8th Grade Plans

Wow, 8th grade is almost here.  This school year marks our 9th year homeschooling.  It seems like yesterday that my boy was a little Kindergartner who was thrilled to start homeschooling.   While it is exciting to watch my children learn, grow, and change, I’m thankful that we have several more years of homeschooling ahead.

My rising 8th grader has always loved science and over the past year the unthinkable has happened.  He has developed a love for math.  I can’t tell you how many years that math was at the bottom of his list.  A combination of maturity, Art of Problem Solving, and Numberphile videos seems to have changed his perspective.

Because my son desires to go into a STEM field in the future, he is branching out into math and science competitions.  There are several math competitions as well as a computer programming challenge available and he chose a couple of them to do this next year.  He will also enter the local science fair.

Here are our plans:

Math

• Art of Problem Solving Introduction to Algebra  (Finish)
• Art of Problem Solving Introduction to Counting and Probability (Maybe start)
• Enter University of Waterloo Gauss Math Contest in May
• Enter University of Waterloo Pascal Math Contest in February

Science

• Topics from Tarbuck Earth Science 
• Finish Conceptual Physics and Miller –Levine Biology
• Local science fair in April

History/Geography

• Documentary based modern history study with this as a spine:  Modern World History Patterns of Interaction
• Geography – Central and South America unit studies
• Economics – Living Mathematically – Living Within Your Means and Living Mathematically – Financing Your Future

English

Writing

• Classical Writing Poetry for Older Beginners (finish)
• Classical Writing Diogenes Maxim – (Expository Essays)
• Research Paper Handbook

Vocabulary

• Vocabulary Vine and Science Roots

Literature

• Movies as Literature (Finish)
• Excellence in Literature series (primarily as literature/discussion guides)
• Literature choices for 6th grade – 12th grade

Foreign Language

Arabic

• Arabic for Life
• Sahlawayhi 1: Graded Stories for Beginners
• Introduction to Spoken Standard Arabic: A Conversational Course on DVD
• Arabian Sinbad DVDs
• Mango

French

• Contacts
• Mango

Fine Arts

• Piano
• Wood carving with The Little Book of Whittling
• Learn to Paint in Acrylics with 50 Small Paintings
• Cooking competitions

Logic and Philosophy

• Introduction to Logic by Gensler
• Kierkegaard’s Sickness Unto Death

Computer

• Java programming
• C++ programming
• Blogging
• Enter University of Waterloo Beaver Computing Challenge in November

Bible

• Personal studies
• Read entire Bible (continue)
• Names of God study
• Group Bible study with Literary Study Bible  – John and Acts

PE

• At least 45 minutes per day exercise