8th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Choices 2019-2020

Hardworking. Selfless. Curious. Sheep-dog.
This is my oldest son in a nut-shell. He's a bit of an introvert who has a heart for the gospel and a deep passion for serving others.

He has had military aspirations since he was three-years-old and has never wavered in that desire. Not even a little bit.

Last year, that passion led him to join the Civil Air Patrol, a youth auxiliary program of the Air Force. If you ever need him, just look for the kid wearing camo and doing chin-ups in the doorframe. The kid's serious about staying in shape.


Because he's only got one more year before high school, I'm slowly easing him into a more robust schedule. 8th grade will be a chance for him to dig deep without having the pressure of a grade point average or a transcript to maintain. It'll be like a trial run.

Here's what he'll be learning.
(Because we only homeschool 4 days a week, you can assume that all subjects will be completed four times each week unless otherwise indicated.)


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Content-rich Subjects

As always, he'll do all of his content-rich subjects like Morning time/Bible, history, science, art and creative writing with his older siblings. You can see those curriculum choices here>>>

Personal Devotions- every day

• ESV Seek & Find Bible

Language

• LLATL The Gray Book (Use coupon code unlikelyhomeschool at checkout to get 15% off your entire purchase from Common Sense Press, the makers of LAHTL.)
• Finish All About Spelling Level 6. (I started him in this last year, but then took a break to work on real-world spelling.)
• Read for pleasure (every day).
• Work through a Reading Horizons lesson (online tutoring for dyslexia) for 20 minutes each day to improve phonemic skills. 
• Read the following books that correspond with the LLATL Gray Book. 

God's Smuggler

A Lantern in Her Hand

Eric Liddell  

• If he's not currently working through an LLATL suggested book, he will read a chapter from a book that I assign to him. These will be classics, biographies, or exceptional fiction. You can keep up with those here>>
• Word Roots Level 1- He'll complete the first half of the book this year. 

Math

• Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1
• Practice math fact flashcards with a sibling for five minutes. 

Copywork

• Character Handwriting Cursive- He will complete the second half of the book that he started last year.

Typing- 1x a week

• Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing 18

World View

• Who Is My Neighbor?- I highly recommend every single title in this four-volume What We Believe series! 

Life Skills

• He will continue to have child-of-the-day privileges and responsibilities.
• Clean his room and make his bed each day. 
• Daily chores: sweep one downstairs room, wipe down the basement bathroom, and Sweeper all the rugs.
• Take turns mowing and shoveling with his younger brother as needed.
• Do 1-2 loads of laundry (Tuesdays).
• Make dinner on Tuesdays.
• Weekly Chores: three chores that he randomly selects from our chore jar.
• Attend Civil Air Patrol once a week.
• Manual to Manhood (read 1x a week, practice 3x a week)- This is a book he started last year and one that he'll complete over the next couple of years. Since some of the units do not currently apply to him, he will only read through the following sections during 8th grade: 2nd half of Clothing & Style (This mostly deals with learning to do laundry and ironing clothes.), 1st half of Sports & Recreation, Food & Cooking, 1st half of Tools & Fix-It

Co-operative Learning

When I could not find a homeschool co-op in our new city, I decided to start one of my own. Currently, we are 25 families strong and are all set to launch into the school year with a great line-up of classes.

We'll meet the 1st and 3rd Thursday mornings of each month with an optional field trip offered on the 5th Thursdays. My son will be in the 7th-12th-grade group with his older sister and will enjoy the following classes during the first semester:

• American Government/Civics
• First Aid/Survival Skills

Second-semester classes will be determined towards the end of December.

His 8th-grade year will be his most-intense to date. Like his sister before him, he'll do less group learning and more independent study. It will take some determination and sticktoitiveness on his part. But, I've no doubt he's up for the challenge.

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