Are you planning your 2nd Grade Homeschool Curriculum and need some ideas? Today we’re sharing our favorite elementary homeschool resources to help get you started!
HOMESCHOOLING
The BEST 2nd Grade Homeschool Curriculum
April 6, 2023
The following content may contain affiliate links. If you purchase something from the links, we may receive a commission.
Second grade is a magical year in childhood and one of my personal favorites. Reading and writing skills start to take shape and imagination and curiosity are endless. This is also the year we start doing more independent work which can be both rewarding and beneficial when you are teaching more than one child.
Below you will find the BEST 2nd Grade Homeschool Curriculum picks that we used in our homeschool classroom as well as alternatives for those who might be looking for something similar, but not the exact program. Since every family’s homeschooling journey and needs are going to be different, feel free to use this list as a starting point and tailor it as needed.
What subjects should be taught in the 2nd grade?
As with Kindergarten and 1st grade, the two main subjects to focus on in 2nd grade are reading and math. Depending on your child’s proficiency in these subjects will determine what course of action you should take for the upcoming year. If your child picked up reading pretty quickly, you may not need to focus as heavily on phonics, but rather move on to a more grammar-based language arts program. However, if your child is still mastering the basics (which many kids are at this age), then a continuation of a phonics-based program will most likely be the best path.
In our household, these are the 2nd Grade Homeschool Curriculum subjects we tackled this year. While it looks like a lot, we don’t cover all of the subjects year-round. I have found that we do better by working in a blocks system. For instance, in the fall, we complete social studies or history, and in the spring, we cover science. Extracurricular subjects also vary throughout the year.
• Bible Study
• Language Arts
• Reading
• Spelling
• Writing
• Handwriting (Print and Cursive)
• Math
• Social Studies
• Science
• Physical Education (PE)
• Extracurriculars
How many hours do you homeschool in 2nd grade?
While every family is different, our 2nd grade homeschool curriculum usually takes between 2 – 3 hours to complete. This includes time for our read-aloud books and extracurricular activities.
2nd Grade Homeschool Curriculum Picks
Without further ado, here are our 2nd grade homeschool curriculum picks.
Before we jump into our main lesson, I typically introduce our word of the day. Rather than selecting a random work each day, we have been using Mrs. Wordsmith My Storyteller’s Word a Day book. This book outlines 180 words with hilarious and colorful illustrations, synonyms, etymology of the word, and how you could use it in a sentence. If you are looking for fun writing prompts, this book can serve two-fold.
BIBLE STUDY
For our 2nd grade homeschool Bible study, I wanted to dive in a little bit deeper than we had in Kindergarten and 1st grade. I decided on the DK The Children’s Illustrated Bible because not only does it explore the stories in the Old Testament and New Testament, but it also includes some historical context regarding what life would have been like in biblical times.
We used this for the first half of the year, covering The New Testament only. Along with reading a story per day, we also cross referenced a lot of it in our actual Bible to see where the story is found and the similarities or differences in the translations.
For the second half of the year, we used The Wonder of Creation: 100 More Devotions about God and Science. This was our 3rd year using an Indescribable Kids devotional. These devotions, written by Louis Giglio, do a fantastic job combining scientific facts with biblical truths. Although this is the last one in the set (as of this writing), these books are so powerful for all ages, we’ll likely reread them again in the years to come.
A few other Bible storybooks that we have used in the past include:
– The Beginner’s Bible: Timeless Children’s Stories
– The Jesus Storybook Bible
– Jesus Calling Storybook Bible
– Indescribable: 100 Devotions for Kids about God and Science
– How Great is Our God: 100 Indescribable Devotions about God and Science
2nd Grade Homeschool Language Arts Curriculum
There are two main parts to Language Arts for 2nd grade students. The first part is a continuation of phonics and the other section involves an introduction to grammar study. For Kindergarten and 1st Grade, we used the Horizons Phonics & Reading program. I highly recommend it for teaching basic phonics skills. I especially liked the Kindergarten program. Although Horizons Phonics & Reading goes through 3rd grade, its strength is (as titled) in phonics and reading, and we needed something with a greater emphasis on grammar.
