10 Best 8th Grade Curriculum: A Complete Guide for Home & School

When on the lookout for an 8th-grade curriculum program, it can be a little challenging to find the best one for your child. So, to make your life a little easier, here’s a review of the 10 best 8th grade curriculum programs, so you can decide for yourself which one best suits your child’s needs.

So, without further ado, let’s dive right in.

Top 10 Eighth Grade Curriculum & Resources

1. Positive Action Grade 8 Kit

The Positive Action Grade 8 Kit is one of the best kits out there to get your children through the 8th grade. Because it starts with a quick review of the 7th grade throughout the first three units, the student will quickly get into a rhythm of learning.

After the review, the students dive right into the eighth grade from units 4 to 6, where students are taught identity, image, and impression.

This 8th-grade kit includes 83 scripted lessons, each lesson is about 15 to 20 minutes long, but it’s recommended to spend up to 25 minutes for some lessons as they could be a bit long. It also includes a number of booklets, colorful posters, journals, and certificates of completion to encourage your students to study more.

What’s more, one of the best things about this kit is that it’s suitable for schoolers and homeschoolers alike.

2. Oak Meadow Grade 8 Curriculum

The Oak Meadow Grade 8 Curriculum focuses on four topics: Civics, English, Science, and Math. So, let’s talk about each one of these subjects in more detail.

First of all, the Civics curriculum teaches students about government systems, economics, and the champions of freedom. Also, students are encouraged to explore national issues and meet community leaders.

After that, the English curriculum pays great attention to grammar and composition. Additionally, the students have writing assignments to help with their creative writing skills using the included 100 Ways to Improve Your Composition and Creative Writing booklet.

As for the Science curriculum, it’s mostly focused on Physical Science. That includes forces, mass, energy, and mechanics. Instead of just reading about science, students are encouraged to do their own experiments and observe the results themselves.

Lastly, the Math curriculum makes learning Algebra easier than ever, especially for many homeschoolers.

3. SONLIGHT 8th Grade Curriculum

With the SONLIGHT 8th Grade Curriculum, you’ll have daily lesson plans and notes, so you don’t have to plan ahead for anything. This 8th-grade program is perfect for busy mothers with homeschooled children who need a pre-planned program that doesn’t take much effort from the parent.

The SONLIGHT homeschool curriculum program comes with instructor’s guides to help you through the 36-week lessons. It also comes with history reading, where the eighth-grader will learn about the stories of the greatest scientists.

Literature-wise, you have two types of lessons: Read-Aloud lessons where you’ll be reading for the students and Readers where the students should read alone.

It’s worth mentioning that the history and literature curriculums also integrate Bible reading and memorization lessons.

The Language Arts curriculum uses what your child is learning from other subjects and integrates that into creative writing assignments. The student will also be learning Science and Math topics like Physics and Algebra.

4. Time for Learning 8th Grade Curriculum

As online learning gains more and more popularity, the Time for Learning 8th Grade Curriculum is perfect for all homeschoolers who prefer e-learning.

Because this 8th-grade program is a computer-based homeschool curriculum, the student can start the lessons at any time of the day, so they can choose to learn when they’re feeling the most productive.

Also, it’s self-paced, so if the student is having a difficult time with one particular lesson, you can allocate more time for it. Besides, that heavily encourages independent learning among eighth-graders.

This can also be useful for schoolers because you can use this program as a supplement for afterschool skill-building or throughout the summer to keep them engaged.

The student will learn proportional relationships, linear inequalities, and conditional probabilities in the Math curriculum. While in the Language Arts curriculum, they’ll learn writing and grammar.

Moreover, the Social Studies curriculum includes ancient world history, economics and government, world cultures, and U.S. history. Lastly, the Science curriculum covers chemical properties and chemical reactions, atomic theory, the periodic table, and energy transformation.

5. BJU Press Grade 8 With Books

BJU Press Grade 8 program is another excellent e-learning homeschooling approach for many parents and for students who like to learn at their own pace. Also, BJU does all the progress tracking for the parent, so you can log in and see how your kid is doing.

By default, the homeschool curriculum program comes with four core courses, so let’s talk about each of those. Firstly, the American Republic course follows the chronological development of the U.S from a Christian spiritual point of view.

Secondly, the English course focuses on writing and grammar on the one hand. But, on the other hand, it also focuses on Literature and literary themes from a Christian perspective. As for the Pre-Algebra course, the students learn about linear equations, fractions, decimals, and more.

Lastly, the Earth Science course focuses on geology, fossils, oceanography, atmosphere, astronomy, and the solar system.

6. ACE Comprehensive Curriculum (6 Subjects) Grade 8 Kit

ACE stands for Accelerated Christian Education, so you can already guess that their programs heavily integrate biblical principles.

This 8th-grade program includes Pace and Key workbooks; here’s how learning should go. Students should go through the ’pace’ workbooks at their own speed. They should also complete the exercises and a final test to make sure they understood everything in the workbooks.

They’ll also need to use the ’key’ workbooks, which include exercises and test answers, to assess their solutions. With this ACE Curriculum, the student will learn six different subjects: Maths, English, Social Studies, Science, Literature, and Word Building.

This is one of the most affordable programs on the list, so if you’re on the budget, but you still want to integrate a spiritual perspective in your kid’s learning journey, this is the way to go.

7. Moving Beyond the Page Age 12 -14 Full-Year Package

Moving Beyond the Page is an excellent eighth-grade level curriculum program for all homeschoolers around the U.S. simply because it has everything a student needs.

