8th Grade Planning Thread 2020-2021

[Meriwether]

My middle child will be an 8th grader next year. I'm not sure exactly what we are going to do, but it will have something to do with the Middle Ages.

[mom2scouts]

I've just started to think about it, but here's our plan so far:

Geometry- Teaching Textbooks because we have it or just continue using Mr D  We're doing TT through the summer and she still wants to do the Mr D Geometry as well

Exploration Education Advanced Physical Science

Tapestry of Grace Year 4 Dialectic for Modern History, Geography, and Literature

Writing with Skill

MCT vocabulary and grammar

MegaWords 8 for spelling

Gymnastics DD retired from gymnastics to do more dance

Frontier Girls badges

No plan yet for art, music, or foreign language

Edited June 9, 2020 by mom2scouts

[Soror]

Continue: 

Well-Ordered Language

MegaWords Spelling

CLE 8 Math (I think--- on the one hand she's gained a lot of confidence and fluency on the other it is getting a bit easy for her (IMO) however she does better with something slightly easy)

Science this year is Oak Meadow 7- it has been good for her to learn to take notes but I'm considering trying out something different- have considered Exploration Education, Novare, and Rainbow

History/Geo- depends on what she wants to study- nothing too lit based as she is not the strongest reader

Writing- we are doing Jump In writing but started it a bit into the year, we'll finish that off early next year and mostly do writing across curriculum- I'm considering Blackbird Essay book on literature essay

[Meadowlark]

This may help me think this through. My oldest guy will be in 8th next year, and will most likely head to public high school after that (tear).

Math-Pre-algebra...(suggestions welcome. He struggling through BJU Fundamentals now)...Thinking maybe Derek Owens, but need to research a lot more)

Literature-7th/8th grade MP lit. guides (doing these this year and they are a winner all around!)

HIstory-MP's 7th grade American history with his brother and possibly Famous Men of Greece (as in MP's 7th grade plans)

Science-Possibly Novare's physical science OR Rainbow (input welcome please!)

Writing-IEW's new SSS program B OR Homeschool Connections Aquinas Writing Program (would love advice here!)

Latin/Grammar-MP's 2nd Form with EGR OR if we do IEW, maybe Fix-it?

Geography-MP's Geography 2

Faith/Catechism-MP's Christian Studies 2 (LOVE) and Homeschool Connections catechism class

As you can see, I'm nowhere near decided but at least have some thoughts in mind!

 

[Meriwether]

2 hours ago, Meadowlark said:

Math-Pre-algebra...(suggestions welcome. He struggling through BJU Fundamentals now)...Thinking maybe Derek Owens, but need to research a lot more)

 

For my boys for Pre-algebra I used a variety of resources including the Key to books and Hands on Equations.

[cintinative]

Updated: this should be my final, or close to it. 

Math: Dolciani Algebra I

Science: Biology with older brother--Miller Levine Dragonfly book, possibly at 1/2 speed; Lab at home

History/Geography: Cultural Geography with World Religions using Mapping the World with Art, How People Live, What the World Eats, World Religions: A Voyage of Discovery, So What's the Difference?, etc. 

Foreign Language: Spanish I via Funda Funda Academy

Lit/Comp: TPS English I 

Music: continue Hoffman Piano at a snail's pace

Art: drawing with my dad

Grammar: TPS and finish GWTM

Logic: Art of Argument

Vocab: Vocabulary from Classical Roots (continue)

Edited July 28, 2020 by cintinative

[ChocolateCake]

I'm planning to have my son do a lot of the MP 8th grade core with some substitutions/omissions.  Some subjects are with his sister who will be in 6th grade next year.

Literature: MP grade 8 Lit with guides  I decided to do a combo 7th/8th so he can do the 7th Grade Lit Discussion Group with Vita Beata instead.

Hopefully, he can do the Vita Beata discussion group with this.

Math: Shormann Algebra 1 with Integrated Geometry Self-Paced eLearning Course    We started this over the summer and it isn't going to work.  Too much spiral for a kid coming from Math Mammoth.  We will do Foerster's Algebra I (Prentice Hall Classics) with Math Without Borders.

Bible: Christian Studies IV with guide (second half- with younger sis)   We're two weeks into the school year and we are almost done with this book.  I think we will do a combo of Teaching Hearts, Training Minds and Long Story Short.

History: Book of the Ancient Greeks with guide, Book of the Ancient World as a read aloud with younger sis  I decided to just make this a geography year.  I will add in some hands-on activities and some earth science via CK-12 and Earth Science for Every Kid (VanCleave).  We will do some of these activities with friends.

I'd like to add in an Ancient Egypt unit study. We may do this with another family to make it more fun.

