2023 8th Grade Planning

[alysee]

Cue the waterworks because my oldest is in 8th grade. 

Math: CTC Math

Writing: Essentials in Writing 7

Grammar: Fix It Grammar 3

Reading: Assigned Reading

History: Courage & Conquest

Science: Bookshark Science F

Extracurriculars: Equestrian

Fridays: STEM, Art

Edited January 18, 2023 by alysee

[Cake and Pi]

My DS#2 will be an 8th grader this fall! Plans so far:

Math: Geometry class, online from... not sure yet!

Science: Chemistry through WTMA

Social Studies: History Quest: American History as a spine and then folding in primary document inquiry using Reading Like a Historian lessons from Stanford History Education Group

English: Composition and multicultural American literature via Fishtank grade 7 language arts, also Magic Lens/Word Within the Word 1A & 1B through Online G3 and Fix It level 5. If we end up needing a break from each other, I might shelve Fishtank and sign him up for the Modern Literature of Multicultural America class through Online G3 in the spring. We'll see how it goes.

Computer Science: Third pass through Code Combat, this time in C++

Electives: Stock Market Challenge online class through Learning Outside the Box in the fall and then something else TBD in the spring

I also plan to have him participate at our neighborhood middle school for something non-academic. Maybe band or P.E. or something. We won't know until the week that school actually starts though.

 

[3MisMe]

It's my first time to parent/teach 8th grade. I'm excited! Our oldest is academic and generally enthusiastic about learning lots of things. 

Here's my current plan. It's always subject to change. 😆

Math: MUS Algebra 1 

Science: maybe Friendly Physical Science

Writing: Lost Tools of Writing 2

Grammar: He's taken this year off grammar but I think I'm going to make him work through Analytical Grammar as a reminder/refresher.

Latin: no sure. Maybe Cambridge. He's completed Getting Started and MP FF. We would continue with MP but he found it very tedious.

Spanish: He's doing Getting Started with Spanish this year. I'm not sure where to go from here. He really wants to learn the Spanish. I wish I had the resources for outside tutoring/classes.

History/Lit: TOG Yr 4

Geography: I'm fine with TOG's geography but he wants to do Guest Hollow's High School Geography. He LOVES geography and reading. We might spread it over two years.

Music: continuing with Hoffman Academy. He's doing really well. 

PE: BJJ several times a week. I also hope to get him some coaching in proper running form so he can build up endurance without injuring himself. 

I can't believe next year is high school!! 😱🫣🥹

 

 

[Coco_Clark]

4th time through with 8th grade and feeling like I have a good grip on the jump into high school.

Math: Finishing up AOPS Algebra and then hitting one of their smaller side books.

Writing: Writing and Rhetoric 8, a daily sentence to diagram, and Sequential Spelling.  Plus regular narration and common placing.

History/Literature: Story of the Ancients, Story of the Greeks, and Story of the Romans by Miller. Paired with the Iliad, Odyssey, and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Plus quite a bit of mythology, some Plutarch and a touch of ancient poetry.

Science: Berean Builders Chemistry with his older siblings.

Extras: I'm letting this kid quit Latin this year because he hates it with a passion.  He's really interested in ASL so trying to figure out if there's a politically correct way to learn that.  It's a whole worm can, apparently.  He will continue in Homeschool band where he plays trombone.  Hiking and ice skating will count as PE.

[CynthiaWalker]

On 3/10/2023 at 9:07 AM, Coco_Clark said:

4th time through with 8th grade and feeling like I have a good grip on the jump into high school.

Math: Finishing up AOPS Algebra and then hitting one of their smaller side books.

Writing: Writing and Rhetoric 8, a daily sentence to diagram, and Sequential Spelling.  Plus regular narration and common placing.

History/Literature: Story of the Ancients, Story of the Greeks, and Story of the Romans by Miller. Paired with the Iliad, Odyssey, and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Plus quite a bit of mythology, some Plutarch and a touch of ancient poetry.

Science: Berean Builders Chemistry with his older siblings.

Extras: I'm letting this kid quit Latin this year because he hates it with a passion.  He's really interested in ASL so trying to figure out if there's a politically correct way to learn that.  It's a whole worm can, apparently.  He will continue in Homeschool band where he plays trombone.  Hiking and ice skating will count as PE.

 

Nice 🙂

Edited September 21, 2023 by CynthiaWalker

[birchbark]

Systematic Mathematics

LA2 through Excelsior Classes w/ writing club

Geography with Mapping the World with Art & Book of Marvels

Science with Ellen McHenry 

Spanish (not sure what materials yet)

Local music and art. Hoping Irish dance starts up again.

