Our Homeschool Curriculum for Year 2

Being a mom who likes to make things more difficult than they need to be, I put together an entire curriculum from scratch last year. It worked out really well, and I loved getting to make the decisions for my daughter's education, but I knew that it wouldn't be possible to do that again this year. Using pieces of other curricula seemed like a self-preservation tactic that I needed to employ for the 2020-2021 school year. I still got to choose exactly what we'll focus on, since I still pieced it together, but I'm not taking the bulk of the planning responsiblity on myself. 

I hope our homeschool curriculum choices are inspiring, encouraging, or at least a little bit informative. Instead of organizing this post solely by subject, like I have in the past, I'm organizing it by the bits and pieces of different curricula we're using. 

Simply Charlotte Mason

We chose Genesis & Deuteronomy & Ancient Egypt for our history, geography, and Bible studies this year. I liked the idea of integrating several subjects instead of trying to teach three related subjects separately. Again, self-preservation! 

The books that we bought to go with this study are so gorgeous! It has been so tempting to crack them open, but we're trying to have self-control! This study also includes an Ancient Egypt: Stuff They Left Behind Portfolio, which can also serve as picture study. 

I think that E, who will be five in October, will also enjoy listening to these books. It's really important to me that my younger boys can feel included!

Singapore Math

Last year, Miss H began level 2 of Singapore Math's Primary Math in about February. I  just love it, and used it in various forms as a teacher. It's important to me that if we ever need or want to put our children in a school, that they will have all the skills they need to jump right in. 

Recently, I had the opportunity to try out Dimensions Math from Singapore Math. Miss H will be switching to that for level 3, which she'll begin in January. I I also have a Kindergarten level for E, which will be great since he has a late birthday and will most likely have a more official kindergarten year than H and I had. 

I know I will want to write more about it soon, but Primary Mathematics and Dimensions Math are very similar. Dimensions Math is a little more visually appealing, and it states the concepts more explicitly, giving it a very Charlotte Mason feel. 

Books

Of course, the main part of a Charlotte Mason curriculum is living books. I've chosen too many living books to read this year, but I purposely overplanned a bit in the event that we suddenly have much more time on our hands than expected some time in the fall or winter. I chose some of these books from Simply Charlotte Mason's book list, some of which amazingly overlapped with Under the Home's year 2 literature curriculum. I'll use Under the Home's resources a bit for copywork, dictation, etc. 

Here is my big ambitious list of books we'll read this year: 

(I've used affiliate links to share these books with you. You can learn more about affiliate links in my policies.) 

• Alice in Wonderland
• The Wizard of Oz
• Understood Betsy
• The Red Book of Animal Stories
• The Swiss Family Robinson (currently reading with H at bedtime)
• Stuart Little
• A Children's Garden of Verses
• 4 Little House on the Prairie Books
• The Ology

I'll have Miss H read some of the other books on Simply Charlotte Mason's literature list independently. 

In My Back Pocket

I also have some extra curriculum in my back pocket that will be our fun afternoon explorations. One is the free science curriculum from The Good and the Beautiful, that I knew my ocean-loving boy would especially love. The other is Playful Pioneers, which we started last year when everything was shut down. My kids LOVED Playful Pioneers, and I can't wait to share more about it with you soon. 

I'm looking forward to a fun year of learning with my children! What do you have planned for this year?