Our School: Second Grade Curriculum

We are enrolled in Mother of Divine Grace homeschool. MODG is a CLASSICAL curriculum.  I am enrolled in their school, but that enrollment allows me some flexibility in curriculum choices if I keep to the school standards.  I definitely organize the school day in my mind differently than they, but the essence is the same.

Here's the original:

Religion:
St. Joseph’s Baltimore Catechism No. 1
St. Joseph's First Communion Catechism
Any Lives of the Saints book

Math
(Option 1): Arithmetic 2 (www.abeka.com)
Arithmetic 2 Tests & Speed Drills (www.abeka.com)
Math-It Set (E.W. Brooks) (www.rainbowresource.com)
(Option 2):
Saxon Math 2 Homeschool Kit (www.saxonhomeschool.com)

Reading/Phonics:
Sound Beginnings: Parent/Teacher Manual (J. Fogassy) (www.ourfathershouse.biz)
The Harp and Laurel Wreath (ed. Berquist)

Handwriting:
Writing Can Help, Book 1: Introducing Printing and Handwriting (M. Picard)
composition notebook

Poetry:
The Harp and Laurel Wreath (ed. Berquist)
blank book

History:
Paul Revere’s Ride (H.W. Longfellow, ill. Rand)
Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims (C.R. Bulla)
blank book for Family History (same book used in Geography)
various historical biographies – see Supplementary Materials – These can also be found in
libraries

Geography:
United States Coloring Book (W. Adam, pub. Dover)
The United States of America: A State by State Guide (www.amazon.com)
States & Capitals Flashcards
blank book for maps (same book used in History)

Science:
Science with Plants (pub. Usborne)
Seasons and Living Things (pub. Milliken)
blank book

Art:
Child-Size Masterpieces: Mommy, It’s a Renoir! - Text (Aline D. Wolf)
Child-Size Masterpieces: Mommy, It’s a Renoir! - Advanced Steps 1-3
Discover Crochet Kit (or any How to Crochet Book)
Tissue Paper Flowers (pub. Klutz) OP
Wooden Rosary Holder: Immaculate Heart of Mary
Jesse Tree Kit
First Communion Banner Kit
First Communion Invitation Card Kit (www.illuminatedink.com)
First Communion Thank-You Card Kit (www.illuminatedink.com)
Wooden Rosary Holder: Sacred Heart of Jesus

Music:
First Book of the Recorder Kit
Let’s Learn Music #1
Music Masters Series (choose any 8)
36 Traditional Roman Catholic Hymns


How it shook out for our family:

Religion:
We follow the syllabus, with the addition of a reading about the saint of the day.

Poetry:
We follow the syllabus except we don't copy and illustrate the poem at the end of the whole thing as recommended.  The verse for the week has become her handwriting/copywork.  She traces it twice (www.handwritingworksheets.com) and then copies it into her notebook.  At the end of the week she illustrates that stanza.


Reading:  
Writing Road to Reading and Starting a Spelling Notebook.  We use Option 4 for lesson plans.  If someone has never used Sound Beginnings, I highly recommend it.  There are a few things that I will always teach the Sound Beginnings way, though I use WRTR now for second grade.

I just personally found it super-difficult to get in any practice reading with Sound Beginnings.  The lessons were SO INVOLVED that I didn't have much "do this or else" left in me.  Now, each day, we just go over phonograms, maybe add a couple more, dictate 6-10 words in WRTR, and then split our time between the Faith and Freedom readers from Seton and Dr Seuss easy readers in the evening.  She gets at least 30 minutes a day of practice reading aloud to me. 

Writing:

We follow the syllabus, but if the child is anxious for cursive, we skip the first half of the book.  Even before they know ALL their letters in cursive, though, we start tracing our poetry stanza in cursive two days a week, then copying it into our poetry notebooks to be illustrated on the last day.

'Rithmetic
I followed the syllabus, using Abeka for the first half of the year, but the Abeka style just doesn't work for my kids once the math gets harder.  I should have thought to do Saxon, but I forgot it was recommended.  Currently, we use Math Mammoth, following the internal order.  

