Short lessons in second grade, with an emphasis on full attention and best effort, lay a solid foundation for learning well. Feed your student’s mind through wonderful living books—some challenging and some light—and a wide variety of enrichment subjects. The curriculum is designed as a wonderful combination of Individual student lessons, done one-on-one with the teacher, and Family lessons, done with all of your students together.

Sample Schedule

With the Family lessons and the Individual student lessons, each day’s work should take about two hours to complete.

Day One	Day Two	Day Three	Day Four	Day Five
Family Lessons (90 min)	Family Lessons (90 min)	Family Lessons (90 min)	Family Lessons (90 min)	Family Lessons (90 min)
Math (15 min)	Math (15 min)	Math (15 min)	Math (15 min)	Math (15 min)
Reading (10 min)	Handwriting (5–10 min)	Reading (10 min)	Handwriting (5–10 min)	Reading (10 min)
	Science (20 min)		Science (20 min)

Individual Student Lessons

Individual student lessons in second grade are focused on the subjects of language arts, math, and science. These are the subjects that should be taught one-on-one at your child’s pace.

It is normal for a child to be at one “grade level” in one subject and another “grade level” in another subject. When looking at these suggestions, remember that you have the freedom to customize for your unique child! If your student is not yet ready for the recommended level, take a look at the recommendations for Grade 1. If your child is past the suggested level, move up to the recommendations for Grade 3. The beauty of homeschooling is that you can easily customize skill-progressive subjects (especially language arts and math) to fit each unique child.

Language Arts

Language Arts for your second grader include reading, handwriting, and narration. Your young student is encouraged to progress in reading and handwriting at her own pace. No reading is required except in the daily reading lesson. All school books are read aloud for the student so she can benefit from a more advanced level of writing. Young students can comprehend more than they can read for themselves. By having the teacher read aloud the school books, more advanced ideas can be shared and learned even as the student is allowed to progress at her own pace in reading for herself.

Reading

Your student continues to practice reading aloud in order to build fluency and confidence through the wholesome stories in the second-grade readers Busy Times and More Busy Times.

Handwriting

An interesting and engaging introduction to cursive handwriting is given, along with regular practice in printing, using the wisdom of Proverbs in Print to Cursive Proverbs.

Narration

Narration is oral, allowing your child to practice collecting and expressing her thoughts without the additional burden of handwriting. This approach allows your student to gain confidence as she grows in his ability to order her thoughts while her fine-motor skills are still developing.

Math

Simple, lively lessons with very little handwriting help your student gain a firm footing in addition, subtraction, and multiplication up to 1,000. She also begins work on learning the tables up to 10 +10 and 6 x 10 with The Charlotte Mason Elementary Arithmetic Series, Book 2.

Science

Second-grade science involves an enjoyable exploration of ponds and streams through reading aloud the delightful Pond and Stream by Arthur Ransome and adding the corresponding learning ideas for narrations, nature study, library books, beautiful poetry, and the nature notebook in The Pond and Stream Companion. (This science study can be used with all students in grades 1–3 if desired.)

Family Lessons

Your student receives short, enjoyable lessons in history, geography, art, nature, poetry, music, handicrafts, singing, Bible, literature, foreign language, Scripture memory, and more. Select your choice of History, Geography, and Bible guide and Enrichment Studies. If you are teaching only one student, the Family lessons can easily be done one-on-one.

Shopping List

For a complete Charlotte Mason curriculum, add the history time period and Enrichment Studies of your choice. You can combine all your students for these Family lessons.