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I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a homeschooling mom who doesn’t love talking curriculum picks. Comparing structure, philosophy, price. It’s like Christmas, as far as homeschooling goes, when we finally get to hit “add to cart” on all those juicy new resources. And then when they show up on the door step!? Forget about it! There’s just nothing like the fresh pages of a new school year.
Well that time of year has come in our house! Squeaks finished her first grade year last week with flying colors. Since we school all year we’re on a short break to get reorganized, and then we’ll jump right into second grade in a few weeks. It’s completely blowing my mind that she’ll be in second grade. In fact, I keep accidently typing first grade. I may be in denial.
Little Dude has been slowly but surely working his way through my Preschool Journal With the addition of the ABC See Hear Do books, he’s making great strides. These tools plus our trusty Preschool Busy Binders have made learning fun and easy for him this year. I’m excited to see him start Kindergarten (although a bit in denial here too) and grow even more.
Get your Preschool Journal Printable here!
Get your Preschool Busy Binder Printable Starter Kit here!
Let’s take a look at our curriculum picks for Kindergarten and second grade for the 2021-22 school year!
Subjects we cover together as a group:
First up, there are subjects we cover together as a family each morning. We will be continuing with Classical Conversations here at home without joining a community this coming year. (You can read about how we’re making that work for us here.) I’m still not completely convinced that my younger two guys are ready to be fully involved and it’s working well for us on our own. If it ain’t broke!
Anyway, our weekly C.C. memory work includes a science and history element that I think is more than enough for my younger guys. The history memory work, along with our timeline cards, replaced My Story 1 for Squeaks last year, and it will this year too. Along with our C.C. work we also do Bible and calendar time together each morning. If you’d like a closer look at our C.C. journey and the resources we use most, I recommend checking out the three highlights I have on Instagram devoted to it.
Curriculum picks for Squeaks second grade year:
Squeaks loved her Master Books curriculum last year so we’re sticking with it for her core subjects. We love that Master Books is biblically based, open and go, and that they give a very clear and manageable scope and sequence at the beginning of each book. Not to mention they’re very reasonably priced.
For math Squeaks will be moving on to Master Books Math Lessons For a Living Education level 3. This is a bit above her “grade level”, but my little math lover eats it up! She flew through level 2 last year sometimes doing a full week’s worth of lessons in a day. Math is by far her favorite subject so I’m all for it.
Last year was our first year using Master Books Language Lessons For a Living education and it was perfect. I saw great improvement in Squeaks spelling and punctuation use. We will continue on to level 2 this year.
We also will continue to mix in The Ordinary Parent’s Guide To Teaching Reading from The Well Trained Mind. This is the same thing we did last year and we loved the short and effective lessons. It’s completely phonics based and super easy to use. This book takes kids from the alphabet through to reading literally the longest and most difficult words in the English language. There are no extra worksheets either, just pure reading.
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As for science, along with the Classical Conversations science facts, Squeaks will be using God’s Design For Heaven and Earth For Beginners this year. We took two years to work through God’s Design for Life so this book felt like the logical next step. Another Master books favorite. Biblically based, short and informative lessons, and a manageable scope and sequence.
For penmanship Squeaks will continue using the writing journal I created for her last year (that also happens to be free in the Printables Library). She likes to use Draw Write Now books for inspiration sometimes, but generally has no problem coming up with a topic to draw and write about.
In addition to her writing journal, we’re adding the Learning Without Tears Cursive Kickoff book. I asked Squeaks if she was interested in learning cursive and she enthusiastically said yes, so we’re gonna give it a try and see how it goes!
Last up is Latin! In last year’s curriculum picks post I talked about using Song School Latin. However, once we started C.C. I created a Latin workbook to go with the C.C. cycle three Latin memory work, and Song School felt like one thing too many. This year may be a bit different for C.C. cycle one (there are three cycles that rotate each year). The Latin work for cycle one seems a bit over Squeaks head still so we may pick Song School back up. Either way Latin is on the list! Just some of the benefits of homeschool, making it work for us, and the ability to switch curriculum if needed.
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Check out this quick video flip through of our core subject curriculum picks for Squeaks second grade year.
Curriculum Picks for Little Dude’s Kindergarten year:
I hesitate to use the word curriculum in conjunction with Kindergarten. These early years are still so focused on play that school is generally just a side note in our day. But Little Dude has been enjoying his Preschool Journal and now the ABC See Hear Do books, so we’ll continue to build on that.
I’m happy to say I completed a new Kindergarten Journal for him (and you!) and he’s excited to start it! It will cover early language arts/phonics concepts, as well as math concepts. It’s a simple page-a-day structure. Perfect for antsy active little ones who don’t need to (or want to!) sit for too long.
The Kindergarten Journal, ABC See Hear Do, our Kindergarten Busy Binder, our morning subjects together, and perhaps some Bob Books. That’s really all I’m starting with for Little Dude. As he gains confidence and shows more interest I’ll add more. For now I think these are fantastic resources to start with, along with lots of play and reading together!
Here’s a short video flip through of our curriculum picks for Little Dude’s Kindergarten year.
Get your Kindergarten Journal Printable here!
Get your Kindergarten Printable Busy Binder Starter Kit here!
Meghann Lipse says
Thank you SO much for this! I have been researching and reading, wanting something more Biblically based for my son going into second grade. I was pretty certain Master Books was what I was going with. Your email came through and of course caught my attention. Now this feels like beautiful confrontation from the Lord! We so loved their Foundations Phonics, but had ended up trying something else for the rest of Kindergarten and 1st. So excited to get back to more Bible based!