Homeschool Planning: 8th grade. One Down...

I finished my planning for ds2's 8th grade.  Here's a look.

Math          Abeka Pre-Algebra

Reading      Dear Mr. Henshaw, Maniac McGee, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Old Man and The Sea, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, The Jungle Book, Treasure Island, Robin Hood, and The Hobbit.  We will cover a book a month, with 2 months for The Hobbit at the end of the school year.

History       Across The Centuries

Language    Spectrum Writing Grade 8  He will do a worksheet once and week, and write a paragraph once a week (usually based on the book we are covering.)  We have used Abeka's language program from the start, and he has a very good grasp of grammar.  We are concentrating on writing this year.

Spelling      Natural Speller

Art       Usborne Introduction To Art and Art Masterpieces to Color, using Harmony Art Mom's lesson plans.

Nature     The Handbook of Nature Study's Outdoor Hours

Science     Chemistry for Christian Schools (rethinking this one...may just use some kind of workbook.)

 

I have the first week completely planned.  I have all the math, spelling, history and art lessons planned for the year on this wonderful planning sheet, ready to be transferred to my lesson plan book each week.  I have lessons for the first two books mapped out.  I used Homeschool Tracker to input lessons and print them out.  I have them in a folder for him to reference throughout the week.

Let's break it down with some pics, okay?  First I decided on which subjects to cover with ds this year, and which curriculum to use for each, using this planning sheet.

With that decided, I ordered what I needed off the internet and made a trip into town to buy the rest (4 stops, but got it all in one day!)  With the resources purchased, I started making a scope and sequence plan.

Here is the one for reading...just a list of what books I want to cover and a timeline for when we may cover them.

This is a shot of the quarterly planning sheet from Donna Young.  I used them for subjects like math and spelling that I could plan a whole year for.  I then can transfer the lesson plans from the quarterly sheet to my lesson plan book.

My favorite lesson plan book.  I buy one for each child I'm teaching every year.  It has large blocks for writing assignments.  When we complete an assignment I highlight it.  This is a great resource for me to use every day to keep us on track, and also a great tool for our yearly evals.

I found a cute blank monthly calendar and mapped out a tentative schedule...math, reading and spelling every day, writing, history and science 2x a week, art and nature study on Fridays.

Here is the weekly assignment sheet for ds, printed off of the lessons I typed into Homeschool Tracker.  If any of the assignments get graded, I can go back into the program and record the grades.  Super for yearly reports for the eval, and also for making the transition to a public high school as ds1 did.  I don't actually keep grades when the kids are younger, but as they enter middle school I do, as that is what the high schools and colleges understand and expect. 

Is that it?  I think so lol.  I hope this helps someone just starting out, or even someone just needed a little encouragement or a change in their routine.  I know it has helped me to blog about this process of homeschool planning to keep track of what works and what doesn't!  Next up in this little series will be ds3's 2nd grade and ds4's preschool plans.  Also a post on the costs of this endeavor.  Stay tuned!