First week of 2nd grade is in the books

We started school a little bit early this year. Last year we made an international move in early September, so we didn't begin 1st grade until well after Labor Day. Throughout the year we squeezed in a couple trips to Bermuda and Disney World, so by the end I was a little stressed about finishing on time.

Not this year. This year we started an entire month early to enable us to take more holidays throughout the school year for vacations, sick days, and those days we just need a break. Basically, I wanted enough cushion for flexibility.

We were both ready to get back into the swing of things the first week of August. I missed the routine of the school day, and even though he would probably say otherwise, I think Asher did, too.

So on Monday, August 5, we started 2nd grade.


These are our subjects:

Bible: daily; Finding God's Promises by Positve Action Bible Curriculum
Reading: daily; I read aloud to Asher, he reads aloud to me, and he also spends 30 minutes reading "fun" books alone
Spelling: daily; Spelling Workout C
Grammar: 3x/week; First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind, Level 2
Writing: 4x/week; The Complete Writer, Level 2
Math: 4x/week; Saxon Math 3
History/Geography: 3x/week; Story of the World, Vol. 2
Science: 2x/week; Earth Science - 18 weeks of lessons from The Encyclopedia of Our World followed by 18 weeks of The Encyclopedia of Space
German: 2-3x/week; Rosetta Stone
Typing: "Typing Instructor for Kids" for PC
Music: weekly private piano lessons through The Greater Richmond School of Music
Art: 3-4x/week; Drawing with Children
Sport: weekly gymnastics classes (Aerial East Gymnastics) and tennis (Play Tennis Hanover)

We keep all of Asher's worksheets and narration pages in separate binders.

I'm also using a different lesson planning book this year.

Last year I used this:

This year I'm trying this:

I'll review later on after I've had a chance to use the new book.

And last, I'll leave you with a photograph of a less-than-perfect history project. We began this year's history lessons with the fall of the Roman Empire. On Friday, we made cookies shaped like Roman columns. Then we broke them apart like we were barbarians. Then we ate them.

There's no denying they came out looking more like dog bones than columns, but oh well. We still had fun!