The 8th grade plan assumes the student has completed the 7th grade plan. This is not necessary since, as mentioned elsewhere, the idea of hard stops between grades is the wrong approach. You can easily pick up in the middle of the 7th grade plan for a child who is of “8th grade” age. But the 7th grade plan sets the stage for what the 8th grade plan continues. Our 8th grade plan schedule starts with the child in the middle of Algebra 1 and nearing completion of Introductory Logic. Again, this shows the flexibility of the plans, but someone starting our system with the 8th grade plan would need to review the 7th grade plan to understand how these subjects are taught in their entirety.
The 8th grade plan assumes the student covered an overview of World History in 6th grade and American History in 7th grade. 8th grade History has no specific curriculum but consists of reading good challenging books across a variety of subjects and time periods and writing essays on these readings. The purpose is to turn the student back to a broad perspective of world events after the more focused study of U.S. History in 7th grade.
Mathematically, the student should have completed pre-algebra in 7th grade. Logic should have been introduced in 7th grade. Skills in outlining and essay writing are widely used in 7th grade so the 8th grade student should handle these easily.