After using the Evan-Moor Daily Language Review (Grade 1) last year, we decided to incorporate more of the Evan-Moor books this year.
Is Evan-Moor a complete language arts curriculum?
If you are looking for a single-book resource for your 2nd grade homeschool language arts curriculum, I don’t believe that a single Evan-Moor book is going to work as your primary source. However, Evan-Moor offers many options for language arts and when combined, these books could work as a complete language arts curriculum or be used as a supplement for a different program. Below are the books we used for our 2nd grade language arts curriculum.
Evan-Moor Daily Language Review (Grade 2) Student Workbook – We used this book as a warmup each day before we began our main language arts focus. The daily activities include correcting sentences as well as grammar and vocabulary practice. It includes 36 weeks of daily practice providing 1 short lesson each day for 5 days. The student workbook does not contain an answer key, but if you are comfortable with elementary grammar, you most likely will not need to purchase the teacher’s edition.
Evan-Moor Language Fundamentals (Grade 2) – The Language Fundamentals book is technically a teacher’s reproducible workbook, but it works just as well as a consumable book. The pages are scaffolded so they can be easily torn out. With it being a teacher’s edition, the answers are in the back of the book, if needed. It is listed as “a core language curriculum,” but we chose to add additional workbooks to really master the skills.
This language arts workbook covers the basic language skills including nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, sentences, capitalization, abbreviations, punctuation, usage, vocabulary, and spelling. Each page begins with a snapshot of the skill that is being worked on that day followed by skill-based activities that could be worked on together or independently.
We used this book on Mondays and Wednesdays and the Evan-Moor Vocabulary Fundamentals book on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If your goal is to complete the books in one calendar year, you will need to complete more than one page a day.
Evan-Moor Vocabulary Fundamentals (Grade 2) – As with the Evan-Moor Language Fundamentals workbook, Vocabulary Fundamentals is also a teacher’s reproducible workbook. The pages are scaffolded so additional copies can be made if teaching more than one child or it can be used as a consumable book. The main skills covered in the Vocabulary Fundamentals book include compound words, synonyms, antonyms, homophones, homographs, prefixes, and suffixes.
The Evan-Moor Language Fundamentals does cover most of these skills, but the Vocabulary Fundamentals workbook will give your child additional practice to master each skill.
– Abeka Phonics and Language 2
– BJU Press English 2
– Horizons Phonics and Reading Grade 2
Will we continue using the Evan-Moor Language Arts curriculum for 3rd grade?
Yes and no. While I do believe that we covered everything we needed to for 2nd grade, I am hoping to find a program that incorporates writing into its language arts program. Our plan for 3rd grade is to try BJU Press English 3 in conjunction with Evan-Moor Daily Language Review (Grade 3) and Evan-Moor Reading Comprehension Fundamentals (Grade 3).
Reading and Literature
Our homeschool reading is a combination of student-led and teacher-led sources, including read-aloud chapter books. For the student-led portion, we used the workbook below.
Evan-Moor Reading Comprehension Fundamentals (Grade 2) – The Reading Comprehension Fundamentals book is filled with a variety of both fiction and nonfiction units. The stories and short excerpts introduce your child to the main idea and detail, cause and effect, compare and contrast, sequence, and more. For additional reading practice, Evan-Moor also offers:
– Evan-Moor Daily Reading Comprehension – Grade 2
– Evan-Moor Nonfiction Reading Practice – Grade 2
Read-Aloud Books
An integral part of our homeschooling day involves read-aloud stories. Typically, we reserve a part of the morning for read-alouds and usually a chapter or so at bedtime. If you aren’t currently incorporating read-aloud stories into your homeschool routine, I’d highly recommend it. Beyond the educational benefits of expanding vocabularies and being introduced to different book styles, it is such a wonderful bonding experience that will create lasting memories.
Below is a list of chapter books we tackled this year, in no particular order.