Language Arts: R&S English 7 (second half), Wordsmith, some writing across the curriculum, Spelling Power  We finished all the pertinent lessons in R&S 7 so I went ahead and picked the lessons in R&S 8 I would like him to cover and am planning to have him do those this year.

I may try to complete the English lessons I find most important over the summer so we don't have to worry about it next year.  I'm not sure yet.

Science: Applied Engineering from Masterbooks  

Hopefully, I can find a friend to do the labs with him since this will be his first year doing science without his sister.  I think I'll just have my kids do these together.

Foreign Language: Second Form Latin, Elementary Greek Year 1 (with younger sis)

We've been doing Latin half-paced but I'm thinking we may need to speed up next year.  Pray for us!  The Greek is sort of an experiment.  I'm not married to it. We're doing the MP Greek Alphabet book right now.  It's going well because-well it's only the alphabet.

Geography: MP Geography III (first half)

I've heard this one is tough so we may just do the first half and extend it to 9th grade.  I'm aiming for 1-1.5 yeas for this.  We will see.  I want to make sure he masters the material.

Music: piano with Mom 

This is very, very light.  He wants to be able to play the songs in his Super Mario music book so we'll see.  Now, that Daddy is working from home due to COVID we hardly do piano since it makes noise while the hubs is on the phone.

Karate, Swim, 4H  We're not doing any outside activities for now (due to COVID).  We may try swim in the spring.  We have some families to do learning activities with either in person (from a distance) or via video call.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 13, 2020 by ChocolateCake

[homemommy83]

My upcoming 8th grade daughter will be working on basics and enjoying a year to read all of the Apologia elementary science books/ some Tiner books.

English-Rod and Staff English 6

Spelling-Rod and Staff Spelling 8, she is a great speller.

Math-BJU fundamentals of math (1st semester) and Prealgebra (2nd semester). She is a hard worker and is focused on math this next year.  She wants to be Algebra ready for 9th grade.

Writing-Copywork using momdelights lesson sheets with Mcguffey readers.  I may have her begin Writing with Skill 2nd semester if she finishes English 6 by then.

Health School aid Health 7th/8th books...she is fascinated by the human body and looking forward to this set.  She is doimg building blocks now.

History- Read through the Grueber series as a one year review plus some books for each study based on All Through the Ages to coordinate with the time period.

Reading- 1 to 2 hours daily.

P.E. She works out daily

 

[FarmingMomma]

Can't believe my baby will be in 8th grade next year! 😥 Here's our plan so far:

Jacob's Geometry

Clover Creek Physics

Writing with Skill 3

Guest Hollow High School Geography with some added books to cover World Literature as well

French 2 via Global Goose Languages (Honors level if there are enough students)

Continue with 3rd Form Latin unless he decides to finish this summer, in which case we'll move on to Fourth Form

Plenty of exercise and outdoor time

4-H

 

[Zoo Keeper]

Next year's 8th grader...

Math: BJU PreAlgebra (or possibly Dolciani PreA...) Depends on how well she finishes this year. 🙂

Language Arts: Warriner's Grammar and Abeka spelling/vocab/poetry

Explorations in Literature (America Reads series) for lit and some lit analysis; plus most of Ambleside Online's Year 7 lit for fun

Writing tied to history and lit

Science: possibly BJU Life Science, (no DLO, just books)   a physics year instead, using some TOPS units and some Usborne books.

History: Ambleside Year 7 as the base, but subbing in Our Human Story (K12) as the spine. 

Latin: Latin Book One by Scott and Horn

continue sports at local middle school

continue piano lessons

 

 

Edited June 15, 2020 by Zoo Keeper

[ikslo]

On 1/22/2020 at 3:40 PM, WendyAndMilo said:

Russian II

What do you use for Russian?

[ikslo]

Math: Jacobs' Elementary Algebra

Language Arts: MCT Level 5: Magic Lens I/WWW I

Lit/Comp: CLRC Introduction to Literature and Composition (tentative)

Science: Guest Hollow's math-free Physics (although DS just expressed interest in food science, so possibly their Kitchen Chemistry instead; will require a bit of adjustment on my part as he is allergic to so many foods 😞)

History: Guest Hollow's American History Year One

Russian: CLRC Russian I (tentative, if can get into the class as he won't turn 14 until Nov)

Edited June 8, 2020 by ikslo

[ikslo]

1 hour ago, WendyAndMilo said:

The new Penguin Russian Course, old FSI lessons, misc resources from the library and online.  Mostly, I just made goals for the semester/year and use whatever resources I can find to meet them.

Thank you!  We're using a hodge podge of materials, too, and I just feel like he needs something more going forward.  Wish there was more out there.

