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You are here: Home / Homeschool / Homeschool Curriculum / Our Curriculum Choices: 8th and 9th Grade

Our Curriculum Choices: 8th and 9th Grade

August 3, 2014 By Angie Kauffman · PRINTABLES TIP: Always go toward the end of a post to find the printable. · Disclosure: This Post May Contain Affiliate Links. {I may be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.}

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With our intended start date less than two weeks away, I’m sorry to say that this is actually just my best guess on our curriculum choices.  We still may be making a few changes because of some requests of our kids.  But, for the moment, this is what we think we will be doing.  If we make changes in the first month or two of the school year, I’ll come back and make some updates.

As you may remember, we have three children, but our youngest asked to try going to school last year.  We spent a lot of time discussing this with her, and ultimately let her give it a try last school year.  She enjoyed it, and is headed back again this school year.  This time around, she’ll be trying out the school’s gifted class.  It will be a lot of extra work, but it should also be more hands on, which I think she’ll enjoy.

For right now, this is what we believe our official plan is for our 8th and 9th grader.  (Or, it might be for a 7th and 9th grader, but that’s a long story that I’ll get into much later.)

This post contains affiliate links.  They don’t change how much you pay, but they do support this site.  Thanks!

Our Middle and High School Curriculum

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Our 8th and 9th Grade Eclectic Homeschool Curriculum

English/Language Arts*

Starting with this huge category because it always has the most items listed for us.  So many things go into the language arts heading!

Typing: Mavis Beacon Typing, Typing on Various Assignments

Grammar: Easy Grammar Ultimate Series: 180 Daily Teaching Lessons, Grade 8 Student Workbook and Easy Grammar Ultimate Series: 180 Daily Teaching Lessons, Grade 8 Teacher Text

Vocabulary: Wordly Wise 3000 Student Book 8

Composition: Essentials in Writing

Plus a variety of activities this year possibly including, but not limited to:

  • Papers or presentations about topics we are studying
  • Short stories
  • Letter writing
  • Working on blog posts
  • Making their own zines
  • Poetry writing
  • Lessons from Grammar Girl Presents the Ultimate Writing Guide for Students
  • Whatever fun writing projects we can find (this is an area my older kids struggle in, so we’re making it a priority this year)

Reading

Silent Reading Each Day

We’ll be reading eight to ten novels this year.  We are planning to do one novel in a more in depth way each nine weeks with help from guides from Total Language Plus.  We were very impressed with these guides when we saw them at the Great Homeschool Convention in Cincinnati.  The books that we plan to use those with are: The Swiss Family Robinson (free on the Kindle), A Christmas Carol (free on the Kindle), My Side of the Mountain, and Anne of Green Gables.

*Now, here’s a caveat.  We might not be doing any of this (or at least not most of it).  Noah and Jack may both be taking English class outside of our home on a daily basis.

Math

Teaching Textbooks –  Pre-Algebra (8th grader) and Algebra 1 Kit, Version 2.0 (9th grader)

History

Holt World History: Patterns of Interaction Homeschool Package

Science

Holt McDougal Earth Science Homeschool Package

Religion

Bible Reading

Faith and Life series

Youth Group

French

This will now be just for Jack, as he’s the only one still interested in French, unless something changes.

A variety of activities from the following sources:

Rosetta Stone Homeschool French

French in 10 Minutes a Day (book and audio CDs)

French flash cards and computer games

First Thousand Words in French

Play and Learn in French

100+ Reproducible Activities in French

Spanish

We are outsourcing Spanish for Noah, as per his request.

Computer/Coding

Mod Design I: Learn Java with Minecraft

possible addition: a course through Homeschool Programming Inc

Various Activities

We will also try to take opportunities to work on physical education, health, home ec/life skills (like in my eBook – Training Your Children in Home Economics)

Past Years

Interested in what we have used in years past?

Our Curriculum in 2009 / Grades: PreK, 3rd Grade, and 4th Grade

Our Curriculum 2010 / Grades: Kindergarten, 4th Grade, and 5th Grade

Our Curriculum 2011 / Grades: 1st Grade, 5th Grade, and 6th Grade

Our Curriculum 2012 / Grades: 2nd Grade, 6th Grade, and 7th Grade

Our Curriculum 2013 / Grades: 7th Grade and 8th Grade

This post is linked to iHomeschool Network’s Not Back to School Hop

This post contains a whole smattering of affiliate links.  They don’t cost you anything extra to use, and they help support this site.  Bonus!  Thanks!  (Disclosure Policy)

Angie Angie, a domestically challenged nerd and mom of three very fun kids, is the founder of Real Life at Home, the combined home of the former sites Many Little Blessings, The Homeschool Classroom, Catholic Printables Online, and Catholic Mothers Online.  Angie also listens to music every chance she gets, writes eBooks, loves Pinterest, documents the little moments in life on Instagram, and occasionally sleeps.

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Filed Under: Homeschool Curriculum

About Angie Kauffman

Angie, mom to three very fun kids, is the founder of Real Life at Home.  With degrees in elementary education (B.A.) and special education (M.S.Ed.), as well as being a former homeschooler, she is passionate about supporting both parents and teachers by providing printables, crafts, and activities to help children learn and grow.

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Comments

  1. Jen says

    August 3, 2014 at 4:26 pm

    I love your decisiveness! I’m kidding 🙂 I admire the way your kids have plenty of input into their educational decisions.

    Reply
    • Angie Kauffman says

      August 3, 2014 at 4:42 pm

      I know – it sounds kind of ridiculous, right? LOL We’re in the midst of arranging for the boys to take a few classes outside our home. We’ve got Noah’s set up, but Jack’s we’re figuring out this week. So, until I know all the details on that, a few things are kind of up in the air.

