2017-2018 Homeschool Curricula Choices for 8th Grade

You've probably noticed that the blog has been on a pretty big hiatus. I have found the reasons that drove me to start the blog just aren't there anymore in this stage of life. Combine that with the death of Picasa, which has made uploading pics a frustrating run-around, my heart just hasn't been in blogging.

I have so many resources living here that I created or compiled that I most likely won't ever delete the blog, but updates will be very few and very far between. However, I never shared our homeschool curricula choices for this school year and wanted to throw it out there in case it is helpful to other homeschooling families as you start to plan for your next year.

Up first is what we've been using for Soprano's 8th grade year. :)

Math: Saxon Algebra I and the next few volumes of Life of Fred

 

English: Rod and Staff English 8 - Preparing for Usefulness
This includes grammar, composition, poetry, and speech.

Literature/Music/Art: Beautiful Feet Books - The History of Classical Music

We're using this to cover a total overview of music and art, which lines up with the history overview from Notgrass this year.

I'm adding in this Usborne Famous Artists sticker book and the coordinating Mike Venezia books too.

Science: Focus on Middle School Astronomy for the fall with some extra resources then Focus on Middle School Geology with a few extras (Usborne Rocks and Fossils and their Rocks & Minerals sticker book plus a few rock/mineral sample packs) for the spring.

 

History: Notgrass - From Adam to Us

I think one or two of the assigned literature titles she has read previously, so we're just skipping those. I also assign a required literature list each year. She will have to choose 25 titles from my list to read too.

 Bible: Bible Road Trip Year 3

Foreign Language: French Essentials

Electives:

Creative Writing - Learn to Write the Novel Way and Writing from the Heart

Geography - North Star Geography

Personal Finance - Foundations in Personal Finance from Dave Ramsey

At the end of 8th grade, Soprano will actually have earned 3.5 credits for high school. That's a great feeling. She loved North Star Geography and we've liked the finance course and the science programs. Focus on Middle School Science is a new curriculum for us, but it is working. It probably helps that she picked topics that she was interested in, too. :)

If you want to give Focus on Middle School Science a try or check out their elementary curricula, you can use my referral code for a 10% discount! (Disclaimer: I will earn a monetary bonus should you choose to buy. That will go straight towards next year's books...so we thank you!)

Referral link: http://realscience4kids.refr.cc/jennifers

What are you using this year? Found anything new that you just love?

School Summary - 7th and 9th grades - weeks 15-24

I respectfully ask that you not pin pictures of my children to Pinterest. Thank you!

You can see what we're using here: 9th-grade curricula and here: 7th-grade curricula.

Like I said in my previous post, this is a really boring school year as far as blogging goes. I'm blaming that for the reason why I haven't blogged school since the end of November and the reason why I'm going to dump an entire quarter into this single post. :)

Weeks 11-14

In Tenor's homeschool this quarter…

He finished "learning" Greek letters in his AHL work. He's worked through Psalms and Proverbs and is now tackling Isaiah in Old Testament. He just finished Rick Warren's "What on Earth Am I Here For?" There are opposing viewpoints about using this book in AHL, but I like it. I think it's a good foundational-type book. We'll be using John Piper's "Don't Waste Your Life" and "Do Hard Things" by Alex and Brett Harris this summer to build on what he was working through. His literature study is focused on the Iliad at this point. While I've heard that some students really struggle with the book, Tenor seems to be comprehending what he's reading.

Map work

Proverbs project

My favorite thing this quarter…
His literature study is focused on the Iliad at this point. While I've heard that some students really struggle with the book, Tenor seems to be comprehending what he's reading.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

Again, just emphasizing that the weekly conference is really important. (Yup, just leaving that line here for the rest of the year as a reminder to myself!) At this point, Tenor's in a good routine about getting things done. He hasn't had any big writing assignments in the past few weeks so that helps to ease the schedule.

Art drawing

What’s working/not working for us…

He's not a big fan of writing summaries about composers and artists/art periods for Harmony Fine Arts. I tried to find some online resources about writing a music critique but there's not really a lot out there. I did put some thoughts together but the first time he used it, he still only gave me one paragraph. We're going to keep refining the process. :)

Picture proof that they do get along on occasion ;)

In Soprano's homeschool this quarter...
She finished her literature program...Beautiful Feet Books History of the Horse. Soprano worked hard at the end to read the last book which was only scheduled as a 'finish as you have time'. She completed it and the extra activities quickly to finish up the whole curriculum. After the literature was done, we moved to her semester of science, Winter Promise Equine Science.

