First Day of 8th Grade!

While yesterday we did ease back into math, today marked our first official full day of 8th grade! We spent most of the morning familiarizing ourselves with our new planners and books for all of Zoey's subjects for the year, as well as going over her syllabuses. We are mostly using Oak Meadow this year, with the exception of Math-U-See for math and First Form Latin for her latin studies.

This year I want her to get into the habit of writing out her assignments in her own planner and to be able to juggle when to work on things on her own, to meet deadlines and due dates, etc. This will be an important skill to master for high school. We did a run-through of this today for this first shorter week.

 (Listening to music with Leo for a bit before getting down to work.)

After talking about this week's expectations, she busily got into her first writing assignment with Oak Meadow's English course, which was to free write for a set time on the subject of writing, as well as creating an outline for her writing. She was very happy with this assignment and had fun with it! It's not even noon and she's finished up with her math for the day as well. The sun is shining now (after having a few days of rain) so we're hoping to get outside for a walk yet this afternoon.

Happy homeschooling!

Our Curriculum Picks for 8th Grade

With the start of our homeschool year quickly approaching, I thought I'd write up a post sharing what it is that we've decided on for our final choice for coursework for Zoey. We're changing things up a bit from last year...pretty much everything actually, except for our math curriculum which we loved.

Zoey shared her input on what it is that she liked and what she didn't care for regarding last year and this is what we came up with...

Here are our picks for 8th grade.

English/Literature/Writing/Grammar

Oak Meadow's 8th grade English curriculum

• The Giver
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• A Wrinkle in Time (we will be skipping this one since we read it last year!)
• The Hobbit
• Lord of the Flies
• The Call of the Wild
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• The Elements of Style
• 100 Days of Writing

In English, students read seven classic novels while studying vocabulary drawn from the reading and concentrating on grammar and composition skills. Weekly assignments in writing, grammar, and usage provide ample practice for the student preparing to enter high school.

Social Studies

Oak Meadow's 8th grade Civics curriculum

Oak Meadow’s Eighth Grade curriculum introduces students to the concepts of civics through a study of the champions of freedom, federal, state, and local governments, and the economic system. Students witness their local government in action, explore issues affecting their state, and also become aware of national issues. Our experiential approach to understanding social issues includes practical activities such as community service projects and interviewing local community leaders. Students are encouraged to learn how to make a difference on a local level by learning more about the people and businesses in their area.

(Depending on how this goes, we do have the Medieval Times books from Beautiful Feet to add in if she wants more to take on.)

Science

Oak Meadow's Physical Science for 8th grade

The Science curriculum focuses on the principles of physical science, including mass and matter, force, energy, sound, light, color, electricity, magnetism, and mechanics. Emphasis is placed on preparing the student for more advanced science by including assignments that require the student to conduct experiments, perform mathematical calculations, and report on their findings.

(Depending on how this goes, we may or may bot be supplementing using the book list for Guest Hollow's Chemistry older course.) 

Math

Math-U-See

We aren't going to be changing things up here as what we used last year was working! 

Health

Lifetime Health Textbook from Holt Publishing

Foreign Language

First Form Latin from Memoria Press 

Zoey has been asking about and expressing an interest in Latin for quite some time and after looking this over, I feel like it will be a good fit for her being a beginner and will also reinforce her use of grammar as well. 

Extra-Curricular Activities

Ballet/Pointe and Modern Contemporary dance classes twice a week. 

Drama second semester through local homeschool co-op

Guitar lessons (possibility)

Yoga (at home)

Life Skills (various activities and projects done at home and/or in our community

Community Outreach (to be decided by Zoey for her Civics course)

Art

Crash Courses - Philosophy

So, this is the plan thus far! Some (hopefully!) minor tweaking will take place I am sure once we get things rolling. Our official "soft" start date for school is Friday, September 1st which mirrors our public school calendar locally.

I'd love to see what it is that you are using this year in your homeschooling! Feel free to drop me a link in the comments below!