8th grade plans...for the average/unmotivated kids

[Tess in the Burbs]

I love this site.  Some of the kids here are doing amazing things.  But there are others like my family where we have an an unmotivated child.  Who may or may not be smart b/c they don't bother to try enough for us to know.  So we aim for average in hopes to get the kid to just finish something  :huh:

 

I would love to see some 8th grade plans for those unmotivated kids.  I can plan away, but if he won't actually do it, or is going to whine the entire year, I need a different plan.  The more I ask the kid what he wants, the more he doesn't want to do school  :glare:

 

And we got off track somewhere so we aren't lined up for the 4 year cycle in any way/shape/form. 

 

I would love your help.  One awesome planning mom to look at our situation and acknowledge this kid hates school and help me figure out a plan that will get done with minimal whining.  It won't be an awesome plan from a mommy point of view, but it will get done, and he can move into high school work on that 'average' path  :thumbup:

 

DS has done world history 5-7th grade.  We wrap up this summer.  Assuming I would want to do ancients/world/US/govt&econ in high school....what to do next year? I can push American.  If he had a choice it would be WWII only.  His sister will be 7th and asked to do ancients.  I decided to go with that choice.  Ds doesn't care about Ancients...he remembers so much from 2 years ago.  What topic should I pick for him?

 

DS did SL science in 5th(human body stuff), Rainbow year 1 in 6th, and is doing Astronomy this year with some geology at the end.  All the Apologia chemistry talk has me lost about whether to go with them for Physical next year(first plan) or let him do Earth Science since other publishers have that.  The younger sister is choosing BJU Life next year.  (she is very motivated and is begging not to be linked to her brother for any subjects)  I guess she will stay on BJU track...she loves science.  But what about the boy for 8th grade?  do we do physical and then figure out from there ?  

 

He is going to do an online English class.  I will add in more reading depending on our history time period.  Otherwise I am letting the class be his grammar/writing/lit.  If the writing is too little I can add in more.  

 

He hates Latin, so I think he will try Vocal for Cl Roots.  He will continue in Fallacy Detective/Thinking toolbox.  

 

He still has an A test avg for algebra, so I think he's doing the Callahan videos for geometry next year.  

 

My biggest issue is history and science and what to do before high school.  If I chose, it would be some sort of American before high school.  And science...I don't care...I am not tied to any particular publisher at this moment. Obviously whether he does physical now or next year would narrow down the science publisher.  I personally think he would like physical science.  he said he would do earth science if I didn't want physical.  See how he is not helpful in our planning?  pick one dude!

 

All you planning gurus have fun.  I always appreciate your insight and recommendations.  I will say...we are Christian and prefer science to be from that worldview.  This was so much easier in elementary school... :sad:

 

[Lori D.]

Sounds like you have the Math, English, Latin/Vocab, and Logic all well in hand. :)

 

Just me, but for the History and Science, I'd go for anything fun or different that you haven't had a chance to explore before, because 8th grade is virtually your last "window of opportunity" to do so -- seems like high school gets SO busy, that other than squeezing in a few electives, there just doesn't seem to be the time to bunny trail anymore. Or if you do, you have to *really* plan for it and make it "multi-task" to be credit-worthy on top of exploring interest...

 

For high school, you can jump back onto the History cycle track, and you'll be getting a year of American History at that time, and you'll be able to use the science labs and hands-on discovery and lab write-ups down in 8th grade as great foundation for then adding on the formal textbook study part of science in 9th grade… With that as my preface ;), my thought would be to go informal and learn through discovery:

 

History

a. switch it out this year in favor of some other social science topic of interest to your student

(Worldview & Comparative Religions, Psychology, Philosophy, Cultural/Physical Geography, Sociology, Anthropology…)

 

b. Explore-A-State-Study

(do it as a family -- historical sites, landmarks, natural wonders -- get on the road every other weekend and discover a different corner of your state)

 

c. drop History entirely in favor of a time to explore one or more activities of interest

(build a boat, cake decorating, metal working, auto shop, wood-working, etc.)

 

d. focus on narrow time/place of interest

(example: Medieval War & Weapons -- or, in this case, WW2; project-based and first-hand accounts, documentaries -- and then every 4 weeks a report on his findings; some could be written to support the Writing, but also consider oral reports, power-point, a video/documentary of his own…)

 

 

Science

Lots of documentaries and hands-on labs, and practice writing up labs:

a. pot-pourri -- a series of units of topics of interest (Robotics, Engineering, Rocketry, Electronics, etc.)

b. lesser-studied science subject of interest to your 8th grader (Geology, Meteorology, Marine Biology, Astronomy, etc.)

c. four big science-fair style projects, one per quarter

d. Jason Project

e. PLATO

[Tess in the Burbs]

I had to laugh...you mentioned building a boat.  That is EXACTLY what he wants to do right now.  I guess I could invest in the tools needed and let him at it.  We haven't been able to find good, simple plans yet.  Lots of technical plans out there for free, but very little that is step by step.  Love your ideas.  Maybe I should entertain the boat thing....

