After months of planning, I have finally decided on my daughter’s second grade homeschool curriculum picks. I love this planning phase of homeschool. Yes, it can be stressful but I try to focus on the idea that nothing in homeschool is concrete (it’s what makes homeschool really beautiful) and things can change mid-year if we need them too.
That being said I feel really confident about the choices I made for our second grade homeschool curriculum. Many picks are ones we used last year and found a lot of success with and some are new to us and came highly recommended from multiple other homeschool parents.
I also love to do tons of research. I scour websites and blogs. I look at our state standards and compare them to the scope and sequence (not necessary but I like to keep my girls on track or above current state levels). I watch videos so I can get a good sense of what the curriculum actually looks like. I read threads on Facebook from parents that have used things they love and things they don’t.
My hope is that all of this research can help you! I hope this can make searching for curriculum a bit easier for you this year.
Also, I want you to know that curriculum is not a one size fits all type of thing.
Watch my video on “intro to homeschooling” to see why.
I can’t guarantee that something I love will work for you but what I hope is that I can share information about why it works for us so you can gather the information you need to make the best decision for you.
Our Second Grade Homeschool Curriculum Picks for 2020 – 2021
Language Arts
- The Good and The Beautiful – This will be my 3rd year using The Good and The Beautiful’s language arts curriculum. It really is such a blessing for our family. Some of my favorites things about it is that it is open and go (no planning needed), it is filled with beautiful literature, art, and geography. It’s affordable!! And I have seen my girls flourish using it! Read this post (coming soon) to find out why this language arts program works for our family and why I will be using it for all 3 girls this year!
Handwriting/Creative Writing
- Handwriting Without Tears – This will be our first year using Handwriting without Tears and their creative writing curriculum. We didn’t have any problems with our handwriting curriculum last year, but this program came very highly recommended from a few homeschooling parents I respect. I will test it out and let you know what I think!
Math
- The Good and The Beautiful – This math curriculum was everything I was looking for before I knew what I was looking for ;) I had a very hard time finding a good fit for my daughter when it came to math but she really learned so much last year with The Good and The Beautiful that we decided to continue her with the math curriculum again. Read my full review on why we are choosing The Good and The Beautiful math curriculum HERE.
History
- Story of the World – This will be the first year we incorporate a formal history curriculum. Up until now a lot of what we learned in regards to history came from the books we read (hello magic tree house). Since second grade is when most history curriculums start, I decided to try out one that came very highly recommended, The Story of The World. I knew I wanted to teach world history and not just from an American lens and this curriculum does just that. I also like it comes with an activity book and from just flipping through it looks fun. ***Update: After the first 3 lessons I have to say we love this so far. The lessons include a chapter to read (which is an easy read and very engaging) and several hands-on activities, additional book recommendations, and narration questions. I am so happy with our choice to try it.
Science
- The Good and The Beautiful – We use The Good and The Beautiful science units as a “spine” for our science curriculum. Meaning we use the curriculum, but maybe not exactly the way it was intended. We use it for the structure and then I love to incorporate other activities I find on Pinterest. I love to make themed snacks, craft ideas, and science experiments. Make sure to follow along on Instagram, because I share a whole lot there.
- Chickie & Roo ocean and seaside unit – This year I will be adding the Chickie & Roo ocean and seaside unit to complement our marine biology. I love filling my unit studies with so many beautiful pieces of curriculum and Chickie & Roo has some gorgeous curriculum!
Geography
- Let’s Play School – I receive their subscription service and one of the months this summer was a full US state unit. I decided, for Geography this year, I was going to teach my girls all about the United States. We will try to study a state a week (and hopefully visit some states one day soon).
- Little Global Citizens – this is a beautifully curated subscription box with lots of engaging hands-on activities. It is one of our favorite subscription boxes and we use this as part of our geography curriculum to not only learn about a country but understand it’s culture.
- Chickie & Roo National Parks – I am so excited for this unit to go alongside my Let’s play school unit about all of the US states.
Music
- Piano – We have a keyboard at home and will continue using our instructional book and our favorite learning apps. (more details coming soon)
- Ukulele – We took classes for Ukulele pre-COVID and hope to find something virtually. (see below for some ideas)
Art
- Art lessons revolve around the unit we are working on. You can find most of our marine biology activities we plan to do in this post (coming soon). I find most of my ideas on Pinterest, come follow me there!
French
- Outschool – Outschool is a site that offers online classes for all ages. We love this site not just for foreign language classes (which they have a ton) but for so many things. They have fun classes like lego/pokemon/princess themed, and they have educational classes to compliment your child’s curriculum. Use this link to get $20 off your first class! This could be a great option for socialization if you dont feel a traditional class setting its right for you.
- This is the French workbook we will be using this year.
- The Cultured Kid – Although this is a preschool program, my 2nd grader loves to participate and watch the videos with my youngest. More on this program in my kindergarten curriculum picks coming up.
Bible
- More Than Words – We are just starting out and so I don’t have a full review on this yet but I will update this post as soon as I do. This did come recommended from a friend so I am excited to see what it is all about.
- “How Great is our God” devotionals – We used this book last year and loved it! It has little one page devotionals that are super fun and engaging. I had a friend tell me that there is actually a website with activities to complement the book and its incredible! So we will be using it to compliment our bible curriculum.
Extras
I am not sure what additional electives we will be doing this year with the current COVID numbers in our state. Here are some ideas of what we plan to do if numbers go down and we feel its a comfortable choice for our family.
- Performing arts classes (theatre, musical theatre)
- Piano Lessons
- Ukulele Lessons
- Girl Scouts
- Gymnastics
- We participate in a co-op that meets once a month for a full day of learning. This co-op also has field trips. As of now (Aug) we are not sure when the co-op will start back up again
COVID friendly electives we will participate in
- Zoom meetings with our gymnastics team
- Outschool for classes such as french and theatre
- Nature hikes – we hope to visit some of the state parks we haven’t been to yet.
- Beach visits – this will be especially fun since we can incorporate our marine biology unit
And there you have it! Our curriculum picks for second grade. I hope this overview was helpful for you and I will continue to update this post as we move through the curriculum and get an opportunity to really test it out.
If you have any questions about our curriculum picks leave them in the comments below.
I will be sharing my first grade and kindergarten picks soon!
If you want more homeschooling content, be sure to visit my homeschool page where I share all kinds of tips.
