Eighth Grade Curriculum Choices

This is a compilation of eighth grade material for my teen.

Every child is different.  What works for one child, might not work for another.  That's why I have a variety of material for each subject for each grade.    It's important to know how your child learns and where they might feel not so confident.  That's no different for home schooling my teenaged daughter.

Below, are the choices, for home schooling eighth grade, we made for my teen daughter, Iris:

Language Arts is from Saddleback Publishing.

This is a sample of Language Arts page.

I love this language arts workbook.  It has lots of visuals.  The information is in tables.  The answers in the back.  This is perfect for my little artist.

Writing choice is from Frank Schaffer Publications

This is a sample of writing page.

My daughter loves to write.  That's why I like this workbook.  It has lots of writing prompts.  Again, this workbook has pictures throughout.

Reading choice is from Creative Teaching Press.

This a sample page of the reading workbook.

I love this reading workbook.  It has high-interest topics.  The reading material is relevant to our times.  The sample above shows a reading passage and questions about the internet.

This is my daughter's spelling binder.

Spelling is housed in a binder.  Iris will be using a composition book to use her spelling words.  Like my oldest son, who has entered ninth grade, she is also using the page below to figure out what she wants to do with the words.  She highlighted her choices of how to deal with her words with a light blue highlighter.  Since she is artistic, she is drawing pictures.

Daughter has choice of how to handle spelling words.

I mentioned this before in another blog entry: 

I found the document, titled Differentiated Spelling Homework Menu (pictured above), from Charity Preston.  This document allows my children to study their spelling words as they choose.  I liked giving my children options on how to work with their spelling lists.  

I love getting free documents, and you, my readers, can find it at Teachers pay Teachers.  To access the document, you will have to subscribe to the website.  It is worth subscribing because you can find other free resources at the website.

These are alternate choices for spelling.

The picture above shows how my kids used to deal with their spelling words.  This is easy and doable.  I just wanted my kids to have a variety to deal with their words.  Its a means to spice up what could be a boring subject.

This is the website where I found the spelling words.

Scrolling down on page will yield a long list of words.

Puzzlemaker website is easy to use.

Puzzles I printed after making them at puzzlemaker.com.

I found the eighth grade spelling words at www.time4learning.com.  I simply split the words at about 10 per week.  I made these puzzles to make using the spelling words fun.  The website I used to make the puzzles is easy to use.  The website is www.puzzle-maker.com.

This is my history choice from Alpha Omega Publications.

For history, I love the AOP (Alpha Omega Publications), a Christian publisher.  Inside the box are ten workbooks, the last one being a review.  Also, the teacher's guide comes in it, with the answers to all the questions and tests.  I like that the workbooks have pictures throughout.

This is our 8th grade science from Bob Jones.

For eighth grade science, I chose Bob Jones.  Throughout the time I've home schooled, I've compiled books from all kinds of publishers for all subjects.  I am partial to the Christian-based ones.  The reason for that is that I am all for my children learning that God created earth and all its inhabitants.

Pre-Algebra workbook is from Mark Twain Media/Carson Dellosa Publishing.

This is a sample page of Pre-Algebra workbook.

This is a closeup of Pre-Algebra page.

The Mark Twain Media/Carson-Dellosa Publishing Company, Inc. is great at making workbooks that give lots of visuals, charts, and pictures for a student to understand their material.  The Mark Twain series is geared towards students who find it hard to understand a given subject.  I was really impressed with the reviews of these workbooks so I chose them for my kids for the math.

  

Of course, when my daughter finishes these workbooks and textbooks, we can always turn to other resources.  Also, if my daughter gets stuck in her math, we can turn to the internet for more help.  Getting into Algebra, for example, is scary to some students.  It doesn't have to be that way.  It's great to know that we can turn to other people, as in tutors, to help us help our children.

The books I've listed above can be found online (click on the picture captions).  Over the years, I have bought some of my material online, at yard sales, book swaps at local home school groups, and teacher book stores.  I like actually flipping through the workbooks like I did a few weeks ago at Lakeshore.  I asked my daughter for input as she would be the one using them.

Well, thanks for reading this entry about what I'm using to home school my eighth grader.  I hope I've given a unique idea of what could be included for teaching children in that grade.

How about you, my readers?  For those of you who home school, what are you using for eighth grade?  Are you satisfied with your curriculum choices?  I hope you find a good balance to fit your childrens' needs.

I pray that God helps us all, whether we are home schooling or are thinking of home schooling.

May God bless you all with His wisdom and peace, as you teach your children.