If you purchase the package, you’ll also get free access to the online curriculum for 18 months. That way, you’ll be able to reprint activity pages if the student needs to redo them, have access to an online curriculum book, and more.

With this 8th grade program, the student will learn three main subjects. Firstly, Language Arts teaches the students all about vocabulary, grammar, writing, and story elements. Secondly, the Science curriculum includes chemical reaction, energy and matter, biochemistry, and even genetics.

The third and last subject is Social Studies, and it focuses on geography, world history, American history, governments, and cultures. That includes topics like the Civil War, World War II, civil rights, laws, and more.

8. Calvert 8th Grade Home Curriculum

With the Calvert 8th Grade Home Curriculum, the student will learn all about four main subjects: Language Arts, Math, Science, and History and Geography.

First of all, Language Arts explores literature and the works of various writers throughout history, including classic and contemporary literature pieces. This subject also improves the student’s writing and reading skills.

The second subject is Math, and Calvert takes a unique approach to this subject. They describe and teach Math as a language with conventions. They also include real-life applications so that the student can get a better grasp of the topic at hand.

As for Science, the students will learn about atoms and the atomic structure of elements, geology, oceanography, earth science, galaxies, and astronomy.

Lastly, History and Geography as a subject covers a lot of different topics. Those topics include American Independence, the U.S history in terms of political and economic changes, the World Wars, and the Civil War.

9. Power Homeschool 8th Grade Program

Using the Acellus Learning System, Power Homeschool’s eighth-grade program guarantees that each student gets the best learning experience possible to make sure that nothing is left misunderstood.

As a parent, you’ll have access to reports of your child’s progress. Also, you’ll get notified if your child is struggling with a problem so that you can guide them through it.

The Powerhouse Homeschool curriculum program’s courses include topics like algebraic expressions, comprehension and writing skills, geography, American history, and ancient civilizations.

On top of that, you can choose one of the following: life, earth, or physical science courses. That way, your child can choose whichever course they’re most interested in.

If your child loves languages and cultures, you can choose between French, German, and Spanish courses to get your child started with a new foreign language.

10. Master Books 8th Grade - Basic 4 Subject Set

Master Books offers a basic four-subject curriculum over a 36-week plan. It only covers the core subjects, which are Language Arts, Math, Science, and History. The plan also covers a daily study schedule, printable worksheets, quizzes, and answer keys.

The Math curriculum prepares the student for high school with the Pre-Algebra course while integrating a biblical perspective. As for the Language Arts curriculum, your child’s writing skills will be greatly improved by learning how to develop a narrative voice, characters, and compelling arguments.

The History curriculum covers the Age of Explorers to teach students about world wars, revolutions, and more historical events.

Lastly, the Science curriculum also takes a biblical perspective to support the biblical account of creation through basic Science and Physics.

What Is Taught in 8th Grade?

The 8th grade is one of the most important school years a student can go through. Here’s everything that’s taught in the eighth grade.

Math

It goes without saying that Math is a crucial topic that every student needs to learn. With Math, there’s always more to learn and more advanced routes to take. Also, eighth-grade Math prepares the students for high school.

Eighth grade Math covers geometry-based topics like parallelism, perpendicularity, and the Pythagoras theorem. It also includes Algebra topics like linear equations and expressions, decimals, percentages, square roots, irrational numbers, and more.

Science

Eighth grade Science covers a lot of different topics. Let’s start with Physics; an eighth-grader will learn all about forces, energies, and waves. There’s also Earth Science that includes topics like geology, oceanography, the Earth’s surface, and more.

More Science topics include Biology, Genetics, Fossils, Chemistry, Engineering practices, and units and measurements.

Social Studies

Social Studies includes Geography, Economics, Civics, and History. So, let’s discuss each topic in depth.

Geography topics include learning about the colonies and some select countries around the world. Additionally, Economics and Civics both cover the changes that the U.S. has gone through in terms of economic and political changes.

Moreover, History includes both U.S. and World History, covering topics like the Civil War, both World Wars, the Great Depression, ancient civilizations, and more.

Language Arts

Language Arts focus on expanding the student’s vocabulary and grammar. That includes learning the roots of words and the difference between synonyms and antonyms.

This subject also includes improving the students’ comprehension skills in terms of summarizing paragraphs and extracting information from texts.

Creative Writing and Spelling

Lastly, Creative Writing and Spelling is self-explanatory. The subject focuses on developing the student’s creative writing skills through teaching them how to build a narrative for a story, different story elements, and character building. Moreover, students should be able to recognize the theme and idea of a story.

It also improves the students’ spelling skills by constant reading assignments, teaching them spelling rules and origins of words, and more. The reading assignments explore reading classic and contemporary pieces of literature, poems, and informational articles that’ll also improve their comprehension skills.

Final Words

Now that you know how important the 8th grade school year is in a student’s academic track, you should be able to pick the best eighth-grade curriculum programs, whether your kid is a schooler or homeschooled. Still, to make your decision a little easier, here’s a quick recap of our top pick.

The top pick is the Positive Action Grade 8 Kit. This kit starts with a review of 7th-grade topics to get the student more familiar with the curriculum. It includes many different lessons, booklets, journals, and certificates when they complete exercises that’ll surely make the children want to study more.

Besides, the Positive Action Grade 8 Kit is suitable for both schoolers and homeschoolers, so you can always find a way to incorporate its exercise into the student’s daily schedule and studies.