We are over a month into our homeschool year! It was a little bit of a rocky start getting back into a good routine, but things are going well. Our oldest is in second grade and our youngest is doing some preschool level things. In this post, I am sharing what we are using for our second-grade curriculum. We aren’t using anything too structured for the preschool stuff, basically a lot of reading and continuing learning the letters and numbers.
I really liked how we had our three baskets last year, the Bible Basket, Core Basket, and Enrichment Basket. This year we are still using the baskets, but I changed how they work for us. I have one for my second grader, one for my preschooler, and one for me. Each basket for the girls holds the books and supplies that are just for them. My basket holds the teacher guides and any books that I read to both of them.
Even though it isn’t sorted into separate baskets, we still have a lot of our school work split into Bible, Core, and Enrichment times.
Bible Time
Our Bible Time is when we read our Bible and write in our Bible journals. We are still using the One Big Story Bible and read one chapter a day. After the reading, we talk about it and copy down a Bible verse in our journal. My daughter will sometimes add a picture to go with what we read. Check out this post to see how we set up and use our Bible journals.
We are continuing in Apologia’s Who Is God? book and journal. We will also work on memorizing some verses related to our Bible readings and learning some hymns.
Core Time
Our Core Time is when we work on History, Language Arts, Math, and Science. We are continuing with much of the same types of curriculum for these subjects.
For History, we are using BookShark Reading with History Level C, Intro to World History Year 2. This includes many books to read aloud about different cultures and time periods.
We are using BookShark again for Language Arts. We have the Level 2 set. It schedules the Handwriting Without Tears and Explode the Code books alongside activity sheets and reading books. For spelling work, we are using Spelling You See C.
For Math, we are almost halfway through Math U See Beta and will move into Gamma later in the year. The math manipulative blocks that are part of the curriculum are still a big hit. We also have some play money and shapes for more hands-on learning.
We are using Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Zoology 1 Flying Creatures for our Science study. There is a companion notebooking journal that we are using, too. And we are making file folder lapbooks for each chapter in the textbook (per my daughter’s request, because she remembered doing one a couple of years ago and wants to make more).
Enrichment Time
Our Enrichment Time is when we read books about artists, composers, and nature, as well as work on handicrafts/art projects. My plan is for us to learn about three artists and three composers during the year. For nature studies and handicrafts/art projects, I want to set up readings and activities based on my daughter’s interest. We don’t do all the different enrichment study topics each day but rotate through them as we go.
Homeschool Yearly Tracker
Last school year with our move, our homeschool schedule had to be very flexible. I felt wasteful with the dated planner I had purchased at the beginning of the school year because there were so many pages I did not use in it. So I designed the Homeschool Yearly Tracker to help us document what we work on each school day.
The Homeschool Yearly Tracker is not a typical planner. It is a way to document – or track – what your child does each school day. Fill in the date and write down what you do in each subject area for that day. If you don’t do school for a few days because of a sickness or family trip, just fill in the next day you do have school. No wasted pages for long holiday breaks or other things that come up (like our move last school year). If you are looking for a unique homeschool planner, then check out the Homeschool Yearly Tracker over in my shop.
Things are going well with the curriculum we are using, but we still need to figure out and finish our homeschool area. One of these days I will get the desks finished and get some things hung up on the walls to complete the area…so that will be a post for another time. Until then, follow along with some of our homeschool adventures over on my Instagram account (@mackenziemakes).
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