OLD HOMESCHOOLERS NEVER DIE . . . THEY JUST WRITE CURRICULUM


"Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass,
like abundant rain on tender plants."

Deuteronomy 32:2

Courses of Study

To view the Course of Study for each grade level, you can click on the "Course of Study" label
or "Search This Blog" for the specific grade level you wish to see.
To date, I have courses of study completed for kindergarten through fourth grades.

Newsletter Articles

In 2013 the Lord started me producing a newsletter for the homeschool group we are a part of. Every other month I write an article on a topic the Lord has put on my heart. I've decided to add these articles to this blog. I hope you will find encouragement through some of my ramblings. You can click on the label "Newsletter" to find the articles.

Saturday, February 2

Second Grade, Bible, Set One

Week One:
  • This week we sang A Child of the King.
  • We memorized Exodus 20:1-3. I wrote the verses on construction paper cut in the shape of stone tablets. On Friday, I gave her an extra one and had her illustrate something about the verses. K. drew the Israelites being delivered from Egypt.
  • Searching for Treasure: each day we did a reading and answered the questions. The first day I read the passage from the NKJV. I decided that I was going to have to spend a lot of time explaining what words meant, so I got our New Life Version and we are using it. We take turns reading. I'll read the odd number and she reads the even number verses.
  • We have started Spy for the Night Riders about Martin Luther in the Trailblazer series by Dave and Neta Jackson. We are reading one chapter a day.
  • One day a week we review our catechism.
  • We have started a new page in our prayer journal.
  • We continue to review the passages we have memorized in kindergarten and first grade in the car.
Week Two:
  • This week K. chose Tell Me the Stories of Jesus for our hymn.
  • We memorized Exodus 20:4 and 7a
  • I read Exodus 1 - 6 to her from the NKJV Bible. I had pictures from the stories for K. to color while I read.
  • Searching for Treasure: this study is going very well. K. is really listening to the scripture and being able to answer the three or four questions each day.
  • We only have two more chapters in Spy for the Night Riders.
  • We reviewed our catechism on Wednesday.
  • We are adding more items to our prayer journal.
  • We didn't go anywhere this week, so we didn't review our memory passages. Hmm, maybe I need to re-evaluate this method.
Week Three:
  • This week we sang A Shelter in the Time of Storm for our hymn.
  • Our memorization was Exodus 20:7b, 8, and 12
  • We did lesson nine in Life Lessons from the Princess and the Kiss. The discussion was that "keeping your kiss" doesn't just have to do with keeping your kisses for your husband, but also means to guard your heart and how your senses are the doors to your heart. One day I read Mrs. Rosey-Posey and the Chocolate Cherry Treat since it goes right along with being set-apart and keeping your life pure.
  • Searching for Treasure: we are learning much about wisdom. I'm glad I found this book, and that we are going at this slow pace.
  • We finished Spy for the Night Riders and started The Queen's Smuggler about William Tyndale.
  • We didn't review our catechism until Friday.
  • We already have some answers to prayer!
  • We were out two days this week, so we did get some review done.
Week Four:
  • Our song this week was I'll be a Sunbeam. K. thinks she would like to sing it at the graduation program this year.
  • We memorized Exodus 20:13 - 16
  • Searching for Treasure: in the Bible we are reading from it uses the term "strong words" instead of "reproof". This morning I was telling K. that she needed to put the books away properly. I was speaking in a quiet, stern manner. She said that she didn't like it when I spoke to her like that. I sat down and put my arm around her and asked her and asked her if she thought I was using "strong words". She said yes. I then was able to remind her that the wise person learns from strong words but the fool hates them.
  • We are continuing to enjoy The Queen's Smuggler.
  • We reviewed our catechism on Wednesday.
  • We have added more prayer requests.
  • We were home all week, so we didn't review.
Week Five:
  • Living for Jesus was our song this week.
  • Exodus 20:17 completed our memorization of the 10 Commandments
  • We learned Catechism #78, 80, and 81
  • Searching for Treasure: we are having lots of conversations about being a wise girl instead of a fool.
  • The Queen's Smuggler has gotten very exciting!
  • We reviewed our catechism on Wednesday
  • We are continuing to pray each day.
  • We were able to review two passages this week.

