I want my kids to be open-minded about math. Personally, I love math. I love solving puzzles and figuring out challenging problems. Unfortunately, I feel like all the repetition that kids experience in elementary school has the potential to squash a child’s love of math. No one wants to do the same type of problem 20 times. What matters to me is that my kids understand the concepts well enough to reason their way through a problem even if they have never seen it before. Since the repetition found in traditional math curricula felt excessive and overwhelming to me and my kids, I decided to create my own minimalist math curriculum.
Basically, I created 36 worksheets for my kids, one for each week of school. Each worksheet has 10 problems from 10 different areas of math. The problems get progressively more difficult as the year goes on. Therefore, rather than do math every single day, my kids do 10 problems once a week. I created these problems after taking notes on various second-grade curricula to be sure that I was covering the same variety of problems that a child would see using a more traditional approach. You can learn more about my methodology here.
Because we don’t have formal math lessons and they will not be repeating the same problems over and over, kids will likely need help completing these worksheets. I recommend sitting next to the child for the 20 or so minutes per week it takes to complete these worksheets. Your presence and gentle assistance will reduce frustration and make kids more willing to attempt unfamiliar problems.
It is my belief that if kids can master the 360 problems in this curriculum, they will be at least as well off as if they had completed the thousands of problems in a traditional curriculum. So far, all of my children test at or above grade level in math even though they spend far less time on math than their peers.
This second grade minimalist math curriculum covers the following 10 topics. Each week a child does one problem from each of these categories.
- Understanding Numbers
- Word Problems
- Spatial Sense
- Geometry
- Patterns & Sequences
- Units & Measurement
- Telling Time
- Fractions
- Graphs, Charts, and Tables
- Calculations
Be aware, one potential problem with not having the repeated exposure found in traditional curricula is that kids may be a little slower at basic math facts. For example, when my son was in third grade, he had good accuracy and he was open-minded about tackling difficult problems, but it took him a minute to add single digits like 7 plus 8. Personally, I feel that this can be remedied when kids are older. However, if speed is a concern, I recommend supplementing this curriculum with Kate Snow’s Math Facts that Stick series.
You are also welcome to check out this site’s free addition and subtraction resources to give kids extra practice. Another way to improve kids’ speed is through math games. Our family likes Clumsy Thief (for adding to 100) and Clumsy Thief in the Candy Shop (for adding to 20).
Another fun way to explore or practice the exact same problems as this Second Grade Minimalist Math curriculum is by using my math cards included in my Patreon membership community. Patrons can also download a mastery checklist to can keep track of which problems in the curriculum are tripping their students up. You can pull out specific cards to review later or to practice with through fun strategies such as Game Show Math or Treasure Hunt Math.
Recommended Age Range: Second Grade
Time Required: about 20 minutes per week
Difficulty: starts off fairly easy and gets harder as the weeks progress
Cost: Free printable
Materials
paper
Instructions
Print out the curriculum and help your child complete one worksheet each week for each of the 36 weeks of school.
Free Printable
Minimalist Math – Second Grade Curriculum
Click here for all the Minimalist Math curricula available for different grade levels.
Related Links
Math Activities for Kids
Minimalist Math Curriculum Methodology
Learning Activities for Kids
Michelle has a PhD in Engineering from Stanford University and a Bachelor's Degree from the California Institute of Technology. 
I opened up Pinterest to get some inspiration for creating my own worksheets similar to this. I’m so glad I found these, and thank you so much for saving me time!
Hi Catie! I am so glad you are able to use my resources! :)
I think my son would really like these. Do you teach the concepts first or do you give them the worksheet, see what they can figure out on their own, and then supplement with teaching for whatever they don’t understand?
I do the second. When my kids were younger, probably 1st through 2nd or 3rd, I would have to sit next to them for the entire worksheet and we’d go through them one by one. I sort of have to because they can’t read, so I’d read them the question, then wait for them to try on their own, then give them a little help. I try to let them figure out as much as they can on their own. With my older kids, I see what they can do first, but they know that they can always ask me for help if they need it. Usually they can do about half on their own. Some weeks more, some weeks less.
Love this concept! Thank you for making this free! I’ll let you know how we go with it.
I hope it’s helpful, Kaylene! :)
Hi! I used this curriculum with my daughter and she loved it and did it very happily. After about week 20 she wanted to do it as a daily thing, so that’s what we did, finishing it quite quickly. I think she really loved the variety and the fact there aren’t a dozen of the same questions in a row. This is a huge deal as every other maths curriculum we have tried has lost it’s appeal after a month and become a burden. It was also easy to discover where the gaps in her knowledge were and to give her the support needed to fill those gaps.
We are in Australia, and so switched some of the money questions, but we still did the questions using US measurements for weight, length, and temperature. As someone who sews and knits and cooks, I know how much we use these measurements even having the decimal system. Thank you so much for providing this! I’m off to print out the third grade curriculum!
Awww, that makes me so happy to hear, Katherine! I created these curricula for own oldest son to make sure he didn’t grow to dislike math and I’m always delighted when I find out they are helping other kids too! Thank you for taking time out of your day to let mek now! 😊