 

 

[Random]

 

DS has done world history 5-7th grade.  We wrap up this summer.  Assuming I would want to do ancients/world/US/govt&econ in high school....what to do next year? I can push American.  If he had a choice it would be WWII only.  His sister will be 7th and asked to do ancients.  I decided to go with that choice.  Ds doesn't care about Ancients...he remembers so much from 2 years ago.  What topic should I pick for him?

 

DS did SL science in 5th(human body stuff), Rainbow year 1 in 6th, and is doing Astronomy this year with some geology at the end.  All the Apologia chemistry talk has me lost about whether to go with them for Physical next year(first plan) or let him do Earth Science since other publishers have that.  The younger sister is choosing BJU Life next year.  (she is very motivated and is begging not to be linked to her brother for any subjects)  I guess she will stay on BJU track...she loves science.  But what about the boy for 8th grade?  do we do physical and then figure out from there ?  

 

My biggest issue is history and science and what to do before high school.  If I chose, it would be some sort of American before high school.  And science...I don't care...I am not tied to any particular publisher at this moment. Obviously whether he does physical now or next year would narrow down the science publisher.  I personally think he would like physical science.  he said he would do earth science if I didn't want physical.  See how he is not helpful in our planning?  pick one dude!

 

All you planning gurus have fun.  I always appreciate your insight and recommendations.  I will say...we are Christian and prefer science to be from that worldview.  This was so much easier in elementary school... :sad:

 

If I were you (but I'm not ;) ) I would go for WWII history.  Why not?  WWII would include some American history.  Or, maybe he could do an overview-type of American history for 1/2 the year and then he can spend the second 1/2 of the year on WWII.

 

It sounds like he's interested in earth science, so I'd do that.  Would he like something like Sonlight again for science?

 

 My oldest will be starting 8th next year, and I'm starting to back off considerably on content areas and let him enjoy his learning.  That's a big reason why we homeschooled in the first place!  My two oldest boys are generally unmotivated scholastically.  They just do what I require so they can have their free time.  I'd love for them to love learning, so I've decided to give them a lot more input.

 

Best wishes to you!

[Lori D.]

I had to laugh...you mentioned building a boat.  That is EXACTLY what he wants to do right now.  I guess I could invest in the tools needed and let him at it.  We haven't been able to find good, simple plans yet.  Lots of technical plans out there for free, but very little that is step by step.  Love your ideas.  Maybe I should entertain the boat thing....

 

 

Where's Nan in MASS? I think her DSs built a boat… Or was it Swimmermom3's DS? Anyways, maybe post a thread and see if you can get some support and experience for this to get you started! Sounds like loads of fun! :)

[happycc]

History--what about geography? Mapping the World Through Art ....

 

Boat---if you can't really build a boat in your back yard what about using Minecraft to build the boat or Legos. Or a small scale boat. Sailing classes if you are near a bay or lake or something could go along with PE. With Sailing he can learn how to survive...learn how to use the compass, what a sextant is and how it works, early explorers, etc etc. Boat building/sailing--lots of terminology involved there, woodworking skills, measuring, planning, drafting, geometry, research, what kind of wood/different kinds of wood, how boats were made in the past, famous boats of the past, war boats/ships, Viking ships, 

oh an entire unit on boats. How fun!  

 

What about Minecraft Homeschool Classes? Has lots of history stuff in there but in a fun way. 

 

Or something STEM ish through Homeschool Buyers Coop. Has these programs called Youth Digital. Great technology programs. 

Education Exploration is fun for science. Very hands on, project based. 

 

What would he do if he were to plan his own curriculum? His own curriculum would not be loafing around starring at the TV, playing shoot and kill computer games but he can pick what he wants to do for his last year before high school. 

[Tess in the Burbs]

the more I started looking into this, the more I see the boat things as a real possibility.  We have room in the garage/yard to build a small boat.  I am going to research and put together some topics to study and try to find some basic plans.  I hadn't thought about sailing classes but that might be a good summer way to get this rolling.  thank you so much!!!  

[Arcadia]

We have room in the garage/yard to build a small boat. I am going to research and put together some topics to study and try to find some basic plans

An afterschool hobbycraft workshop lets kids 8 years and up build wooden model sailboats that are about 2 feet long. It's something like link below which has instructions.