Second Grade, Math, Set One


  • I introduced Thousands Place.
    • To practice recognizing and reading numbers, we took turns taking four UNO cards and making them into a number. K. had left her collection of rocks on the table and there was one that looked like a comma, so we used it.
    • Another day I took out the Place Value Mat.
      • I put on 10 ones and asked K. what she could do with that -- make 1 ten.
      • Then I put out 10 tens and she made them into 1 hundred.
      • Then I put out 10 hundreds and told her that made 1 thousand. I hadn't made thousands for our mat, so we went to the computer and did that. Then she made the 10 hundreds into 1 thousand

  • We played the Ten More/Less & 100 More/Less
    • Game
      • I numbered to 7 on the paper and labeled two columns "K" and "M".
      • I started by taking four UNO cards and making a number. Then I flicked the spinner.
      • K. had to write the number it specified.
      • Example: Above the number is 9,558 and the spinner is on 10 Less, so she needed to write 9,548.
      • We each had seven turns.
  • To review Even and Odd Numbers
    • We played the Kitten Game from Adding and Subtracting by Ann Montague-Smith.
      • There are four baskets that 20 kittens have escaped from. We used pennies for our kittens.
      • The kittens need to be put back in the baskets, but each basket has to have a even number of kittens.
      • Once they have done this, ask if they can find another way to do it.
      • Then do the same thing, but have only odd numbers of kittens in each basket.
  • To review Comparing Numbers
    • Game
      • We each took three UNO cards and made a number.
      • Between the numbers was a stack of scrap pieces of paper.
      • We took turns writing the "<" or ">" sign on the papers.
      • We played until we had used all the UNO cards.
  • To review Addition we read the book Addition Made Easy by Rebecca Wingard-Nelson.
    • We started using the fact family Triangles again this week. I still have them divided into five groups. We do one group each day. If K. completes the group correctly in less than two minutes she gets to put a sticker up on the calendar.
    • Game
      • One person writes down a number sentence (like 6+3=9). The other person writes down three other number sentences that use the same numbers. (3+6=9; 9-3=6; 9-6=3) Now switch.
    • Game
      • Take turns to think of a number. Give clues to the other person so they can guess your number.
    • Game
      • Take a pile of coins (you can limit it to 12 coins if you want). How many ways can you make 12¢; 17¢; 25¢?
  • To review Charts and Graphs we read the book Mashed Potatoes by Nancy Harris.
    • We made charts for Neighborhood Distances, and Weight/Mass (see below).
  • I introduced Metric Measurements this week
    • For centimeters and meters we measured the circumference of a wheel on K.'s bike (we measured it in both cm and inches). Then we counted (actually she walked the bike and I counted) how many times the wheel went around as we went the length of the house, width of the driveway, length of the block, distance to the park, etc. Then we calculated how far each was in centimeters, meters, inches, and yards. This activity was called Neighborhood Distances, on page 40 in Measurement Mania by Lynette Long.
    • For grams and kilograms we picked six items and measured their mass and then their weight.
    • For Celsius I did a variation of What's the Temperature (page 98 in Measurement Mania). I took the cards suggested and the house thermometer (which has both C and F) and we talked about whether the temperature talked about would be C or F. Then we made some more cards. Another time we will be able to play the game as suggested.
  • Fractions
    • We reviewed equal parts and fractions halves through tenths
  • Geometry
    • We review the shaped we knew and I introduced hexagon and polygram
  • Charts
    • Tally charts - pages 10 and 11 of Beginning Charts, Graphs, and Diagrams

