Homeschool Year in Review: 2nd & 5th Grade

We just finished our second year of homeschooling and what a different year it was from our first. This year I learned to become an Unhurried Homeschooler and adopted some of the Brave Writer Lifestyle, but mostly I learned to let go of following a strict schedule and let the learning come naturally. This is our Homeschool Year in Review for 2nd and 5th grade.

History in Review for 2nd and 5th Grade Combined:

I wanted to study American History with the kids this year. I had grand plans for a field trip to Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown, so, of course, that meant we would have to learn about Colonial America and the Revolutionary War.

I started with Simply Charlotte Mason’s Stories of America as my spine and spent hours and days finding other resources to coordinate with it. I enjoyed creating my own curriculum, but it was a long process that I share in my post about early American history curriculum.

Math in Review for 2nd and 5th Grade:

In a former life, I was a high school math teacher and a CPA. Because of this, I put a lot of emphasis on math in our household, but that doesn’t mean I teach math the way I did when I was paid for teaching. I’ve found a better way, at least for my kids. We use Life of Fred, but because it doesn’t fill up the year, we also use Math U See and games. If you would like to know more, I detailed our math curriculum in these previous posts. Just click on the picture.

   

Language Arts – Literature in Review for 2nd and 5th Grade:

I like to let the kids choose their own literature. We have a LOT of books in our library and we also frequent the public library, so they have plenty of choices.

This year the 5th grader chose to read the Percy Jackson series.  I added a Greek gods and goddesses lapbook from Knowledge Box Central.

The 2nd grader used the Life of Fred Beginning Readers set and the Magic Tree House series along with a huge amount of books she chose at random.

 

 

Both girls were in monthly book clubs. For the book clubs, we used selections from the Brave Writer Arrow and Quiver of Arrows book lists. Both the Arrow guides and the Quiver of Arrow guides provide grammar discussion, copywork, dictation (French Dictation in the Quiver) and literary elements. We also used Brave Writer’s The Writer’s Jungle to add some aspects of the Brave Writer lifestyle, such as Poetry Teatime and freewrites.

This Spring we also participated in the Brave Writer Family Shakespeare class. I was surprised at how much the girls enjoyed reading, listening and watching Shakespeare.

Language Arts – Spelling and Grammar in Review for 2nd and 5th Grade:

Halfway through our school year, we discovered the Arrow and Quiver, and they saved us. The 5th grader had been working through Sheldon’s New Primary Language Lessons. She was simply miserable, and I finally promised her she could drop it at our semester break. I had created a grammar curriculum for the 2nd grader to help her learn the basics of parts of speech. The Arrow and Quiver guides were a breath of fresh air to our grammar curriculum.

The 5th grader tried out Sequential Spelling this year, but we didn’t find it a good fit. I really wanted to love the program, but it just didn’t stick with her. Though she will be switching to another Spelling curriculum next year, I’m not throwing it out entirely. We may come back to it.

A- has used Reading Lessons Through Literature for the last two years. I feel like it has given her a strong phonetic foundation.

Bible in Review for 2nd and 5th Grade Combined:

 

We used Grapevine Studies this year for our Bible curriculum. When I purchased this curriculum, I thought only the youngest would use it. This curriculum teaches biblical stories using stick figure drawings. I thought the 5th grader would be consider it too “babyish”, but I was surprised. She quickly informed me that she wanted to draw her way through the Bible, too. This has quickly become one of our favorite curriculums, and we plan to continue it into next year.

The 5th grader also used Map Trek: Ancient History with our Grapevine Studies. We liked being able to find geographical locations from the Bible on the map. We will be continuing this one next year, also.

Science in Review for 2nd and 5th Grade Combined:

We didn’t have a set curriculum for Science this year. Instead, we used projects and experiments for a hands-on approach. You can read about our Science choices from a prior post below.

Fine Arts in Review:

I hate to admit it, but I hired out our Fine Arts this year. Both girls attended Music and Art at a local private school. The youngest continued her ballet classes and her sister took up the guitar. After last year’s marathon of artist and composer studies, we took a little break. We’ll get back to them next year.

So, that’s our Homeschool Year in Review for 2nd and 5th grades. Now, to start planning for next year!