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It’s time for part two of our year-end curriculum review! You can read part one here, where I review the resources we used this past year for our morning basket and group subjects. In this post, we’ll look at the curriculum we used for second, third, and fifth-grade independent/core subjects. Click here to read the original post with our grade-specific curriculum picks for the past year.
Just like with our morning basket time, this year we hit our stride with our independent work too. Implementing our daily checklists helped keep everyone focused (mostly) and on task. They can easily see what’s expected of them each day. With three kids reading now, things have started to go much more smoothly for us. Each one of them can do multiple subjects with minimal input from me. I found myself sitting back and waiting a lot, just to be sure no one had questions, and checking things over as they finished.
Flash (seven years old) finished his second-grade year with flying colors.
A curriculum review for our second-grade resources is gonna be pretty simple. We loved them all!
This was his last year using Horizon math.
He’ll be switching to Teaching Textbooks (their curriculum doesn’t go below the third-grade level) like his older siblings next year. He’s done very well with Horizon, finishing a page or two a day, but he’s excited to be using “iPad math” next year. lol! Teaching Textbooks takes a lot off my plate since it’s self-grading and my older two have done very well with it. Horizons was a great starter math for both my boys and the transition to Teaching Textbooks was easy for my oldest son, so expect no different for my youngest.
I will sing the praises of All About Reading until the end.
It has been the best program for both my boys. Flash still isn’t a big fan of the warm up pages and prefers the activities and the stories, so I did allow him to skip them on occasion if I felt like the extra practice wasn’t necessary. He was able to finish two to three lessons a week this year and did great with that routine.
Flash enjoying one of his All About Reading books.
FixIt! Grammar was the newest addition to our line-up this year and it was a hit!
Flash even said it was one of his favorite subjects this year. It was quick, only taking about ten minutes four days a week, but super effective. Teaching all the aspects of grammar used to seem overwhelming to me, but this curriculum makes it so easy. They correct a sentence or two, mark the parts of speech as we learn them, then rewrite the sentence. We loved it!
The last item on Flash’s daily to-do list for independent work was either a journal page or his Alphabet Bible Verses penmanship.
He alternated between the two each day and finished both a few weeks before the end of our school year. We combined my free writing journal with the Draw Write Now books which are so fun. This combo, plus his Bible Verse tracing, made a huge difference in his handwriting this year.
Overall, Flash’s second-grade year was a huge success and I’m super proud of the hard work he put in!
Next up, Little Dude (nine years old) and his third-grade curriculum review.
Teaching Textbooks level three was Little Dude’s favorite subject this year.
He loved the efficiency of being able to complete his math independently in about twenty minutes a day. There were a few speed bumps with new concepts that required redoing a lesson, but even so, he completed his math a solid two weeks before we finished our school year! He loved it!
All About Reading has been a huge help to my middle guy.
With a very math-focused mind, reading is his least favorite and most challenging subject. I slowed way down and did one, maybe two, lessons a week to help him out and it worked well for us. This means he did not complete level three by the end of our set time frame, however he has shown interest in completing it over our break. We can also pick it back up at the beginning of the school year and move to level four when he’s ready. No rush! The improvement in his reading and confidence he has gained with this program has been amazing.
Both boys loved FixIt! Grammar level one this year.
They both worked through the same book together and had fun taking turns reading the daily sentence and finding the parts of speech. We all love how simple and quick it is.
Little Dude working on a typing lesson.
Little Dude started the school year rotating between journaling a Draw Write Now page and doing a typing lesson.
A few weeks into the school year he requested to drop the journaling and focus on typing. Since his handwriting is pretty solid I agreed. Touch-Type Read and Spell was a challenge for him but only because he’s a bit of a perfectionist. He got down on himself a few times for simple mistakes and needed reminding that perfection wasn’t the goal. This typing program was not just typing and spelling practice for Little Dude, but also practice in self control and patience. He stuck with it though and completed the first two modules in the program!
The progress Little Dude made this year is incredible and I can’t wait to see him thrive in fourth grade too!
Squeaks (eleven years old) really took control of her own education this year and I’m so proud of her.
Her fifth-grade curriculum review starts withTeaching Textbooks for math.
Math is her least favorite and most challenging subject. She has a very active imagination and math just isn’t her thing. I’m so grateful that Teaching Textbooks is quick and to the point. Squeaks is super grateful that the program lets you earn cute digital stickers and chose fun background art for the lesson. These might be distractions for some kids (and can be turned off in the settings) but are huge motivation for my creative girl.
IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) Structure and Style was an even better fit for Squeaks than I could have imagined.
It took her a minute to get use to the rhythm and layout but then she loved it. She proudly read each weekly final draft of her compositions to multiple family members. Her spelling could use some work still (and I have plans for that next year) but her writing style, vocabulary, and creativity have improved incredibly.
Squeaks is a reader through and through and her love for books was cemented even further this year.
I truly didn’t worry about keeping on top of her assigned reading because she happily jumped to it whenever possible. If fact I hardly consider it school so much as just her being her. Reading comes so naturally for her and she enjoyed multiple books (sometimes several a once) this school year. I did my best to keep up and linked all her favorites here. For books that were technically “for school” I did have her do a few book reports when she finished reading, but really only to help her build memory and practice summarizing.
Curled up with a book. Squeaks enjoyed the Wayside School series this year.
FixIt! Grammar level two is an easy curriculum review and a perfect fit for Squeaks.
She did it almost entirely independently. She was able to read each weeks lesson or review and work through the sentence making corrections and identifying parts of speech. Once she was done she just moved on to the next thing on her checklist and I just double checked her work. She had the occasional question or needed help finding a particular part of speech, but the lessons are so clear she rarely needed me.
Typing was another lesson she was able to do independently.
Squeaks has used Touch-Type Read and Spell for three years now and has done great with it. Her typing has gotten faster and it has reinforced some simple spelling. She’s able to log in and do a lesson without any help from me and it takes maybe ten minutes.
Sewing and piano lessons continue to be favorite extracurriculars.
She’s still very much enjoying sewing with my mom once a week and Hoffman Academy for piano. Although, I did have to encourage her to keep going with actual lessons. She tends to get stuck tinkering with a skill she has learned and practicing songs she knows rather than moving on to the next lesson. I mostly allow it as long as she’s enjoying it, but a little encouragement to continue learning new skills never hurt.
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