[Meriwether]

I am slowly working through my thoughts for next year. Ds13 is fairly strong in some subjects and pretty weak in others, namely spelling and writing. There are a lot of things I want to cover before high school, but I also want to really work on writing before he gets to high school. I feel like I can't do lots of different things and still focus on those weaker skills. He also will do 2-3 band classes at the school, so his time is more limited than it otherwise would be.

Things I am sure about:
Math: Jacobs Geometry
Science: Apologia Physical Science
Language Arts: Rod and Staff 7 (second half), Writing and Rhetoric
Latin: finish or at least make progress in the Henle book

Things I know we are going to cover, but am unsure what we are using:
History: Middle Ages with TOG Year 2 D or Omnibus II or just one of the many spines and some of the many books I have on hand
Bible: Pretty much the options above or just a devotional
Literature: TOG, Omnibus, Tolkien study

Things he may or may not do next year:
Spanish
Geography
Logic
 

[egao_gakari]

I can't believe she'll be in 8th next year--that'll be the year she'll have officially homeschooled longer than PS!

Still a bit diffuse on some of the plans, but...

Math: Saxon Pre-Algebra. She hates math, but Saxon has been great for her since we switched over.
Science: WTMA Logic Stage Physics w/Dr. Bennett. She hasn't loved Logic Stage Chem this year, but her older brother adores Dr. Bennett's Bio class, and I sure can't teach physics, so that's what we're going with.

History: Story of Civilization Vol. 4 (American History) + primary sources. I still haven't managed to find a good way of incorporating primary source study, but I feel I'm getting closer 😄
Reading: American literature.... I'm sort of throwing the list together myself, using some of my favorites and filling it out with ideas from the WTMA American lit course. I feel I've really shortchanged my kids on the reading list every year. It always winds up being crowded out by other things, especially because they are really not "readers" by nature, and because I never buy the books. "THIS year I will make it to the library every week and get the new reading book on time!"

Writing: We'll try Exp III at WTMA. She does OK with WWS by herself, but I want her to have the benefit of a teacher who won't give her "mom grades" when she only puts in half effort. Grading writing is psychologically difficult for me, so I tend to put it off until she no longer cares about the evaluation. She's a gifted writer, so she needs a teacher who will challenge her.

We'll keep going with VFCR for vocab, and GWTM for one final year of grammar. She'll finish AofA this year, and I think we'll take a break from logic study in 8th. Faith formation stuff is up in the air. She'll be starting Confirmation prep. I'm thinking it may be a good time to take an in-depth look at world religions, compare and contrast, something like that. We'll see.

List looks short!

[2ndGenHomeschooler]

This will be third 8th grader and my third unique 8th grade plan. She’s one of my my most diligent with her school work, bright, good at math, and dyslexic. Spelling, reading, and writing can be definite struggles for her but she’s making progress. I just need to keep those challenges in mind as I plan. She also has the benefit of a mom who’s done this grade twice before. (I always feel bad for DD1 being my experiment child. I might have school figured out by the time she graduates.) 

Math: MUS Algebra 1. I switched all of my girls to MUS this year and it’s working well for us. DD who will be in 9th will be doing this too. It’s easier for DD3 than DD2.
 

History: Diana Waring History Revealed Ancients. I have this already and tried it when my kids were much younger. It was too much for them then. (I think oldest DD was only in 5th/6th grade.) We did US history last year and this year we’re doing MFW ECC so it’ll be time to jump back in to a history cycle. I think DD3 will like the variety of projects and the accompanying CDs. She’ll be doing this with DS who will be in 6th. They’re both dyslexic so having other options for learning than just reading and writing about it will be good for them. 
 

Science: Apologia Physical Science with the notebooks. We’re doing General this year and it’s going well so we’ll just keep going. Plus, I already have it. She be doing this with DD2 as well. 
 

English: I haven’t decided yet. This year we’re doing LLATL Tan. It’s the 6th grade level but meeting her where she’s at and has been a good fit for her. It’s getting done, she’s learning, it’s covering everything in one open and go book. I might just keep going with the next level. The other option I’m considering is IEW. I have the TWSS already and have used it to make up my own lessons in the past. We’ve also used some theme books. The problem was we never finished anything. The method worked well for my kids, I just wasn’t consistent with it. This past summer I pre-planned the whole year and gave each DC a weekly schedule of assignments for the whole school year. Those schedules have been keeping us on track amazingly well. If I do that again this summer it will probably solve our consistency problem. If I switched back I’d get the new student intensive and fix-it grammar. Then use Spelling Power for spelling. I’m not sure yet which way I want to go. 

