Homeschooling Since Cameron is my second-born, you would think I’d have this homeschool thing all figured out, right? Well, sorta. There are certain things I have kept the same with Cameron, but Cameron has a very different personality and learning style from his brother.
Unfortunately, for my pocketbook, that means that I’m needing to buy new curriculum. But, fortunately for my son, that means he is getting a highly-individualized curriculum. That’s one of the great things about homeschooling—you can customize your child’s education to their learning style, work extra on their weaknesses, and encourage them to excel in their strengths.
Cameron: 2nd Grade, 7 Years Old
My little Cameron has really blossomed over the past year. It’s been so fun to watch him overcome hurdles and become a much more cheerful, energetic child who enjoys learning. He’ll be 7 in September and is so enthusiastic about starting 2nd grade!
Math
Christian Light Education Math
We switched from Saxon to Christian Light Education Math this past year. Kindergarten was a little rough for Cameron, but I suspect it was more maturity than the actual curriculum. I’ve been so impressed with CLE Math, I’m going to continue using it next year.
Cameron loves that now that we’re towards the end of his 1st grade year he’s mostly independent with math (and mommy loves that too). It really makes him feel like a big boy.
History
Veritas Press Self-Paced History: Old Testament & Ancient Egypt
Veritas Press offered their self-paced history courses for 50% off about a month ago, so I went ahead and purchased the curriculum then in order to get a good deal. Cameron was super excited to start his history program right away. He’s been watching his older brother go through these history courses and has loved following along. Now it’s his turn for the fun!
Literature
Veritas Press Literature List
We used Veritas Press’ phonics program over the past 2 years. This year, it’s time to transition to their literature list. It’s a big jump, so we’ll be reading a lot through the summer to increase his speed and proficiency.
I’ll pick 10 books from the Veritas Press recommended reading list for second grade (TBD), and he’ll work through those. The second grade books are chapter books, so they’ll take a little time for him to read through them.
Penmanship
Write Through the Bible
At 7 years old, Cameron still needs to continue working on neat penmanship and what better way to do that than while also working on Bible memory! He’ll be using a Write Through the Bible workbook again this year for handwriting practice. It takes just a few minutes each day.
Bible
Veritas Bible and Bible Time with Daddy
Veritas Press recently launched a brand new website called Veritas Bible. They currently have 2 of their 5 Bible sequences available: Genesis through Joshua and The Gospels.
It’s quite similar to their self-paced history, but has a few minor differences. It still walks kids through each of the major events of the Bible in a methodical fashion. The lessons are fun, interactive, and have built-in review.
Cameron will be starting Genesis through Joshua this fall and will also be doing Bible time with daddy in the evenings.
Geography
I love this new curriculum I discovered from Brookdale House and am excited to implement it for the first time this coming year with both Bradley and Cameron (2nd grade). I think it will be a fun way for the two of them to learn the states, capitals, locations, of the states, and some interesting facts about each of the states.
I love that this curriculum is hands on, but at the same time doesn’t take a lot of prep on my part and really won’t take a lot of time out of the boys day. I think it will be one of the subjects they look forward to each day!
Spelling
This is the one where I admit I don’t have it all figured out yet. I’ll get there, but I haven’t quite decided on what I want to do for spelling with Cameron yet.
I’ve contemplated starting Phonetic Zoo Level A with him. I’m not sure yet if it will be a good fit. I might try it out since I already own it, and if it’s not going we’ll switch things up. If you have a spelling curriculum you love to use with your lower elementary school students, I’d love for you to share in the comments!
Grammar
This is another subject I must hang my head in shame and admit I don’t know what I’m doing. Ok, I’m not really ashamed, but I do wish I had some amazing curriculum to share with you that I loved. But I don’t.
So, maybe you can share with me your favorite grammar curriculum!
Extra’s
Some of the following are extra-curricular subjects that we’ll either fit in during the summer or complete sometime during the school year.
This is a fun unit study that uses children’s books to introduce kids to new parts of the world. This was on last year’s bucket list to do with the kids, but I never got around to it. Cameron and the twins are at a great age to work through these books. My goal is to get through at least one (and maybe also the Japan version as well) this year.
This is a Unit Study that my friend Kim, from Not Consumed wrote. This is a 4-week Bible study surrounding sibling relationships. I’d like to go through this with my oldest two boys, Bradley and Cameron.
Primal Kids
A book on nutrition that doesn’t focus on the food pyramid? Woah! What a novel idea. I am so excited about this book I recently discovered that focuses on real, unprocessed foods.
Cameron will work through this book and Bradley will be assigned the corresponding Primal Teens book for this coming year. I’m sure we’ll have some great talks around the dinner table!
That’s my 2nd grade plan! Have you gotten any good ideas from my list? What curriculum are you most excited to get started on this coming school year?
Our Homeschool Science Curriculum for Elementary School
We now have our own homeschool science curriculum available through Journey Homeschool Academy! If you’re looking for science courses that will keep your students engaged and excited to learn about science, check out our offerings including Elementary Astronomy and Elementary Biology.
I’m curious about the Primal Kids book. Where did you find that? I am definitely interested in looking at that for my kids! We are a mostly GF and real food family, so this would be a great find.
Thanks!
I added the link to the post! I think it will be a great book to help explain to our kids WHY we eat differently than others. They’re really good about it and don’t complain, but a good book to reinforce the why is nice. I’ve not actually seen the book yet, so I can’t vouch for exactly what it is.