– Sweet Home Alaska by Carole Estby Dagg
– Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark
– Juana & Lucas by Juana Medina
– The Family Under the Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson
– Astrid the Unstoppable by Maria Parr
– Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin
– Book Uncle and Me by Uma Krishnaswami
– Two Dogs in a Trench Coat Go to School by Julie Falatko
– Skunk and Badger by Amy Timberlake
– The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
– The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
– The Very, Very Far North by Dan Bar-el
– Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White
– Secondhand Dogs by Carolyn Crimi
– The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White
– Sled Dog School by Terry Lynn Johnson
For a list of even more read-aloud books for your upcoming year, your kids are sure to love these fun and engaging chapter books! They are listed as 1st grade read-aloud chapter books, but I think any child between Kindergarten and 3rd grade will find them enjoyable.
Spelling
Many homeschool families choose to incorporate spelling around 1st or 2nd grade. In 1st grade, we used a list of free spelling words found at k12reader.com. Each day, the words were copied three times and on Friday, we had a spelling test. This approach worked well for my traditional learner, but I wanted to try something different for 2nd grade.
Evan-Moor Building Spelling Skills (Grade 2) – The Building Spelling Skills from Evan-Moor includes 4 days of activities and an optional spelling test on the fifth day. There are 10 words to learn each week with the option of adding 2 additional words of your choosing. The student workbook contains all of the needed activities, but it does not contain the answers or dictation sentences. I did not find it necessary, but if you think that would be beneficial in your home, there is a teacher’s workbook as well.
I picked this spelling curriculum because of it’s phonics approach. After completing our first year with Evan-Moor Building Spelling Skills, I believe this is a more gentle approach to spelling than some comparable programs. The words introduced in 2nd grade weren’t particularly difficult so if you have a strong speller, you may want to consider leveling up.
Another issue for our homeschool is the program lasts only 30 weeks. Our state requires 180 days of schooling so with this program you would need to come up with your own words for the last 6 weeks or just know that you will finish early.
Other 2nd Grade Spelling Homeschool Curriculums you may want to consider include:
– All About Spelling
– Spelling You See
Will we continue using the Evan-Moor Spelling curriculum for 3rd grade?
Yes! Spelling is one of the subjects we have to work a little harder on in our house so I can appreciate a gentler approach. I believe that it is better to master the basics of spelling rather than force more difficult words and with enough exposure, children will end up exactly where they need to be.
Writing
Formal writing is typically not a foundational skill for Kindergarten through 2nd grade. In Kindergarten and 1st grade, many families choose to use a journal with fun prompts or free-writing.
In our homeschool, 1st grade is when “super sentences” are introduced, but not expected to be mastered. If you’ve never heard the term before, super sentences are essentially expanding on simple sentences by asking questions to give the reader more information. Asking who, what, where, why, and how helps children understand that additional information can transform their sentence into something, well, super!
If you are new to “super sentences” and would like to learn more, Evan-Moor Write a Super Sentence better explains each of these steps. It’s geared towards children in grades 1 – 3 so it would fit well into a 2nd grade curriculum.
For our 2nd grade writing curriculum, I still wanted to keep it casual, but also wanted to introduce new skills while building upon what we’ve worked on the previous two years. For this, I turned again to Evan-Moor. The Evan-Moor How to Write a Story and Evan-Moor Paragraph Writing workbooks are inexpensive and really helpful as an introduction to writing.
Evan-Moor How to Write a Story can be used with an individual student or copies can be made for multiple students. It includes both writing units and story writing center ideas. The step-by-step writing units teach the basic parts of a story and many story starter ideas, touching on fairy tales, pattern stories, circle stories, and sequential stories.
Evan-Moor Paragraph Writing can also be used by an individual student or multiple students. This is a great introductory workbook for paragraph writing. It discusses the parts of a paragraph, paragraph forms (narrative paragraphs, descriptive paragraphs, direction paragraphs, and compare-and-contrast paragraphs), different ways to plan a paragraph, and writing center ideas.
Other 2nd Grade Homeschool Writing Curriculums you may want to consider include:
– Writeshop
– Essentials in Writing (EIW)
– Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW)
Will we continue using the Evan-Moor Writing curriculum for 3rd grade?
No, we won’t. In 3rd grade, the plan is to really hone in on writing and I need more guidance than what the Evan-Moor books provide. For 3rd grade, we will be using BJU English (which covers both grammar and writing) and alternating the IEW (Institute of Excellence in Writing) program. If it ends up being too much, we will reduce the workload as needed.