 

http://makezine.com/projects/make-20/wooden-mini-yacht/

[quark]

See post #16 from this thread for some of Nan's boat building ideas!

Good luck!

I wish we could have pursued that bunny trail but my kiddo had other plans.

[JDoe]

If he had a choice it would be WWII only.  His sister will be 7th and asked to do ancients. 

 

Maybe leverage off his interest in WWII and do a history of war course, with some military strategy reading added in?

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/History-War-100-Battles/dp/0199390711

 

http://www.amazon.com/Global-History-War-Assyria-Twenty-First/dp/0520283619

 

http://www.amazon.com/A-History-Warfare-John-Keegan/dp/0679730826/

 

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/War-Indexed-Carl-von-Clausewitz/dp/0691018545

 

http://www.amazon.com/Art-War-Sun-Tzu/dp/1599869772

 

http://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Meridian-B-Liddell-Hart/dp/0452010713

[Tess in the Burbs]

Oh my gosh, such wonderful information !!!  I knew someone else had to have considered boats before  :hurray:

 

I am looking at the WWII links as well.  I can't thank you all enough for the great ideas.  

[momto2Cs]

Watching this thread with interest, as I've got an average rising 7th grader, who will someday be an average rising 8th grader. She's bright enough, just not motivated.

[Lori D.]

I'd forgotten about that thread, Quark. That's a great one! :) In case the link breaks and people have to search by tread title, that one is: "Brainstorming help for an alternative 6th grade year". The multitude of ideas in that thread would be great for any age middle schooler, and up into high school as well! :)

 

 

And a few more WW2 books for your DS, Tess in the Burbs:

Escape from Colditz -- and be sure to watch the NOVA episode: "Nazi Escape", about the glider they built

The Great Escape -- and be sure to watch the NOVA episode with interviews of 3 of the men

The Forgotten 500

Hitler (Albert Marrin)

Victory in the Pacific (Albert Marrin)

[Soror]

See post #16 from this thread for some of Nan's boat building ideas!

Good luck!

I wish we could have pursued that bunny trail but my kiddo had other plans.

Awesome and for 6th grade, which is what I'm planning :) We're planning a bit of a different year here too, so I appreciate the ideas. Reading and thinking.....

[brehon]

I'd definitely go with the WWII and/or boat/marine study. I finished the "Japanese and American Naval Operations in the Pacific During WWII" study for my son. I convinced him that perhaps broadening just a wee bit from his initial idea of "American Naval Operations in the Pacific During 1943" might be a slightly easier and more interesting topic. I told him to save the narrowing down for his PhD. (HA!) 

 

I'm right there with you with a boy who is absolutely NOT interested in school. Or really learning. Boy is smarter than a whip; just wants to coast, though. I'm hanging my metaphorical hat on the ladies here who have said to ride out this phase. A phase, I might add, which has been going on for a while. <sigh>

 

 

 

 

 

[Soror]

Fwiw my ds (going to 6th) requested a study of technology and in researching I came across a lot of military history and technology books, especially for WWII. I don't think you would have a hard time of making a full year of it, it was so hard to narrow down books for this era. If you don't go with marine/boat science you could tie your history with science of military technology. Our tentative plans is a rather laid back science year (as we do a lot of science in life here) and digging deeper into the science behind various technologies. You could go deeper with your son being older as well. Someone mentioned Marrin, he has a lot of good books as does Freedman.

[Arcadia]

Boy is smarter than a whip; just wants to coast, though. I'm hanging my metaphorical hat on the ladies here who have said to ride out this phase. A phase, I might add, which has been going on for a while. <sigh>

Does your boy like hands on projects/competition or technical workshop? Plenty of coasters in my side of the family including myself. Our time management skills were used for non school work/personal interest projects.

[Tess in the Burbs]

Mine is smart, but wants the easiest path to anything.  He works at a slow pace..often purposefully in hopes I will give up the day and let him free LOL.   The one time I gave him freedom to do his own learning he did nothing for 3 months.  SOOO, I always have to put something in front of him to make him get things done.  He needs to wrap his mind around the idea of making his own course.  But I just found a fun boat building camp nearby where groups come up with a boat plan, build it, and try to put it in water against the others.  Looks amazing and would be a great starting point for his year. 

[brehon]

Does your boy like hands on projects/competition or technical workshop? Plenty of coasters in my side of the family including myself. Our time management skills were used for non school work/personal interest projects.

No, not really. I've tried to spark his interest in something. This WWII study I developed is the only thing he's shown an interest in.

