A Complete 8th Grade Homeschool Curriculum You’ll Want to Use

What exactly is a complete 8th grade homeschool curriculum? It’s a term that homeschoolers use when all of the curricula they need for the school year comes from one company, often in one large box. It’s also called an all-in-one or boxed curriculum.

Instead of buying your science, history, and language arts curriculum from three different companies, you make a single purchase and everything comes together in one package, from one publisher.

These can be huge time-savers for homeschooling parents because all of the books and lessons are included for every major school subject. By using the teacher guides to layout your weekly plans, you save hours of lesson planning time.

A stack of books that come in BookShark's level 8 curriculum, box of science supplies, laminated folded map, teen girl peeking over stack.

As a BookShark Brand Ambassador, I received a copy of their level 8 program in exchange for monthly reviews. All opinions expressed are mine – my disclosure policy.

Complete 8th Grade Homeschool Curriculum

To be honest, I haven’t always been a huge fan of boxed curriculum. When I started homeschooling, this type of program was full of rigid lesson plans and boring textbooks. Very different from how I wanted to homeschool.

Since I’ve been getting more questions about this type of curriculum, I felt it was time to revisit the subject of all-in-one programs. Luckily, they’ve come a long way over the years.

BookShark is a company whose literature-based approach to learning is similar to mine, so I knew it would be a good fit. It’s full of quality living books and hands-on projects, two things I believe every middle school home school should include.

I decided to take a deep look at the ins and outs of their Level 8 All-Subject Package

BookShark Curriculum

BookShark uses levels rather than grades, so although I’m talking about using this with your 8th grader, it works for teens who are 13-15 years old – a 7th-10th-grade range. I love this because you can fit the curriculum to your child instead of the other way around.

Plus, it can easily be used with multiple children within the same age range.

Included in this package are all of the books and supplies your teen will need for the school year, complete teacher’s guides, and year-long detailed lesson plans for each subject. 

History

As a part of history, teens will study the history of science. Lessons revolve around Aristotle, Newton, and Einstein and the major contributions these great men made to society.

Along with The Story of Science, students will spend time reading literature highlighting key scientific events that affected our world. They will add key people and inventions to a spiral-bound timeline while also mapping out locations on the included map. 

Language Arts

During language arts, teens immerse themselves in works of literature, including classics and Newbery Award winners. Using these books, they will learn how to write using a variety of essay styles, including persuasive, narrative, expository, and character analysis.

They can also choose a topic of interest to complete a research project.

Math

For math, kids spend the year working through Math-U-See’s Algebra 1 program, using the textbook and helpful manipulatives.

Science

Throughout the year they’ll study physics, electromagnetism, and waves.

The science lessons tie into history and the concepts are further reinforced by practical, hands-on projects.

Every week, teens will work to complete a fun science experiment relating to a famous invention or discovery. A huge plus to this program is the fact that almost everything students need is found in the supplies kit.

Self Paced Homeschool Curriculum

If you follow the plan set by BookShark, the program can be completed in 36 weeks, using a 4-day schedule. If that works for you, great, use it as is. If it doesn’t, change it to fit your needs. That’s the beauty of homeschooling, regardless of what program you use.

Now that your kids are older, I would highly encourage you to involve them when you are scheduling out this curriculum. It’s their education and it is important they take some responsibility for it. 

Together, sit down and decide which assignments your teens will complete. Then, take a look at your family calendar to see how many days (and hours) you have available in the coming week.

Our family has always taken an easygoing approach to our school days. Often my girls did school on a weekend day if we wanted to hit Disney on a less crowded weekday. Or they would plan an afternoon of school if we were seeing a play in the morning.

Give yourself permission to be flexible.

Once you know when you’ll be doing school and what assignments you want your teens to complete, your kids can plug the appropriate lesson plans into their planner. Take the corresponding pages out of your large teacher binder and put them in a smaller binder for your teen.

Then, let them follow the plan.

Middle school is the perfect time to let go of the reins a bit. And because this complete 8th grade homeschool curriculum comes with detailed, easy to follow lesson plans for each subject, it’s a great way to start encouraging older kids to work independently, giving them valuable life skills practice. 

Teen girl sitting in cardboard box, reading a science book. Large blue binder with BookShark, folded laminated map, and 3 literature books in front of it on the floor. White text reads boxed curriculum for teens.

Should You Use BookShark

Is this all-in-one curriculum right for you? In reality, you’re the only person who can answer that.

But, knowing that BookShark does all of the “heaving lifting” for parents, saving both time and energy, it is the perfect choice for:

  • brand new homeschoolers
  • busy families
  • homeschooling families who want secular materials (BookShark is a secular publisher)
  • kids who enjoy a literature-based approach to learning
  • moms who want to spend fewer hours building lesson plans
  • parents looking to give more responsibility to their teens
  • those schooling close, but different grades together

If you fit into any of these, I think this program will fulfill your 8th-grade homeschool needs.

As a busy mom of teens, save yourself the stress of buying different curriculums for every subject and time creating multiple lesson plans and take a look at this complete curriculum.

As I mentioned, I’ll be sharing all kinds of things with you that I discover about this program over the next few months. I hope you’ll join me as I check out this awesome curriculum for young teens.

What excites you most about using this middle school homeschool curriculum?

Megan Zechman
I love homeschooling! Learning is a way of life for our family. Most days you will find us exploring our Central Florida community, having fun while learning. I am constantly looking for new and interactive ways to engage my older children.
Megan Zechman
Megan Zechman
Megan Zechman

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