1st Unit of 2nd Grade

Hannah has completed the first 6 weeks of 2nd grade! We started in September, but during the move we did a unit on handwriting and paused the main history core until after Thanksgiving when we got into the new house.

This year for bible, she is reading directly from selected bible passages that are supplemented by a book called Awesome Book of Bible Facts. It’s had some interesting stuff. She is still memorizing scripture, but longer passages at a time. We’ve been working on Psalm 24:1-6 for this first unit.

In history/social studies, our spines for the year are Usborne’s World History, Child’s History of the World, Window on the World, and Geography Songs. She really gets into the geography songs and I’m learning right along with her. This first 6 weeks was a short review of last year and then a unit on the Vikings which we also used Usborne Time Traveler for.

Our Read Alouds so far are Red Sails to Capri and Ginger Pye. Both we enjoyable. We are doing short selections of Aesop For Children intermingled with A Child’s Garden of Verses for our poetry. Hannah got an Aesop book for Christmas that I want to steal and read.

Hannah has moved into Language Arts 3 for this year. She has a spelling list each week and usually tests out of it at the beginning of the week. If she misses any words, then we do the assignments for just those that she missed. We’re working through a work book called Phonics C as well as moving to the next Wordly Wise book (B) and I kinda miss the Explode the Code series. Not sure if we come back to it eventually or not. For her writing portion, we worked through a set of instructions called Diamond Notes which I think helps her organize her thoughts a little better. Her reading level is still far above the early chapter books that are assigned for her, but the content is just right for interest level. She’s read Clara and the Bookwagon, The Long Way to a New Land, The Long Way Westward, Prairie School, Keep the Lights Burning Abbie, The Pony Express, and we just started The Secret Valley. I have her do one assignment a week in cursive just so she doesn’t forget it.

Hannah finished catching up on her science from last year before the Christmas break by completing her unit on astronomy while studying light, mirrors, and shadow. We’ve done one week of 3rd grade science which begins with a unit on animals out of The Usborne Book of Knowledge.

During the transition, I had Hannah drill her add, subtract, and multiply facts on a little digital flash card device called the Flash Master. She doesn’t like drills very much because she gets flustered when she gets one wrong and then ends up missing a lot after that first miss. But she got a lot better and more confident during that time. When we started back up at the new house, she began Horizons 3 and is still mostly in the review phase on her worksheets but we are getting through most days without too much difficulty even though she really doesn’t want to do math.

As I said in Ben’s update, we haven’t got a lot of extra stuff going on right now. We’ve joined a local homeschool group and do a weekly park day as well as any outings that might be offered. We have made one trip to the zoo and Hannah also continues to be crafty with her extra time. Right now, we’re still spending lots of time exploring our new property and watching Joel learn to walk.