Do you have an almost 8th grader? I do, and today I am sharing my 8th Grade Homeschool Curriculum picks for the 2018-2019 school year. If you seen my recent post 2018-2019 Homeschool Plan, you know that Julia will be studying Horrible Histories & Geography, Language Arts & Literature 8, Pre-Algebra, Astronomy, and Geology. Check out the books we will be working through below!

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8th Grade Homeschool Curriculum Overview

History-

Horrible Histories

Horrible Geography

Everything You Need to World History in One Big Fat Notebook

Everything You Need to American History in One Big Fat Notebook

Language Arts & Literature 8-

Writing With Skill Level 1

Wordly Wise 3000 Book 8

Homemade Booklist

Everything You Need to Ace English Language Arts in One Big Fat Notebook

Math-

Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra

Science-

Focus on Middle School Astronomy

Focus on Middle School Geology

Everything You Need to Science in One Big Fat Notebook

History & Geography

This year Julia will be working with her younger brother Jack for history and geography. I purchased the Horrible Histories and Horrible Geography book sets, and will read them aloud to Jack and Julia throughout the year. I think these books will be a great starting point for some rabbit trail learning. We have a number of books in our home library that we will use along side these books along with some library books.

Did you know that Horrible Histories is also a tv series? If you are an Amazon Prime Member you have full access to seasons 1-6 as part of your membership. I definitely plan to include these videos into our lessons as well!

The Horrible Histories box set includes:

Savage Stoneage Awesome Egyptians Groovy Greeks Rotten Romans Cut-Throat Celts Smashing Saxons Vicious Vikings Stormin Normans Angry Aztecs Incredible Incas Measly Middle Ages Terrible Tudors Slimy Stuarts Gorgeous Georgians Vile Victorians Villainous Victorians Barmy British Empire Frightful First World War Woeful Second World War Blitzed Brits

The Horrible Geography box set includes:

Wild Islands Violent Volacanoes Stormy Weather Raging Rivers Perishing Poles Odious Oceans Monster Lakes Freaky Peaks Earth-shattering Earthquakes Desperate Deserts Cracking Coasts Bloomin’ Rainforests

Language Arts 8

Writing With Skill

This year Julia and Kenten will be using Writing With Skill, Level 1 for the first time. I have heard wonderful things about this program, but have never had the opportunity to look through it in person before purchasing. I hope it is as wonderful as I have been told.

Wordly Wise 3000

Julia is moving on to Wordly Wise 3000 Book 8 this year. We have been using this program since our second year of homeschooling. This is summer she will complete a few times each week for morning work. I love this vocabulary building program!

Literature 8

This year I decided to create my own booklists for Julia and Kenten. Throughout the years I have purchased a number of books to add to our home library, but we haven’t got around to reading them all yet. Julia will be reading the following titles for her 8th grade year:

In addition to reading these great books, Julia will be required to write a certain number of book reports to build up her writing skills. If she ends up finishing all of these books before the end of the year I will add in a few more.

Math

Julia started Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra over the summer. If she finishes it before the end of the year, I will have her move onto Teaching Textbooks Algebra I. We made the switch to Teaching Textbooks a little over a year ago, and it is by far one of the best homeschooling decisions I made. This program not only teaches the lessons for you, but provides: lesson assignments, chapter quizzes, and is self-grading! Can a girl ask for more than that? (ha)

Astronomy & Geology

This year Julia and Jack will be using Focus on Science Astronomy and Focus on Science Geology. All three of us are super excited for science this year. We did a space unit study in our early years of homeschooling, and the kids asked to repeat some of the hands-on projects we did. I will make sure to share our fun projects on here with all of you!

Big Fat Notebook Series

In addition to all her other core work, Julia will be reading the Big Fat Notebook series. This is her last year in middle school, and we have changed curriculums all three years. I wanted to make sure she covered all the required materials before starting her high school career next year.

I absolutely love the way these books are written and organized. Without a doubt Julia is going to love them, and I will have some peace of mind knowing that the things we may have missed over the last few years will be covered. She will read these books and complete the quizzes/tests on her own while I am working with Jack on his reading lessons.

Electives

Foreign Language

Julia will be using Rosetta Stone German again this year. I purchased this program years ago, and somehow we never seen to stick to using it. That is not to say it is a bad program, but with our busy schedules it just gets pushed to the back burner. I am hoping now that we will not be attending any partnership classes and the kids are working together for a few subjects we will have more time to really learn German.

P.E. & Weightlifting

Weightlifting is not just for boys… Julia will be joining her brothers in my homemade weight lifting class. My husband and I recently remodeled our garage into a home gym, so it’s time to get out there and work up a sweat. Take a tour of our garage gym!

Home Economics & Art

Julia will mainly be working on her art skills this year, but she is welcome to join her brothers in Home Ec if she wants to. Recently Julia revealed to me that she wants to write and illustrate her own graphic novel! She has endlessly been researching and working on her writing and drawing skills to make this dream come true. A few weeks ago for her 13th birthday we purchased a digital art studio tablet for her, and she has barely put it down since. I couldn’t be more proud of her, and I want her to have as much time as she needs to continue her work.

Thank you for checking out my 8th Grade Homeschool Curriculum picks for the 2018-2019 school year…

What is your 8th grader using this year? I love to see what everyone else is working on, so feel free to leave a comment below!

Check out my 6th Grade and 10th Grade homeschool curriculum picks.