BFB mapping

BFB art -- attempt #1

BFB art -- attempt #2 (with less enthusiasm)

My favorite thing this quarter…

Some of the activities in Equine Science have been fun to see. She had to re-enact Hun stealth tactics using her model horses and "Be Genghis Khan" for another. Her silly personality definitely came out! 

Harmony Fine Arts

Harmony Fine Arts

English oral report on hedgehog anatomy

Notgrass Uncle Sam & You -- around our state (Soprano says I did that college that has the cat logo. Ah... Penn State...Nittany Lion :D )

What’s working/not working for us… I thought we had conquered her 8 hour school day issues. For about three weeks, things were going really well. She was getting done by 2pm each day. Then all of a sudden it was back to horrendously long days where she'd get stuck on a math lesson for 6 hours. We're hoping an earlier bedtime (as early as we can with outside activities) will help.
We also ended up ditching her French curriculum. There were just too many gaps from the lesson to the lesson work. We were both lost. I'm looking into a couple other options. Either we'll start this year with a different program that will have quite a bit of review, or we'll try again next year with something else and start working on an early high school credit.

9pm Seriously...doing schoolwork at 9pm!

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing...

We went to a local theater company's Christmas program, saw Rogue One in the theater, and did a couple craft shows. Tenor got his braces off and tested to earn his red stripe belt in Taekwondo!

 

Soprano joined a local youth choir and enjoyed a youth group Galentine's Day party. There was other holiday busyness with family, church, and work. Including getting our newest family member: Peanut.

Most of my hours were spent preparing for those craft shows. (Blog posts to follow about all that.) :)

Things to come:
Soprano's choir concert season begins in a couple weeks
We need to pick and plan some of next year's curricula.
We're ready to plan our big field trip for the year...the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter!
Soprano has a big birthday coming up and we're thinking a French Patisserie themed party.
Tenor is looking into getting a summer job.
Oh yeah, and we should probably finish the school year. :)

What's on your list? 

School Summary - 7th and 9th grades - weeks 11-14

I respectfully ask that you not pin pictures of my children to Pinterest. Thank you!

You can see what we're using here: 9th-grade curricula and here: 7th-grade curricula.

Literally this is the most boring school blog year I've ever had. I'm not sure I'll even blog school regularly next year. It's just a different set-up than our first five years. They are working independently, and it's more book work than hands-on. Maybe I'll continue with it, maybe not. :)

Weeks 11-14

In Tenor's homeschool this month…

He started learning Greek letters in his AHL work...which is super easy since he's on his 3rd year of biblical Greek. Yay for one thing that's easy!

Tenor art assignment

My favorite thing this month…
He wrote a few psalms for AHL assignments that I just loved. He does have a good sense of poetry when he puts his mind to it.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

Again, just emphasizing that the weekly conference is really important. (I'm just going to leave that line there for the rest of the year as a reminder to myself.) I'm trying to get him to go back and take notes on things he's already read to help cement it, but it's taking a long time. I should have had him take notes while reading from the beginning of the school year.

What’s working/not working for us…

He seems to be struggling with the logic elective. I'm not sure if he is reading the exercises and answering too quickly or if he's not grasping the concepts... if he has continued interest, we might find another logic resource at the end of the year to keep working on it.

Soprano art coloring

In Soprano's homeschool this month...
Boring post alert...it's the same old, same old for Soprano too. :)

Art coloring and notebooking

Beautiful Feet assignment for Brighty of the Grand Canyon

Beautiful Feet assignment for Brighty of the Grand Canyon

My favorite thing this month…

She had to create a poll for the family to cast votes as an Uncle Sam and You assignment. She picked the questions, the answers, and tallied up the votes after we were done.

What’s working/not working for us… Her school day is taking for.ev.er. I feel like she should be done much earlier each day than she is. We're working on trying to figure out how to help her be more motivated and to get done sooner.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing...

Tenor went on his first Senior High youth group weekend retreat. He had a great time. :)
We went to D.C. again. It was originally going to be a weeklong trip but our accommodations fell through. However, we had already received notification that our White House ticket request was approved. We went down for just a day instead.

View of the gardens from the First Ladies' Hall

China Room

East Room

Mom, mom, mom, that's the Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington that Dolley Madison saved when the British were burning Washington! I guess something we learned stuck.

Green Room -- aptly named

State Dining Room

White House North Lawn

 After the White House, we hit the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.

The only 'super moon' I actually got to see since the weather was so overcast at home.

We found a platypus! Another of Soprano's favorite animals.

After another busy month of schooling, we enjoyed taking off the week of Thanksgiving. A few more weeks, then Christmas... crazy!