Subjects for 8th grade include skill areas of Math, Logic and Vocabulary and more general subjects of Bible, Reading, Writing, and Science. We’ll look at each of these in detail considering the goal of the subject study, particular methods, resources, and pacing of each task for the year. The idea is to determine what the student should learn in a given subject for the year. Then gather quality resources for the student to interact with. Next determine the specific interaction tasks and break these into manageable daily tasks. You should have a long list of daily tasks for the year for each subject. The daily lesson plan amounts to choosing several of these tasks, one for each subject combined with the day’s math and language arts lesson.
It sounds confusing but is not very difficult. For each subject, we’ll work through a plan for the entire year. Remember, you don’t need to plan the whole year before the start of the school year. Staying just a few weeks ahead of the student actually works better. You can alter your plan through the year depending on the student’s interests and needs. At the 8th grade level, your child is nearing the end of the process of changing from a child into a young adult, so a flexible plan is required. 8th grade begins the introduction to weightier matters of philosophy and appreciation of the arts. You must sense your child’s readiness for these before you jump in. No sense plowing ahead with logic or philosophy if your child has no sense of the importance of these. Of course, appreciation comes with familiarity so you should continue to work with these more “adult” topics throughout the year. Just be discerning about the pace and depth so that the child learns to truly love these subjects rather than dread them. A personal, individual, flexible approach you can “tune” as you go is the best option.