Extras: karate, piano lessons, art

[Holly]

History/Bible: Beautiful Feet Ancients supplemented with Simply Charlotte Mason guides

Geography: Visits to Africa/Middle East

Science: R&S Grade 8 science

Math: MUS Pre-Algebra? 

Language Arts: Spelling Wisdom and Using Language Well 2 (second half), written narrations 

Latin: Cambridge Latin Unit 2

Fine Arts/Literature: SCM Enrichment 2

 

 

Edited March 10, 2020 by Holly

[Plagefille]

MATH: Finish AOPS Geometry and start AOPS Intermediate Algebra

SCIENCE: Fascinating Chemistry with other supplemental books

HISTORY: World Civilizations from Great Courses with supplemental readings from stuff we have at home

READING: Literature books and discussion using Teaching the Classics method

GRAMMAR: not sure, maybe just practice on Quill

WRITING: Writeshop 2

COMPUTER: Edx Harvard's computer science courses

VOCAB: Word Roots 2

LOGIC: Practical Critical Thinking or the James Madison Critical Thinking Course (we currently have both)

LATIN: maybe a break where he just does Duolingo this year. Or we will start Wheelocks.

EXTRA: piano with mom, cross country, basketball, volleyball, maybe flag football, church youth group, mathclub

[alisha]

Thank you all for sharing! It is so useful when I have blanks! This is my first 8th grader, so here goes....

Bible: Apologia Who is God with younger brother

Math: Jacobs Algebra
History: Hakim's History of US concise-read and summarize (daily or weekly? written or oral?) or some other verbal or written output
Science: Tiner Earth, then Electronics Workbook
Writing: WWS1-Part 1; then thinking in Threes, then 7 sisters middle school writing (he's behind in writing, so...) 
Literature: List of books to read-one a month AND basic Shakespeare study with younger brother
Logic: Fallacy Detective 

Music: listen to popular classical music
Elective: Baking Class I found online
ExtraCuricular: Youth Group, Boy Scouts, play outside a lot with his brother and neighbors

Edited July 14, 2020 by alisha
update

[Tawlas]

I honestly haven't hashed it all out completely, but besides history/literature, we're mostly continuing on with what we have.  My son also has dyslexia and struggles with math as well, so some of this may seem too easy.  I feel a lot of confidence in the materials we're using though and have seen a lot of progress as of late!

Math: Whatever CLE book is next.  Currently he's on 507 with Key to Fractions books.  Keep plugging away, going backwards and supplementing as necessary!

Spelling:  Whatever All About Spelling is next.  Currently just started 5

Grammar: Grammar for the Well trained Mind - we're not very consistent with this honestly, but it's there

Writing: Whichever CAP W&R book is next.  Or Killgallon's Paragraphs.  We're almost done book 4 of W&R and I'm undecided which one to do next.  We also do Diana Hanbury King 1, mostly out loud

Science: Ellen McHenry's chemistry and various living books, documentaries etc -

History: Finish History Odyssey Middle Ages

Literature:  Build Your Library 7 - World Geography, Religions (but not the Chemistry)

Logic: Continue Fallacy Detective

French: Finish French For Children B.  Anyone have ideas for where to go after this?  There is no C level.

Also, continue Reading and Reasoning 1, unsure if we'll go on to 2 or not.

The content subjects as well as French and Logic are done with his sixth grade brother. 

[Fawnmoscato]

I've got the basic plan for 8th grade:

Math: AOPS

Science: Astronomy first semester, Physics 2nd semester (I don't know the resources I'll be using yet.)

History: BYL 8, which is the history of science. She will also have a unit on World War II, unless we do it this summer, a unit on our state history, and probably one on American history as a refresher. 

English: She wants to take the AP English exam, but I don't know if she will be ready. I'm letting her plan the year around taking it though. So we will do a heavy grammar course, and she will read AP level english books. Still have a bit of planning to do here. She will also do creative writing, unassigned. 

Enrichment/extracurricular: Continue volunteering at the animal shelter, gymnastics, hopefully continue with violin (fingers crossed), and intern at a veterinary clinic. 

 

Still need to think about something more light and fun. Philosophy? Comedy books? Drama? I don't know. 

[MFA323]

We are pulling our two oldest kids out of a fantastic public Montessori school next year. It's a little sad for me to pull them out of such a great school, but we have realized that we want six years of homeschooling before college rather than just the four years of high school that we had been planning on. They will be in 7th and 8th grades next year. They'll have the same curriculum except for math and science. Besides the age difference, there's also the fact that the older one STEM-obsessed. The younger is artsy and language-focused. Here's the plan for the oldest:

Greek: Athenaze (already well into it with afterschooling)

Latin: Wheelock

Mechanics: Fix It! (starting with Nose Tree to make sure that we fill any gaps)

Writing: IEW B

Math: AoPS Intro Series as primary curriculum, LoF and Khan Academy as desired/needed. I think she'll get through a lot of math when she's working at her own pace.

