Hannah has six weeks of 8th grade under her belt. This core is called History of Science. Most of her ‘history books’ are less historical fiction than our previous years as she is learning about Aristotle and Archimedes etc. So her readers this year are a study of different fiction selections. Both sets have been pretty fun so far. I actually laughed out loud during a part of one of her books on the history of geometry!
Since she is a working lady now, she is doing almost all her work independently. I’m just there to help with questions and make sure she has all the supplies for her science experiments. I think this will go a long way to preparing her for starting some dual credit classes next year.
For bible, Hannah still participates in our morning devotions. We are doing some catch up on some Rangers and Girl’s Ministries materials that different children need. Then she does her own devotion time and school readings after that. She is reading a book called Disappointment with God and she is finishing up her bible reading merit. She still has memory passages and does well on those.
History is focused on the people who have made science what it is today. Her ‘spines’ for year is a set of books called the story of science. Her first one is The Story of Science: Aristotle Leads the Way. She also read a book called String, Straightedge, and Shadow and Archimedes and the Door of Science. She is assigned to write a short report on a current event each week.
I’m a little bit sad to not be reading to her out loud anymore. But I’m trying to read her books when she is done with them so I know what all she is learning and can help with her other assignments. This unit she read Holes, The Thief, A Ring of Endless Light, The Gammage Cup, and Going Solo. She started a missionary book about Ida Scudder. She also read selections from National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry for her poetry fix each week.
In language Hannah has vocabulary with Wordly Wise 3000, Book 8, cursive practice, and a creative assignment each week.
Since her whole year is about science, she doesn’t have any separate science reading and her experiments are aligned with what she has been studying that week. Those have been pretty fun. She made a rubber band car, an Archimedes screw, a hydraulic lift, and a couple others.
Hannah is doing Horizons Pre-Algebra this year. She is doing fairly well. I realized after a couple weeks that we didn’t have the extra worksheets or tests, so I had to get that ordered. She does better with a little bit more practice, so the worksheets have been a good addition for her.
Extras are what makes homeschool fun. Hannah finished up her junior high volleyball career in early October. She played as the setter most of the time but I’m hoping she will get moved around more next year. We are considering putting her in some league/skills training in the spring. She has weekly karate and girl’s ministries activities. She got to be in the parade and onstage at Founder’s Day with her dojo. She is our worship leader at church so she practices and picks the songs for each week. And she is just pretty much all around awesome and helpful for all the other events/activities I dream up. We had visits from Gram and Grandpa and Grandma Diltz this unit as well as a trip to Bandera to help with yard work. 🙂 I think 8th grade is going great!