Hello, I know this may seem like a silly question, but I am going to ask anyway. For those of you who have taught 8th grade, how hard was it compared to other grades? I ask because I may be doing full time homeschool with our son next year and he will be in 8th grade. I've homeschooled him since 1st grade, either on a full time or part time basis. Actually, all but 3rd grade. However, we haven't done full time homeschool since 4th grade, but have continued with me doing it part time. Anyway, when sharing that I may be doing 8th grade full time, I have had several friends or family comment about how hard 8th grade is & wonder if I really want to do the homeschool full time. They aren't being negative and some of them speak from teaching experience, so I do respect their opinions. Now I am curious and want to hear more thoughts concerning 8th grade, and I figured this would be a great place to come and get more thoughts on the matter. Have any of you found that 8th was a particularly difficult grade to teach compared to other grades? If so, please explain why. My son is fine with doing full time homeschool, and while I get the typical tween attitude here and there, he is overall very good at doing what he is supposed to be doing regarding school. I appreciate any stories, advice, ideas, etc.... Thanks in advance! :)

Oh goodness! Sorry, I didn't see it. Thank you for the links. If I can figure it out, I'll delete it.

Hello, I've seen these threads started for other grades, so I wanted to start one for 8th. I would love to hear everyone's plans for next school year or even what they have already used for 8th grade that worked well. I'm looking for great ideas & suggestions since I'll be homeschooling our son full time next year. Thanks so much! 👌ðŸ˜ðŸ‘

Hello Again, I don't have any little ones at home. My 12 year old is my youngest. He's very familiar with doing homeschool since we've done it on a full time or part time basis since kindergarten (the exception being 3rd grade). He loves the school, but he loves when he's home too. Plus, he's an extremely easy going kid overall which helps. I decided to speak to him today about this & he said he would be fine doing that for 8th grade. Regarding the social aspect, it's not much of an issue. He is involved in flag football, about to be in tennis, does guitar lessons, is in choir at church, & his youth group. He also has a group of really good friends that he hangs out with on a pretty regular basis. Financially, I do believe it would really go towards helping us. While I could be wrong, looking at the numbers, I can see the benefit. We are looking at something similar to what Dave Ramsey teaches where we will roll what we would have paid towards tuition monthly towards paying off debt instead. Again,this isn't our only solution, just a part of the equation to hopefully help. Thank you!

Thank you, ladies! I appreciate your responses. I have mostly heard from those who really aren't familiar with homeschooling about the graduating & college thing. I know, I should be smarter than that & I do need to do my research, but I allowed it to scare me instead. So, I am thankful for the encouraging words & plan to educate myself better very soon. I just want to make the best decision for our son & family. ðŸ‘ðŸ˜

Hello, I have to make some decisions and I need a little help please. I have a son who is in 7th grade currently and attends a university model school. This means that he goes to the school building three days a week, and then he is home two days a week. The school works with parents that homeschool which is great. I have been able to do homeschooling, yet still allow our son to go to a good school in the process. He takes a couple of main core classes at the school along with a couple of elective classes, and then I do two other core classes at home with him as well. He has gone to the school for the past 3 years and he really does love going there. While it is nice, it is quite expensive. Here is my thought and where I need to hear a bit of friendly input. Our money is very tight right now and we need to work at getting back on our feet in the financial area. We know that this is indeed possible, but will require some sacrifices on our part too. One area that I keep thinking will help us to save money is bringing our son back home full time next school year for 8th grade. We did full time homeschool for K, 1st, 2nd, and 4th, so I am familiar with how to do this if we decide this is best. I figure that going back to full time homeschool for 8th will allow us to save money & help out our financial situation. I do not think that our son necessarily would want to do this because he does enjoy the school so much, but my thinking is that if we have one year without tuition payments, to help get us back on our feet, then we can be able to put him back into this school for 9th to 12th grade. Of course there are other areas where we will have to make sacrifices too, but this is one of the big areas because of the tuition costs each month. I am just thinking that this, along with other things we will do will be extremely helpful in getting us back on our feet and doing well once again. There is so much that I know I can do with our son also to make it a great school year. Great curriculums, plenty of activities to still get him involved socially, more time with our family, etc... My fears are simply in making sure that he is learning the right information & that I don't mess him up to where he is behind and struggles. Elementary grades come easier for me when teaching than middle school or high school does. I had many people tell me as he got closer to middle school and high school that I best get him in school if he was to ever have a chance at graduating with a diploma in hand or getting into a college. Hmmmmm.... So, what are your thoughts? I would love to hear them. Any suggestions, ideas, etc... will be much appreciated. Thank you!!! :)

