Seventh and eighth grade is kind of the bummer years in my opinion — if you go to public school those years can be really hard. Socially and emotionally speaking, kids are a mess, going through puberty and staging to be accepted by their peers and the opposite sex. I’ve shared my 1960s experiences of having to shower after gym class and line up with all the other girls.
When my first child was in middle school, back in 1984 — I pulled her out after there was a rumble at the park — two boys from two rival schools had met to fight over her. Yes, in suburbia, Irvine, home of the blue ribbon schools and as realtors sell it — the “best” schools. So I pulled her out of eighth grade, but I didn’t know how to homeschool back then. I fumbled and she went to 9th grade in high school only to hate school most of the time. When my third kid came along and asked to be homeschooled, I was ready to try it. And I never looked back. My fourth and fifth child got the blessings of my experimental years. Now they have all graduated from college.
It works. Homeschooling.

History:

Seventh Grade: Late Renaissance/Early Modern 1600-1850

(links to my Amazon Affiliate)

Eighth Grade: Modern, 1850 – Present

Both Years:

Reading:

I like to read (either with my kids or have them read) some of the great classics that are from the same time period as the history we are studying.

7th Grade Reading Choices:

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Alice in Wonderland

Tom Sawyer

Pride and Prejudice

20,000 Leagues under the Sea

A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

Don Quixote (Oxford Illustrated Classics for youth)

Gulliver’s Travels “A Voyage to Lilliput”

The Pilgrim’s Progress  (Illustrated and retold)

Robinson Crusoe

Alfred Tennyson Poems

William Wordsworth Poems

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” Washington Irving

“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” Samuel Taylor Coolridge,

Benjamin Franklin

8th Grade Reading Choices:

(links to my affiliate account with Amazon)

The Hobbit

The Hornblower Series

Treasure Island

Little Women

Sherlock Holmes

The Jungle Book

The Time Machine

The Call of the Wild

The Scarlet Pimpernel

Anne of Green Gables

Murder on the Orient Express

Animal Farm

1984

Brave New World

Gone with the Wind

The Yearling

The Importance of Being Ernest

Pygmalion

The Crucible

A Man for All Seasons

The Hiding Place

Poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Poems of Robert Frost 

Poems of E. E. Cummings

 

Science:

I have used both of these options, both online. Links to Homeschool-buyers Co-op.

PLATO science for Middle School is available at the homeschool co-op for a reasonable price.

Adaptive Curriculum is an online program that is innovative and fun to use.

Adaptive Curriculum has Activity Objects Lessons, which are interactive and have great graphics–they are very visual. You can get a subscription to Middle School or High School Math and Science. We have used all of them. My son asks to start the day with these. I think you will like them as well, and may want to follow along. One of the best things to come out of the internet is this new way of teaching. No more boring lectures and textbooks. This is great for all and especially good for those with dyslexia that see the whole picture. Try it out.

Grammar and Writing:

(links to my affiliate account with Amazon:)

Easy Grammar I love these simple workbooks. I usually assign about 5 pages at a time. I get the teacher’s edition that has the answers on the other side of each workbook page.

Easy Writing is a workbook that helps your student learn correct grammar within writing. I even learned new things with this book. Loved it.

My Access! is an online writing program and you can see a demo of it here. We used it for seventh and eighth grade and it made my life easy. Plus my son became a good writer. The essays are graded on-line, by computer and scored on grammar and content. It is self-paced and as a parent, you can log on and see how your student is doing. They can check as well and see their score.  

Vocabulary:

Words And Their Stories is an online program that my son loved to do. You can get a homeschool license and also a free demo to try it out. Great program.

A game-like experience leads students through clues for each word. Rather than relying on rote memorization, students must apply etymology and critical thinking skills in a sequential, inductive process to unravel and understand each word’s definition.

  • First: An illustrative story of the derivation of each word
  • Clue #1: Applying information contained in the derivation
  • Clue #2: Drawing upon prior knowledge
  • Clue #3: Inferring meaning from context
  • Clue #4: Completing an analogy
  • Clue #5: Analyzing context to complete a sentence

words and their stories

Vocabulary From Classical Roots is a workbook program for learning vocabulary and linking it to classical roots.
VCR-Venn-diagram

 

More Learning Online Fun:

Brain Pop — We started each day with this. Fifth grade — 8th grade levels.