Curriculum Round-up: Patience/8th grade

So, our school year is in full swing now.  It's hard to believe that September is almost over already!

Patience is in 8th grade this year. Here are the curriculum choices that we made.

Science: I love, love, love the Jeannie Fulbright "Exploring Creation" series.  Patience might be considered a little bit old to be using this, but when I saw that Jeannie had come out with a "Chemistry & Physics" book, I knew Patience would love it.  And she'll learn a ton, and hopefully have a leg up when it's actually time for Chemistry and Physics in high school (if she takes those!).

Last year we used 'Human Anatomy & Physiology', and she loved it.  She also loved using the Notebooking Journal, so I got her one for this year as well. It was back ordered, so she just started working on science about 2 weeks ago.  So far, so good!

Math...ah, the bane of Patience's existence.  Not because she CAN'T do it, she just doesn't love it.  We switched her over to Math-U-See a couple of years ago, and she's still playing a bit of catch up.  We're hoping she can breeze through this book, and start on Pre-Algebra this year.

For history and grammar, we decided to go with Accelerated Christian Education's PACES.  As some of you know, I attended an ACE school myself, so I'm familiar with the format.  Social Studies is covering American history (which she's done before, but doesn't remember a lot).  I do like using PACES, because so much of the work is done independently.

The English PACES are reinforcing a lot of the grammar she had last year, which is excellent. Practice makes perfect!

I decided to throw in some geography this year.  The Trail Guide to U.S. Geography goes along great with her Social Studies work.  We're learning about 1-2 states per week, and Patience and I work on this together.

Of course, we're still involved with our co-op.  The kids love seeing their friends every week!  I'm teaching the junior high literature class this year, and Patience is one of my students.  These are the books that we'll be reading during the year:

The Black Stallion

The Hiding Place

Where the Red Fern Grows

White Fang

The Phantom Tollbooth

I write the curriculum for this myself, which is quite a bit of work, but I do love teaching the class. We're focusing on elements of a story, vocabulary, and reading comprehension.

Patience is also taking a Drama class and an Art class at the co-op.  She's also still taking piano lessons--she's in her 5th year of taking those.

I think we're going to have a great year of learning!