[Vintage81]

So far, this is what I've got for my youngest...

Math:  Lial Algebra

Writing:  Classes w/ Lantern English  

Literature:  Books I pick out

Spelling:  MegaWords, Books 7/8

Vocabulary:  Wordly Wise 3000 Book 8

Grammar:  Finish Analytical Grammar (we've done seasons 1&2)

Science:  Local co-op class, which uses Apologia Physical Science

History/Geography:  I'm not sure yet...DD doesn't care what we do, so I'm thinking about doing a History of Science. Both BYL and Bookshark have options using Joy Hakim's Story of Science series. That paired with some extra books and maybe some Crash Course videos sounds fun. I'm also contemplating just creating it myself. I will have to decide at some point! 🤪  

Extras:  MMA class

[A.M.]

On 3/4/2023 at 4:15 AM, 3MisMe said:

It's my first time to parent/teach 8th grade. I'm excited! Our oldest is academic and generally enthusiastic about learning lots of things. 

Here's my current plan. It's always subject to change. 😆

Math: MUS Algebra 1 

Science: maybe Friendly Physical Science

Writing: Lost Tools of Writing 2

Grammar: He's taken this year off grammar but I think I'm going to make him work through Analytical Grammar as a reminder/refresher.

Latin: no sure. Maybe Cambridge. He's completed Getting Started and MP FF. We would continue with MP but he found it very tedious.

Spanish: He's doing Getting Started with Spanish this year. I'm not sure where to go from here. He really wants to learn the Spanish. I wish I had the resources for outside tutoring/classes.

History/Lit: TOG Yr 4

Geography: I'm fine with TOG's geography but he wants to do Guest Hollow's High School Geography. He LOVES geography and reading. We might spread it over two years.

Music: continuing with Hoffman Academy. He's doing really well. 

PE: BJJ several times a week. I also hope to get him some coaching in proper running form so he can build up endurance without injuring himself. 

I can't believe next year is high school!! 😱🫣🥹

 

 

May I ask if your dc has completed Lost Tools of Writing 1?

We are considering using LToW 1 for 8th grade, and I am interested to hear about experiences others had using this curriculum with middle schoolers.

It would be much appreciated if you could share your experience using it.

Questions that come up: Did you find it effective in helping improve your child's writing? How did your child like the curriculum?How did it take to complete it? Did you find it easy to use? 

Thank you 🙂

[3MisMe]

5 hours ago, A.M. said:

May I ask if your dc has completed Lost Tools of Writing 1?

We are considering using LToW 1 for 8th grade, and I am interested to hear about experiences others had using this curriculum with middle schoolers.

It would be much appreciated if you could share your experience using it.

Questions that come up: Did you find it effective in helping improve your child's writing? How did your child like the curriculum?How did it take to complete it? Did you find it easy to use? 

Thank you 🙂

Hi, DS has enjoyed LTofW 1. He's doing it in a small co-op setting with another mom as the instructor. The class is a blend of middle and high school students. They use their literature books as source material. He submits Essay 5 on Monday. 

Before this year I was not familiar with this style of writing instruction. The early lessons seemed ridiculously easy and pointless. But I trusted the process and am seeing solid results. I appreciate both the incremental approach and how it teaches tools for formulating an essay. My DS is a natural creative writing but essays and academic writing are another story. Now he's able to do both. 

I find the instructional videos very helpful as I try to learn the curriculum's vocabulary and pedagogy. Familiarity with The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe seems essential to understanding in the instructional videos and text. A familiarity with that story is assumed and it's used throughout to model. 

An unexpected benefit has been the change in how he processes the books he reads. He now reads more critically.

I just asked him if he would recommend LTofW to another student. He replied, "Yes! It's really helped me. It was hard at first but I no longer feel freaked out about having to write an essay. I'm even starting to feel pretty confident." 😂 

[A.M.]

8 hours ago, 3MisMe said:

Hi, DS has enjoyed LTofW 1. He's doing it in a small co-op setting with another mom as the instructor. The class is a blend of middle and high school students. They use their literature books as source material. He submits Essay 5 on Monday. 

Before this year I was not familiar with this style of writing instruction. The early lessons seemed ridiculously easy and pointless. But I trusted the process and am seeing solid results. I appreciate both the incremental approach and how it teaches tools for formulating an essay. My DS is a natural creative writing but essays and academic writing are another story. Now he's able to do both. 