Geography
We followed the syllabus for the first half of the year, but all those states coloring pages finally wore on my daughter (who adores coloring, btw).  And, I have yet to ever get to that end of the year history literature.  Doesn't seem to matter, though, since you read them all again next year.  We are elaborating on the family history and mapping projects, looking at google earth maps where family members lived and spending more time investigating the time period.    We do, however, do the states and capitals memorization religiously.

Art, Music
We follow the syllabus for music, minus the Catholic hymns and recorder.  They sing in the church choir, so that covers the hymns and we'll do that recorder thing when they can read well enough to do it all in a room far away from me.  For art, we follow the syllabus, minus a few of the art projects.  We have lots of handwork like weaving, stenciling, braiding, and stitch boards on our busy shelf.  I also add a weekly informal drawing lesson using Kistler's books.

Science
We follow the syllabus for the worksheets, but we garden and keep a nature notebook instead of doing Science with Plants.  Also, our literature readings have LOTS of natural history in them.

30 Minutes of DAILY Reading

Our school recommends 30 minutes a day of read-aloud time.  I do all three kids together.  We split our time between Burgess and Holling C. Holling stories, The Book of Virtues, tall tales and fairy tales, picture books, and the occasional Eggleston history book.  

Kindergarten Curriculum

We use Mother of Divine Grace for our curriculum.  I am enrolled in their school, but that enrollment allows me some flexibility in curriculum choices if I keep to the school standards.  I definitely organize the school day in my mind differently than they, but the essence is the same.

Here's the original:
Religion:
The Golden Children’s Bible (Golden Press)

Math:
Golden Step Ahead Workbooks: I Know Numbers (ed. Kathleen A. Cole)
Golden Step Ahead Workbooks: Numbers 1-10 (Lois Bottoni)
Golden Step Ahead Number Flashcards

Reading/Phonics:
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (Siegfried Engelmann)

Handwriting:
Writing Can Help Series, Book A: A Creative Alphabet (Marie Picard)
blank composition book

Poetry:
The Harp and Laurel Wreath (ed. Laura M. Berquist)

Art/Music:
Child-Size Masterpieces: Mommy, It’s a Renoir! - Text (Aline D. Wolf)
Child-Size Masterpieces: Mommy, It’s a Renoir! - Easy Steps 1-3
36 Traditional Roman Catholic Hymns: A Book for Singing with Accompanying CD Recordings
St. Michael Wooden Rosary Holder
Olive Wood Rosary Kit
Rosary Case Lacing Project
Lourdes Marian Grotto Kit
Spiritual Bouquet Card Kit (www.illuminatedink.com)

Literature:
Free choice from classic children's literature, liturgical year recommendations, and selections from The Book of Virtues.


My Real Curriculum:  

Poetry:  
We follow the syllabus except I add address, phone number, birthday, and songs about ABC's, days of the week, states, books of the NT, and months of the year to his memorization.

Reading:  

We follow the syllabus, except we generally get way ahead for lessons 1-20 and then switch to twice a week sessions when it gets hard, but we still cover the recommended one Lesson a week.  The only adaptation is the "sound writing" task at the end of each lesson is often a Sandpaper Letters task instead of pencil work, as he usually hasn't learned to write those letters yet.  On the off days when he just can't bear to do this book, we make up nonsense words with the sounds he knows using Phonogram Rocks or we sort objects by first letter sound.  Also, he takes a turn reading Bob Books to us at night when the other kids are doing their easy-reader read aloud time.

Writing:

We follow the syllabus pace, but we do the letters out of order so that the child first learns the letters in his first name and then we follow the same general order of the phonics text.  Alternatively, we use these notebooking pages for more practice or for variety if he's getting tired of the book. For extra pencil practice, he does Walmart workbook mazes (voluntarily...loads of them) while the other kids work.