Science: Apologia Biology and Marine Biology. She is obsessed with marine biology and wants to do science year-round, so we'll do both of these books and use library resources. We're also going to join our local aquarium again after taking a few years off.

Logic:  I don't know what we'll use. They haven't gotten any of this at school, so we'll be starting from scratch.

Lit/History/Religion: We're planning to do a three-year cycle instead of the typical four-year cycle. We want to do classical education not just as a method but as a focus of content, so we'll spend each Fall semester on the ancient world. In the Spring semesters we'll cycle through medeival, early modern, and modern/American. My husband and I are both classicists, so we're going to do this without a formal curriculum. We'll use great books and narrative histories like Human Odyssey, SWB's History of the X World, and selections from college textbooks. Here's the rough draft of our plan for next year:

Fall

• (classical)
  • themes
    • foundational narratives

• • • Plutarch’s Lives (philosophy via history/exempla)

• • • philosophy primer (Plato)
  • Hesiod, Theogony
  • Homer, Odyssey
  • Homer, Iliad
  • Herodotus 1.1–92 (East/West Conflict, Croesus)
  • Livy, Book 1
  • Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus, Life of Numa Pompilius
  • Plato, Crito
•  (Christian)
  • OT/NT books
    • Genesis
    • Exodus
    • 1 & 2 Samuel
    • Nehemiah
    • Matthew

Spring (medieval)

• (medieval)
  • Song of Roland
  • Beowulf
  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
  • Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain

 

 

[FarmingMomma]

On 1/26/2020 at 4:43 PM, FarmingMomma said:

Can't believe my baby will be in 8th grade next year! 😥 Here's our plan so far:

Jacob's Geometry

Clover Creek Physics   Novare Accelerated Studies in Physics and Chemistry

Writing with Skill 3

Guest Hollow High School Geography with some added books to cover World Literature as well

French 2 via Global Goose Languages (Honors level if there are enough students)

Continue with 3rd Form Latin unless he decides to finish this summer, in which case we'll move on to Fourth Form

Plenty of exercise and outdoor time

4-H

 

 

Well I screwed up and didn't get him signed up for Clover Creek Physics. 😭 But we've decided to go with Novare's Accelerated Studies in Physics and Chemistry, and he's pretty excited about getting to do both Physics and Chem.  He wants to take Clover Valley Honors Chem in a couple of years, so this ought to help him prepare for that.  

[Meriwether]

On 2/27/2020 at 9:51 PM, FarmingMomma said:

 

Well I screwed up and didn't get him signed up for Clover Creek Physics. 😭 But we've decided to go with Novare's Accelerated Studies in Physics and Chemistry, and he's pretty excited about getting to do both Physics and Chem.  He wants to take Clover Valley Honors Chem in a couple of years, so this ought to help him prepare for that.  

Do you already have the geography?

[FarmingMomma]

58 minutes ago, Meriwether said:

Do you already have the geography?

 

I just purchased it yesterday.  I also ordered the books that aren't available in our library system.  

[Meriwether]

22 hours ago, FarmingMomma said:

 

I just purchased it yesterday.  I also ordered the books that aren't available in our library system.  

After you've had a chance to look through, I'd appreciate knowing what you think. I'm considering it for Ds13, but I have to consider the time it would take pretty carefully.

[ByGrace3]

I feel like I am getting a late start on planning this year due to some family circumstances . . .  still a bit up in the air, but I have a few things nailed down.

Bible:  not sure but either something with older dd or younger.  (theology included in Omnibus) Theological Foundations (Hermeneutics, doctrine, and apologetics--online course taught by me) 

History/lit: Most likely BP Middle Ages   Omnibus 2 primary and secondary Dave Raymond's US History (with odd)

Math: Mr D Algebra 1

LA: 

MW 8

Lantern English (writing)

IEW Fix It Book 4

Art of Argument (Schole Academy) 

Science: Applied Engineering with MasterBooks   Science in the Atomic Age with recorded videos (Berean Builders) 

Spanish: Avancemos 1 (probably in an online class-- taught by me 😄)

typing.com 

Extras: piano, tennis

if we have to drop something, it will most likely be Spanish . . . 

Edited July 15, 2020 by ByGrace3

[NewIma]

I am finally starting to put together an 8th grade plan! lol Usually I have the next school year all  organized by now! 

