Grade 2.0 Review

For a number of different reasons, we are going to extend Noah's second grade year into the 2014/2015 school year and call it Grade 2.5. I love the freedom and power (and awareness) I have to be able to tailor his year and our time so specifically to his learning pace and level!  Homeschooling rocks!  Anyway, that makes this current year Noah just completed more like the first half of second grade and we'll affectionately refer to is as Grade 2.0 from now on.  Before I get lost in our summer, I thought I would go ahead and record a few 2.0 details from this year that I might appreciate having further the down the road.  Anna will be hot on his heels in homeschooling in no time!

This first year of homeschooling, Noah tackled all the subjects he would have in public school, plus a couple extras ... That meant Reading, Spelling, Language, Math, Social Studies, and Science and then the additional Bible and Vocabulary.

For the entire Language Arts block, we went with Sonlight Curriculum and loved how it broke down the subjects and related activities.  It had writing and language once a week each, spelling all week and reading every day as well.  I supplemented that reading time with read-alouds and Noah's silent reading. Several months into the year, we also added an online vocabulary program which has proved to be SO worth it.  The more I worked with Noah on reading, the more I saw how much vocabulary (or lack thereof) can help (or hinder) reading comprehension.  Using Wordly Wise Online was a great self-guided computer practice for him and his vocabulary grew by leaps and bounds! Additionally, with Josh working in a school system himself, he was able to assign Noah an AR account that we have used from home and that has been really motivating for him.  In the course of this year, he's earned almost 40 AR points and is currently reading chapter books at the third grade reading level.  I call that a big win when I consider that Noah still won't choose to read without being forced to do so.  He really enjoyed the books we read all year, but still just doesn't take any ownership of reading for pleasure. All boy! Fingers still crossed that he will one day, though. :)

For History/Social Studies, we also went with Sonlight Curriculum which proved to be a real struggle ALL. Year. long.  This subject was quickly the worst part of our day and usually ended in my shouting and his tears for the first half of the year.  Not good things. Somehow, the many living books it used were just too difficult for Noah to get a grasp of the content with.  Coupled with my learning the ropes of homeschooling those first five months, it proved to be a sad hour for us both.  By January, Josh was begging me to quit SS altogether and try a new curriculum in the fall.  Not wanting to waste the money I spent on this, we pressed on, but I approached it with MUCH lower expectations for Noah while we powered through and we compressed the lessons into one day a week.  Finally, when we could take this particular curriculum no longer, I ditched it entirely in March and picked up another history curriculum  - Story of the World - that comes highly recommended and is much less expensive anyway.  We picked up in the history time spot we were in already and finished the year from there.  And that will technically be completed on the way to the beach this weekend via the audio version of the book. :)  All that explained, Noah completed a year of World History:  Ancient Times, from the earlier nomads to the last Roman Emporer ... with a lot of mapping and different religions covered in that study.  Wow!  My hope for next year is that Noah will be able to discuss and retain more information independently.  He really relied on me a lot for this subject this year, which I won't count against him.  This subject was our only "crash-and-burn" experience, so I guess that's not too bad for our first year homeschooling.

For Math, we used RightStart Mathematics and we ADORED it.  This curriculum particularly blew my mind in how it introduced and taught math concepts and it has forever changed how I will teach math ... here at home and back in the classroom one day as well.  When I was in the classroom, math was always my favorite subject to teach and it was also my third graders favorite subject, so it is not surprising at all that it was Noah's favorite subject as well.  He enjoyed it so much and looked forward to it so much, that I positioned it at the end of our school days as a built-in motivational tool for him to want to get all our other work done.  Math ended up being a reward for him and I love that he enjoyed it so much.  The Level B we used was more toward first grade skills, so it was not surprising that we flew through the curriculum and were finished by February.  So we jumped into Level C and worked our way through almost half of that before the year ended.  That puts him right at the middle of second grade in terms of math which perfectly matches our 2.5 status for the fall.  I have been astounded to watch his number sense develop so much further than I ever saw with my third graders.  You should see all the mental math that boy can do now!  We are seamlessly moving into multiplication, algebra, fractions, etc.  Surprisingly, Noah was most challenged by geometry activities ... anything spatial is less-than-intuitive for the poor boy.  So interesting to discover though! We will be staying with RightStart for next year, obviously. :}

For Science, we relied on Sonlight curriculum as we did for Language Arts and Social Studies.  Thankfully, we really, really liked the living books they chose for his science topics and after finally figuring out our teaching/learning groove together by early winter, this subject went really smoothly for Noah and me.  It was his other favorite this year.  He learned so much and I learned it right along with him!  We were amazed at all the things we discovered about animals from all different continents, space, the human body, water processing, light, magnets, and mirrors.  Since I am not exactly a science-loving girl, though, Josh mercifully took over the task of all the science experiments.  There was one every week and he did that with both kids every weekend.  We will continue with Sonlight for science next year.

For Bible, I suffered through the assigned book that corresponded with the Sonlight Core subject guide, but hated it all the while - mostly because it was such basic input that Noah and Anna are well-versed in.  I hurried us through it to call it done and when that was over, we started reading The Jesus Storybook Bible together instead for the last couple months.  Next year, I will not be using Sonlight resources for this subject.  I have several other things lined up that I found myself.  And, as ever, Josh does a LOT of concentrated bible/worship/missionary teaching with the kids every night.

When people ask us how we are liking homeschooling at this point, I find that a smitten grin comes over my face.  I love it!  I just love it. My favorite things about it are how much better Noah and I relate, how peaceful our daily groove/life is, how available our time is for special things, activities, trips and gatherings, and how much precious time we are able to spend together that I was sorely sacrificing when Noah was in public school.  I find that I adore the homeschool community we have here and that I have such a peace about the buddies and families we are getting to know and spending time with.  I count us so lucky to have been aware enough to consider this life and to have the courage to go after it.  It's not something I ever thought I would do years ago, so this all a brave new world for us.  And, like I said, it is really paying off.  We love it! 

When I ask Noah what he thinks about homeschooling now that he has a whole year done, he says the same thing - that he really likes it.  He likes how quickly we get work done, how much more time he has to play.  He likes math and science.  He loves the dartboard - aka, my secret classroom management tool.  And another highlight of this year that he relishes is something we added in January.  We enrolled him in a local co-op, Anchored Enrichment, that meets every Thursday.  He was in the 2nd/3rd grade class and jumped right in to all the normal school activities and lessons they do there, making good buddies so quickly along the way - good buddies whose parents have become sweet friends of mine as well.  Many of Noah's buddies were actually 1st graders this year, so he is so pumped about having them move up to his class in the fall.  So thankful for that community there!

Between that group and a homeschool group we joined at the start of the year, our cup has overflowed with such blessing from the Lord - confirmation, encouragement, and providence in terms of friendships and support within this homeschooling world.  So much so that we go into next year with such confidence and excitement and a touch of dread at not keeping Anna at home with us, too. :S Until then, we have all our "curricular" ducks in a row for the fall, which technically will begin in early July for Noah, and we are keeping a learning pace all summer by sheer virtue of routines we already know and love ... morning work, silent reading, read alouds, and skip counting songs in the car. :)  The beauty of homeschooling is that it's not just a boxed in chore you do in big block increments ... it's a lifestyle.  And in case I didn't already say so, we love it!