Wow! Thanks for all the great replies. :) We have decided to update everything. It is a great weekend to purchase these items too with the Labor day sales going on right now. I also know that in our area, the appliances usually stay with the home (aside from the refrigerator sometimes). Our poor appliances look soooo outdated and they are having issues with them being so old. Even if we don't put the house on the market, we figure we will get to enjoy the new appliances and fresh look they give to the kitchen for a while. We see it as a win-win. We get to enjoy the appliances for a while and then they will be more appealing to buyers should we put the house on the market within the next two years. Thanks again! Everyone have a wonderful and safe Labor Day weekend! :)

Thanks for the responses. I really appreciate hearing them. We are going to head out today to look, but I am still not sure of our decision. We shall see! :) Everyone have a wonderful Friday!!!

Hello, Well, here is the situation. Our sixteen year old gas range is finally on it's last leg. We are going to have to head out this weekend and purchase a new range. With it being Labor day weekend, we are hoping to find a good deal somewhere. Knowing that we have to get a new range has got me thinking. I am wondering if we should spend more money and get all new appliances for the kitchen. Everything but the dishwasher is very old (16+ years). We have all white appliances right now in an all white kitchen, but would like to change out to stainless steel. We know that within the next two years, we want to try and sell our home. This is why I am playing around with the thought of purchasing all new appliances in stainless. I am thinking that buyers will like the fact that the appliances are new and updated. Right now, they are screaming old and outdated. However, that is a pretty big investment financially. But... would it be worth it in the long run? Would it be super smart to do this now? I don't know. Another thought was just to get a new white range (which will match all the other white appliances), and then possibly look at giving the kitchen floor a little update. Right now we have white linoleum floors with a blue diamond pattern going throughout them. They are old, outdated and hideous looking. So, I was thinking that it might be good to refresh those instead of doing all new appliances. We would just go with something inexpensive, like a click lock laminate tile, but it sure would help the appearance. Or, I could just be good and get a new white range and leave it at that. Ha! Anyway, if you were in this situation and knew that you would be trying to sell your home within the next couple of years, what would you do? Would you invest in items that would update your home and make it more appealing or would you just leave it be? Thanks so much!

Hello, I am homeschooling my 9 year old son for fourth grade. We started August 12th and are doing well so far. However, I have not begun Science or Social Studies yet. Well, aside from some map work here and there. Anyway, my plan is to begin Science and Social Studies the first week in September. Yes, next week. The reason behind doing this is because I am sort of pulling from all over to "create" the curriculums for Science & SS that we will use for the year. I am beginning to think I am nuts to have attempted this task. Anyway, I pretty much know the topics I want to teach throughout the year and I am seeing a lot of unit planning. For example, with Science, unit one might be on weather, the water cycle and & clouds. The next unit may be focused on the sun & the moon along with the Solar System. My question is how long does it take to teach a so called unit? Should I plan 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 9 weeks for one unit??? I'm just having a tough time with this right now and I am not quite sure why. I'm at the point where I am just going to pick a topic and start teaching. When I feel my son has learned it well, we will move on to the next topic. Kind of flying by the seat of my pants method. Haha! So, is there any rhyme or reason to all this or am I just complicating things right now. I guess because math, english, spelling, etc... are all mapped out for me (open and go curriculum), I figure I should have these other things mapped out perfectly. As you can see, I need help. Any one have some good advice? Thanks so much!