I find the instructional videos very helpful as I try to learn the curriculum's vocabulary and pedagogy. Familiarity with The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe seems essential to understanding in the instructional videos and text. A familiarity with that story is assumed and it's used throughout to model. 

An unexpected benefit has been the change in how he processes the books he reads. He now reads more critically.

I just asked him if he would recommend LTofW to another student. He replied, "Yes! It's really helped me. It was hard at first but I no longer feel freaked out about having to write an essay. I'm even starting to feel pretty confident." 😂 

Good to hear your ds is enjoying and benefitting from his course. 

Thank you for taking the time to share your experience with us. I think it would be a good fit for my son to start next year after completing his current IEW course.

What seems very good to me is its focus on content. IEW is structure focused, and reading other reviews I started thinking this might be a good complement considering that it is said to improve the thinking process.

And it would be a bonus if we could use it to improve and deepen our literature reading. Love that it seems easy to integrate 'other subjects'.

Thank you!

 

[ByGrace3]

My last one will be in 8th grade next year. 

At a local Co-op:

Apologetics/Cultural Issues

IEW: US History/literature (BP year 4)

History: Biblioplan Year 4

At Home:

Physical Science: Education Exploration

Spanish 1: Avancemos (in a group but taught by me)

Easy Grammar (maybe . . .this one is still up in the air as I want to teach dd and ds together)

Spelling: Barton

Logic: on the waitlist for Schole for the only time that works for us for Art of Argument. Not sure what we will do if she doesn't get in as this class was my other kids highlight for homeschooling so it would be sad . . . 

Extracurriculars: guitar, volleyball, soccer, theater

[Janeway]

Math.... Jurgenson Geometry

Latin.....One of the Form Latins, but we outsourced last year so I am unsure which level he needs, but I own the first three.

LA.... TGTB and maybe add in a writing program

History......SOTW 4, with focus on history, Genevieve Foster books and tons of other stuff I have

Science....make our own. We are science lovers so we have everything

Also have extracurricular things and church youth

[Janeway]

On 3/3/2023 at 10:15 PM, 3MisMe said:

It's my first time to parent/teach 8th grade. I'm excited! Our oldest is academic and generally enthusiastic about learning lots of things. 

Here's my current plan. It's always subject to change. 😆

Math: MUS Algebra 1 

Science: maybe Friendly Physical Science

Writing: Lost Tools of Writing 2

Grammar: He's taken this year off grammar but I think I'm going to make him work through Analytical Grammar as a reminder/refresher.

Latin: no sure. Maybe Cambridge. He's completed Getting Started and MP FF. We would continue with MP but he found it very tedious.

Spanish: He's doing Getting Started with Spanish this year. I'm not sure where to go from here. He really wants to learn the Spanish. I wish I had the resources for outside tutoring/classes.

History/Lit: TOG Yr 4

Geography: I'm fine with TOG's geography but he wants to do Guest Hollow's High School Geography. He LOVES geography and reading. We might spread it over two years.

Music: continuing with Hoffman Academy. He's doing really well. 

PE: BJJ several times a week. I also hope to get him some coaching in proper running form so he can build up endurance without injuring himself. 

I can't believe next year is high school!! 😱🫣🥹

 

 

Do you recommend the Hoffman Academy? I am planning to put daughter in piano this fall, but dreading the cost. I am looking for a less expensive option.

[lucyintheshadowlands]

17 minutes ago, Janeway said:

Do you recommend the Hoffman Academy? I am planning to put daughter in piano this fall, but dreading the cost. I am looking for a less expensive option.

Four of my kids have used Hoffman Academy at different times…I think we used it for 5 years total, maybe, before everyone moved to private lessons. It’s fantastic. I will spare everyone my lengthier glowing review, but feel free to ask me if you have questions. 😃

[lucyintheshadowlands]

My second time through 8th grade! 
 

Math: Dance of Number book 2

Science: at co-op; they are using Joy Hakim’s series and adding some experiments and projects etc

History and Literature: Middle Ages; I’m still torn on a spine for him. Possibly HotMW along with his big sister. Maybe something else. He’ll read Beowulf, Sir Gawain, a prose version of the Faerie Queene, the second two Lord of the Rings books, some Shakespeare 

He’ll do Stewart English and writing some papers in his other subjects 

Spanish: BJU Spanish 1, the newest edition, with his sister 

He’ll continue piano lessons and learning some coding skills. 

