DS13's 8th grade plan so far: Bible: undecided..want to do something together with dd10 also..any suggestions? Math: BJU Algebra 1 DVD Grammar: Finally decided! Hake Grammar 8 (grammar only) Vocabulary: BJU and other supplements Writing: getting WWS and already bought Writing Strands...will check out both and see which is better fit for him. Literature: AtB literature books and other books with Progeny Press guides (The Hobbit, The Hiding Place, and probably some others to be decided later) History: Notgrass America the Beautiful with other supplements (doing this together with dd10) also an elections unit study Science: BJU Space and Earth Science DVD Logic: Mind Benders and Fallacy Detective (our first year doing Logic) Art: Atelier Computer: Kidcoder Latin: Visual Latin Different books for character and manners study Some classes will only be done 1-3 days per week.

I am actually looking forward to the school year after this crazy summer, which is a first for me :D. Normally, I'm dreading the start of school. We are doing things a lot different this year, so I've been studying, shopping (lots of shopping :lol:), planning, etc. I'm almost done deciding on and buying the curriculum. But, then I will have to figure out the schedule, and I'm half afraid that I am putting too much on their plates :glare: Hopefully not, though. We will find out the first week of school. My kids know better than to say they are bored :lol:

I have used BJU video classes since K4 for both my kids, and my way of organization evolved over the years lol. I put all of one child's mom's minutes in one binder (not my favorite), pronged folder, or bind them along with my lesson plans. Of course each subject would have an index tab. Next, all the supplemental pages that the child would need for classes would be in another binder, again with tabs separating the subjects. And separate binders for any test keys and grading sheets. I like having my materials separate according to type and not all in one huge binder. That's just me though :) Math will usually take an hour, as someone else posted. I don't remember how long Science was taking my son, probably 45min-one hour, more on some days when the assignment was longer or when he had to study for a test. Lit 7 was taking him over an hour, but he is not a super fast reader. English, as above poster mentioned, about 20-40 minutes, maybe longer during writing chapters.

Thank you :)

Thanks for the input :) I found out that my sister has some biographies that I can borrow :)

Thank you for the suggestions!! They look great. I had seen The Ten Boys/Girls Who before but thought they looked too young for my 13yo, so I just checked amazon and it says 9 and up so they'll probably be fine. :)

We will be using a different Bible curriculum this year which (I think) won't have any biographies included. We have used BJU Bible for the most part up until now, and they always have a few lessons a year on famous christian men and women. I know about the Christian Heros series and the like, and while I will probably buy a few of those, I don't want to have to buy a ton of separate books. Also, my kids and I may not always want to spend a whole book on one person, kwim? Does anyone have any suggestions on books that would contain many short biographies in one? I do plan to get Foxe's Book of Martyrs but want to cover more recent people as well. Thanks!

I am interested in this as well :lurk5:

:bigear:

Yes, I saw that it looked like some figures and events were already there, I just don't like the vertical format. I just think it flows better in my mind horizontally, but that's just me :D Thanks for the response :)

My favorites are the National Audubon Society guides, but I don't think there are new versions out there. I could be mistaken though. I have North American birds and have used it quite a bit. My dad has the ones on weather, trees, night sky, and maybe others that I can't remember right now. I used to look at his all the time when I still lived at home and learned much from them. They have all the photographs in the first half of the book and all the info in the second half. I like it this way so that I can flip through the pictures for quick identification of a bird. They are classified by type and color. We've never used any kid field guides so I can't comment on that.

Thanks Carly for the response :) I will have the student workbook (my 5th grader will also be doing this) and the Lesson Review. I took a look at my progeny press guides as I have never used them before, and it looks like they do go over literary terms and so forth. Anyone else care to chime in :bigear:

Lot of threads on grammar lately! My ds13 did BJU Writing and Grammar 7 this past year and did well with it, but I want something different this year. I want a grammar only curriculum (I will be using a separate writing program) that is open and go and is not too intensive because I plan to focus more on writing. I do want some diagramming. Something that would fall in line with what he has already done. Would love to hear some suggestions!

I am also stuck on grammar for my 8th grader. I think I'm wanting something like Easy Grammar but with some diagramming. Not anything too intensive because I want to focus more on writing this year.

Couple questions: From their website the timeline looks vertical, but I prefer a horizontal one. Do you think I could use the History Through the Ages timeline (or comparable)? I don't know if all the figures etc. would correlate. What do you all think? I bought the Notgrass set used, and it comes with the timeline but has been filled in. So if needed, I will have it for a reference. Since I was going to have to buy a new one anyway, I figured I might as well buy one I like better if it will work. Also, If I am doing the suggested literature (with some possible substitutions) plus two or more progeny press guides, would that be enough for a full year's course of literature for an 8th grader? Do I need a literature curriculum to make sure he is going over literary devices? What literature curriculum is out there that uses whole books? Thank you!!