Second Grade, Grammar, Set One

  • I introduced the concept of Common and Proper Nouns.
    • First, I wrote "Noun" at the top of a paper. I asked K. if she remembered what a noun was.
    • Then I wrote "Person - Place - Thing" underneath "Noun".
    • Under that I wrote "Common Noun" and "Proper Noun".
    • On the left side of the paper I wrote the sentence: We went to the city.
    • On the right side I wrote: We went to Cerritos.
    • Then we talked about city being a common noun and Cerritos being a proper noun (a specific person, place, or thing).
    • Next, I wrote: "sister" and "Debbie" in the center of the paper. I asked her which was common and which was proper and drew arrows from each word to the left (common) or right (proper) side of the paper.
    • We did the same thing with: "fireman" and "Fireman Jones".
    • Now it was time to Play a Game:
      • I had 14 cards with common nouns written on them. We mixed up the cards and laid them on the table.
      • We took turns turning over a card and giving a proper noun for each common noun.
      • Example: If I turned over "park", I would give the name of a specific park, such as "Rynerson Park".
      • Here are all the card words: park, street, place, holiday, book, language, day, month, city, school, person, church, state, country
  • We talked about Singular and Plural Nouns. Theses terms were new to her, but we have talked about "-s means more than one" many times.
    • First I wrote "Nouns" at the top of the page.
    • Under that I wrote "Singular & Plural".
    • I asked K. if she knew what those words meant.
    • On the left side of the paper I drew one cat. On the right side I drew two cats.
    • I wrote "cat" by the one and "cats" by the two, and explained that singular means one and plural means more than one.
    • Now it was time to Play a Game:
      • We took turns writing either singular or plural words.
      • The other person would illustrate the word.
      • Example: She wrote "butterfly" and I drew one butterfly. I wrote "stars" and K. drew five stars.
  • I introduced Pronouns.
    • I used Child's Own, starting at page 41. It talks a bit about pronouns, then it has a story where they use no pronouns, but they want the child to give other words for the repeated words.
    • Example: Billy said, "Billy wants a lollipop." You replace the second "Billy" with "I".
    • We made a list of the words we replaced -- the pronouns.
  • We learned about Homophones -- words that sound the same, but are spelled differently and have different meanings.
    • Game:
      • We made a matching game by putting a word on one card and a picture on its match.
      • Example: A card with the word "blue" and another with a blue octopus. A third card with the word "blew" and a fourth with a girl blowing bubbles.
      • Some words (to, for, our) aren't easily pictured, so we put the meaning on some (meaning belonging to us) or the part of speech (a preposition).
  • Friendly Letters
    • I showed K. the form friendly letters should follow (you can Google this if you need to be reminded -- I did).
    • Then she wrote a letter to thank a friend for a present.
    • She will be writing a letter each week until she has written all the "thank you's" from her birthday.
  • Sentence vs. Fragment -- a complete sentence is a complete thought; it has two parts who/what and the action.
    • I started by writing "The big green frog" and asked K. if that was a complete thought. She told me no. I asked her to complete the sentence. She wrote "jumped on the tiger".
    • Next she wrote "The tiny fish" and we decided that wasn't a complete sentence. I added "swam around the bowl".
    • We took turns going back and forth this way.
    • Another day I took a bunch of word cards and we made sentences, showing that complete sentences had the two parts.
    • The last day we went back to the sentences we wrote down and K. drew a line between the subject and the action.
  • Capitalization
    • The first day we completed a worksheet.
    • Game:
      • I took the game board we made and a spinner with numbers 1 - 4. Player 1 dictated a sentence to Player 2. If player 2 capitalized correctly then she got to spin and go that many spaces. Then the roles were switched.
      • The second day we played this I printed out a couple worksheets because thinking up sentences made the game drag a bit. Maybe it depends on the age of the players.
  • Writing Instructions
    • I gave K. a choice of writing how to make the bed or how to set the table. She chose setting the table. However, her instructions were very short. Example: Put plates. Put knives. Put forks. Put spoons.
    • She wasn't being receptive to my instructions, and it was lunch time. After we ate, I had her read what she wrote and I acted it out. "Put plates." Well, it doesn't say where, or what size of plate, or how many, so I just put a stack of dessert plates on a chair. Then she worked through rewriting her instructions bit by bit to get something that was usable. "Put one dinner plate on the table at each place a person will sit." We went through each step of setting the table like that. We were able to laugh and have fun while she corrected her work.
    • The following day we used the thesaurus to replace all the "put"s with place, set, stick, etc.

Second Grade, Spelling, Set One

Yes, we are doing spelling. I'm not sure what else to say about it since we are just following the curriculum. Oh, I guess I can tell you that we don't do the "Day 4". It is writing, and K. loves to write, and writes so much. When I was doing this day in first grade (I think we stopped about half way through the year), it just turned into drudgery, so we aren't doing it. However, this means that I have to be diligent in finding words she misspells in her writing, so that I will have two "Climbers" for her each week.

Second Grade, Reading, Set One

We are reading Meet the Men who Sailed the Seas by John Dyment. This is a Step-Up Book. I hadn't planned to use this book for Reading, but the book Meet Christopher Columbus hasn't reached our library yet. Meet the Men starts with "The First Sailors" and so the first seven chapters review things we learned in History in kindergarten and first grade. Then it goes on to Columbus, Magellan, Drake, The Mayflower, Cook, and John Paul Jones -- people and events we will study this year (9 chapters). Each chapter only has three full or five partial pages of text, so one chapter a day works really well. The illustrations are good, but are not full color. The information is presented in an interesting way at K.'s level, with a few of challenging words in each chapter.
 
