8th Grade Literature – Must Reads?

Christie – Yes, Makayla read Animal Farm this year and liked it.  Thought it was weird too.  I thought about Jane Austen.  I’ll have to see if she’s interested in doing LOTR yet.

Sheraz – For some reason I remember not liking the Belgariad, something inappropriate maturity wise maybe?  I don’t remember the details, I read it in my teens.  We will probably do Prelude to Glory the next time she hits Early American History!  It sounds good!

Sue – I don’t have a specific number of books or pages in mind yet.  Makayla reads a lot and quickly, so to be honest I could assign her a book a week and she would still manage to read other books around it.  I’m NOT doing that though.  At the moment I’m thinking of assigning 8-12.  Last year I gave her a literature list and she read most of them over the summer. We also will approach her literature list 2 ways.  Some I want her to read just because the book is worth reading.  Some we will both read and have a discussion of (Teaching the Classics style).  I think 1 book per month to month and a half would be fine, or more or less!  I’m just really flexible. 

I’ll be tackling my 4th grader’s list next and he’s the opposite of Makayla, a very slow reader.  His list will be shorter for reading himself, so I’ll be sure to read aloud or have audio books for any more books I would like him to hear/be exposed to for this grade.  Then there is my 3rd grader who reads faster than her brother and really enjoys reading, so she’ll have more books. And under them is the 1st grader who has probably read 30 chapter books in the last year and a half. He’s one I have to keep in books but I also have to be sure they’re age/interest appropriate.

It’s always a balancing act to match the child to the book list because of the difference in reading ability, comprehension, and plain old interest!

Retrofam- I’ll try to explain.  We have books we read aloud or independently for history/geography (next year I’ve created this World Geography and Cultures plan).  For science my 8th grader will do Apologia’s Physical Science while younger children will use God’s Design for Science plus library books for reading/exploring.  We do a family read aloud book or two at a time (one is for our homeschool book club each month, one could be from the SCM literature list or any other book we want to read together).  Then each child who can read has a list of literature for independent reading.  These don’t have to be history or science related, they’re just great literature.  With 8 children I simply cannot read aloud all the wonderful books I would like to the kids, hence they do some of the reading themselves.  I’m not sure what you would choose as ‘books for personal development’?  The other main reading done here is scripture (both as a family and individually). 

My children’s school day is over by lunch other than reading a bit in quiet time.  They have the entire afternoon and evening for handicrafts, time outside, and exploring their own interests, which usually includes more reading. 

Does that make sense or help?  What ages do you have?  I have four children who don’t read on their own yet in addition to the four readers who get literature lists.  For these younger children I read books to them, older children may snuggle up and read to them, etc.  As they get to the point where they can read independently they will start having an independent literature list to read from as well.