Prophets, Minor Prophets, the Gospels, Church History, Letters and Prophecy. I know for a fact the kids don’t have these categories memorized, but they were at least introduced to the concept of the categorization of the Bible. Lavender was already learning the Books of the Bible at our church using this song, so we just stuck with that. Similar to the Beatitudes, we copied down on cardstock paper the category along with the books that went under it. For example, we would copy “The Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.” Lyon would just write, “The Torah.” Then, they would illustrate and later watercolor wash the background.
Romans Road
For our last Bible study of the year, we did Romans Road. Did you go through Romans Road as a kid? I did not, but I’ve heard it’s a super common topic of study within Sunday School. Romans Road is centered around the premise that the book of Romans takes you down a “road,” explaining a portion of the Gospel with each twist and turn. Romans Road was the perfect way to clarify the Gospel to my children and to help them articulate it back to me. We only used the book of Romans during this study, and we broke down the Gospel using 4 P’s. They are: The Problem, The Price, The Plan, The Praise and Promise. I got the idea of the P’s from Arrows and Applesauce in her Romans Road Unit Study– even though I decided not to use her exact resources, her explanation of the P’s helped so much. Each week, we would memorize the “P” for that week along with the Scripture verse, and then would notebook it and discuss it! The Problem is that “None is righteous, no, not one,” (Romans 3:10) and that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) The Price is Romans 6:23, which says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The Plan is this: ” God shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) We receive what He died by doing what Romans 10:9-10 says, which is: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses as is saved.” This is the Praise! And lastly, the Promise is that “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
If they can remember the 5 P’s and the verses that go along with them, they can communicate the Gospel message! There’s more that I believe the Gospel encompasses, of course, but this foundation is phenomenal.
After this we took a break from Monday Bible. Some mornings after 24 Family Ways, we rehearse the Beatitudes, the Books of the Bible and the 5 P’s. I will be seeking the Lord again for the next topic He wants me to cover in the coming weeks.
Tuesday and Thursday’s Subject of the Day: History/Geography
For History and Geography this year, we continued with Beautiful Feet Books. Last year for 1st grade, we used Around the World in Picture Books, Part 1. This year, we used Around the World in Picture Books, Part Two, which focuses on Europe and South America. For the South America portion, we covered Ecuador, Chile, Peru, and Brazil, which we actually went through the summer before 2nd grade. Then, we spread out Europe over the entire year. For Europe, we studied France, Spain, Italy, Holland, and Sweden. During our time studying Europe and South America, we were fully immersed in composers, painters, architects, beautiful fables, dances, celebrations and food. In Italy, we learned about Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo, and Fibonacci. In France, we learned about Louis Bleriot (the first person to fly an airplane across the English Channel), Joan of Arc, Marie Curie, Matisse, and Edgar Degas. We read Anatole, tried different cheeses and learned some French sayings. In Spain, we learned about the greatest Spanish architect, Antoni Gaudi, and we created our own castle designs. We studied Picasso and made our own Picasso-inspired paintings. We learned some flamenco dancing, watched some bull fights, and learned about human towers! It was such a fun year, and when the curriculum came to an end, Lavender begged for more! To supplement our Europe studies, we used these these Classics Cards (photographed at the top of this blog), which covered many of our artists, composers and poets for the year!
Wednesday’s Subject of the Day: Nature Study
Nature Study was a little rocky this year, and this is mainly due to me, not the kiddos. I find that after a while of doing something, I get ancy and have the desire to start fresh with something else. Basically, I get bored! After about 3 months of beautiful nature study, I got bored with what we were doing, and we stopped! Also, the cold weather is a factor as well. As much as I want to be “any weather outdoors” kind of Mom, I’m not fully there yet. So I find that I focus heavily on Nature Study in the fall, and then I get excited to pick it back up in the Spring and Summer. Hence, I’m planning to jump back into Nature Study in May and continue through July before the next “school year” begins. Here’s what we did for the first few months of 2nd grade–
Hite Family Badge Program
I got this genius idea from one of my favorite follows on instagram, @alittleglamalotofmom. I changed it up a little bit to make it work for my family, and this is what we arrived at.
Each month, we pick a nature topic, i.e. butterflies, birds, planets, moon phases, etc. Each Wednesday of that month, we did a deep-dive into that topic using beautiful, nature study resources and picture books. Check out the nature study section of my Amazon Storefront here. At the beginning of the month, we decided on objectives for the month. For example, when we studied moon phases, we decided that by the end of the month, we wanted to have all the moon phases memorized, and be able to go outside on any given night and determine the moon phase. So with that in mind, the children used notebooking to work on 1-2 moon phases per week. They would draw the moon phase and write underneath what it was called. We also read picture books about the moon phases. At the end of the month, if they met their goal of being able to memorize and decipher the moon phases, they would earn a nature badge. I bought iron-on patches on Amazon (also in the nature study section of my Amazon Storefront), and they would receive their patch as a reward! I bought them basic green cargo jackets from Old Navy, and they simply ironed on their patch when they received it! They started to coin that day, “Badge Day,” and they loved it! Not only was this the perfect incentive to get them to focus on certain objectives, but also the jackets became a conduit for them to share their learning with others! Whenever they would wear them and get questions on them, they got to explain how they earned the badge. Lyon, my 4 year old, also got a cargo jacket and badges; the only difference was her objectives were a little lighter. An example would be out butterfly month; when Lavender would memorize 7 butterflies, Lyon would memorize 4. We called this our Hite Family Badge Program, and I highly recommend this idea for more of an unschooling approach to nature study and science! By the end of Autumn, we studied butterflies, wildflowers, moon phases, and local trees. I honestly think I’ll continue with this method for years to come!
