Gathering our Gr 2 curriculum

I've started gathering the core subjects of our Grade 2 curriculum for Jared.  


I attended the Escondido, CA Homeschool Expo May 7th and 8th. I listened to a couple of talks by a speaker and spent almost every minute searching the expo vendor hall for "the perfect curriculum".  Yes, yes I know , giggle for a sec while you try and imagine me walking around and around that hall getting more and more stressed trying to find the perfect guide for each subject! lol!


In the end I decided to ask a lovely lady named Jeannie (please forgive me if you spell it differently than my cousin does!) from Area 127 in less than coherent sentences, what would be a good L.Arts program for my son to use. She spent a couple minutes trying to decipher what I was looking for, and then while she was asked a quick question by another expo attendee I listened. She was asked about the Learning Language Arts Though Literature program. The other lady was asking which set came next for her child and she had nothing but wonderful things to say about it! Jeannie sweetly sat down with me and explained to me how it worked and how she had used this program before and loved it! 


So Jared's Language Arts program looks like this:

 

History/Geography:
I also asked her about Story of The World Volume 1: Ancient Times, that is raved about by so many people. Apparently she loves it as well, and it is what we will be using for J's core History and Geography curriculum.  I'll add in some American history unit studies, a California one, and so on as needed to round things out for him. 

What about Math?
Well, Jared seems to be progressing well with his current Math program, Horizons from Alpha Omega, so we'll continue with that for Grade 2 unless we hit a bump in the road with it!

Which brings us to Science!
I haven't purchased it yet, but we're going to be using the Apologia Elementary Science, and we'll be using: Exploring Creation with Zoology 1. Flying Creatures of The Fifth Day. Yet another that I've heard nothing but positive things about. I'm planning on using the main textbook and then instead of the science journal / workbook, I'll be purchasing the lapbook lessons to go with it! 


The rest of it are still be decided upon, but at least we're closer to having it all planned out. There's no way I'm wasting precious time later this year with our family all together, by running around last minute trying to figure this out.  There's just too much going on to procrastinate about this right now. With James going back and forth on training and another deployment looming ahead, we can't afford to procrastinate...well, not about this anyway! ;)

Have you ever...

Have you ever watched a movie or read a book that just made you want to go DO something?

I just got done watching Julie and Julia during the kids nap time. Loved it!  And by the end of it all I could think about was I HAD to clean my kitchen and I had to find that supposedly fantastic recipe by Julia Child for Beef Bourguignon! Lol!

I found it! Here it is: CLICK ME! I'm slightly intimidated by the difficulty being, well, "difficult"! But who knows...maybe I'll make it one day. ;)

I'm not always the most eloquent blogger, and I certainly am not the most dependable! I spend more time blogging in my head than I ever do on the computer, and by the time I do sit at the keyboard any humor or cute "footnotes" that may have once been part of the story vanish and all is left is a basic textbook account of what I've done...not quite what I had planned, if you know what I mean! ;)

There's no doubt I have a few things to work on, but nevertheless, I'll keep plodding on and one day it'll start becoming a little more second nature.

The hubby's away on training right now. Jared's mouth is forever moving, as though he's his own little narrator! He's bright boy, loves math and is DESPERATE to do "REAL science experiments Mommy, please!".  So apart form all my other lofty goals for the rest of this year, I will be trying to work in real science experiments every now and then. I found some really cool ones on Rainbow Resources and I might decide to give them a whirl during our Grade 2 year coming up!  Wow! Can you believe that my baby boy is already about to enter Grade 2??!! Cliche or not...they grow so fast!

Even weirder for many is that I am now his teacher! Homeschooling is challenging for sure, especially when you're new and have no idea what is the best of the 400 000 (exaggeration i'm sure ;) ) option out there. But slowly but surely we'll figure it out.

Mia, being the toddler she is, is keeping us all on our toes.  Give her one second without anyone's eyes glued on her and you'll turn around to discover her trying to get into anything and everything she's not supposed to touch lol! Her hair is finally getting long enough for teeny tiny little pigtails...I'll post pics soon, it's so adorable! As soon as the little piggytails go in I can see so much of me as a little girl in her!

But Jared's desperate to get outside, Mia thankfully is still napping, and I have dishes to do...so ta-ta for now!