Math: Forester's Algebra 1 with Math Without Borders videos

Daily Math Review: Understanding Prealgebra by the Critical Thinking Company

Spelling: Megawords 2 and 3

Writing:  Wordsmith Craftsman

Literature: Lightning Lit 8

Modern Hebrew: Weekly tutoring with Rabbi and Rosetta Stone

Art: Draw Squad (did half the book last year and will finish it up in 8th)

Science:  1st Semester Middle School Chemistry by ACS, 2nd Semester Earth Science (no book decided on yet)

History: Ancients with Oxford University Press Series. I think we will add a book of Centuries too as the series is based on geography (not dates), so we can keep track of when things are happening at similar times across the world.  

Read Alouds: different books of myths from around the world

 

[ikslo]

On 1/30/2020 at 1:35 PM, ikslo said:

Math: Jacobs' Elementary Algebra

Language Arts: MCT Level 5: Magic Lens I/WWW I

Lit/Comp: CLRC Introduction to Literature and Composition (tentative) MCT Advanced Academic Writing using Chemicstry and US HIstory topics being studied; Literature which coincides with US History

Science: Guest Hollow's math-free Physics (although DS just expressed interest in food science, so possibly their Kitchen Chemistry instead; will require a bit of adjustment on my part as he is allergic to so many foods 😞)

History: Guest Hollow's American History Year One

Russian: CLRC Russian I (tentative, if can get into the class as he won't turn 14 until Nov enrolled)

 

[April J.]

Hello! I am new to this board. DD has attended a private Christian school for the past six years and we are transitioning back to homeschooling. We are building in an 8th grade Part II year before starting high school, to help her fill in some gaps before high school and give her an extra year to mature. (She would have graduated high school at 17.) Our goal is to almost exclusively homeschool this year (with a Fun Friday class one Friday morning a month) and then enroll her in a high school co-op next year for the '21-'22 school year.

We have chosen the following for 8th grade. Some of these choices are a continuation of curriculum that they used at her school. Some are things we picked to fill in gaps. Some of are just for fun. 🙂

Math: BJU Press Pre-Algebra, plus Life of Fred books to supplement

Science: Apologia General Science (2nd edition) with student notebook

Social Studies: Uncle Sam and You and a 6-week state study (not covered in school because we moved to this state mid-year and they had already covered it)

Language Arts: Easy Grammar Plus, Phonetic Zoo Level C, Vocabulary from Latin Roots, Memoria Press 7th & 8th grade literature guides, Cover Story writing curriculum, and some sort of introduction to research papers (If anyone has any suggestions on a curriculum that specifically focuses on writing research papers, I would welcome the advice!)

Logic: Perplexors Level C and Level D, Fallacy Detective

Latin: First Form Latin

Activities: piano, dance, 4H, Bible Quiz team

 

We are doing Ellen McHenry's Elements of the Universe this summer and really enjoying it! 🙂  We may pick up Carbon Chemistry next summer.

 

 

Edited July 5, 2020 by April J.
addition of an item/asking for advice on the subject

[dsbrack]

On 1/22/2020 at 3:40 PM, WendyAndMilo said:

I love it 🙂

Our plan is simple, pretty much a continuation of what we’ve already been doing because it’s working out well.

Algebra 2

Geometry

Keep moving forward with the last few W&R books

History will likely start in the late Middle Ages and continue on from there

Misc science documentaries and books

(using science and history for reports and public speaking)

Latin II

Russian II

Advanced music theory

Piano (7 years), Harp (4 years)

Jujitsu 3x week and MMA 1-2x week

 

What are you using for Algebra 2 and Geometry?

[egao_gakari]

On 1/30/2020 at 6:23 PM, egao_gakari said:

I can't believe she'll be in 8th next year--that'll be the year she'll have officially homeschooled longer than PS!

Still a bit diffuse on some of the plans, but...

Math: Saxon Pre-Algebra. She hates math, but Saxon has been great for her since we switched over.
Science: WTMA Logic Stage Physics w/Dr. Bennett. She hasn't loved Logic Stage Chem this year, but her older brother adores Dr. Bennett's Bio class, and I sure can't teach physics, so that's what we're going with.

History: Story of Civilization Vol. 4 (American History) + primary sources. I still haven't managed to find a good way of incorporating primary source study, but I feel I'm getting closer 😄 I think I found it--Hakim's Story of Us vol 11 (the Important Documents collection). I also got a Constitution workbook.

Reading: American literature.... I'm sort of throwing the list together myself, using some of my favorites and filling it out with ideas from the WTMA American lit course. I feel I've really shortchanged my kids on the reading list every year. It always winds up being crowded out by other things, especially because they are really not "readers" by nature, and because I never buy the books. "THIS year I will make it to the library every week and get the new reading book on time!" I got Progeny Press guides for Scarlet Letter, Huckleberry Finn, Red Badge of Courage, and To Kill a Mockingbird. We'll fill in around those with other stuff like Poe, Frederick Douglass, Black Elk, etc. We are beginning a "family reading hour" every morning so all of us will be actually reading.