Hello! If you have a Silhouette Cameo, what type projects can you do with it? Does it require that you spend a lot of money beyond getting the machine itself? I am interested in doing decorative signs for the home. Will this machine help with that for the lettering? Plus, I would love to know what else I could delve into should I get this machine. I am just curious if it is worth the money. Thanks so much & have a wonderful day!

Hello, I was just wondering if anyone has a very fun and creative way to teach metric measurement to a 4th grader? If you do, will you please share? Thanks so very much! :)

I just ordered/subscribed to the Social Studies and Science of Studies Weekly yesterday. I haven't received any confirmation email though & when I try to register online, it shows a database error. Did anyone else have these issues? How long did it take for your order to arrive? Thanks so much!

Hello, I have the opportunity to purchase an Artisan, 5 qt., Kitchenaid stand mixer for $150.00. It has been used about 6 times, but is in great condition. Who thinks this is a good deal & I should go for it? Or, should I just stay away? Ha! What would you do??? :)

Thanks to everyone who has shared what their daily "schedules", "routines", & "rhythms" look like! :) This is great and I love reading and getting ideas. Thanks so much! Oh, and I am all about flexibility, but I still like to have a "master" plan in place. Just helps me out greatly! :)

Hello! I would love to hear how different homeschool families run their day. :) I plan on mapping out a good schedule for my son who will be in 4th grade this year. I find that a good routine really helps! :) However, I love getting ideas from others that I may have never thought about, so that is why I am curious. Any information you would like to share is welcome. It doesn't have to be just about your daily schedule either, it could be how you plan out the year as well. Do you school 180 days or year round? I'm just curious & looking for great tips or ideas, even creative ways to homeschool. Thanks so much and everyone have a great day! :)

Hello, Well, I didn't really know that there were different thoughts on mastery vs spiral math. Haha! Didn't mean to cause confusion. Anyway, as crazy as it sounds, I ended up going with the complete opposite of what I thought I wanted for my son. I have chosen CLE for him which of course is spiral. We have done Rod & Staff in the past and while it is a good program, it was indeed boring for our family. I looked at all the different curriculums and just thought that CLE might be a very good fit for my son right now. We shall soon see! Thanks so much again for the responses. I really appreciate them greatly! :)

Thanks so much for the responses. I will look over the different suggestions and see if anything fits what I need for my son. :)

What is one of the best mastery math curriculum programs? I want one that does a great job at teaching math concepts, but that is not boring either? Does this exist? Thanks! :)

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!! This all helps me so much! :)

Thanks SO much for the responses! :) Ok, my next question is IF I go with TT for my son, and supplement with some type of math where I work with him one on one as well, would that work? Or would that be too much? My son loves the computer based look of TT, but as a parent I am a bit concerned about that very thing. I am getting Math Dice to play games with him and I am thinking of getting The Complete Book of Math as well. I don't think doing both CLE and TT is the way to go, but I am not sure. Goodness, I just need to decide. Haha! :)

Must have only been for good for a couple of days because the code is no longer valid. :(

Hello, I was wondering if anyone has used the K12reader.com site for spelling? I am thinking about using the lists they provide for my son this year, but would love to hear the thoughts of others that may have also used this site. Thanks so much! :)

Nobody has any suggestions to give in regards to CLE math or Teaching Textbooks??? I really was hoping to hear some thoughts and opinions. If anyone has experience with either of these two curriculums, please share. This is for a fourth grade boy. Thanks!

Hello! My son will be in 4th grade this coming school year. The last time I homeschooled was 2nd grade & he went to public school for third. We weren't impressed, so I'm homeschooling again. :) I've almost gotten my curriculum in order, except math. I would love to hear thoughts on both CLE & Teaching Textbooks please. Thanks so very much!