Discover! ELA Grades 2 and 6 are a part of Discover! ELA, a homeschool curriculum designed for students in grades K-6. Each grade is currently available for $117.50 at discoverk12 books.com and includes one teacher's guide and two worktexts per grade. Each worktext covers a semester of lessons.

Discover! Grade 2 covers seventy-five lessons of phonics, phonemic awareness, writing, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary, while Grade 6 covers seventy-two lessons of writing, spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. Each lesson in grades 2 and 6 can be completed in two to three days and contains the following sections: Explore, Read, Write, Practice, Skill Builder, and Show What You Know. Every lesson lists clear and specific objectives and briefly reviews the previous day's concepts. Each chapter includes additional extension/enrichment activities, including Create, Take a Closer Look, In the Read World, Online Connection, and Play. These activities allow students to engage in hands-on activities that serve to reinforce lesson concepts. The extension activities are entirely optional. Each chapter concludes with a review and assessment. Spelling words are included in the back of both teacher guides. Both teacher guides also have reproducible handouts.

Both grades were designed to cover around 150 days of instruction, which allows families extra time and flexibility to dive deeper into the lessons by utilizing enrichment activities. I appreciate how this curriculum enables my children to explore lesson concepts in greater depth. Both teacher guides include several ideas to support student learning, including activities for auditory, visual, and kinesthetic learners. Both teacher guides also have activities that can be used in a group or co-op setting.

Each lesson has minimal teacher prep, and the Grade 2 student book includes a supply list at the beginning of each lesson. I am thankful for having this list so I can prepare by having supplies ready in advance for my second grader. The Grade 2 teacher guide also contains scripted text in italic font. This is great for new homeschool parents who need help deciding what needs to be discussed during direct instructional time. The Grade 6 teacher guide manual includes only standard font. This option allows me more flexibility in choosing how to present lessons to my sixth grader. 

Discover! ELA Grades 2 and 6 include a great combination of direct instruction, workbook, hands-on, and online activities and can be used in individual, group, or co-op settings. I also appreciate the rigor of this curriculum. The last lesson in second grade involves conducting research and writing a three-paragraph research paper about a family member. The sixth-grade curriculum also goes into great depth with its writing portion. I also value the flexibility this curriculum provides. I enjoyed the ELA curriculum and am interested in using other subjects in the Discover! curriculum series. I also look forward to seeing if this company will develop a curriculum for higher grades. I highly recommend this curriculum for families looking for a hands-on, engaging, yet rigorous ELA curriculum.

-Product review by Carol Hayes, The Old Schoolhouse, September 2023