'Rithmetic
We followed the syllabus until the Golden Books got too writing intensive.  He found writing the numbers really difficult, so we quickly did the rest of the non-number-writing activities and then switched to other things.  I used a lot of the activities from Montessori at Home to teach 1-9, the teens, and the tens, but aside from playing the Exchange Game, he wants "big boy" math, which means worksheets.  Go figure.  I use hers, because the number writing builds up slowly.  But there's weirdly advanced stuff in there, so I skip some things, like the less-than-greater-than puzzles.  Also, I already have an Abeka 1 workbook.  We might play in there too.

Religion
The Golden Bible is TOO HARD for my kids.  I already had to fight him for phonics and writing, I didn't want to fight him for Bible too!  It wasn't just "challenging", it was impossible for him to understand.  I might as well read the New York Times business section to him.  We like Lovasik's Children's Picture Bible mixed with the very cartoony, Catholic Bible Stories for Children for review and easier retelling. We go much faster than the syllabus, since I like to get through one Testament or the other in a year.  All the kids listen to the saint of the day and he tells me something he remembers from the story.

Art and Music Friday
We follow the syllabus for Art, but not music.  We sing songs together and he hears the older kids Music Masters on Friday.  Well, that's not true completely.  I don't do all of the crafts.  We have other handcrafts, like weaving looms, stitch boards, and art insets on our busy shelf. 

30 Minutes of Reading
Our school recommends 30 minutes a day of read-aloud time.  I do all three kids together.  We split our time between Burgess and Holling C. Holling stories, The Book of Virtues, tall tales and fairy tales, picture books, and the occasional Eggleston history book.

Our School: Third Grade Curriculum

We are enrolled in Mother of Divine Grace homeschool. MODG is a CLASSICAL curriculum.  I am enrolled in their school, but that enrollment allows me some flexibility in curriculum choices if I keep to the school standards.  I definitely organize the school day in my mind differently than they, but the essence is the same.  My additions are in italics.

The GRAMMAR stage of the Classical curriculum is about memorizing all kinds of relevant facts and whatnot that are helpful in navigating the planet and life.  In the next stage, these facts will be used for detecting logic and truth and later debating these thing to establish a pattern for life, but in these early stages, it's more about acquiring the building blocks.  

Example:  Latin.  Dorothy Sayers famous said that learning Latin is important because it cuts the effort in learning any other subject in half.  My kid has no idea what all this Latin stuff is about, but his brain absorbs it like a sponge and later it will be golden. 




Here's the Original:



Religion:
St. Joseph’s Baltimore Catechism No. 1 
Child’s Bible History (F.J. Knecht) 
blank sketchbook 


Math 
(Option 1): Recommended in Syllabus
Arithmetic 3 (www.abeka.com)
Arithmetic 3 Tests & Drills (www.abeka.com) 
(Option 2):
Saxon Math 3 Homeschool Kit (www.saxonhomeschool.com) 


Reading/Writing:
Primary Language Lessons (E. Serl) 


Spelling:
Writing Road to Reading (R. Spalding) 
Starting a Spelling Notebook: A Nuts and Bolts Guide to The Writing Road to Reading (M.
McAlister)


Poetry:
The Harp and Laurel Wreath (ed. Berquist)


History 
(Option 1):
How Our Nation Began (P. Furlong)
Leif the Lucky (D’Aulaire) 
(Option 2):
Our American Heritage (www.abeka.com) 
Our American Heritage Tests & Quizzes (www.abeka.com) 
Our American Heritage Tests & Quizzes Key (www.abeka.com) 
The Boston Tea Party by Steven Kroll 
Gold Fever (V. Kay) 
Little House on the Prairie (www.amazon.com) 