 

[KeriJ]

Tentative plans:

Denison Algebra 1

Fix It Grammar, Write With the Best 2, Spell Well, written narrations, literature list

MOH 3

Sabbath Mood science , Tiner's Exploring the World of Biology, Ecology portion of BF family lessons, Labs with monthly co-op, other tbd

Government, Logic, and Personal Development reading from AO, AGF, and HOD

LifePAC Spanish 1  StartASL

Family lessons: BF Geography/Ecology, English from the Roots Up, SCM artist/composer/poetry/Scripture memory, Figuratively Speaking

Piano lessons, Ultimate Frisbee league, musical theater and drama, Mom's Morning Out volunteer,  Worship Band 

 

Edited September 26, 2023 by KeriJ

[skctgbrlis]

CLE Algebra

Apologia Physical Science 

One Year Adventure Novel, Applications of Grammar 2, Building Spelling Skills 8

First Start French

SOTW 4 with Claritas memory work and MP Geography 1

violin, piano, orchestra, choirs, hand chimes 

FTC robotics 

[Soror]

(tiptoeing in here- My 3rd says she wants to try out PS but isn't very sure about it. I have a hard time believing it will be a good fit so I'm making a backup plan 🙂 based on where she was last year and what she told me she'd like to study)

MUS Pre- Alg /Alg; 

Lively Art of Writing

Grammar? something simple and quick idk

Figuratively Speaking (with short stories) + mom-made booklist

World Cultures & Geo. - mom-made inspired from Guest Hollow and BYL - she'll be joining sister with this if she comes home with some done together and her own books to read

Science- following rabbit trails and interest- currently those are- Climate Change and man's effect on animal populations- I have booklists started on Amazon for both, maybe some robotics??? 

(now let's see what comes to pass this year 🙂 ) 

[amiesmom]

This will be my first time homeschooling an 8th grader, my older two went to PS in 8th. Plans so far:

Math - Derek Owens Algebra 1

Spelling - finish Apples and Pears, then maybe Megawords

Writing - IEW Following Narnia plus writing across curriculum 

Grammar - Analytical Grammar Season 2

Literature- Mosdos Press Gold

Science - Science Mom Physics 

History- A Story of US Concise Edition + projects I am creating 

Arts - Piano, choir classes, beginning band classes, theater, passion projects (sewing, crochet, art projects of hew own design)

 

[Meriwether]

Dd13 will be my fourth 8th grader. I've been avoiding planning in general, but I have a general idea of what she is doing this year. And, yes, we start in 10 days.

Foerster's Alegebra I. This is her second year through Algebra, so she'll finish early. We'll probably also do 6-10 weeks of Geometry.

Apologia's Physical Science

Runkle's Geography

Getting Started With Spanish, plus Leitner box work with high frequency words 

History from the mid 1400's - either just before or after the American Revolution depending on how life goes.

Literature - whatever I think she'll like

WWS 1

It seems like there should be more than that, but most of the rest is small stuff that I haven't fully decided on.

She will also be doing choir and TKD.

[Soror]

On 7/10/2023 at 6:46 AM, Soror said:

(tiptoeing in here- My 3rd says she wants to try out PS but isn't very sure about it. I have a hard time believing it will be a good fit so I'm making a backup plan 🙂 based on where she was last year and what she told me she'd like to study)

MUS Pre- Alg /Alg; 

Lively Art of Writing

Grammar? something simple and quick idk

Figuratively Speaking (with short stories) + mom-made booklist

World Cultures & Geo. - mom-made inspired from Guest Hollow and BYL - she'll be joining sister with this if she comes home with some done together and her own books to read

Science- following rabbit trails and interest- currently those are- Climate Change and man's effect on animal populations- I have booklists started on Amazon for both, maybe some robotics??? 

(now let's see what comes to pass this year 🙂 ) 

And she's back home-

Mus Pre-Alg- yes- she started this summer and will finish early. I'm not certain what to do after that- maybe MUS Algebra or VideoText (already own both using VT with dd1), or reinforce with various resources like hands-on equatiosn?? We'll see how I feel about it after she finishes MUS pre-alg

Still planning on Lively Art but I'm reinforcing some skills with Maxwell's Writing in English first- she might take a course at Latern as well

Decided to go with Grammar Revolution for Grammar review- I had access I bought for ds years ago so I just bought a new student book for her

Yes, on World Cultures and Geo and Interest-Led Science

She's been studying French and Italian on duoLingo- I got her French in Action to try this year as well and am exploring other options.

She's dabbled in learning piano on her own so I might have her try some online classes. She's trying out the Teen Writer's Club at the Library and has been involved in Teen Advisory at the Library. She's earned her Black Belt in TKD and helps teach the little kids once a week.

Edited September 8, 2023 by Soror