8th Grade Homeschool Recap, 2025-2026

Homeschooling John is such a pleasure these days. He is a hard worker and I can trust him to (usually) remember to do everything and stay on task. He took an online Spanish 1 class this year and I was so worried about having outside expectations and all the reading and writing and memorizing. And I had nothing to worry about. John did need some help with a fraction of assignments, but for the most part, he handled all the responsibility on his own and it was a great learning experience.

Moreover, he is an incredibly helpful and thoughtful child. He almost never complains when asked to help with something, whether physical help or his mechanical know how. He is also so open to trying new things and receptive to my advice. I know that some of that receptivity may change in the next few years and that is ok. I am raising adults after all. 

Here is what homeschooling looked like for John this year:


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Language Arts

Reading / Grammar
Lexia PowerUp [$175 for a 12 month subscription - Not an affiliate link] about 25 min / day
John's learning has always been affected by dyslexia. I continue to look for resources that will improve John's ability to do academic work, especially his ability to read and write, but it is so important that the program feels mature and age appropriate. 

Last summer, I read a book about the best types of learning interventions for dyslexia and I learned about Lexia PowerUp, which is an online program that could be bought and used at home (not just schools). It covers three "strands" of Reading Comprehension, Grammar, and Word Study. 

John placed at the lower intermediate level of the program (a few levels below his grade level) but throughout the year he has worked into the advanced levels which are above grade level. This year was the first year that I gave him a timed version of a state required standardized test. He finished each section within the time and scored in the 90+ percentile in every reading category as well as above average in every language mechanics section other than spelling. 

I would definitely use this program again for another student if needed. It was not babyish and it improves reading speed because it got him to practice reading in a timed environment which is difficult to force at home for a reluctant reader.  

John also read most of his books for his other subjects as described below.

Literature
John reads 15 minutes a day a book of his choosing. He also listened to many audiobooks including The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde and 1984 to keep up with his brother who read them for his 10th grade english class. He also read and translated two short chapter books in Spanish for his online Spanish class. 

John also participated in our family reading of 3 Shakespeare plays:
  • Julius Caesar
  • Much Ado About Nothing 
  • Macbeth
We studied three poets this year using Ambleside selections plus Poetry for Young People series for Shakespeare and Wordsworth because I bought a bundle of them for $5 as a used curriculum sale last year.

Spelling
Spelling is the most difficult skill for John to learn. He has such a hard time remembering the different phonograms. He has made a ton of progress and we will continue to work on improving this skill. 

This year he completed the last two thirds of All About Spelling Level 3 left over from last year and did most of All About Spelling Level 4. I thought about pushing through to finish the level, but there is no use pushing this skill for John. It needs to be done at a steady pace. 

Recitation
I love recitation as a practice and I have to streamline things as I add more kids so I slightly lowered the amount of pieces down from 15 to 12.

This year John recited the following:
  • A Song of Enchantment by Walter de la Mare
  • The Song of Shadows by Walter de la Mare
  • It must be by his death from Julius Caesar 
  • The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
  • Sonnet 138: When my love swears that she is made of truth by William Shakespeare
  • Sonnet 97: How like a winter hath my absence been by William Shakespeare
  • Song: “Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more” By William Shakespeare (from Much Ado About Nothing)
  • The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  • Macbeth:  Is this a dagger? 
  • Lucy Gray by William Wordsworth 
  • The World is To Much for Us by William Wordsworth
  • We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Written Narration
John made written narrations for history twice a week and for science four days a week. He types his written narrations which is easier for him and helps him with spell checking. His grammar and sentence construction is good and we continue to work on spelling. Next year, we will start working on composing longer written works. 

Spanish [1 credit of High School Spanish 1]
John took Spanish 1 with a difference online Spanish class [$489.25 with discounts] through My Fun Science. I impulse purchased this class in February of 2025 because the price was right and he said that if I wanted him to do 2 years of high school Spanish, he wanted to start ASAP. I had no idea how good the company or class would be. I actually emailed them in a panic to drop out of the class after I looked at the course materials, because I was afraid it would be overwhelming but they talked me out of it. I'm very glad they did. 

The curriculum used was Excelerate Spanish and I was able to buy both text and workbook for $12.18 from Thriftbooks. I also purchased the chapter books El capibara con botas [$10.60 from Amazon] and El escape cubano [$6.34 from eBay]. 

The class met once a week for 90 minutes and then John had several assignments due each week on the day before class. We are still waiting for his final test to be graded to get his grade, but so far he has done very well and it was a great class to outsource. 