Handwriting
Depending on your child’s needs, you may or may not need to continue with handwriting practice. In our household, we need extra practice. Whether through copy work, a personal journal, or workbook, any kind of writing is good handwriting practice.
We especially liked The Print Handwriting Workbook for Kids, 101 Jokes Handwriting Practice Book, and Silly Sentences Handwriting Workbook.
At what age do you begin teaching cursive?
Many homeschool families begin cursive handwriting in 2nd or 3rd grade, while others start as early as Kindergarten. This was our first year learning cursive and I don’t believe it would’ve been received as well in the earlier years.
Abeka Writing with Phonics K5 Cursive – The Abeka Cursive program begins in Kindergarten. If this is your first-year teaching cursive, you should begin at this level regardless of the grade your child is in. The levels build on each other with less practice on the formation of letters as the program progresses. As an introductory book to teaching cursive writing, I felt like the speed and activities were exactly what we needed.
Other 2nd Grade Cursive Handwriting Programs to consider include:
– Learning without Tears Cursive Kickoff
– Horizons Penmanship Cursive Grade 2
Math
If you are new to homeschooling, picking a solid math program will help you in the long run. While some subjects are easy to change from year to year, math is a core subject, so it is important to find what works for your student as soon as possible. With that said, if your current math curriculum isn’t working, I would encourage you to try something new until you find a good fit.
When choosing a homeschool math curriculum, you will need to decide if you would like a traditional math program or one that follows common core standards. If you are not keen on teaching math, there are also many online options available.
The second point to consider is whether you would prefer a program that is mastery or spiral. In a mastery program, the student will learn a new concept and practice that concept until it is fully mastered. In a spiral program, the student will learn a new concept, practice that concept, and then review other concepts learned. It’s considered a spiral program because the concepts come up over and over again throughout the year, building on each lesson.
We started with Horizons math in Kindergarten with the anticipation of eventually switching over to Saxon math. When originally researching which math program to use, that seemed to be the consensus in a lot of homeschooling boards. However, after completing our 3rd year with Horizons, I can say that we have no intention of switching any time soon. The Horizons math program goes from Kindergarten through 8th grade and is a spiral program. It is important that you begin the program in the correct level. You can find the Horizons math placement test here.
For reference, we actually used Horizons Grade 1 math in Kindergarten. Therefore, this year, we completed Horizons Math Grade 3. If you have a child that excels in math, I recommend this approach. However, the Horizons math program is grade appropriate and the 2nd grade math program is most certainly sufficient for that age level.
Horizons Math Grade 3 – Horizons math uses a well-organized spiral approach to teaching math. The program consists of workbook drills, memorization, and manipulatives to enforce each new skill or concept. While the teacher workbook is not required for some subjects, I would highly recommend it for math.
Manipulatives are also handy to have. We used the following regularly:
Addition flash cards 0 – 12
Subtraction flash cards 0 – 12
Multiplication flash cards 0 – 12
Division flash cards 0 – 12
Other popular 2nd Grade Homeschool Math Curriculums that we considered include:
Social Studies / History / Geography
For social studies, we used our FREE Around the World Unit Study that combines Geography, Language Arts, Social Studies, and Art to introduce students to 16 different countries and cultures around the world. The Around the World unit study covers all 7 continents and 16 different countries and cultures. The countries included are the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Brazil, France, Italy, Norway, Morocco, Kenya, South Africa, China, Japan, India, and Australia.
This was one of the best parts of our 2nd grade curriculum and something we both looked forward to each day.
As a catchall, we also included the consumable Pearson MyWorld workbook (Grade 2). If you are looking for a social studies program that is similar to what is going to be covered in public school, this is a fantastic resource. For reference, this is the first year that we completed a round of standardized testing and I feel like a good portion of what was covered in the social studies section was also covered in this workbook.
Science
For 2nd grade science, our focus was on Physics and Space. We didn’t use a formal homeschool curriculum, but rather worked together through 2 main texts plus additional read-aloud books, videos, and projects.
Our main textbooks were:
– Physics for Curious Kids
– Wile E. Coyote’s Physical Science for Super Geniuses in Training
– DK – The Mysteries of the Universe
In addition to the main textbooks, we used the following books to supplement our unit study:
– Who was Isaac Newton?