To review the Comprehension Skills we worked on last year:
  • I've been reading a new short story to K. then asking her some or all of these questions:
    • Can you summarize the story with one word?
    • What would be a good title for this story?
    • What kind of story was this?
    • Have you read any other stories that were similar to this one? How were they alike?
    • What is the most important sentence in this paragraph?
  • One day I showed K. several pictures (one at a time) and had her tell me one word that gave the main idea of the picture.
  • I read paragraphs to her and had K. give me the main idea.
  • Now K. is working on drawing pictures that tell a story (I had three options and let her pick one). Once it is done I'll put pictures up. The pictures are on a roll of paper and will be attached to dowel rods that will be turned to show one picture at a time through a hole cut in a box. She calls it a TV.
  • Category Tic-Tac-Toe: In each space there are three words that belong in the same category (slide, swing, monkey bars). Before putting your "X" or "O" down, each player has to tell the category and add one more item (teeter-totter).
  • Read a short story to your child. Then trace around their hand on a piece of paper. Have them write the main idea on the palm and five details on the fingers/thumb.
  • Read a short story, or a chapter of a longer story, to your child then take turns making up a telegram about the story.
  • Here are a couple more on-line games for practice identifying the main idea and details: What's the Big Idea? and Identify the Main Idea
  • We wrote three or four word sentences, then exchanged papers and added more details. The first day we tried to make each into a ten word sentence. The next day we tried to add four or so words that began with the same letter. K. kept just adding words to the end of the sentence, so I started putting blanks in the sentence so she would add description/details. Example: The ___ ___ cow mooed ___ ___. Might become: The big brown cow mooed behind the barn.
  • I read a story to K., then asked her if ___ was different would it change the story? The blank could be the color of some one's clothes or where the story took place, etc. Any detail in the story.
  • K. finished drawing the pictures for her TV (see above) and told the story to her aunt.
From Games for Reading we did:
  • Two Drawing Games, page 42 -- I started with the easy game. I drew a simple design and then K. copied it. That was too easy, so after one round we went on to the next game. I drew a simple picture/design and let K. study it until she thought she knew it. Then I had her turn around and I added ONE thing to the picture. She had to find the change. This game helps children be able to distinguish "pot" from "pet".
  • Jigsaw Puzzles, page 30 -- jigsaws are useful for visual perception
  • Mazes, page 26 -- mazes are a great eye exercise and are also good for penmanship

Second Grade, Writing, Set One

From The Magic Pencil:
  • K. did the All About Me activity. I laid her down on a sheet of butcher paper and traced around her. On scrap paper I demonstrated what she was supposed to do (see below for some examples). She didn't really get the idea at first and colored herself in the first day. The next day she did better and wrote stuff around her shape. Then she was "done". The third day I asked her to find three more things to write, so she wrote about her heart, lungs, and feet. K. really likes her finished product and wants to hang it up. I'm thinking about doing this again when she is in 7th and 12th grades to see how she changes/improves.
    • Where her eyes are, write something like: My eyes are brown. I like to look at flowers and sunsets.
    • For the nose: I like to smell . . .
    • On the legs: I like to run, ride my bike, climb . . .
  • Next was the All About My Home activity, where K. drew a map of our house and wrote in each room what was there and what we did in that room.
From Games for Writing:
  • We played Egg Carton Tales (pg 134). K. has gotten into the habit of making her story be 3 or 4 sentences, so I told her the stories had to be at least 2 minutes long and used the timer.
  • This is the first time we played What a Personality (pg 124). Make ahead a game card for each player. There are fifteen sections. Each section has a different phrase, such as: My character's hair color is, or My character laughs when, or Someday my character would like to. Peggy Kaye gives all the phrases/categories in the book. To play you pick a character. It can be one you make up or from a book or story and take turns filling in the categories. My character was Jo from Little Women. Here are a couple of my sentences: My character gets angry when Meg likes Mr. Brooke. On Saturday my character likes to hide away in the attic and write.
  • We had played Three Sentence Challenge (pg 146) last year, and we enjoyed playing it again. Write out a few lists of four items that go together (car, truck, bus, motorcycle). The player writes three sentences that should allow the other player to guess which of the four items they are thinking of. You cannot use any of the words in the list when writing your sentences.
  • Forbidden Letters (pg 130) was a new game, and we really enjoyed it. We started writing a story about a monkey at the zoo. On the first page we couldn't use any words that had the letter 'g'. Do you realize that big, large, huge, and gigantic all have g's?! Then on the next page we were going to have a different forbidden letter, but we couldn't keep the story going, so we decided to start another story.