[Arcadia]

I've tried to spark his interest in something. This WWII study I developed is the only thing he's shown an interest in.

 

Car/Auto repair since its a useful skill?  We had to change the car headlights recently and ended up reading all about quartz-iodide bulbs.  A few neighbors had needed to jump start their cars so it is useful to know how.  I forgot to close the trunk of the family car one night and end up killing the almost dead battery because of the trunk light.

 

ETA:

Something like this syllabus for auto mechanic

http://web.dcscouts.org/webfolder/dc_curric/votech/industrialtech/2009/Auto%20Mechanics%20Curriculum.htm

[Zoo Keeper]

I'm posting so that I can find this thread again later....

 

let's just say I have one (or two) children in need of the slightly different path. :biggrinjester:   Great ideas in this thread!

[brehon]

Car/Auto repair since its a useful skill? We had to change the car headlights recently and ended up reading all about quartz-iodide bulbs. A few neighbors had needed to jump start their cars so it is useful to know how. I forgot to close the trunk of the family car one night and end up killing the almost dead battery because of the trunk light.

 

ETA:

Something like this syllabus for auto mechanic

http://web.dcscouts.org/webfolder/dc_curric/votech/industrialtech/2009/Auto%20Mechanics%20Curriculum.htm

He wouldn't be interested in this at all, unfortunately. All the kids, however, will be required to demonstrate competency in basic car maintenance (checking tire pressure & filling them with the correct amount of air, checking fluid & oil levels, jumping a car, etc) before being allowed to drive, as both dh and I were.

 

He is enjoying CAP, but, again, won't study for the promotion tests without nagging which I'm loathe to do. He also enjoys being one of the higher ranked belts in TKD. I've tried working on that angle a bit to the stereotypical teen shoulder shrug.

 

Ah, well. We'll weather this. He is so incredibly smart; however, at this age I can't force him to do much.

 

Tess, sorry for the thread jack.

[AimeeM]

 

 

Just me, but for the History and Science, I'd go for anything fun or different that you haven't had a chance to explore before, because 8th grade is virtually your last "window of opportunity" to do so 

OP, I so wish I had listened to this advice at the START of middle school. Now we're heading into grade 8 next year, and I will NOT allow myself to plan DD's year according to some random book I read detailing what she "should" be doing. She'll have to do the language arts and math, like it or not, but as Lori has suggested to you, we're going more interest led for history and science.

 

DD isn't exactly average (she's 2E)... but she is pretty unmotivated for most things "academic".

 

Her plan for next year, for history is a study on the major wars, using Mystery of History's volume IV, which appears to be dedicated to the wars (I'm not normally a fan of MOH, because of the protestant slant, but there didn't appear to be anything the TOC that could be biased one way or the other for this volume). She'll also read some literature about period of war/conflict that she's interested in - the Holocaust, the Great Depression, etc. 

 

For science we'll pull from Tarbuck's Earth Science, and do units on weather and geology, but spend most of our time focused on astronomy and physics with literature that she'll go through with Dad (for things that she may need help reading, like Hawkings).

 

Once a week (Friday is our light, "enrichment" day) she will use Uncle Eric's package for nature of government and economics, because she's eyeball deep in interest right now for everything government and economics related, and I want to take advantage of that, even if she may be on the young end for this - since it's a high school program, I don't mind if it's an interest based once-a-week study that isn't finished for several years.

[Amy C]

My unmotivated ds is in 8th this year.  We started the WWII unit study from Build Your Library a few weeks ago and so far he likes it.  It's great for me to have the books picked out and scheduled, as I have a tendency to get bogged down when trying to design my own unit study.  

 

For science we have been using Friendly Chemistry, partly at a co-op.  We will finish at the end of April and will probably use at least part of Elemental Chemistry to finish out the year. 

 

Amy

[happycc]

WW2 stuff....have him find a reenactment group or start one with friends. 

 

Make costumes, fake be sure they look fake weapons, foods, maps, or design a WW2 board game (if he comes up with a good one, I would buy one to get my girls started on that topic),  songs, terminology used in the war etc. 

 

A lot of research needed for each topic in the study. What part of WW2 interests him? Perhaps find a WW2 veteran to interview/museums etc? Documentaries, Primary History sources to read. Maybe their is a veteran issue he can write a letter to congressman about etc. 

 

How WW2 affected future wars? Did it affect future tactics? How is our current affairs affected by the outcome of WW2?

How has it affected him personally? 

[Mom22ns]

I know I'm late to jump in, but I want to join in encouraging you to let him have a bit of fun in 8th grade. The WW2 history class sounds great. If he burns out on it next year, you could move onto the after effects of the war. 