Shurley English is excellent for Grammar. After teaching 20 years in public school and seeing how effective it was, I will now be using it in the homeschool setting. Veritas and Christian Book Distributors sell the full curriculum.
Opal Morgan, MA Reading Sp.
Do you have a link for the Primal Kids and Teens books? Those sound interesting!
I have the same question!
Sorry about that, the links are fixed now!
I sure do! I’ve added it to the post. Sorry for the delay. The other day when I wrote the post, their website was offline and I wasn’t able to grab the link.
Re: Grammar. I would look at FLL (First Language Lessons). I’m going to use it for my 1st grader this year.
Re: Spelling: All about spelling (AAS) from All About learning Press they also have All About Reading (AAR)
Good luck! Thanks for sharing your curriculum.
Thanks for the recommendations. I’ll have to check out First Language Lessons, that’s not one I’ve seen before.
I actually considered AAS because it appears to be what is recommended as a precursor to Phonetic Zoo. But it also appears to be quite teacher intensive – something I’m trying to avoid. My son might be past it too – he’s finished a really good phonics program and is a good reader. Maybe I’ll have to investigate a little deeper though!
I love Spelling You See! I’m amazed at how much my kids (K, 1st, 3rd) have improved in their spelling. And there’s no lists and tests. It’s all copy work and dictation.
Interesting, I’ll have to check it out! My son actually gets copywork and dictation via Write Through the Bible and I suppose this does help with his spelling too.
We’ve used Bob Jones Press English curriculum for years. I LOVE the way they teach Grammar. It is VERY incremental-step-by-step-ish. And Very self-directed. All the “lesson teaching” and examples are right there on the worksheet (like them or not-worksheets are EASY!) They’re English is a full Grammar AND Writing curriculum together in an alternating chapter format (I pull the pages out and separate grammar and writing into 2 separate subjects, so when we’re behind on writing, we can still keep up with writing). At probably $12-$15/bk(1 yr), it might be worth it just for the grammar if you don’t need the writing. HOWEVER, their writing uses a repetative 5 step process for each writing assignment that TEACHES your child how to write anything. I really like it. AND you can use those steps (and the writing and grammar handbooks that come in the back of the workbooks) along with any other writing curriculum. There’s my 2 cents on grammar curriculum. (And I’m known as a bit of a grammar nazi so…)
Thanks so much for the recommendation Courtney. I’ve put Bob Jones on my list to check out for grammar. I really appreciate you taking the time to tell me what you use and why you love it.
I’d encourage you to check out IEW’s grammar program Fix-It! I’ve been using it for a few years now and it’s one of the subjects my 13 yr. old daughter said we definitely need to keep.
We’ve actually used fix-it twice. It was just “OK” for us. We might possibly try it again if I don’t find anything I like better, but I did feel like certain things were falling through the cracks with it. Because I’m not much of a grammar guru either, there were certain times when I was having trouble answering my sons “WHY” questions. That said, I had one of the first versions of Fix-It, and I’ve noticed that it looks like they’ve updated and possibly added some extra teaching helps to the newer versions.
They have made a 2nd edition and it has *a lot* more helps. Might want to take a look.
Yes, I did notice they made a second edition. Sure is a bummer to have to purchase it after purchasing the first edition though :(. I might if I dont’ come up with a better solution for grammar though!
Your post takes me back to my own days of homeschooling. Mine are 23, 21, and 16.
… Saw your question about grammar and thought I’d comment on that. I used a large variety of resources and even wrote my own literature-history-bible worldview curriculum. I loved all the options for curriculum that MADE THEM THINK (loved IEW, btw).
But when it came to grammar, I stuck with Abeka and did the drills and the worksheets and the non-fuzzy stuff they are known for. It worked for us and it was something straightforward in my very complicated lessons plan.
We only used it through 8th grade and by then, they had it down pat. One child is even a technical writer now.
You are doing great, mom! You’ll never regret one moment you invested into all of this thinking and planning and schooling.
We like very straight-forward lessons too. That you for the recommendation for grammar. I’m loving getting all of these recommendations from other homeschool moms. This is one subject that I haven’t found anything that I just love!
Thanks so much for the encouragement 🙂
Love this post, and your sweet spirit about loving your family through home schooling…I admire you!
Thanks Beth 🙂
Obviously this is a couple years late but out of curiosity -what spelling and grammar did you end up going with and loving? I am getting ready for 2nd grade and Kindergarten with a pre-k tag along year so I’m going from one “real” student to 2 (kinda 3 lol). Any advice is greatly appreciated.
Hey Destiiny,
Hey, might be a couple years after I wrote it but the curriculum I used is still out there and viable options :). I ended up going with an all-in-one language arts curriculum that covered grammar, spelling, and a little bit of writing. Honestly, it was a total and complete disaster. There were MANY tears over that curriculum. We ditched it. We didn’t even complete it entirely that year despite the fact that I feel like a failure when my kids don’t 100% complete curriculum (I’m working on getting over that).
For 3rd grade we ended up doing Fix-It (from Institute for Excellence in Writing) along with All About Spelling. They were both a HUGE hit! My son loved them, I loved them, and they worked well without being a huge time suck. We’re continuing that this year for our 4th Grade plans. FYI: We’ll be posting reviews of both All About Spelling and Fix It soon so you can read more details about how they work.
Also, since you have an upcoming Kindergartener, you might want to check out my new post I just wrote about this years Kindergarten curriculum plans I have with my twins 🙂