      Hey – did you see the post about the podcast yesterday? It’s all about you. 😉

      Reply
  2. Ross Andrews says

    August 3, 2014 at 11:59 pm

    Respectfully – I think that you could quadruple the number of books and reduce everything else other than math. And look into Scratch for programming. This age is all about getting the kids to own their own education and for us to back off and find ways to empower them. It’s different for every family (thankfully), but the ownership piece makes all the difference between education and rebellion down the road.

    Reply
    • Angie Kauffman says

      August 4, 2014 at 12:29 am

      Thanks for coming to comment, Ross. As I’ve talked about before on the site, my kids actually take a pretty active role in choosing what they’re working on. So, they were the ones that decided on a lot of this, based on their particular needs, strengths, and weaknesses. That’s why we may still be doing some tweaking because of a couple of changes they are wanting to make.

      I totally agree – isn’t it great that we all get to pick out what works best for our individual families? I’m so thankful for that, since every family’s children (and even individual children within a family) are so different.

      A couple of my kids really love Scratch. One in particular just took to it right away once he tried it out the first time. He just loves all of the things that he’s creating. 🙂

      Reply
    • Angie Kauffman says

      August 4, 2014 at 12:37 am

      Oh, and I assumed when you said “books” you meant the novels mentioned in the reading section. That was just referring to the novels that I’m picking for them for us to all read and discuss in a more formal way. They do quite a bit of reading of their own choices, so I like to leave them a lot of time to make their own choices for reading.

      Reply
  3. Ross Andrews says

    August 4, 2014 at 12:46 am

    🙂 Didn’t mean to come across as ‘challenging you’ in any way – Just hoping to add in where I can. Our kids are in college now but I remember really stressing about the 9th grade year. Looking back on it now I think that we should have done more to held them accountable in math, but they immersed themselves in reading and that has had such lasting benefits (4.0 honors in college). Everything else seems easy after they fell in love with reading, and that’s the one place where they really differentiated themselves from their public school peers. Can’t say enough about giving kids the time and space to read 🙂

    Reply
    • Angie Kauffman says

      August 4, 2014 at 1:01 am

      I didn’t think it came across as too challenging to me until I thought I read it as you suggesting that the kids might rebel against me one day if we used this kind of curriculum. LOL 😉

      The kids really had a very large say in the curriculum choices this year. That’s always my goal. I want to do what they are really interested in.

      Don’t worry though – we never do everything that we plan at the beginning of the year. It just gives us a framework and we tweak and drop (or add) as we go. Some things always sound better in planning than in practice. 🙂

      All of my kids enjoy reading, so that’s a blessing. It wasn’t always like that around here. Our oldest especially hated it and really struggled. Finally, it just clicked for him and he has been a voracious reader ever since. Even if we’re going to run to the grocery store, he wants a book to take with him for the drive. I never thought I’d hear myself say things like, “It’s a 10 minute drive. You don’t need a book!” LOL

      We have a heavier emphasis this year on writing activities, because that’s an area that has been difficult for them. So, we’re trying to push that more, as well as giving a variety of types of writing activities. Through doing that, we found out that our oldest enjoys writing poetry. Go figure! I think he was as surprised as we were.

      Reply
  4. Ross Andrews says

    August 4, 2014 at 1:14 am

    Oh, you’re all set then 🙂 I remember the “books on the way to the store” phase well. 🙂

    That’s really exciting actually. I love to hear stories about families who just ‘work’, even if they don’t follow the plan. That’s where homeschooling has SUCH an advantage over the alternatives. We are free to follow our kids, wherever their gifting might lead them, rather than being constrained inside a “program” that’s designed for the mythical average student.

    Take care and keep up the great work!

    Ross

    Reply
    • Angie Kauffman says

      August 4, 2014 at 1:24 am

      LOL – I still don’t get that reading a book on the way to the store. I especially don’t get it when he grabs more than one. It’s ten minutes away, kid!

      Then again, I used to love to read when I was around his age too. But then I think four years of high school and seven years of college with so much required reading just took away that love of reading. I never got back into the same way that I did when I was younger. I’ve always thought that was pretty sad.

      I don’t know that we’re doing “great work,” but we’re doing the best we can. (Thanks for saying it though. I appreciate it.) Wait, maybe we’re not doing the best we can. We’re doing mostly the best we can. 😉 It certainly is a challenging lifestyle choice, especially with some kids with special needs. I figure we’re just putting together things the best we can, urging them to give us more feedback on what they want to do/learn about (since it’s often, “Everything is good just the way you plan it, Mom.”), doing a lot of praying, and hoping for the best.

      Reply
  5. Dawn says

    August 5, 2014 at 6:47 am

    I enjoyed looking at your choices and may borrow some of your french ideas. I can’t afford Rosetta stone this year, so I will be starting smaller. Thanks for sharing.
    Blessings, Dawn

    Reply
    • Angie Kauffman says

      August 5, 2014 at 3:16 pm

      Dawn – You should also check with your local library. Ours offers something called Mango Languages for free to patrons. It’s on my library’s website and we just have to log in with our library card. My kids like it better than Rosetta Stone, and I’ve been very impressed with it. I guess a lot of libraries have it, so I would definitely look into it. There are tons of different languages available through it too.

      Reply

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Meet Angie

Angie, mom to three very fun kids, is the founder of Real Life at Home.  With degrees in elementary education (B.A.) and special education (M.S.Ed.), as well as being a former homeschooler, she is passionate about supporting both parents and teachers by providing printables, crafts, and activities to help children learn and grow. Read More…

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