2nd Grade Curriculum Choices

I wanted to post about the materials we used in 2nd grade - i.e. The year you will see me start posting about now since I keep the blog a year behind.

Moving Beyond the Page - Language Arts, Science, Social Studies
Rosetta Stone - Polish
Life of Fred - Math
Khan Academy - Math
Typing Instructor for Kids - Typing
The Complete Elementary Music Rudiments, 2nd Edition - Music Theory
Sequential Spelling - Spelling
Private Music Lessons
Homeschool Band
Sports



Moving Beyond the Page we have been using for years and we used the 8-11 curriculum for 2nd grade. We did every lesson in every unit. The kids asked to take it slowly so we only worked from it 3 times a week. It lasted more than a calendar year, but they have grown up and learned so much.

With family in Poland, it is important the kids learn Polish so they continue to work through that. This year in addition to understanding, speaking, and reading it, they added learning to write in Polish.



Life of Fred is a series of math books. The kids were working their way through the rest of the elementary series and started the intermediate series. Since they are so far ahead of where they should be we only did 1 lesson per week out of these.

Khan Academy is a free online math site. The kids were required to spend 40 minutes per week (not all at once) working on math here. By the end of the year both have finished all of 2nd and most of 3rd grade as well as many skills from higher grades.


For typing we increased their goal speed to 20wpm. Our idea is once they can type 50wpm they can be done with typing forever. We are hoping they increase at a rate of 10wpm per year so they would be done with typing around 5th grade.



For music theory we are using the book that prepares them for the Royal Conservatory Music Theory tests. We have also added a private theory lesson for Sweet Son as he surpassed my theory knowledge and I couldn't help him answer questions any more.

We only work on spelling twice per week using Sequential Spelling. When we were just over half way through the first book they both took the new online placement test. Sweet Daughter scored half way through the first book - perfect! Sweet Son scored into the 3rd book so now he is doing his spelling online while she is still working through the first book with me. She will switch to online when she finishes the current book.

They take private music lessons through a local classical music school. Sweet Son is still studying piano with the teacher he has been with for a couple of years. He decided he doesn't want to do a performance test and that is fine. He is enjoying playing and learning. Sweet Daughter is in a group voice class and is doing well. She really enjoys the group class and having more people to interact with.

The kids are continuing with homeschool band, only now they are in the concert band instead of the beginner band. They are still the youngest, but have friends and enjoy it immensely.

Sports vary by kid and by season. Sweet Son strongly prefers solo sports such as swimming. Sweet Daughter strongly prefers team sports with a great deal of competition. With both kids doing different sports it feels like I'm constantly running around trying to get everyone where they need to be.

Sweet Son's Spring Recital and Evaluation

Last week I posted about Sweet Daughter's Spring Recital. Now it is Sweet Son's turn. He will be continuing with private piano lessons again next year.

During the performance

He requested this photo, in this pose, with the piano. 

He performs two songs.

This photo was taken just before Sweet Son walked into his music development program evaluation.

This was a really big deal. He had to go in by himself and play 4 songs each showing a different technique/genre/skill, plus any of the list of scales the judge requested. He was also tested on his sight reading and ear training. We had to wait 5 weeks to find out if he passed. Not only did he pass, he passed with High Honors!!! This is judged based on the level, not on the age of the performer so there were adults taking the same level he was.

He also took the music development program theory test. This was intense. He had to sign in, line up with the others (He looked so tiny next to all of the high school students. He was the youngest by a great margin.), go in and open his test folder and take it without asking any questions. The instructions were in both English and French and there were no multiple choice. It was in a location he had never visited before and he didn't know anyone else in the room. It took over 6 weeks to get the results. He passed with Honors!

Almost 6 months after he completed both evaluations, we found out he also won an award. He had the highest combined score for anyone at his evaluation center on any level. Yeah, I think he will stick with piano for awhile.