What Is the Best Waldorf Homeschool Curriculum for Grade 2?

For most families, the best Waldorf grade 2 curriculum is one of four: Lavender's Blue, Starpath Learning, Christopherus or Live Education!. Seven of the eight curricula in our 2026 comparison cover grade 2 (Enki's is still to come), so the grade alone won't narrow it down. What will: how much time you have to plan, how traditional you want the year to be, and the ages of the other children at your table.

What a grade 2 curriculum has to carry

It helps to know what the year holds before you compare, because a good grade 2 curriculum gives you all of it, in stories your child will want to hear again.

Stories of two sides of being human. Grade 2 sets animal fables and trickster tales beside stories of remarkable people. Aesop's grasshopper plays while the ants store grain. Anansi the spider tricks the jungle animals and gets tricked in return. Then come the people who chose to act: a hero like Finn MacCool, or real lives such as Saint Francis, Jane Goodall or Wangari Maathai, who planted millions of trees across Kenya. Many eight-year-olds are starting to notice clever and foolish, kind and selfish, in the world and in themselves. These stories give that noticing a picture, without a lecture at the end.

Literacy that grows out of the story. Bossy R and Magic E arrive with the fables. Statements, questions and capital letters come with the hero tale. By the end of the year, many children are drafting a short summary in a lined book and then copying a tidy version into the main lesson book.

Maths with things in your hands. Place value (tens bundled into bags, bags into sacks), then rounding and estimating, then the times tables, then word problems. In a Waldorf-inspired year, the child meets each idea with pasta, sticks or yarn before the symbols.

Time, felt before it's read. The seasons and months, shadows tracked across a day, a paper-plate sundial, and only then the clock face.

Symmetry in form drawing. Grade 1 form drawing was straight and curved lines. Grade 2 adds the mirror: a dragonfly's wings, mountains reflected in a lake.

When you look at any curriculum's grade 2, check that each of these five threads is there. For the whole year in more detail, read our Waldorf grade 2 guide.

The four strongest grade 2 options

Lavender's Blue Homeschool

lavendersbluehomeschool.com | $397 for grade 2 ($327-397 per grade) | Secular, K-3

A single-author, secular, Waldorf-inspired curriculum. Grade 2 is a 735-page PDF with 59 MP3 audio tracks, 28 original stories, daily lesson plans for language arts, maths and form drawing, and circle time. Its stories come from many traditions.

Why it suits grade 2: parents praise it most for always knowing what to teach, when and how. That matters in grade 2, when there's more writing and maths to fit into each morning than there was in grade 1.

Watch for: it stops at grade 3, with grade 4 in development. It's digital files only, with no planner or tracking, and sales are final and non-refundable. A private online community comes with the purchase.

Best for: a family that wants the week handed over, is happy with secular framing, and has children between kindergarten and grade 3.

Starpath Learning

starpathlearning.com | $19/block or $47/month (14-day trial for $7) | Grades 1 to 3, grade 4 being added

Disclosure: Starpath is ours. Sophie, a Waldorf class teacher with more than 10 years' experience, wrote the curriculum. It's Waldorf-inspired and taught in main lesson blocks of two to four weeks.

The grade 2 year, block by block: Symmetry, Animal Fables, Exploring Place Value, A Hero's Tale, Maths Magic, Nature Studies, Inspiring People, Place Value and Strategies, Introduction to Time, Trickster Tales and Problem Solving. That's 11 blocks. Each day's lesson is written out: what to say, what to draw, what goes in the main lesson book, with a morning circle to open it.

See one first: the free Animal Fables guide walks through the block's method and its first day, so you can try a real grade 2 morning before you pay anything.

Why it suits grade 2: the planning is done and the blocks land in the planner. Grades 1, 2 and 3 are all complete, so a grade 1 and a grade 2 child can each have their own year in the same place. The free tier (planner, portfolio, homeschool legal requirements tool and compliance reports) works even if you buy your lessons elsewhere.

Watch for: it doesn't cover kindergarten, it doesn't yet carry older children past grade 4, and there's no accreditation or transcripts. It's newer than Christopherus, Live Education! and Oak Meadow.

Best for: a family that wants the Waldorf main lesson rhythm without Sunday-night planning, with children in or near grades 1 to 3.

Christopherus Homeschool Resources

christopherushomeschool.com | Priced on each product page | Early years to grade 8

Founded in 2003 by Donna Simmons and Paul Newton, with Donna writing the materials. It goes deeper into the philosophy than any other option, with print-on-demand books plus audio and video that explain the why behind each subject.

Why it suits grade 2: if you want to understand why fables and tricksters sit together in this year, this is where to read.

Watch for: it isn't open-and-go. You read, then turn it into lessons yourself. All sales are final, and the website feels dated.

