What We’re Doing for 2nd Grade for the 2024-2025 School Year

Now that I’ve shared what we’re doing for preschool, it’s time to share what we’ll be doing for 2nd Grade for the 2024-2025 school year. Some of this will be the same for my 3rd grader, as I combined some of the subjects for Mr. 8 and Miss 7 to make life a little easier, but also because they’re so close in age.

Language Arts

Phonics

Miss 7 is the only one still working through phonics. Our goal is to complete All About Reading through Level 4 this year.

Spelling

We’ll continue to use MCP’s Spelling Workout this year. Our goal is to finish Level B and start Level C.

Grammar

We’re enjoying First Language Lessons and will complete First Language Lessons Level 2 this year.

Writing

We’re using Zaner-Bloser 2C for penmanship and will start cursive writing midway through the year. We’ll use Brave Writer’s Jot It Down and Darts for writing. We’ll be studying Dragons in a Bag by Zetta Elliot, A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond, The One and Only Ivan by Kathleen Applegate, and more. We’ll also write fairy tales, create mini-lists, go on an art museum scavenger hunt, and more.

Literature and Poetry

We combine Blossom and Root Level 1, Build Your Library Levels 0 and 1, and Torchlight Levels K and 1 for literature and poetry. We’ll be focusing on tales and mythology from around the world. We will also study The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo, Wishtree by Kathleen Applegate, and Poppy by Avi, among other books. We plan on looking at selections from the National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry, The Poetry of Science: The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science for Kids by Sylvia Vardell, and The National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry. We will have Poetry Tea time on Tuesdays and Movie Madness (where we study literary elements in film) on Wednesdays.

Mathematics

We’ll continue to work through Singapore Math Primary Math U.S. Edition to finish book 2B by the end of the year.

Social Studies

Election Unit Study

We will complete the Build Your Library Election 2024 Election Unit Study leading to November’s election.

Geography and Cultural Studies

I’m combining Build Your Library Level 0 “Around the World” with Torchlight Level K “Worldly Wise” following the order taught in Build Your Library. We’ll tour the globe, learning about different countries and cultures. We’ll cook meals from each country and read stories from those countries. We’ll also follow the geography studies near the end of Blossom and Root Langauge Arts 1.

Ancient History

I’m combining Build Your Library Level 1, “The Ancient World,” with Torchlight Level 1, “Myth and Magic.” We’ll follow the pacing and chapters of Curiosity Chronicles and Torchlight for this. I also purchased the updated chapters for Curiosity Chronicles, and we will add those into our studies.

I’m looking forward to the various projects we’ll complete as we learn about ancient history worldwide.

Science and Nature Study

*Note* I have very science-oriented kids, so I added additional science per their requests as we do it daily. I know it’s traditional for homeschoolers to do science only a couple of times per week, but this works well for us as all of my children are big into science, particularly hands-on science.

I’m combining the nature study from Build Your Library Level 1 with the Nature Study from Blossom and Root. We’ll also be doing Wonders of the Earth and Sky for Science.

In addition, we plan to do the science from Torchlight and Scientific Connections through Inquiry Level 1 and Real Science Odyssey Biology 1. Throughout the year, we’ll talk about health in terms of how our bodies work since we will study the human body as part of this.

Arts and Music

We will use Blossom and Root’s Exploring the Math in Art level 1, Glitterbombers, and the art projects and music study suggested in our other curriculum. As with science, art is something that happens daily in our house.

Technology

We’ll follow grade 2 on typing.com and Complete courses A and B on code.org.

Elective: Prehistory

Miss 7 asked if she could study prehistory this year, so I stretched Build Your Library’s Prehistory Unit and Blossom and Root’s Wonders of the Prehistoric World into a year. She’s looking forward to most of everything we’re doing.

Extracurricular Activities

We will continue with Girl Scouts; Miss 7 will be a Brownie this year. We’re also planning to look at enrichment classes through our community center and see about gymnastics and/or dance classes to partially outsource for physical education this year.

There you have it. It’s a lot, but it works for us, and while listed out, it seems like it will take all day; we usually finish our sit-down stuff in an hour or so. I’m really excited to start! Miss 7 is too.