Writing: We'll try Exp III at WTMA. She does OK with WWS by herself, but I want her to have the benefit of a teacher who won't give her "mom grades" when she only puts in half effort. Grading writing is psychologically difficult for me, so I tend to put it off until she no longer cares about the evaluation. She's a gifted writer, so she needs a teacher who will challenge her.

We'll keep going with VFCR for vocab, and GWTM for one final year of grammar. This year, every few weeks we'll take a week off from GWTM and do a unit from Killgallon's Grammar For Middle School. She'll finish AofA this year, and I think we'll take a break from logic study in 8th. Faith formation stuff is up in the air. She'll be starting Confirmation prep. I'm thinking it may be a good time to take an in-depth look at world religions, compare and contrast, something like that. We'll see. For now, I'm putting structured faith formation on hold apart from the Conf. prep. They're expected to take some of daily reading hour to do some Bible reading and prayer.

List no longer looks short!

 

[pitterpatter]

I feel like I tend to plan too much. Here's to trying to keep it simple this year.

Math:  CLE Math 8
Grammar:  CLE Language Arts 8
Writing:  Finish WWS 1, Start WWS 2
Reading:  Rigorous Reading lit guides by Teacher Created Resources (One per quarter.)
Spelling:  Megawords 5 & 6
Latin:  MP Second Form
History:  Second half of CLE Changing Frontiers (American history after the Civil War...we used the first half of Notgrass ATB last year.)
Science:  Apologia General Science (Testing out their video lessons before high school. Physical Science isn't finished yet, so general it is.)

I hope that's it! It's still too much, really, if you figure a minimum of an hour per subject per day, except spelling. And, I predict more than an hour for a several subjects. Sigh.

(I would add Girl Scouts, advanced swim lessons, etc., but I think those things are probably out this year due to the virus.)

Edited July 15, 2020 by pitterpatter

[Dolphin]

I am finally getting organzied for next month. It looks like this might be my last year of homeschool as DD plans to attend Public High School after this year.

Math: AOPS/Singapore Algebra 1 with WTMA

Language: Spanish 1 WTMA

Writing: Creative Writing and Writing with Skill 2 also WTMA

Science: Oak Meadow High School Biology with me. We will add disections which my sister will do with her (thank goodness) and Trackers PDX once a week.

History: We will be doing SOTW 3 and 4 and Howard Zinn's History of the United States and using the binder method from TWTM

Logic: Art of Argument, with The Basics of Critical Thinking, Critical thinking Dective and Crypto mind benders/ science. 1 per day, 4 days a week.

Grammer/Vocab: Word Roots 1, editor in chief level 2 and Grammar for the well trained mind.

Ambleside online: Plutarch, art and music studies

Geography is still in flux. We have a workbook, might just call it good.

Health and PE: Oak Meadow Intergrated Health and Fitness. Horseback riding and working at the barn, soccer, and hiking

Reading: I am looking at the Ocular Motor Therapies work book and the shadow triology from MCT

Tech Stuff: She is going to start the AP College Computer Science with Khan academy. She plans to take 2 years and to find somewhere to take the test after 9th grade (her school doesn't offer it).

Music: Continue with Piano, Clarinet, and Ukulele. She might ad guitar this year. Who knows, that is all on her own.

I feel like I have forgotten something. I have given up on spelling

Edited July 27, 2020 by Dolphin

[Mrs. Tharp]

Youngest ds was going to do ps full-time, but hates online learning so much that he has asked to be homeschooled this year.

Math: Videotext Algebra

Grammar: Fix-It

Literature: Graphic novels unit, also choose books from BYL 8, MP, and BW reading lists. Supplementing with Teaching the Classics and Windows to the World.

Writing: Writeshop I

HIstory: Hakim History of Science with teaching guides & workbooks

Science: BFSU. If I run out of time/bandwidth, Conceptual Academy Physical Science Explorations

Extras: Speech & Debate elective at ps, Lego Robotics if it is not canceled, D&D with friends

 

 

[Mrs Twain]

My youngest is not fond of homeschooling which is why I have outsourced so much.  I do think we will have a good year, though, mostly because everyone we know is currently a homeschooler.  🙂

Geometry:  Part-time student at local middle school

German 2: Part-time student at local middle school

Grammar/Writing/Vocabulary/Cursive:  Rod and Staff English 8, IEW (finish SICC B), CTC Word Roots, Practice cursive copying IEW poetry