Can I also add that this “Nature Badge Program” would work beautifully as a nature coop? You could simply get together every week, bring a ton of picture books and research books for the kids to explore, draw, etc. At the end of the month, each child could recite what they’ve memorized and be awarded their badges? The best part is the iron-on patches come in bags of about 12-15 anyway, so it would be perfect!
Friday’s Subject of the Day: Outdoors
Our goal for Fridays is always to take a nature hike, and then come home and prepare for a Sabbath Saturday. There are no formal lessons on Fridays, making it the ideal time for play dates, appointments, and house cleaning!
Formal Subjects
Now that I’ve completed the “Subject of the Day” section, we can get to the formal subjects, i.e. Math and Language Arts. These are done directly after the Subject of the Day! So just as a recap, so far we’ve done Bible during breakfast, Blessing Hour after breakfast, and then the Subject of the Day. Sometimes if our daily subject runs long, we take a quick break to make lunch, and then eat while working on formal subjects. Here’s what we used for formal lessons this year:
Math
After using The Good and the Beautiful for Kindergarten, and Math-U-See for 1st grade, I think we finally landed on a curriculum that truly works for us. Math with Confidence uses a combines a mastery and spiral approach, making it ideal for my Lavender. The curriculum is fully illustrated and includes games and activities, which she loves and really responds to. Also, each lesson has a “new skills” page and a review page, meaning you aren’t stuck on one thing for weeks at the time, but you also don’t lose past skills. You simply do the warm up and the main lesson, and then the child completed two pages of the workbook- the review page and the main lesson page. The only “con” of this curriculum is that the lessons take about 30 minutes each. I’ve considered switching to something else (CM Arithmetic series, I see you!) but Lavender truly loves Math with Confidence and has asked if she can continue with it. She doesn’t seem to mind the longer lessons, because they are mostly games and fun activities. Also, keep in mind, you can always mark out some of the practice problems if the child has already mastered that skill. There’s no point in doing eight problems, if she can do four really well. But that’s just my personal opinion. In the past, Lavender would get bored with math simply because of the on-and-on repetition of the problems, so I have no problem shortening that for her, as long as she fully understands the concepts.
Language Arts
Language Arts is simply this: the study of language. This includes language in through the ear, language spoken, and language written. For me, this simplifies things. I need to make sure that my children are getting beautiful, quality language in through the ear, that they are learning to speak articulately and with rich vocabulary, and that they’re able to express themselves through writing, with the proper spelling.
Language through the ear was covered this year by the rich literature my children got during their study of history, geography and nature study. Furthermore, during our read-alouds (which I talk more about below), they are hearing quality, well-articulated sentences with rich vocabulary throughout the week. Language spoken happens as my children memorize and recite Scripture. It also happens as we read great books and they narrate back to me what they’ve heard. We utilize narration for almost every subject; the art of listening and telling back covers so much! They are learning to comprehend, order their thoughts, and then articulate and explain what they heard back to me. Language spoken was also covered as my oldest daughter read aloud to me, and learned how to enunciate and inflect as she read. Language written happened almost every day through our notebooking process. Through notebooking, grammar, spelling, and sentence structure are all covered.
In addition to reading, narrating and notebooking, we did utilize Explode the Code. It’s been a go-to for years. We used Explode the Code Level 3 this year.
Enrichment
Bible, Blessing Hour, Subject of the Day, Math and Language Arts usually brought us to about 1pm. If we hadn’t already eaten lunch during formal lessons, we went downstairs to make lunch afterwards. After lunch, at some point in the afternoon, we did:
Piano: Hoffman Academy
We used Hoffman Academy, and absolutely loved it! These are completely free, online piano lessons. Mr.Hoffman became a beloved friend to Lavender. She looked forward to her lessons every day!
Singing Lessons: Sing Solfa
At some point in the afternoon, we all gathered together for Solfa (singing) Lessons, using this online curriculum. We went through lessons slowly, VERY slowly. The goal was just that my children would be able to enjoy their voices. I want them to be able to sing acapella in their time of praising the Lord, join a choir if they’d like, or sing along with their piano playing. This is what we used for singing.
In addition, Lavender and Lyon took sewing classes for about 3 months with my mom, which was so sweet to witness. They also participated in a running club called Crazy Running, every Sunday afternoon. They had an extremely active, social year, but we really found our groove at home too. I’m hiding the beauty of this year in my heart. This journal will serve as a reminder for all the memories we made. If you have questions on something specific, go ahead and ask below. I truly love getting to share our journey with you.
Blessings, mamas! May your homeschool year be filled with memories, laughter and growth!
Ever-following The Way,
Jada
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