Tag Archives: typical course of study

What Your Second Grader Needs to Know: Language Arts

* Reading silently for purpose I want to note here that while this is a second grade suggestion, your child should begin reading silently as soon as he is capable. * Dramatizations and interpretative or oral reading This is simple to practice while your child reads out loud to you. Start by asking your child to note punctuation such as question marks or exclamation points. Then encourage him to use inflection with his voice as is appropriate. At first, it may seemed forced but in time, your child will learn to read with feeling. A note on why this is … Continue reading →

What Your Second Grader Should Know in Social Studies

* Holidays and festivals Look for an upcoming blog in the Homeschoolers’ Advent Calendar regarding great ideas for celebrating a multi-ethnic Christmas season. * Patriotic celebrations While it’s a little young to teach all of the history surrounding Independence Day, I suggest reading several related books: –The Story of America’s Birthday by Patricia A. Pingry –Hooray for the 4th of July by Wendy Watson –Apple Pie for 4th of July by Janet S. Wong –Anything related that was written by Jean Fritz * Communities in other lands: past and present * Family and family history * Families around the world … Continue reading →

What Your Second Grader Should Know: Math

It so happens that our nation is last among 1st world countries in math and science. Apparently we do quite well until about 4th grade and then we start to loose the edge by repeating the same stuff. While math is definitely incremental (meaning that it builds upon previous lessons), a word to the wise: take short times to review basic concepts daily. You don’t have to do it via rote memorization–play games, do a little here and a little there and before you know it you’ll have an expert mathematician. * Counting, reading, writing to 1,000 Cool Teaching Idea: … Continue reading →

What Your First Grader Should Know: Math

Unlike many other subjects, math in its earliest years is definitively concrete. The best way that I know of to get kids to learn math and like it is to make it easy and fun. It is okay to practice different concepts daily and continually return to them until they are mastered. Even after they are mastered you should consider returning to various concepts periodically simply to keep the ideas fresh. Since math is incremental, your children will always be building on what they’ve learned previously. * Counting and writing to 100 My absolute favorite way to teach this concept … Continue reading →

What Your First Grader Should Know: Language Arts

I must make a note about when you teach your child to read or when your child learns to read. Reading is as much developmental, as it is about teaching a child specific skills. There are children who read at age 4. There are also children who don’t read until age 9. Both are considered within the range of normal. If you happen to have one of those early readers you should not be too eager to pat yourself on the back as early reading is not necessarily a sign of superior intelligence. Likewise, if your child is a late … Continue reading →

What Your First Grader Should Know: Science

The most important thing to teach in early science is observation. Teaching your kids to observe, and make notes of what they see is as important as getting the concepts. They can draw pictures of what they see, make notes or even take along a camera to take pictures and scrap book their observations. Encourage, as much as possible, your child to describe details in what they see. Animals My kids are simply fascinated with the Sea World website. Check out the Shamu cam, print coloring pages and look at activities. Or why not play some animal games on the … Continue reading →