This has been an entry for Thorough Thursdays.  Hope you liked it.

Sixth Grade Curriculum Choices

This is a compilation of my 6th grade choices.

I came up with what I hope will work for my incoming sixth grader in our homeschool.  I had some material already, but I knew that I needed plenty more.  I had been using the large whole curriculum work books, but I wanted to move away from those.  I felt my son needed separate workbooks, which would keep him organized.

Spectrum material, as shown below, is presented in an easy format.  These workbooks can be finished within 180 instructional days.  My son is hyper and a slow reader so these books are perfect for him.  He can do a page per day.  For the reading book, I can have him read the story on the first day and then answer the questions the next day.

Language Arts for 6th grade is from Spectrum.

Reading for 6th grade is from Spectrum.

Spelling for 6th grade is from Spectrum.

Math for 6th grade is from Steck-Vaughn.

Writing for 6th grade is from Steck-Vaughn.

Steck-Vaughn material is priceless.  It is great for those needing remedial work.  It works for those who need extra practice.  It's great for those that need the work simplified.  I think it works great for both of my sons.

Science for 6th grade is from Merrill.

History for 4-6 grades is from McGraw Hill.

Social Studies for 6-7 grades is from McGraw-Hill.

For science and social studies, I simply have checked how many pages are in each book and divided it by 180 instructional days.  Thus, my younger son will have to read about 2-4 pages per day.  If he sees something of interest for that day, he can write it down on his spiral notebook.  In this respect, you could say that I am not assigning anything specific at this point for these two subjects.  My son started reading about the presidents this summer so I will let him stay with that into his sixth grade; when he finishes that up, he can move onto the green social studies textbook.

The books I've listed above can be found online (click on the picture captions).  Over the years, I have bought some of my material online, at yard sales, book swaps at local homeschool groups, and teacher book stores.  I like actually flipping through the workbooks like I did this past weekend at Lakeshore.  I asked my son for input as he would be the one using them.

Well, thanks for reading this entry about what I'm using to homeschool my sixth grader.  I hope I've given a unique idea of what could be included for teaching sixth grade.

How about you, my readers?  For those of you who homeschool, what are you using for sixth grade?  Are you satisfied with your curriculum choices?  Are you combining some subjects?  It's perfectly fine to combine subjects. 

I pray that God helps us all, whether we are homeschooling or are thinking of homeschooling.

May God bless you all with His wisdom and peace, as you teach your children.

This has been an entry for Thorough Thursdays.  Hope you liked it.

Literature for 9th Grade Reading

A Beka Literature for 9th grade

A few years ago, I went to a book swap.  That's where a homeschool mom can sell or trade her curriculum and other educational material.  I saw the book (pictured above) and snatched it up quickly.  I paid $1.  What a find!

I knew I could use it for my oldest child.  I didn't even know what grade is was for, but I knew that I wanted it.  I just knew that A Beka churns out Christian-based curriculum.  I felt blessed when I found it and was able to buy it for so cheap.

I researched online and found that this particular book is for ninth grade.  At www.abeka.com, this book sells for almost $25.  It pays to attend book swaps.  Yes!

Literature book that is about 500 pages

The next step was to make a plan for my teenage son to use this book.  I checked to see how many pages the book covers.  I divided 500 pages by 180 instructional days.  I figured he should read about  3 pages per day.  

Sample page of a story in book

Then, we looked at the actual book.  The table of contents shows short stories and poems separated by units.  I decided he should read one short story and whatever accompanying poem(s) within one week.  He would also answer the questions to the short stories, using complete sentences.  Also, at his discretion, he can practice hand-writing, while answering the questions.

Questions listed at the end of story

Sample of a poem in the book

To recap, I would like to bring together what we are covering for ninth grade English.  Previously, I blogged about:

Grammar & Writing for Ninth Grade

Spelling for High School

Now, we have the reading blog of today.  That's it.  That's my English for ninth grade: grammar, writing, spelling, and reading (literature).

Well, thanks for reading this entry about how I am addressing the issue of reading for my teenage son, for a high school course in Texas. 

How about you, my readers?  For those of you who homeschool, what are you using for reading in high school?  Are you satisfied with your reading curriculum for high school?  What are you using for English for ninth grade?  It's perfectly fine to combine subjects.  Reading is required in Texas.  I have chosen to address reading separately in my homeschool.

I pray that God helps us all, whether we are homeschooling or are thinking of homeschooling.

May God bless you all with His wisdom and peace, as you teach your children.

This has been an entry for Thorough Thursdays.  Hope you liked it.