Is this enough for 8th grade?

[Laura Cook]

My oldest DS13 will be an 8th grader this next year. Does this look like a good line up for a kid who doesn’t hate school work but isn’t enthusiastic about it either? He is a great, responsible kid and will do whatever I require of him, but he’s not exactly jumping for joy.

Math - Math Mammoth 6 (finish probably by Sep.) then go on to 7 

Writing- Jump In

Grammar - Easy Grammar Plus

History - American using A History of US concise aligned with the tests from Hewitt and some of the maps from Map Trek’s American history set

Science - Elemental Science Earth Science and Astronomy for Logic Stage OR Biology for Logic Stage (we haven’t decided on this yet) *he will be doing this with his siblings

Literature - I’ll assign him a list and he’ll probably use lit guides or Boomerangs for several of them and I think we will read some short stories using Figuratively Speaking as a resource for discussion. Plus his own free reading, family read alouds and poetry teas

Our main academic goals are to get him writing a lot more, to continue working on his math skills and to start discussing the books he is reading. Also trying to foster some independence in and ownership of his learning. I’d also like him to have an enjoyable year. Thanks!

[Garga]

I think it sounds good.  You’ve covered the basics.  

For this year, you’re splitting out grammar, writing and literature.  In high school, all those would be included in English and would be one class.  However, it’s often that in high school people no longer expressly teach grammar—instead they just correct mistakes as they come up in writing, or do some light reminded of various grammatical issues that come up in writing, so it’s not like high-schoolers are getting an hour’s instruction in grammar every day: grammar is folded in to the reading/writing they do.

So, for this year you have 6 subjects, but if your oldest was a 9th grader, you’d have only 4 subjects (Math, Sci, History, English) and would probably add in a language and elective to create 6 classes.  You may already know all this, but for some reason I feel compelled to point it out. 

For myself, I would probably want to add an art or music class to your line up, but it’s not vital.  If your son already plays an instrument or has an extra curricular, it’s probably ok, but for me, I’d add art or music or something along those lines—basically, an elective.  If he doesn’t like creating art or music (mine don’t), then I’d do a history of art or music type of class.  I would only do it a couple of days a week in 8th grade.  In high school, you’d have to do it more in order to assign it a credit, but for 8th grade, I’d keep it light.

Edited July 28, 2019 by Garga

[Farrar]

Yep. Definitely enough.

If he needs more enrichment, some art, music, theater, etc. could be good. Even just as an occasional thing. Or some engineering or computer science. I assume he's got a physical outlet of some kind as well.