History (Options 1 and 2 – some are either/or in Option 2):
Christopher Columbus (D’Aulaire) 
Three Ships Come Sailing (G. Waring)
Pocahontas (D’Aulaire) 
If You Sailed on the Mayflower (A. McGovern) 
Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims (C.R. Bulla) 
Visiting a Village (B. Kalman) 
Life in a Colonial Town (S. Senzell Isaacs) 
If You Lived in Williamsburg in Colonial Days (B. Brenner) 
The Courage of Sarah Noble (A. Dalgliesh) 
The Bears on Hemlock Mountain (A. Dalgliesh) 
Paul Revere’s Ride (H.W. Longfellow, ill. Rand) 
George Washington (D’Aulaire) 
Meet Thomas Jefferson (M. Barrett) 
Benjamin Franklin (D’Aulaire)
George the Drummer Boy (N. Benchley) (I Can Read series)
Sam the Minuteman (N. Benchley) (I Can Read series) 
The Boston Coffee Party (I Can Read series) 
If You Lived at the Time of the American Revolution (K. Moore) 
If You Traveled West in a Covered Wagon (E. Levine) 
Sarah, Plain and Tall (P. MacLachlan) 
The Josephina Story Quilt (I Can Read series) 
The Drinking Gourd (I Can Read series) 
Keep the Lights Burning, Abbie (Roop) 
Abraham Lincoln (D’Aulaire) 
If You Traveled on the Underground Railroad (E. Levine) 
Robert E Lee: Young Confederate (H.A. Monsell) (Childhood of Famous Americans series)
Clara Barton (A. Stevenson) (Childhood of Famous Americans series) 
Little House in the Big Woods (L.I. Wilder – 1st in Series of 9 Books) 


Geography 
(Option 1):
Our American Heritage Map Study Skills (www.abeka.com) 
States and Capitals Flashcards
(Option 2):
atlas along with a standard map skills book
States and Capitals Flashcards 


Science:
Exploring God’s World (www.abeka.com)
Exploring God’s World Student Quiz, Test & Worksheet Book (www.abeka.com)
Exploring God’s World Quiz, Test & Worksheet Key (www.abeka.com)


Latin:
English from the Roots Up, Volume I Word Cards 


Art:
Child-Size Masterpieces: Mommy, it’s a Renoir! – Text (Aline D. Wolf) 
Child-size Masterpieces: Mommy, It’s a Renoir! – Step 4 
Child-size Masterpieces: Mommy, It’s a Renoir! – Step 5 


Music:
Let’s Learn Music #2 (pub. Hayes) 
Music Masters, set 3 (Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Strauss, Verdi, Berlioz, & Foster/Sousa)


Reading:  
30 minutes/day





How it Shakes out for my Family:


Religion:

We begin the day with a prayer and a group retelling about the saint of the day.  We follow the syllabus, though we do it all together so that the younger kids hear the questions a million times before they have to memorize them.  And the older kids, hear the younger kids doing the earlier questions, so we can double dip on the review.  


Math 
We did option 1 for half the year, but my son is really distracted by the Abeka worksheet style once things get challenging.  And all that drill on things he already knew was busywork for him.  He wasn't losing skills if he left them alone for a week or two, so we switched to Math Mammoth.  I totally forgot that Saxon was the recommended alternative since it's not got lesson plans in the syllabus.  


Reading/Writing:
We follow the syllabus.  MODG does a wonderful job of turning the mountains of busywork in this sweet, old book into doable, applicable activities.  For example, instead of all the copywork on fake letters, they have you write a real letter and send it to your relatives.  And they skip all the Aesop's retellings and copywork since we did SO MANY of those in previous years.  Some Charlotte Mason schools spend two years on this book, but since it's so streamlined by the MODG syllabus, we get it done in one.


For reading, we use the Faith and Freedom readers.  He reads and retells them to me.  Also, we read easy readers in the evening for more practice.


Spelling:
I dictate six words a day and orally test the previous 18.  


Poetry:
We follow the syllabus, except that instead of writing the whole poem after it's memorized, we trace the weekly stanza twice and then copy it into the poetry notebook and illustrate it on Friday.  


History 
We use Option 1 according to the syllabus...EXCEPT...and this is the only time you'll ever hear me say this, the history assignments are unrealistic!  It's not too much to get done in a year, just the way it's scheduled is NOT GOOD.  We have weeks of no supplemental reading and then BOOM, we're supposed to read Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims in a day!  I've had to rework the schedule a lot to spread out the reading and get it off that one day.  Also, we don't usually do the study lessons at the back of the chapter.   My son isn't a strong enough reader for that yet, so we do notebooking pages instead for each chapter and reading selection.


