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Year 2 - A Look At Our Homeschool



DS7 will be in year 2 this year. He has always been advanced so this may not look like your average year 2 curriculum. This is why homeschooling is awesome for him as he gets to work at his own pace and no one teases him because he can do freaky things with numbers in his head!

 When homeschooling gifted children they become less defined by academic ability and more by character which is so important. We knew the day he got offered a scholarship to a prestigious school  that if he grew up in that environment that he would learn to define himself by his academic ability not who he was as a person. We chose homeschooling because we want more for our kids than just academic achievement - we want them to grow up to be people of integrity, compassion and empathy for others and with a strong sense of who they are and why they are here on this planet!
Literacy


 DS7's reading list.
  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid series 
  • Zac Power series
  • Abeka books
  • Pilgrims progress
  • The chronicles of Narnia

 + anything else that peaks his interest during the year.

We will use Writing with ease for writing as DS7 LOVES copywork. 

First language lessons also works well with this boy so we will continue.

 Printing Power

 We will continue with handwriting without tears for handwriting and also we will introduce keyboard power touch typing too.

 All About Spelling Level 3


 We will continue with All about Spelling  2 and 3 this year.
Maths

I use the same Singapore maths level for both boys so this year we will aim to complete 4A and 4B with some reinforcement on Skwirk and studyladder.

The Arts

DS7 wil continue weekly piano lessons which are one hour group lessons at the Yamaha school of his music. This year, I will also give him a 'private lessons' and help him to prepare to sit his first AMEB exam. We will also work on music theory and music appreciation. 

Science

We plan to spend lots of time at the zoo this year as we explore this science text! We will also do some hands on science experiments and explore any interests that arise during the year.

 Geography

We are going on a 4 week Northern Territory adventure mid year! What better way to learn all about Australia!

We will visit Uluru, remote aboriginal communities, Alice Springs, Kakadu national park and finish up in Darwin. We will be travelling with friends who are experts in Australia history and Aboriginal culture so they will be able to help us along the way!

 Australian History
In light of our travels we will also take another look at Australian history. A while ago I shared about my passion for teaching kids the truth about our Australian history with posts about "Telling our own stories to honour theirs" and "Teaching small children about Aboriginal history". 

Now, my children are older we are going to learn more!

We will use the DVD series: First Australians and First Footprints. 

These series contain adult content so best to watch them yourselves to decide whether you feel they are appropriate or not for younger viewers. I would also suggest watching it with them to answer any questions. 

 Physical Education



DS7 will continue with Aussie hoops (intro to basketball) and auskick this year. He will also continue with weekly tennis lessons and we may consider trying cricket for the first time at the end of the year.

My parents have a swimming pool which we use a lot during the year too.

So...this is the snapshot of what "year 2" will look like for DS7. It is an absolute joy homeschooling this child who is just so persistent and diligent when it comes to learning.

I will inevitably follow his interests this year to add more exciting learning opportunities for him in 2015. 

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