2nd grade critiques welcome

Overall, I am trusting the CM method for the early years….I think! However, when I read blogs, forums, or hear others’ curriculum list I wonder if I’m going into as much depth as needed. I just started year 2 with a young 7 yo. He went to ps K, then last year we did 1st grade homeschooling CM style. I have a 5 yo tagging along. We just started MFW K with her, but we’re doing this lightly since she is tagging along with her older brother in learning hymns, listening to poetry, card games, listening to composers or folk songs, and of course recess.

I have PLL, but decided I’d rather do my own thing with picture study, copywork, grammar, spelling, and poetry memorization. Therefore, I set it aside at least for this year. Wondering if that is a wise choice or not. I also downloaded a vintage spelling book off of google called Modern Speller (not so modern though since it’s in the public domain). This book starts at 2nd grade level, isn’t overwhelming, can be tweaked to be CM friendly combining it with copywork, has short simple lessons, and seems like it would be a good intro to Spelling Wisdom later on since it uses dictation. I really like the book, but I have taken that out because I have chosen instead to continue to teach him Spanish and piano. I thought about starting Tales of Shakespeare once/wk, but instead thinking that would be too much for now. Below is what I plan to cover in our school day. I want to make sure it is a solid foundation for more rigorous lessons down the road, yet not overwhelming.

1. Sing a hymn each morning (plan to spend 2-3 weeks learning the stanzas)

2. Read a simple Bible story. The storybook is below his level, but I am reading it for my K dd and he likes to listen. He is finishing up Ergemeier’s Bible storybook from last year with his dad at bedtime. He narrates to Ergemeier’s at night since it is more his level.

3. 100 chart with dd, but to advance this for him I plan for him to learn the dates, day of the week, and day of school in Spanish after we get adjusted to the new school year.

4 . Short MFW K topic that includes either a Bible lesson, character lesson, science info, song, or read aloud. This is also below his level, but he is interested and I keep it very brief (more brief than what the guide recommends for K, only because dd is tagging along in other things and I don’t want to overwhelm her).

5 . Copywork from Draw.Write.Now along with the drawing illustrations. I expect 2-3 sentences, his best work, and have noticed after 2 months of school break, his handwriting and drawing detail has greatly improved since the end of year 1. I ask him how to spell a couple random words from his copywork, and this week I started casually introducing informal grammar. For example, the word “their” was in his passage this morning. I taught him a brief lesson from the chalkboard on the difference b/n their, there, and they’re. I’m thinking these informal grammar lessons will be as effective as the planned lessons scattered throughout PLL, but I want to be sure. (Takes about 10 min)

6 . Reading. ( 5-10 min)- He reads a chapter from his level 2 nature reader or a story from the 2nd year Treadwell reader. I help with any phonics or challenging words (we did the Reading Made Easy with Blend Phonics program last year from the Don Potter website) . I’m curious if he needs further phonics instruction as many recommend a phonics program through 2nd grade. I think his reading level is right on target and progressing at a steady pace without a phonics program. He can read more challenging books than what I listed with more guidance. I just don’t want him to hit a roadblock in a couple of years because I didn’t do an advanced phonics program.

7 . Math is MEP year 2 . Takes 20-25 min. Right now a shorter time because its review from year 1.

8 . Salsa Spanish using the free lesson plans I saw a link to here (maybe from Wyoming dept. of education). We plan to take about 2 weeks/episode (the expansion activities take about 10 min, but a few days we just watch the episode which is about 20 min instead).

BREAK, RECESS, SNACK (with outdoor play weather permitting)

9 . Rotate, about 5 minutes for poetry reading 3x/wk, 5 min for picture study 1x/wk (using SCM’s method from the YouTube video on picture study), composer music study 1x/wk. I thought about doing poetry memory work, but am wondering if memorizing the hymn stanzas and his Sunday AWANA book scriptures is enough memory work. There will be longer passages of scripture in his AWANA book this year).

10. Piano lesson or practice (about 20 min)

12. Read aloud followed by narration- one reading/day usually from either a history selection, biography, nature book, or literature (about 15 min total) . We are using the 1-3 grade SCM module 5 books for history with Mara Pratt’s history volumes as a US history spine. We cover geography easily with all our readings because ds likes to look every place we read or talk about on the map. Down the road I plan to do SCM map drill and new geography books.

13. Rotate b/n PE, park, games, crafts/handiwork, help with house cleaning, help with meal prep ( hoping to add in nature study here, currently he takes a nature class at a local nature center about once/month that teaches him more than I know about nature).

14. Quiet time in room, outdoor play, and sometimes errands in the afternoon

15 . Free reads-plan to start missionary biographies read alouds with dad at bedtime after they finish Ergemeier’s storybook. I just started reading him Little House on the Prairie books in our leisure time.

We don’t do a full day when he has a nature center class, park outing, we have many errands, a field trip, or other extracurricular activity. Also, we listen to folk songs, composer music, or audiobooks on longer car rides or on big cleaning days. Does our day sound okay for his age? Should I do less subjects with more depth to each subject? Should I add more of the things I thought about like Shakespeare Tales and poetry memory work to our day? Or drop anything, like choosing to do Spanish or piano instead of doing both? I think I’m keeping each subject brief enough and there is a good flow in switching b/n subjects. My son seems to enjoy everything and has a positive attitude towards each subject. It’s just that we don’t do any expansion activities on the subjects, like we do a simple picture study like Sonya demos in her video, but we don’t do notebook pages or timelines with the artist.