Best for: a parent with time to plan who wants to understand the grade, with children of any age up to grade 8 (Christopherus now calls its curriculum complete).

Live Education!

live-education.com | $445 for grade 2, plus $65 US shipping | K-8

Written by Waldorf-trained classroom teachers, and used by teachers in Waldorf schools as well as homeschoolers. It's organized around main lesson blocks. Each package includes a consultation, phone and email support, and membership of its online Community Center.

Why it suits grade 2: it's the closest you can get to a Waldorf school grade 2 at home, and it runs all the way to grade 8, so you can move up the grades with your child.

Watch for: it's the most demanding option. You're stepping into the class teacher's role. First orders are taken by phone, and there's no return policy.

Best for: a parent with plenty of time who wants to teach, not facilitate.

Worth a look, depending on your family

• Waldorf Essentials (early childhood to grade 8; grade 2 is $225 digital, $300 in print or $575 with Live Support). Free twice-monthly Zoom office hours and a Facebook group, with mentoring and coaching in the Live Support package. Modernized in places rather than strictly traditional.
• Earthschooling (preschool to 12; grade 2 is $350 at its sale price). Secular and digital only, organized in main lesson blocks, with Eurythmy and music included. Feels less Waldorf than Christopherus or Live Education!.
• Enki (early childhood and kindergarten now). Blends Waldorf with Montessori and cooperative learning. Its grade 2 isn't on sale yet: grades 1 to 5 are coming, one a year.
• Oak Meadow (PreK-12; a full distance-school year for grade 2 is about $3,620). The only option here with an accredited distance school and transcripts. It works through weekly lessons across all subjects instead of main lesson blocks.

Prices checked September 2026.

Choosing for your grade 2 child

How much time can you plan?

If you have under 30 minutes a day, look at Lavender's Blue or Starpath, or Oak Meadow if you don't mind losing the blocks. With an hour or two, Waldorf Essentials or Earthschooling work well. If you have several hours and enjoy planning, Christopherus and Live Education! reward it.

Grade 2 has 20-day story blocks and a steady maths sequence. If grade 1 already stretched your evenings, pick from the first line.

How traditional do you want it?

For the closest thing to a Waldorf school, choose Live Education! or Christopherus. For main lesson blocks with the planning done, Starpath. For Waldorf-inspired and practical, Lavender's Blue or Waldorf Essentials. If structure and accreditation come first, Oak Meadow.

Who else is at the table?

This is the question that sorts grade 2 families most quickly.

• A younger sibling in kindergarten. Lavender's Blue, Waldorf Essentials, Live Education!, Oak Meadow and Earthschooling all include kindergarten, and Christopherus has early years materials. Enki has kindergarten but not yet grade 2. Starpath starts at grade 1.
• A sibling in grade 1 or grade 3. Lavender's Blue and Starpath both cover grades 1 to 3, so each child can follow their own year from one source.
• An older sibling in grade 4 or above. Christopherus, Live Education! and Waldorf Essentials all go to grade 8 (Waldorf Essentials' grades 7 and 8 need math and stories bought separately). Oak Meadow and Earthschooling go through high school. Starpath and Lavender's Blue both have grade 4 in progress.

Our article on Waldorf homeschooling with multiple children covers how families share one morning between two grades.

What support do you want?

If you only want the lessons, Lavender's Blue or Christopherus. If you want a planner, portfolio and compliance reports alongside them, Starpath. If you want a person to talk to, Waldorf Essentials. If you need transcripts, Oak Meadow.

Coming from a different grade 1

Grade 2 is a natural place to change course. If you used something else for grade 1 and it didn't fit, compare again with what you now know about your own week. Our grade 1 comparison shows how the same options look a year earlier.

If you're not sure whether your child is ready for grade 2 work, the free grade 2 placement quiz takes a few minutes and suggests where to begin.

What grade 2 costs

Waldorf Essentials is $225 digital, $300 in print or $575 with Live Support. Earthschooling is $350 at its current sale price. Lavender's Blue is $397 for the grade. Live Education! is $445 plus $65 US shipping. Christopherus prices each title on its own product page. Starpath's 11 grade 2 blocks are $19 each ($209 for all of them), or $47 a month for every grade (prices checked September 2026). On top of any curriculum, you'll want a main lesson book, beeswax crayons, watercolours and the odd craft supply: yarn and card for a times-table wheel, a compass for the time block. For a fuller breakdown, see how much Waldorf homeschooling costs.

A place to start this week

Pick the two options that fit your answers above. Then try one real lesson from each before you commit. For Starpath, that's the free Animal Fables guide: a fable, a phonics rule and a page in the main lesson book, one morning at the kitchen table.