Social Studies
I had intended for John to do history two days a week plus geography another two days a week. With all the other work obligations, this was too much, so we dropped geography. With John, less is often more and I would rather him spend extra time on language arts, math, and science. 

This year, John studied ancient America through 1620s with the following books, writing a narration after each reading. Many of them were books I had used before with his brother:
I was very happy with this booklist for John. He read everything himself except for the last book which I thought would be absorbed better via an audiobook. 

Math
John started off his homeschooling year attending Bard College Creative and Analytical Math Program (CAMP), which is a one week day camp at Bard College. He had a great time at this math enrichment camp and a great time camping nearby with his dad, older brother, and younger sister. 

When he came back, he picked up where he left off in Thinkwell Honors Algebra 1, which I had purchased for his 7th grade math. When that 12-month subscription expired in August, I had to spend $21.15/month to extend his subscription for three more months for a total of $63.45. Even so, he had to work weekends to complete this level before I had to pay for a fourth month.

I like Thinkwell math and it works well for John, but I've learned it is best when I take their stated pacing guide and plan out how much for John to do each day. 

After Christmas break, John started Thinkwell Honors Geometry [$134.36 with Facebook coupon]. When I paced it out for him, I noticed that he could potentially complete the entire course if he were willing to work for an extra week or two after he finished his required 180 days of school. He was willing so he is almost done (>95%) and just has a couple modules and a cumulative final to complete before our homeschool evaluation next week. 

John also participated in 3 math competitions with our math team but he was the only middle schooler this year. Next year, he can choose to join us at the area's high school math competitions. 

Science
It has often been easier for me to keep John and his older brother studying the same science topic because then they can do experiments together, so this year, I had both of them study chemistry.

John read and did most experiments from Sabbath Mood Homeschool Chemistry Part 1 [$23], Chemistry Part 2 [$23], and Chemistry Part 3 [$18.40 with Black Friday sale]. Which uses the book Wonders of Chemistry by A. Frederick Collins [purchased with Amazon giftcard] using the audio recorded by Nicole for her son for the first part of the book (available here) and then transitioning to reading it himself, and The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe by Theodore Gray [already owned 3 volume set purchased as a Christmas gift for John in 2024 for $10.59 at Ollie's].

I also purchased supplies for the labs including $97.51 from Home Science Tools (with a 15% off Fathers Day coupon) and another $20 for items from Target. I had the boys skip the experiments where the required materials exceeded $20+ for one experiment and replace them by completing their 3 remaining MEL science kits (2 experiments each) from a few years back which they received as a Christmas present. 

Because John did four math lessons per week and because we skipped a few optional lessons, he finished the three chemistry units before the end of the year. For the remainder of the year, he read and narrated the following books, most are more physics than chemistry:
Arts and Handicrafts
We studied three fine artists this year and I decided to reuse some materials from the beginning of my homeschool journey:
We studied three composers using Tillberry Table Guides plus her YouTube playlists bought during a 20% off black Friday sale. But we really only completed the first two. We will return to Beethoven next year. My discipline slips after Christmas in a big way and I need to plan better with that in mind. 
We followed the Ambleside Online folksong rotation this year using materials shared on the Ambleside Facebook page and a YouTube playlist. In past years, I would select our own folksongs but because two families at our Wild + Free group follow Ambleside it is nice to have the kids learning the the same songs. 

Everything Else
John continued to participate in our weekly nature group. He also continued with a robotics club that meets twice a month, where they build and compete with battle bots, and participated in 2 competitions. He also continued his once weekly Ninja class and played soccer in the fall. He opted to not participate in spring soccer bringing his AYSO soccer career to an end after many enjoyable years. 

He earned a Teen Hiker Award and also completed a 100-mile hiking fundraiser challenge. He did a 27-mile multi-day hike with his dad and now only needs another 11 miles to earn another Teen Hiker Award later in the year. He did some environmental related volunteering doing live stakes collection and a very strenuous tire clean up with the PA game commission. 

He is competing in our local middle school Envirothon competition tomorrow even though he didn't attend the regular meetings as a way to help form a team for the one middle-schooler who needed teammates in order to compete. He handles my mom's lawn maintenance with his older brother and also helps were will all kinds of things around the house. 

Next year John will be in 9th grade! I'm excited but nervous. Every child is so different and I feel a lot of responsibility to do a great job for him. I think I have some good ideas for his freshman year so far, but check in later and see what I plan with his input and buy in. 
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