2nd Grade Activities: Week 1

Monday
1. Religion: read about Saint of the day; pray.
2. Writing: write Mom notes.
3. Science: make paper tadpoles; play Sammy's Science House computer games, including weather, story sequencing, and classification of animals.
4. Handwriting: make a remote control, with buttons labeled STOP, CRAWL, FAST, GO, SLOW, SWIM, MOM, DAD.
5. Creative Writing: dictate a page of instructions for a "robot baby".
6. Math: "How many days until Christmas?" [from Aug. 19]: 128 days (counting) or 128 days by adding column of numbers (number of days in each month until Christmas). [Observation: adding the days in each month was much faster than counting each day individually.]
7. P.E.: swim class, park time.
8. Read Aloud: Magic Tree House #16, Hour of the Olympics.

Tuesday
1. Phonics: Play Reader Rabbit computer phonics games: CVC words; spell "bag", "cap", "hen" with tactile letters. Mom demonstrates (writes examples and sample words with) the lowercase letters: b, d, p, q.
2. Handwriting: practice upper and lowercase letters: a, e.
3. Math: aptitude test.
4. P.E.: swim class, park time.
5. Art: make 6 plastic spoon puppets.
6. Read Aloud: Mem Fox, Tough Boris;
A Gift from the Lonely Doll, Dare Wright.

Wednesday
1. Read Aloud: Magic Tree House #17, Tonight on the Titanic.
2. Math: telling time: read current time on analog and digital clocks, review number of minutes in hour and half hour, observe motion of hands on the "Judy Clock" (showing a mark for each minute, a number for each five minutes).
3. Science/Nature: watch Really Wild Animals: Amazing North America video: polar bears, wolves, alligators, rattlesnakes; observe and draw a moth.
4. P.E.: swim class, park time.
5. Spanish: attend Spanish story time.
6. Religion: attend Mass.

Thursday
1. Read Aloud: Magic Tree House #18, Buffalo Before Breakfast.
2. Sign Language: watch Signing Time!, vol. 3: Everyday Signs, and practice signs.
3. Math: "Mom, please help me count my money": counting nickels: learn to count by 10s to 100 (group nickels by 2s first, then observe the pattern 10, 20, 30, 40 on the hundred chart); count by 5s to 100 (oral -- noticing the pattern).
4. P.E.: swim class, park time.
5. Science/Nature: observe and draw dragon flies.
6. Foreign Language: asks to be taught some Greek: Dad writes the Greek alphabet. "Daddy, please can you let me repeat those a few times?" Copied some of the letters.
7. Geography: locate Greece on the globe. (These Greek interests were sparked by watching a silly Disney video).

Friday
1. Religion: pray.
2. Math: write the Roman numerals I to XV.
3. Science/Nature: watch Henry's Amazing Animals: Prehistoric Animals (video).
4. Creative Writing: dictate what sounds like advertising copy for the Amazing Animals video.
5. Reading: Chester, Syd Hoff;
Digby, Barbara Shook Hazen;
Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Joanne Oppenheim;
Two Crows Counting, Doris Orgel.
6. P.E.: soccer.

Homeschool Meme

I've been tagged for a homeschooling meme by Studeo.

One homeschooling book you've enjoyed:
Homeschooling for Excellence, by David and Micki Colfax (the first and most interesting book I read about homeschooling). After this one I read every homeschooling how-to book my library system offered until the information became pretty repetitious.

Resources I won't live without:
Computer and internet
art supplies
car
library and interlibrary loan
globe
heavy duty stapler
3-hole punch
electric pencil sharpener (especially for colored pencils)

Resources you wish you had never bought:
none

Resources you enjoyed last year:
library
Some of the Montessori bead material shown here.
Weigh Too base ten materials (I don't see the exact product listed anymore).
a local homeschooling art class
Spanish story time at the library
soccer, T-Ball, swimming, ballet
educational videos on various subjects (library)
homeschool blogs and message boards
conversations with homeschooling parents about homeschooling
conversations with non-homeschoolers who are curious about homeschooling

Resources you'll be using this year:
Explode the Code books (phonics)
modeling clay and other art supplies
library
internet
math manipulatives
try EPGY for math
(charter school will pay for it -- it's expensive)
robot kit,
another robot kit

Resources you'd like to buy:
Story of the World
Latina Christiana
microscope
high speed internet access

One resource you wish existed:
Perhaps most of them exist already or could be created by one of us.

Homeschool catalogs you enjoy reading:
none (I don't get any)

One homeschooling website you use regularly:
Varies from year to year. It used to be Playschool 6 (Montessori homeschoolers). Now it is the 4 Real Learning board.

Learning Plan: 2nd Grade

LANGUAGE ARTS: Practice reading. Study phonics, grammar, spelling. Parents continue to read aloud fiction and other subjects of interest. Handwriting practice: lowercase letters, numbers, sentences and short essays, stories. Creative writing: stories, poems, booklets, dramas.

MATH: Cover areas and skills recommended by the State standards. Use oral, manipulative, written, and computer-based approaches. Weights and measures. Telling time. Calendar. Money.

SCIENCE: Observation of nature: living and non-living things. Seasons and weather. Earth: oceans, mountains, rivers, ecosystems, North and South Poles. Solar System and space exploration. Human and animal anatomy. Botany, gardening. Build simple gadgets and machines. Study electricity, magnetism, molecules. Use library books, field trips, experiments, internet research.

SOCIAL STUDIES: Family and community. Our town, state, country, world. Cultural diversity and history. Government, including age-appropriate news, political discussions, reading, and research.

HISTORY: Local and state history. U.S. and world history. History as it comes up in music, art, science, and other subjects. Library books, museums, internet research. Use of a time line, history binder, or computer file for review, adding to it as various people and events come up in the study of other subjects.

GEOGRAPHY: Interest-based. Map work, globe and atlas. Incorporate with other subjects. Library books and internet sites about various places of interest. Learn while traveling. Local geography.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE: Exposure to Spanish and Latin. Spanish story time at the library. Read simple bilingual Spanish / English books. Work on vocabulary for each. Use Spanish and Latin course materials and A/V materials for further study. Study of Sign language and Braille.

ART: Crafts, drawing, painting, sewing, sculpting, computer art, fine art study. Books, prints, museums, internet, classes.

MUSIC: Listen to music of various styles, periods, and cultures. Listen to children's songs, sing. Make up songs. Introduction to musical instruments: rhythm instruments, Melody harp, keyboard, recorder. Beginning music theory.

RELIGION: Prayer, Bible study, lives of the saints, catechism, CCD. Study Judaism and other religions. Church attendance.

P.E.: Soccer, swimming, hiking, dance, park time, T-Ball, tennis.