– The Story of Albert Einstein
– Queen of Physics – How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom
And for science projects and experiments, we got ideas from the following books:
– Awesome Physics Experiments for Kids
– Smithsonian STEM Lab
– KLUTZ – Lego Chain Reactions
– KLUTZ – Lego Gadgets
PE - Physical Education
Some states require physical education as part of the homeschooling curriculum. Our state is one of them. PE can come in many different forms. We combined physical activity with learning about health and nutrition for our program. If your child is active in sports, the days with practice or games could easily be considered physical education for that day. Taking a walk around the park, bicycling in the neighborhood, jumping rope in the backyard are also easy to do activities that could count as PE.
On rainy days, we turn to YouTube. Here are a few of the more popular online workouts for kids:
• PopSugar Fitness Family Fun Cardio Workout (13:08)
• Kids Workout 1 Beginners by Moe Jones Fitness (16:01)
• Kids Workouts by The Body Coach TV Joe Wicks
• Cosmic Kids Yoga
• Little Sports
Extracurricular Subjects
Extracurriculars are some of the most fun and engaging activities in a homeschooler’s day. In our household, I like to mix up extracurricular activities with things that I want us to cover (like life skills) and things my child enjoys, which is mostly anything STEAM related (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math). This year we had a heavy focus on technology-based items for our electives including typing, coding, and robotics.
For typing, we used typing.com. Typing.com incorporates typing lessons with additional games to help students learn to type in an entertaining way. And the best part? It’s 100% free.
For coding, we used the Scratch program. If you have never heard of Scratch, it is a programming software created by MIT that will introduce your child to the world of programming using “drag-and-drop” software. Since students do not have to type out the code, it is much easier and faster for students to pick up.
While you can jump right into the Scratch program, we worked through the book Coding for Kids Scratch: Learn Coding Skills, Create 10 Fun Games, and Master Scratch. It was extremely helpful for outlining how to get started with programming in Scratch and how to create your own video games (which kids really enjoy).
We were gifted a Dash Coding Robot by Wonder Workshop and also used this to practice drag-and-drop programming. It is a fantastic introductory robot with plenty of personality. It is recommended for ages 6+ and I believe that any child between 6 and 10 years old would really enjoy this quirky robot.
Along with technology, I also worked health and manners into our day. We used The Care and Keeping of You along with Connoisseur Kids by Jennifer L. Scott. The Care and Keeping of You has been a go-to book for adolescent girls for many years, but it’s definitely not a perfect resource. We did not go through the entire book cover to cover, but instead, picked out specific topics and avoided certain pages.
Connoisseur Kids on the other hand is fabulous and we’ll stay on our bookshelf as a resource for years to come.
Other ideas for 2nd grade homeschool extracurricular activities include:
– Art
– Music
– Sewing
– Woodworking
– Crafting
– Cooking/Baking
– Foreign Language
– Life Skills
2nd Grade Homeschool Schedule Example
Below is what our 2nd grade homeschool schedule looks like during a normal day. While I have included times in the schedule below, our day is very flexible. Sometimes we start later. Sometimes not everything gets covered. But somehow, it all ends up working out by the end of the year.
7:30am – Breakfast / Get Dressed / Brush Teeth / Brush Hair / Make Bed
8:00am – Reading (Quiet)
8:30am – Word of the Day / Spelling
8:40am – Handwriting (Print and Cursive)
8:50am – Bible Study / Devotional
9:00am – Language Arts
9:30am – Read Aloud Chapter Book
10:00am – BREAK
10:30am – Math
11:00am – Writing
11:15am – Unit Study (Social Studies or Science)
11:45am – LUNCH
12:30pm – Unit Study (Extracurricular)
1:00pm – DONE
We hope you found this 2nd Grade Homeschool Curriculum helpful. If you enjoyed this post, you may also like the following:
● Homeschooling 101
● FREE Around the World Unit Study
● FREE Across the USA – 50 States Unit Study
● FREE Intro to Space Unit Study
● 14 Fun Read Aloud Chapter Books for First Grade
● The BEST 1st Grade Homeschool Curriculum
● The BEST Kindergarten Homeschool Curriculum