Literature:  BJU (finish Excursions in Literature), continue read alouds

Logic: CTC Basics of Critical Thinking, Khan Academy SAT practice

Science:  Excelsior Integrated Physics and Chemistry online course

History/Civics:  (Fall) Finish BJU American Republic DLO, (spring) Gen Joshua iCivics Online Course

Map Drawing/Geography:  Maps, Charts and Graphs workbook, Map drawing http://map-of-the-whole-world.weebly.com

Speech: Toastmasters Interpersonal Communication program,  Develop a platform (Powerpoint)  speech and compete at one local speech tournament

Business/Economics:  Uncle Eric Middle School Economics books taught by Dad

Congressional Award: We will start working on this and hopefully continue through high school

[ChocolateCake]

On 1/23/2020 at 4:16 PM, ChocolateCake said:

I'm planning to have my son do a lot of the MP 8th grade core with some substitutions/omissions.  Some subjects are with his sister who will be in 6th grade next year.

Literature: MP grade 8 Lit with guides  I decided to do a combo 7th/8th so he can do the 7th Grade Lit Discussion Group with Vita Beata instead.

Hopefully, he can do the Vita Beata discussion group with this.

Math: Shormann Algebra 1 with Integrated Geometry Self-Paced eLearning Course    We started this over the summer and it isn't going to work.  Too much spiral for a kid coming from Math Mammoth.  We will do Foerster's Algebra I (Prentice Hall Classics) with Math Without Borders.

Bible: Christian Studies IV with guide (second half- with younger sis)   We're two weeks into the school year and we are almost done with this book.  I think we will do a combo of Teaching Hearts, Training Minds and Long Story Short.

History: Book of the Ancient Greeks with guide, Book of the Ancient World as a read aloud with younger sis  I decided to just make this a geography year.  I will add in some hands-on activities and some earth science via CK-12 and Earth Science for Every Kid (VanCleave).  We will do some of these activities with friends.

I'd like to add in an Ancient Egypt unit study. We may do this with another family to make it more fun.

Language Arts: R&S English 7 (second half), Wordsmith, some writing across the curriculum, Spelling Power  We finished all the pertinent lessons in R&S 7 so I went ahead and picked the lessons in R&S 8 I would like him to cover and am planning to have him do those this year.

I may try to complete the English lessons I find most important over the summer so we don't have to worry about it next year.  I'm not sure yet.

Science: Applied Engineering from Masterbooks  

Hopefully, I can find a friend to do the labs with him since this will be his first year doing science without his sister.  I think I'll just have my kids do these together.

Foreign Language: Second Form Latin, Elementary Greek Year 1 (with younger sis)

We've been doing Latin half-paced but I'm thinking we may need to speed up next year.  Pray for us!  The Greek is sort of an experiment.  I'm not married to it. We're doing the MP Greek Alphabet book right now.  It's going well because-well it's only the alphabet.

Geography: MP Geography III (first half)

I've heard this one is tough so we may just do the first half and extend it to 9th grade.  I'm aiming for 1-1.5 yeas for this.  We will see.  I want to make sure he masters the material.  I will read the book aloud so my 6th grader can also learn something. She will just narrate since she has her own geography workbook.

Music: piano with Mom 

This is very, very light.  He wants to be able to play the songs in his Super Mario music book so we'll see.  Now, that Daddy is working from home due to COVID we hardly do piano since it makes noise while the hubs is on the phone.

Karate, Swim, 4H  We're not doing any outside activities for now (due to COVID).  We may try swim in the spring.  We have some families to do learning activities with either in person (from a distance) or via video call.  

Coding Fundamentals (FLVS)  This will only last a few months and then I may have him do another online class.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made a few updates.  I actually didn't realize how many changes I had to make until I wrote this out. 

Edited September 13, 2020 by ChocolateCake

[Meriwether]

On 7/15/2020 at 8:40 AM, pitterpatter said:

I feel like I tend to plan too much. Here's to trying to keep it simple this year.

Math:  CLE Math 8
Grammar:  CLE Language Arts 8
Writing:  Finish WWS 1, Start WWS 2
Reading:  Rigorous Reading lit guides by Teacher Created Resources (One per quarter.)
Spelling:  Megawords 5 & 6
Latin:  MP Second Form
History:  Second half of CLE Changing Frontiers (American history after the Civil War...we used the first half of Notgrass ATB last year.)
Science:  Apologia General Science (Testing out their video lessons before high school. Physical Science isn't finished yet, so general it is.)

I hope that's it! It's still too much, really, if you figure a minimum of an hour per subject per day, except spelling. And, I predict more than an hour for a several subjects. Sigh.

(I would add Girl Scouts, advanced swim lessons, etc., but I think those things are probably out this year due to the virus.)

Maybe try to aim for Grammar, Writing, Reading, and Spelling to take no more than 2 hours per day?