What does each expectation look like when it is secure?
| Expectation | Secure looks like |
|---|---|
| Numbers to 100 | Can say that 47 is four tens and seven ones, and that it sits between 40 and 50 without counting |
| Two-digit addition and subtraction | Regroups across ten and can say what the carried ten is |
| Facts to 20 | Answers 8 + 6 from memory, not by counting up from 8 |
| Skip counting | Counts by 5s from 35, not only from 0 — the harder and more useful version |
| Simple fractions | Knows three quarters is nearly a whole, not only how to shade three boxes |
| Time and money | Reads half past and quarter to; makes 65¢ more than one way |
Does this differ by province?
In substance, very little. Provinces differ in how the curriculum is organised and worded — Ontario uses six strands including financial literacy, Alberta rewrote its K–6 math in 2022, British Columbia writes competencies rather than outcomes, and Manitoba and Saskatchewan share the Western framework — but the grade 2 number expectations above are common across all of them.
Where provinces genuinely differ is timing at the edges. Ontario introduces money and financial literacy earlier than most; Alberta’s 2022 rewrite moved several expectations forward by roughly a year.
What if my child is not there yet?
A spread of a year in either direction is ordinary in grade 2 and is not by itself a concern. What is worth acting on is a specific gap that is not closing — most often fact recall — rather than a general sense of being behind. Find the one skill, work on that one, and check again in six weeks.