Son's Grade 8 Homeschool Plan - Revised

Grade 8 Homeschool Plans, Revised

(updated 10/17/10)
Outside Classes and Extra-Curriculars


Participation in three homeschool co-op's, two of which hire professional teachers or subject matter experts to teach classes.

Attend ethnobotany homeschool group class (see below).

Continue with Boy Scouting, progress from First Class Rank to (at least) Star Rank. Earn at least six merit badges.

Begin sport, four season participation: crew.

Attend Davis Dyslexia Program intensive program, continue with homework throughout the year.

Continue visits with behavioral optometrist for monitoring visual processing disorder and occupational therapy and vision therapy at home as prescribed by doctor.

Academic Courses

Language Arts

Spelling: lessons at home: Spelling Power

Literary Analysis: Online class: K-12 Literary Analysis and Composition Grade 8-9. Update: Will continue home lessons with Bravewriter Boomerang in the fall and may enroll in the K-12 class in January. We are too busy this fall to handle adding this course.

Writing Composition: in addition to online class, lessons at home: Institute for Excellence in Writing and exercises and inspiration from Bravewriter's Writer's Jungle. I attended a Bravewriter workship in 9/10 and learned more details about using the program and use for the high school years and for SAT essay prep.

Writing Composition class at co-op, 10 hours. Writing done as part of science and history studies at home and at a co-op.

Newspaper production at co-op with writing, 10 hours

Other reading: self-selected fiction books on grade level, manga, and graphic books at home, plus nonfiction books self-selected, and magazines (i.e. Popular Science, Make, Scientific American, Boys' Life). Literature selections as part of writing composition and literary analysis classes.

Math

Pre-Algebra, lessons at home, all of Key to Fractions workbooks.
Algebra I: Art of Problem Solving Introduction to Algebra. Algebra I course from Great Courses The Teaching Company when video lecture explanation is necessary. Algebra is also a component of his physics class taught by a private tutor (teacher with 39 years experience teaching high school physics).
Algebra II: begin and partially complete this year, Art of Problem Solving, if possible

Math Olympiad (MOEMS): prep classes at co-op (hours TBD) and compete in contests with homeschool group.

Computer Science: computer programming couse C# at homeschool co-op, to be a year long course with lecture and lab using curriculum TeenCoder.

Science

Competing in Science Olympiad Level B with team of 15 homeschooled students.

Hands on Physics class with physics teacher at co-op, Science Olympiad related, 26 hours.

Conceptual Physics workshop classes on optics taught by former high school physics teacher and department head of a top Connecticut high school to a class of ten homeschooled students at a homeschool co-op. Text: Conceptual Physics for High School, 10th edition by Paul Hewitt (common high school textbook). Course includes some algebra and trig (linear equations, slope, sign, co-sign, and tangent).

Astronomy class with physics teacher at co-op, Science Olympiad related topics, 13 hours, includes weekly writing homework assignment. At least two field trips to an observatory to view the constellations in different seasons taught by the same teacher.

Chemistry introduction with scientist SME at co-op, and prep for two Science Olympiad  events. Crime Busters and Can't Judge a Powder 3 hours; more classes to be added later in the year.

Chemistry living books read at home:  Mystery of the Periodic Table by Benjamin Wiker, Chemistry Getting a Big Reaction by Basher, and The Periodic Table by Basher.

Communication and Observation: Write It Do It Science Olympiad event class, 26 hours class taught by me faciliatated at a homeschool co-op.

Other workshops and classes related to prep for Science Olympiad event at co-op, TBD. Already completed: Shock Value 2 hours; Bottle Rocket event 8 hours.

Biology, grade 9-10 high school course taught at co-op (10 hours lecture, 5 hours lab) and much independent study at home using Biology by Miller and Levine (common high school textbook)

History and Social Studies

Current Events group discussion class at co-op, 20 hours of class, 26 newspaper articles to be discussed with vocabulary words, lessons from izzit.org.

History: Lessons at home: read and discuss Story of US by Joy Hakim, 11 book series. Watch documentary series: America the Story of US, read tie-in book, Story of the World volume 3 and 4, read more living books on US History (primarily) and world history (secondarily), 1700 to present is time period focus. (Note: considering adding K-12 online class for US History.)

Ethnobotany: Homeschool group class, experiential class in ethnobotany focusing on Native American skills and wilderness survival, teen group, 60 hours of instruction outdoors, hands on, outdoors. Fall semester includes study of and creation of homemade arrows and learning bow hunting and bow use skills practice.


Foreign Language

Begin learning Italian: before January 1 choose an online class or curriculum to use and begin.

Religious Education

Attend Youth Group classes at church weekly, class of students grade 7-8.

Community Service

Various small projects throughout the year with Boy Scouts and church.