8th grade homeschool curriculum with high school in mind

I’m learning as my kids get older it is more difficult to choose my kids’ curriculum for the year. Especially as I sit down and realize I have five more years to educate my children, and those last two years I plan to be a part-time teacher as they get dual-credit at the local community college. That being said our 8th grade homeschool curriculum is not set in stone yet. Some I have a rough idea of what I want to do, and some it’s set and that is what we are doing.

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How I’m planning our 8th-grade homeschool curriculum

I’m treating out 8th-grade year as a high school prep year so the kids are used to the level of work that is expected for high school before their grades matter. I remember when I was in 8th grade the teachers spent the entire year reminding us next year our grades mattered and WENT ON OUR PERMANENT RECORD. I heard that a lot.

I’m working on Heather’s new class “High School by Design.” I’m on lesson three right now and very much enjoying the course. It’s been eye-opening for me to think through.

As I’m writing this post I’ll be putting statements into two categories: SET IN STONE and TENTATIVE. I’m still working through aspects, and we’ll see what happens.

The core 8th-grade homeschool curriculum

This is the items everyone is doing together for our 8th-grade homeschool curriculum.

8th-grade math [SET IN STONE]

Teaching Textbooks Algebra, this year has been very interesting for math. The curriculum I picked for pre-algebra they all finished in December/January. It worked really well for Superman (who loved it), slightly less for Batman, but Princess went from loving it to hating it. That’s a whole conversation all by itself, she has math issues. We used PAC for this semester as I reviewed it, and it’s good and solid, but they don’t have a high school curriculum and recommend switching to Teaching Textbooks or Math-U-See.

Science [SET IN STONE]

I wanted to step up their science so they’d be used to the rigor of high school science, BUT the kids begged to use Real Science 4 Kids again, and so we compromised and we’re doing Astronomy and Geology. Astronomy because they don’t remember all the cool stuff we did when we studied Astronomy (I suspect when we start they’ll remember), and Geology because we’ve never studied it.

8th-grade History [SET IN STONE]

I’m planning on covering ancient and middle ages history this coming year. That’s the equivalent of two years in one, this is part of my pre-planning of high school, and I want to get through the four-year cycle one more time, but at the same time, I’m thinking ahead for the kids taking their last two years of history over at the community college. I want them to have a solid foundation of historical knowledge before they head off.

[Tentative] history homeschool curriculum- Mystery of History 1 and Mystery of History 2, I’ve spent the last week reorganizing how the lessons for MOH1 are put together and figure out what lessons I want to skip and what I want to add to. I’m possibly going to pick up Project Passport Ancient Egypt (depending on how deep I want to dive into Egypt), and if it comes out in time Project Passport Ancient Rome.

[Set in Stone] history homeschool curriculum- Project Passport Ancient Greece, Project Passport Middle Ages,  and A La Carte products from Homeschool in the Woods (as mentioned in my file folder games post, and my Ancient Greece post)- I’m using this to add to what’s in MOH1, MOH1 Super Bundle– I’m using parts of this for notebooking pages and possibly some quiz questions

This right here could be a whole post, and may well be once I have it figured out.

8th-grade reading and writing [TENTATIVE]

I’m figuring out what books I want the kids to read for the year. I’m pulling from the book and a movie list I made, and trying to pull in some ancient history sources as well

Assigned reading [set in stone]- Iliad and Odyssey (possibly Tales from the Odyssey), Greek myths, Shakespeare: Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra (darn, there’s no Shakespeare Made Easy for this, so I’ve linked to No Fear Shakespeare), Wizard of Oz, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Swiss Family Robinson, Christmas Carol, Little Women, Ender’s Game, Mary Poppins, Huck Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, Gulliver’s Travels

I’ll be using some of the 7SistersHomeschool.com literature studies: American Literature Curriculum and British Curriculum.

Writing [set in stone]- we are halfway through the Byline writing curriculum, and I intend to finish off the year

Writing [tentative]- I’m planning lots of assigned writing to go with both the books the kids are reading and their history units this year. This is the part I’m tentative on

Independent Projects for 8th-grade homeschool curriculum

This past year I’ve had each of my children working on independent projects. It’s had mixed results. Some kids did great with it because it was very easy to figure out what to do, others not so much.

Princess [SET IN STONE]

She is going to work through Cover Story curriculum again this year with an eye to prepare herself to complete the One Year Adventure Novel curriculum as a freshman. Her goal is to publish a book before she graduates high school. She has the firmest plans right now, and has started feverishly writing as much as she can to promote her goal. She understands she has to write more than she currently does on her blog.

Batman [TENTATIVE]

Batman is working on different cooking skills. This year he learned how to make Tiramisu from scratch that was a two-month process learning how to make ladyfingers was the most difficult part and then figuring out how much-powdered chocolate to add on top was a challenge.

This past semester he’s learned different bread recipes from scratch. He’s also been working through his World of Warcraft cookbook which is surprisingly good. There’s a large number of recipes we’ve added to our regular rotation. Their honey bread is amazing!

This coming year I want him to learn the science behind cooking, which I need to find something to support him in that. I bought the homemaking bundle when it came out a few months ago because of the different cookbooks in there and in particular a bread and roll making class.

Superman [SET IN STONE]

Superman was the hardest to figure out his independent project. I don’t really know much hands-on programming (none really) and only a sketchy knowledge of electrical engineering. Their Dad knows programming but doesn’t have a lot of time to make that happen regularly.

We tried a book he worked through independently, but it didn’t work. Right now he’s doing EEME projects, but those come once a month and are only an hour or two of work for a month. They’re great projects but I want to do more. I’m still looking for more for that, and yes one or more of the projects I highlighted from Homeschool buyer’s co-op is on the docket, I’m still thinking CodeCombat, since that deal doesn’t currently have a time-limit I’m waiting until a little closer to when we’re going to start back into school. No point in getting a year-long subscription and then not touch it for a couple of months.

He’s going to be working through 42 Electronics for his independent project. Full curriculum review.

More BRILLIANT wisdom on homeschool curriculum

Here are a few reviews and some of our past year’s homeschool curriculum:

• 7th-grade homeschool curriculum
• 42 Electronics Engineering Curriculum
• 6th-grade homeschool curriculum
• PAC homeschool curriculum review
• How to homeschool preschool without curriculum

 

Check out more curriculum ideas over at iHomeschool Network