 

As for science, if you ever want to do Apologia Physical Science, I really consider it to be appropriate for Jr. High only, so do it now. If you aren't wedded to getting it done, then feel free to do anything he would be more interested in. We always did Physical in 8th (not Apologia) so that the kids had enough Chemistry to take on Biology in 9th without difficulty. However, it sounds like he is doing very well in math, which means high school sciences will probably not be a problem for him. 
 

Have fun, enjoy!

 

 

[LaMere Academy]

If I were you (but I'm not ;) ) I would go for WWII history.  Why not?  WWII would include some American history.  Or, maybe he could do an overview-type of American history for 1/2 the year and then he can spend the second 1/2 of the year on WWII.

 

It sounds like he's interested in earth science, so I'd do that.  Would he like something like Sonlight again for science?

 

 My oldest will be starting 8th next year, and I'm starting to back off considerably on content areas and let him enjoy his learning.  That's a big reason why we homeschooled in the first place!  My two oldest boys are generally unmotivated scholastically.  They just do what I require so they can have their free time.  I'd love for them to love learning, so I've decided to give them a lot more input.

 

Best wishes to you!

 

I agree, there is SO MUCH to learn about WWII.  We just finished up a 9 week WWII unit from Build Your Library.  It is lit. based, if he likes to read it's perfect and you can add even more to it.

[Valley Girl]

I have another one of those bright, but unmotivated kids. I took a quick look at the description for the Build Your Library unit on World War II. It sounds like it may be perfect. But I didn't notice anything that would let me "see" a sample page or anything. We're currently using History Odyssey. DS will be going into the Modern Era Level II next year. Anyone have any experience with both? I'm tying to get a feel for how they compare. And thanks to all those who are giving suggestions. It's so hard to teach a kid who hates school.

[Valley Girl]

I have to say "thank you" one more time. I'd never heard of Build Your Library before today. I just asked DS what history topics he'd like to study if he could choose. WWII topped the list (which I knew it would). When I mentioned spending 9 weeks studying it next year, his face absolutely lit up! I think what we may do is start with Modern Era II until we get to WWII; then insert Build Your Library's unit study. I'm trying to shake up our curriculum for next year to engage him more. I think this will help.

[Paula in MS]

My dd is completely unmotivated by school.  I have to literally sit with her all day to get it done.  It stinks, but that is what we do.  We are not changing anything much for this next year.  We are using fairly rigorous curricula.  It just takes forever to finish.  I thought about signing her up for some online classes next year to keep her accountable to someone besides me.  

 

We plan to use the following:

Saxon 8/7 (She is not a math whiz, so we are moving at the slower pace.)

Latin Alive I (We should be about 2/3 finished this year, so we will need to finish next year probably.)

Omnibus II (We are working on Omnibus I this year.  I am not sure if we will complete all of year one or not but will go to year 2 next because it covers  the Hobbit and LOTR which she LOVES.)

Science will be BJU online because it is her favorite subject, and this is the curriculum she likes.

The Argument Builder (She likes the Art of Argument.  Who knew?)

Classical Composition Book III

 

 

I use audio books and/or read some of the primary source material to her to make Omnibus easier.  She is responsible for reading the Secondary books which are much easier.

 

I've kind of given up on trying to get her excited about school.  I just need her to do the assignments. :)

 

[Shannon in TN]

I had to laugh...you mentioned building a boat.  That is EXACTLY what he wants to do right now.  I guess I could invest in the tools needed and let him at it.  We haven't been able to find good, simple plans yet.  Lots of technical plans out there for free, but very little that is step by step.  Love your ideas.  Maybe I should entertain the boat thing....

 

I remember my first year of college (I was an art student) we had a teacher that had us build and design a boat.  This was a freshman level art and design class, but it was so cool!  We started by making a 1/2 hull model  and then we spent time building an actual boat, all out of wood.  It was about the size of a john-boat, no more than 6 or 8 feet long, but what we learned about laminating and bending wood, tool usage, sealing and protecting the wood was amazing.  It was awesome.  I totally commend you for wanting to take this on with your son.  By the way, used no plans for the 1/2 hull model, just lots of sketching out ideas and looking at exotic woods - that was fun, but we did need a heavy duty band saw and sanders for shaping.  Man, I miss wood working.....

[Reefgazer]

I've got one motivated kid and one unmotivated kid.  I gave up on the unmotivated one - he just has to do what I tell him until he can summon some enthusiasm for *something*.  But if your unmotivated is willing to come up with something he wants to do, why not let him choose the topic (just WWII is OK) and opt for the curriculum materials?