2nd Grade Curriculum Picks
This school year I’m homeschooling a 2nd grade boy, 4th grade boy, and 8th grade twin girls. ICYMI earlier this week I shared curriculum picks for my 4th grader & 8th graders.
I can’t even believe that this will be my 3rd time homeschooling 2nd grade! When I was reflecting on last school year one thing I knew I wanted to prioritize especially with my boys was a lot of variety so I think you’ll see that reflected in some of our choices. I don’t want it to overwhelm anyone so just know I’m intentionally pulling together different materials & resources and we won’t be using every little thing in all of the materials I have listed here.
Morning Time
Our morning time always includes a short devotional and we usually do our scripture study during this time. We’ve been studying the Old Testament and have been thoroughly enjoying The Golden Children’s Bible. I’ve simplified some of our studies and we’ll just keep chugging along with the stories for my youngest!
Language Arts
This year we’re back with The Good & The Beautiful. My little guy is going to start Level 2 but I’ve noticed probably because he is a boy and also because he has an early summer birthday, he seems to barely be getting by when we transition grades/levels so I am planning to take this course at a little slower pace. I’m thinking we’ll do 2 lessons a week so we have plenty of time to build reading fluency and strengthen the phonics skills he’s been learning before too quickly introducing new skills. He was also in online reading lessons last year so I can tell there’s going to be a bit of a transition and he needs some review. So slowing down on bookwork will help us with all of these things and also give us some more time to work on readers. Our favorites are TGTB readers and Dash Into Learning (For DITL you can use code HCL15 for 15% off) and then we'll get more from the library as we need them. I also want to do more games with him. I have this list I gathered of 2nd-4th grade math and reading games. Also the Treehouse Town Game is from TGTB and coordinates with their book series, Treehouse Town.
This year we're swapping out Explode the Code and Evan-Moor Spelling. These are great and so easy to implement but I wanted to use something that had more practice pages so I went with the Playdough to Plato Phonics Toolkit. (I got this bundle half off so watch for the ads or sign up for the emails.) I love that it's organized by individual phonics skills though and has some paper games. We'll review one or two skills each week, starting with Volume 3. I'll also pull our weekly spelling words from those lessons to reinforce what we're practicing.
I also grabbed this cheap visual Phonics Helper (stored in a menu cover) and I think this will be really helpful for him.
We’ll also be using TGTB Handwriting 2. I’ve used TGTB handwriting for almost 7 years and with daily consistent practice - it’s such an easy way to teach and develop writing and fine motor skills.
Last of all, my 7 year old is FULL of questions and he loves when I read to him so we’re just going to read through Did You Know? together a few times a week when he meets with me one-on-one.
Math
It was an easy choice for us this year to go with Simply Math 2 from The Good & Beautiful. I used TGTB math with my older girls until they leveled out so I think we’ll be sticking with this for a number of years. For some variety we’ll also be doing some board games though. Like I mentioned….just rotating through this list: Amazon Game list I put together.
STEM
We’ve done three years of Crunch Labs with my older son and my youngest has been begging to start so it’s his turn!
Family Unit Studies
This year I’m going all out on our family unit studies and working to integrate more subjects. For all my kids, these studies will cover science, history, geography, art & music. For my boys, I am hoping to integrate some more reading, writing, and literature here as well. Since we do these together as a family you should know I’ll be pulling from a variety of resources and adapting activities to better cater to each of my kid’s levels. What I have listed here will likely change and evolve over the year, but I wanted to share the jumping off points with you guys.
I’ve prioritized 5 units + we’ll for sure plan a Christmas unit study and we’ll just see where all this takes us. This year I’m feeling pretty relaxed and I’m not setting a certain amount of time for each unit. I think some of these might only take us a few weeks while others may take us a few months. One of my favorite things about unit studies is the freedom to follow rabbit trails and explore things that capture our interests. So, as we move through the year, I’ll just add some more studies or simplify as needed. And, honestly if history is any indication, I’ll probably have a mid-year reset where I end changing up something anyway.
And, just quick note, my 2nd grader will be tagging along with his older brother as we work through The Dangerous Book for Boys. I think they’re going to love it. I have more details on how we’re going to use it over on my 4th Graders Curriculum Picks.
Wilderness & Survival Skills: We’re kicking the year off with this unit and my boys, especially, are super excited about this. And to be honest, Waldock Way’s Survival Unit has helped me get pretty excited about it too! We’ll be using the Bear Grylls Books for my boys. For my girls I snagged Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain, but I bet we’ll end up doing them as a read-aloud. And, I think they’ll all enjoy this knot tying kit and the game Survive the Island.
Utah History: It’s high time we did a unit on Utah history. I couldn’t find a spine I loved so I am going to use this Utah History Unit from TPT. It’s huge and covers an entire year’s worth of material, but I definitely don’t want to spend that long on this study so I’ll for sure just be cherry picking in this. I’m planning to pull some of these printables out for our history notebooks so I think that should be fun. We’ll also use the Utah study unit from Road Trip Around America inside the Art Makes Me Smart membership. I also have a booklist going on Amazon. I’ve read NONE of these so take these recommendations with a grain of salt. I’ll update it as we narrow down our list.
Character & Leadership Skills: This is mini unit I’m just pulling together on my own. For my older girls we’ll be using the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens and for my younger boys I am going to be using the 7 Habits of Happy Kids + these supplemental Ready to Read books (they cover the same habits, just different stories).
Health & Human Body: We’re going to primarily be doing the Human Anatomy unit inside Art Makes Me Smart. But I’ve also got The Good & Beautiful Health & Physical Body unit on hand and we LOVE their science videos so I’m excited to pull from both of these resources.
Music Appreciation: We’ll for sure be using The Good & The Beautiful Music Appreciation 2 Course. (Expected release is summer 2026 so depending when you view this - the link may not have it listed yet.) We did Music Appreciation 1 last year and loved it so we’re excited for this one! This will likely be a shorter unit study and we’ll also be pulling from the Spiritual Lives of Great Composers and the composer study resources inside Art Makes Me Smart. I also LOVE the Story Orchestra books and use them any excuse we can!
As these studies evolve, I’ll try to post on IG & save on my story highlights as well as come back and blog what we end up doing!
PE & Piano
My little guy has done lots of city and rec sports so we’ll just keep going with those this year. We have a family rec center pass and the kids all spend a lot of time swimming, riding bikes, and staying active through everyday activities.
We started my son on Hoffman Piano Lessons (Code LEARN will get you 10% off) earlier this year, but we’ve been taking a break over the summer. We’ll start back up in the fall though when we settle into a routine!
Daily Rhythm & Final Thoughts
Last school year we had a lot of classes and activities out of the home that really disrupted our rhythm. They were all good things, but our schedule was just a little all over the place. After talking with all the kids, we’re all craving more unhurried time at home. They especially want to do more reading, games, and projects.
So this year my goal is to keep our rhythm simple…I’d like to do devotional > family unit study > independent work & one on one time with mom all before noon. I’m hoping we can wrap up our core by lunch and after that our afternoons will be wide open for the kids to play, dive into projects (especially some with my husband) and spend the time on any independent reading or interests they’re excited about. Most of our sports and other activities happen later in the afternoon and evening so I think this rhythm should give us the best of both worlds…more focused time at home in the morning and plenty of margin for the rest of the day.
Let me know what you’re exciting about for this upcoming school year!
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