Geography 
We follow the syllabus, but generally end up doing the workbook orally.  We also use my Montessori United States puzzle for reviewing states and capitals.  We play games with the puzzle too, trying to tell the states with our eyes closed and feeling the edges, putting the puzzle back together without the frame, etc.  In fact, this was so effective, that the last ten pages or more of the workbook were irrelevant.  He already knew all the state locations.


Science:
We follow the syllabus, minus the tests.  


Latin:
We follow the syllabus.


Art:
We follow the syllabus.


Music:
We follow the syllabus, but use Hayes#1 since we didn't do it last year.



30 Minutes of DAILY Reading

Our school recommends 30 minutes a day of read-aloud time.  I do all three kids together.  We split our time between nature stories, tall tales, picture books, and the occasional liturgical year story.  I also dabble in Baldwin and Eggleston history books and Holling C Holling geography.  Chapter books happen on car trips.

Our School: First Grade Curriculum

I don't have a first grader this year, though I've already taught it twice and have one next year, so I think I can tell you how it goes for us.

The Original:

Religion:
St. Joseph’s First Communion Catechism
Any Lives of the Saints Book

Math:
(Option 1): Recommended in Syllabus
Arithmetic 1 (www.abeka.com)
Arithmetic 1: Tests & Speed Drills (www.abeka.com)
(Option 2):
Saxon Math 1 Homeschool Kit (www.saxonhomeschool.com)

Reading/Phonics:
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (Siegfried Engelmann)

Handwriting:
Writing Can Help Series, Book B: Manuscript Practice (Marie Picard)
blank composition book

Poetry:
The Harp and Laurel Wreath (ed. Laura M. Berquist)
A Child’s Garden of Verses (R.L. Stevenson)

Art:
Child-Size Masterpieces: Mommy, it’s a Renoir! - Text (Aline D. Wolf)
Child-Size Masterpieces: Mommy, it’s a Renoir! - Intermediate Steps
Aesop's Fables
Our Lady of Guadalupe Marian Grotto Kit
Advent Candles Kit (www.illuminatedink.com)
O Antiphon Christmas Card Kit
Stations of the Cross Grotto Kit (www.illuminatedink.com)

Music:
36 Traditional Roman Catholic Hymns: A Book for Singing with Acc. CD Recordings
Peter and the Wolf (narrated by Janet Schulman) with CD (www.amazon.com)
Carnival of the Animals (comm. by B.C. Turner) with CD
Bach's Goldberg Variations (A.H. Celenza) with CD
Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (A.H. Celenza) with CD
The Farewell Symphony (A.H. Celenza) with CD

How it Shakes Out for Us:


Religion:
We follow the syllabus with the addition of daily saint reading.

Math:
Will likely use Abeka 1.  At this level, the math is easy enough that we don't find it distracting.

Reading/Phonics:
We will likely follow the syllabus, but start out ahead in the lesson numbers.

Handwriting:
We will likely trace our poetry stanza for the week and then copy it into our notebooks to illustrate on Friday.

Poetry:
Follow the syllabus, except with the change mentioned above.

Art:
Follow the syllabus, minus some of the art projects.

Music:
We well likely continue our Music Masters rotations.  We also read the hilarious, "Lives of the Musicians" , color a page in our notebooks, and do a retelling.

































FIRST GRADE


I don't have anyone in first grade this year, bubasically how I would, if I did.


Recitation
Poems from Child's Garden of Verses by Stevenson (2-4 lines/wk)
Catechism prayers and questions

Reading
Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons (2+ lessons/wk)


Writing
Handwriting Without Tears  (2+ pages/week)
Whatever copy work I could get them to do daily from poem
Chalkboard or review sheets for all the letters and numbers


'Rithmetic
Math Mammoth (2 pages/day)


Religion
St. Joseph First Communion Catechism  (1 lesson/2wks)