Secular 2nd Grade Curricula 2014

 After a very difficult year with a new baby and working way too much and being horribly behind in our homeschool lessons, I think I am finally starting to see the light of day. At least by working so much I had the money to purchase all the new homeschool curricula I wanted. Our school year starts the first week of September, and this is what we'll be doing this year:

Handwriting/Keyboarding
Handwriting Without Tears: Printing Power
Keyboarding Without Tears 2nd Grade
Math-U-See Beta
Life of Fred Books

Reading
Library books
Reading Rainbow App

Spelling
All About Spelling 1 & 2

Writing
Just Write by Tin Man Press

Language Arts
Flash Forward Language Arts Workbooks

Literature/History
Build Your Library Curriculum 2nd Grade, which uses Story of the World Middle Ages and The Usborne Encyclopedia of World History as spines

Science
REAL Science Odyssey Chemistry

And with all the time we will have left over after doing all that:

Languages
Better Chinese
Rosetta Stone Mandarin Chinese

Salsa Spanish videos

Chinese Hawthorn Candy (Haw Flakes)

My kids' Chinese grandparents always give this candy to my kids. Haw flakes are a Chinese candy made from the berry of the Hawthorn bush. It is supposed to be nutritious and especially good for the digestion. The flakes come in a jar full of little wrapped rolls like rolls of coins. Each roll contains a stack of flakes. The flakes are thin, somewhat dry, and have a grainy texture with a sweet and sour taste.

Left: Haw flakes. Right: Haw cheese.

A new one my in-laws found is "haw cheese." How do the Chinese come up with these translations? It is a hawthorn candy which has a moister, chewy, "fruit roll-up" texture in a little striped block. I like the lady on the package. Thanks to her haw cheese she's energized and ready to kick butt.

My kids adore these hawthorn sweets. You can find them at most any Asian market.

Hawthorn berry