Memoria Press Second Grade {Review – Part I}

In 2011, I added a second child to the mix and my toddler was antsy to get more attention in addition to being a little mama. We dabbled a bit with a book box curriculum of good nursery readers, however, it was in 2012-2013 that our Memoria Press adventure started. At the age of three, my book loving daughter started in on our K3 Junior Kindergarten with an extremely wonderful year that we still look back on with extremely fond memories. In 2013-2014, it was our K4 year and our curriculum was the Memoria Press Classical Core Curriculum for Kindergarten. In 2014, I added a third child to the mix. At this time, my next toddler was not ready for anything officially school related and she continue to tag along in read alouds and child play becoming the princess she is today.

Around this time, Memoria Press started beta releasing their Simply Classical curriculum for special needs and different learners. While my children are neurotypical, my second daughter is quite a different learner. I would easily say that the Princess is a spirited [insert link] child. This has lead me to need a slightly different route for her education than her older sister, the advanced reader. From what I am told from other parents, my second daughter sounds more normal than my first. But then this conversation shall be saved for my more in depth talks on the Simply Classical curriculum.

At this time, there are three alphabetical levels including:
Level A (approximately ages 2-3)
Level B (ages 3-4)
Level C (ages 4-5)
Level 1 (ages 5-6)
Level 2 (ages 6-7)
with Level 3 in the works for later in 2017!

After the success of Level A for many preschooler age students, such as my own second daughter, Memoria Press has now used this as a base to release their own Preschool Classical Core Curriculum in their overall study plan outside of the Simply Classical line. This is what I plan to use in the new school year with my summer to be three year old son.

Okay, okay, I know! Rabbit trails… I digress.

Second Grade!

Oh, wait! It looks like I almost missed telling you about First Grade… In 2014-2015, my oldest daughter leaped right into 1st grade, loving to continue along with the Memoria Press Enrichment, our favorite part. She needed more work this year, and we paired it along side another curriculum for her. We loved our bits of the year with Memoria Press materials, while the other curriculum we tried ended up being negative busy work and less enjoyable. Next time around, I would just add more emphasis to her read, read, reading and enjoying books and a love of learning on her own instead.

Now truly, let me tell you about 2nd grade. At the time, I still felt like she needed more than just what we found with Memoria Press and because of complications of where we live, we needed to be enrolled in an accredited school. This has since changed, and we have run from the school we were accredited with as fast as we could (after a lost year and a half), but what time we did spend with the Memoria Press Second Grade Classical Core Curriculum was our pleasurable time when the rest of school was just stress. Coming back again, we are now fully involved in Memoria Press published materials, and when my younger children reach second grade, they too will use what we know and love instead of taking a hiatus elsewhere. Memoria Press is home for us, and we never should have strayed.

Part 1 of the Memoria Press Second Grade Review series.

Memoria Press Second Grade Lesson Plans are written for a 5-day week for 33 weeks. My original copy is a white cardstock covered, spiral bound. They have since been updated with lovely blue durable covers. As I’ve said before, I am purely ecstatic about Memoria Press moving to spiral bind their lesson plans over the former comb bound publications!

Different from the others, the 2nd grade lesson plans are with a week spread across four pages, so everything is clear and well seen. The second pair of pages featured the spelling and phonics. This was quite okay with me as I had opted to not use the MP choice of Spelling Workout or Core Skills Phonics, so I simply turned past this set of pages. (New to the material since I used it, is the Memoria Press Phonics Guide for Reading & Spelling: Second Grade. I have not seen nor used this book, but it is my understanding that it pairs with Spelling Workout and the Core Skills: Phonics. For my next student, I am considering this new book. The sample entices me…)

During the 2nd grade year, materials covered include Phonics, Reading & Printing (handwriting/penmanship), Working Arithmetic, Bible Memoria Work and prayers, 33 weeks of poetry, art, music, recitation, literature and related science and social studies topics. Simple literature chapter books for young readers ready to move beyond leveled readers and more. (Also new, since our use is a Second Grade Literature Dictionary. This is another book, I plan to absolutely include for my next student.) While not included in my lesson plans, other new materials that were published while we were in the midst of 2nd grade that we have since included and love are the Rod & Staff Science: Patterns of Nature set and a MP republished classic Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans.

In addition, to the bits already mentioned there is also the beginning study of Latin with Prima Latin, the continuation of cursive, and of course read alouds and enrichment! Now that I have talked your head off for a day, let me return later to tell you more.

More to come!

I received a portion of this product free for the purpose of reviewing it. I received no other compensation for this review. The opinions expressed in this review are my personal, honest opinions. Your experience may vary. Please read my full disclosure policy for more details. 

Make sure to check out the parts of my 1st, JrK & Kindergarten review in posts!