Second Grade, History, Set One

I read chapter 62 of Child's History to K. This chapter covers:
  • Christopher Columbus
  • Discovery of the Americas
  • King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella
  • Columbus' voyage
In addition we read:
  • The Discovery of the Americas by Maestro -- this book has color illustrations on every page. It starts with "stone age explorers" crossing to America via the land bridge from Asia and goes through Magellan. Although this book has maps that show the routes explorers traveled, keep your globe handy. "Around the world" just makes more sense with a globe.
  • Ship Boy with Columbus by Meadowcroft -- this book tells the story of Columbus from Diego (his son) and Pedro's (his ship boy) point of view. I read this book a few years ago and have been waiting for the chance to read it to K.
  • Where do you think you're going, Christopher Columbus? by Jean Fritz -- we watched the dvd of the book.
  • Columbus by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire -- wonderfully illustrated
  • I borrowed Pedro's Journal by Pam Conrad from the library, but we didn't read it. Just looking at the cover and the first few pages it had three things that were contradictory to the book Ship Boy with Columbus and since Meadowcroft had nine sources and Conrad had only two I decided we wouldn't read it.
  • I assigned Meet Christopher Columbus by James T. de Kay for K. to read on her own.
  • Meet the Men who Sailed the Seas by John Dyment -- K. read this for her reading book during these five weeks.
Chapter 63 of Child's History covers:
  • Americus Vespucci
  • Age of Discovery
  • Spices
  • Vasco de Gama
In addition we read:
  • Magellan: First around the world by Ronald Syme -- this book covers Magellan in an interesting way. It also has some illustrations.
  • The Apprentice by Pilar Molina Llorente -- a very good read. We both really enjoyed it. There were parts where we didn't want to stop reading, and you learn a bit about being an apprentice.
  • Champlain of the St. Lawrence by Ronald Syme -- this is actually a bit beyond the time period of chapter 63, it is a good book to read

Second Grade, Science, Set One

Our first week we completed the book, Adventures with a Straw. It was a good book to start with. The experiments had a game quality to them. We rolled and slid straws down inclines. We put books on straws to make the book move easier. We blew through the straws, making paper and balls moves (actually we had races to see who's paper or ball would get to the finish line first). We blew across the top of the straw, making music. We held paper to the straw by sucking on one end of the straw. It was a lot of fun.

Our second and third week we worked on Magnify and Find Out Why. K. isn't as interested in these experiments as she was in the ones last week where were where doing things and not just looking at things. This has made our science times quite short. Some of the things we have looked at are soil, roots, and air bubbles in water. Some of the things we looked at in the third week were quite interesting to K. We looked at spices and herbs, our eyes, fingerprints, sponges, and seeds.

The fourth week we finished Magnify. We looked at our fingerprints and at the hidden letters on coins that tell where the coin was minted and who the artist was. Then we started The Real Magnet Book.  Besides finding things that attracted our magent, we made a little boat with a cork and some tacks and sailed it in a pie plate of water by moving a magnet under the plate.

In our fifth week The Real Magnet Book had us use the magnet to make a compass.

Second Grade, Fine Arts, Set One

Our first week K. made (with help) her sewing needle case. This is from Sewing is Fun. We just worked on it 30 minutes each day. K. really enjoyed making it and when she finished it she was very excited that she had made something. Yes, it looks like the first sewing project of a seven year old, but that is exactly what it is -- and that's okay.



 
 
This week we worked on crocheting. I really like the book Kids Learn to Crochet by Guy and Hall. The illustrations are drawn and large so you can really see exactly what you are supposed to do. K. learned how to make a slip knot on Monday. On Tuesday she learned the chain stitch and made five chains. It was quite frustrating. Wednesday I had her make ten, Thursday, fifteen, and twenty on Friday. She has gotten much better and is impressed with how long her chain is getting. I think I will require her to work a little on it each day so she doesn't forget how.
 
With just a short time spent crocheting Wednesday through Friday, we were able to do four pages in the Alfred's Basic Piano Theory Book Level 1A, so we are almost caught up to where we should be.

We were back to sewing in our third week. In the first section of Miss Patch, you make a pillow. We made the pattern, cut out the fabric, and K. got a few inches sewn. We had two park days this week, and so those days we didn't have fine arts. Thankfully I allotted the fourth week for "unfinished projects". On Monday K. took her crocheting and added about 40 stitches to her chain.

During the fourth week K. completed sewing two sides of her pillow. Now I need to discover where I hid the fluff to stuff it with!

We read pages 5 - 11 of Art Museum. We will be going to the art museum next Sunday, but we saw some paintings on display at the library yesterday and she was able to tell me which was a landscape and which was a still life. We also did another page in the piano theory book, so we are caught up to where we should be.