Homeschool Planning 8th Grade with a Christian Worldview

Eighth grade is an exciting bridge between middle school and the high school years. It is a season when students are developing stronger reasoning skills, greater independence, and a deeper understanding of God's world. As homeschooling parents, we have the unique privilege of preparing our children not only for academic success but also for a life grounded in biblical truth, wisdom, and godly character.

In this series, I'll share how I plan an eighth-grade homeschool year with a Christian worldview at the center of every subject. From literature and history to science, grammar, and the fine arts, my goal is to cultivate a love of learning while helping students see that all truth belongs to God. Whether you're looking for curriculum ideas, scheduling tips, or inspiration for creating a rich and meaningful homeschool experience, I hope these plans encourage you as you faithfully equip your child for both the challenges of high school and a lifetime of serving Christ.

NUTS & BOLTS

We follow along with Ambleside Online's reading schedule for History, Geography, Economics, Literature, and Logic. We are currently working through the, Year 7,8,9 in Two Years with Ambleside Online. Our 2025/2026 school year will complete the first year of two. We plan to follow their weekly reading schedules. The historical time periods our books follow this year are the Middles Ages, Renaissance.

Term 1: 800-1215; Term 2: 1216-1485; Term 3: 1450-1640

I just love how Ambleside uses a time period and threads that period through all the book suggestions. It is a rich experience indeed!

BOOK GUIDES

This year I am making book guides from some of our books. These guides are an in-depth study of each book from a Biblical Worldview. ✝ Check out the these blog posts for each one.

The Birth of Britain by Winston Churchill

Beowulf

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

For English, I'm adding grammar and writing courses to the Ambleside literature suggestions. The writing course we are using is: Lost Tools of Writing Level 1 by the Circe Institute.

I plan on putting updates about this course and sharing some the twin's writings in the blog post --------

For Grammar we are using Daily Grammar with its video component. That way the twins can work more independently from me, and still receive the grammar support they need. It's our first year using this program, and 🤞 fingers crossed it works. I'm hopeful and plan to use it all the way through High-school. Finding a good grammar program has been a thorn in my side. I'll report back on this.

Another program we are using is Daily Grammar Online This is a completely free resource, and I plan to work through about 150 lessons each year, for the next three years. At which time, the twins should be taking the ACT.

MATH & SCIENCE

For Math and Science I am using the same company. DIVE by Dr. Sharmmon

The math level we are doing this year is Pre-Algebra We started this program last year and loved it! It is taught from a Christian Worldview and it is very thorough.

The twins are taking their first High-school credit course, with science, this year. They are taking Earth Science with Honors I know they can do it!

SCHEDULING, RECORD KEEPING, REPORT CARDS, TRANSCRIPTS

For scheduling, record keeping, report cards, and transcripts, I use Homeschool Manager We have used this program in our homeschool for the last three years, and it is the best! I create the year and the weekly/daily schedule, and the children login to check each task off as they do them. Every time they mark a task complete it tracks their hours. I input the grades and it configures report cards and yearly transcripts. This is the 'secret sauce' of our homeschool.

LEGAL

For our legal protection we use HSLDA Home School Legal Defense Association Our family is also involved in our State legislative process, by attending Capital Day through Homeschool Oklahoma

FREE RESOURCES

All the resources were created by me and you are free to use them. I hope it blesses you!

Reading, Copy Work & Dictation

I am including the document I created for copy work, and dictation along with the bookmark creation. The bookmarks I give to the twins for tracking their daily readings.

Bookmarks for Year 7,8,9 Combined Y1

Copy Work - Dictation is basically the way in which I teach handwriting and spelling. On Monday, the children study the passage that is taken from their weekly reading, and copy the first half. Tuesday, they copy the second half while studying. The rest of the week, I dictate the passage to them. Then they correct any missed words and write the missed spelled words five times each. Since some of the passages are taken from their reading, it helps the children with the pronunciation of words they are reading.

Here are the weekly passages from our readings.

Copy Work - Dictation for Year 7,8,9 Combined Y1

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