2nd Grade Language Arts

I've been researching what I'd like to use with Elyse next year for second grade. Although I've been pleased with some aspects of our Language Arts curriculum, other parts have been only mediocre. But I think I've found solutions for the issues I was having.

For phonics, I will continue to use Webster's Blue-Backed Speller, which I printed off for free from Don Potter's website.

For spelling, I have found what I have wished for, but didn't think existed! All About Spelling teaches spelling with the same patterns as the syllabary. "Ba" is pronounced with a long a because it is an open syllable instead of with a short /a/ the way many phonics and beginning spelling manuals teach it. It also teaches rules of spelling in a very systematic way. It will supplement Webster's wonderfully!

I hadn't planned on using a separate writing curriculum, but when I discovered Writing Tales, I thought it would be perfect for Elyse. The first level of this book is for 3rd and 4th graders, but we will give it a go, since Elyse is advanced in her handwriting and reading comprehension. She is such a word girl--she loves making up stories and poems anyway, so I think this will be great to give her some guidance. I printed off the sample pages and I really love the format. It also includes the grammar in a very natural way (within the context of reading passages and writing), which for this young age, I think is more appropriate. Therefore, our grammar will be taken care of with Writing Tales and also will be continued in our Latin program, Latina Christiana.

We will continue our Italic handwriting and our poetry memorization on our own. Elyse has gotten "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" down and we will start Psalm 23 tomorrow, as well as continuing to work on the Old Testament Books. I've decided to go ahead and stick with the Explode the Code series. Elyse is almost done with book 3. She loves working through these on her own, and although I don't know that it helps that much, it certainly can't hurt. Plus, I've also heard that Book 4 is where it starts getting a little 'meatier' anyway.

In a Groove

We've hit a really nice pace with our schooling for Elyse. We've simplified and have found (mostly) the right curriculum for where she's at right now. I'll discuss each of the curricula in order of my preference:

1. RightStart Math: I have been so pleased with the progress that Elyse is making. Her grasp of math is amazing, and I believe it has to do partly with the wonderful foundation that RightStart is laying. In the middle of the curriculum, I started to question whether it would be a good fit, for a couple of reasons. 1. Because the lessons are quite teacher-intensive, we were having some issues with our interaction during math time. She is more of a workbook girl, and I am prone to being impatient! ;) However, since Christmas break, things have much improved and we are enjoying the math time together now. 2. It has a different scope and sequence than other programs as it focuses quite intensely on addition to the neglect of subtraction in the beginning. But now in the latter part of the book, I can see the big picture of how all of that emphasis on addition is actually leading up to a seamless segue into subtraction and even multiplication.
It took me staying committed to seeing this program through and now I feel we're really reaping the benefits.

2. Prima Latina: Elyse is nearly doing this on her own, with my minimal direction. She listens to the CD every day--the lesson of the week, and the prayer that we're currently memorizing a few times. On Mondays, I will go over the lesson and the derivatives with her and then the questions and flashcards are spread over the week, with me only supervising and explaining any directions.

3. Webster's Syllabary: This is a new thing I've started since Christmas after learning about it on the Well-Trained Mind forums. See this post, especially. I've created my own method of how to use it (a post for another day, maybe) but wow, it makes so much more sense to me than any other program I've used. I'm not sure how I would use it to start with a beginning reader, but Elyse has really taken off using the concepts of syllables to decode. We also dropped Spelling Workout
once she finished the workbook she was on and I have integrated spelling into the phonics lessons, which is very effective.

4. Tapestry of Grace: I have finally made my peace with this wonderful program! It took me a good long semester to figure out how WE could best use it. I've simplified it, I don't sweat about it, and we just enjoy the readings and do whatever extras we feel like doing and have time for.

5. Explorer's Bible Study: Since Elyse's reading took off, this has been a joy for me to see her use independently. She enjoys reading the story to her siblings and has thrived on answering the questions all by herself. And as a bonus, it's closely mirroring what we are studying in history.

6. Italic Handwriting: I like the layout of the workbooks, but I need to be more diligent about insisting on her doing a neat job--otherwise she tends to rush it.

7. First Language Lessons: This is OK. I'm holding out for FLL3 which I've heard is better. Elyse doesn't seem to mind it, but it's quite tedious for me. We're on 2nd grade, but I still am skipping lessons and adding in more poetry memorization. Instead of "The Goops" which was used in FLL, we did "Bird Talk" out the Harp and Laurel Wreath. The next poem isn't assigned for a while, so we started working on "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," which Elyse has almost gotten down. I would love to find a resource in which I could teach grammar through poetry or other good literature (or Latin?) instead.

8. Explode the Code: Not quite sure how I feel about this. Honestly, I feel like it is twaddle, but I think the concept is needed. Anyone have any better suggestions to reinforce phonics?

9. Science: I'm not quite sure what to say. I'm not thrilled with what we do, but I haven't found any better solutions. We read a story from the Burgess Bird Book while Elyse colors a page of that bird in a color-by-number book from Rod and Staff. We also read living science books and check out books from the library. I hope to do more nature study as it warms up some, but I think I need something open and go. We're planning on using Evan-Moor's human body book as a resource to do our unit this spring. We'll see how it goes. {shrug}

Overall, I like where we are, I like where we're going, and I'm thrilled with how Elyse is doing.