The Whole Year: 8th Grade

Eighth grade, the whole year, on one shelf. Eighth grade is the last year before transcripts matter, and the best year to find out what your child can do when nobody is grading. This shelf is the year: algebra or pre-algebra depending on where they are, an English workbook that expects real essays, science and history in daily practice, the Big Fat Notebooks for every subject, and the books that treat a thirteen-year-old like a reader. About three hundred dollars, and you own every page.

How to use it: pick one math book, not three. Painless Algebra if they are ready; the pre-algebra notebook if they are not, and there is no shame in either. One lesson per subject, four days a week. The reading is the year's real work: Lord of the Flies, The Giver Quartet, the Hunger Games companion essays, Eragon and the rest of the Inheritance Cycle. Read Lord of the Flies with them, not just near them. An eighth grader who can argue about that book in writing is ready for high school.

Two more things: the custom full grade is where we build this same year around your actual child, and the $49 map is the first step of that. Not sure eighth grade is the right shelf? Five questions will tell you.