The Christopherus Curriculum: A Guide to 8th Grade

The goal in 8th grade, Rudolf Steiner made clear, is to bring the child up to the modern age in terms of knowledge of history, science and human culture. A tall order in Steiner’s day – and almost impossible in ours!

How exactly to fit all this in and how to structure your child’s 8th grade year at home depends largely on two factors: 1) what kind of schooling he will receive from 9th grade on and 2) what his interests are.

If your child is continuing at home into high school, then you can relax a bit and not worry about spilling over into 9th grade with, for instance, science. But if he’s going to school, you also need to be mindful of requirements that he needs to fulfill for high school. If, for instance, he has never had any formal grammar lessons at home, English at school could be a real shock. It is up to you and your child to plan and discuss 8th grade in the light of both the usual Waldorf curriculum and your child’s educational future.

And I’ll say “usual Waldorf curriculum” with a grain of salt. Please bear in mind that there is no usual Waldorf curriculum for 8th grade. Most of 8th grade is taken up by working on Platonic solids; fund-raising for the class trip; taking the class trip; a class play (often Shakespeare); and independent projects! Many schools (on top of this) also have classes preparing children for the various high schools they might attend – i.e. classes in “how to take tests” and so on.

Translate this to the homeschool situation and one can easily see the enormous variations which can exist from one homeschool to the next!

Rough Guide to Eighth Grade: Click to read more about our  downloadable guide.

 Although both the Waldorf Curriculum Overview and From Nature Stories to Natural Science are invaluable guides to Waldorf education throughout the 8 years of elementary school, it could well be that you feel it is unnecessary to purchase these if you are only homeschooling an 8th grader. However, we cannot deny that both these guides do have very useful information in them! And of course our  Seventh & Eighth Grade at home audio download is also crucial.

Please click here to read about our Christopherus Science Curriculum. As of January 2018 we have publications focused on physics and on earth science. From summer 2018 we should have further titles on astronomy and chemistry.

Please note that our science materials are sequential, each building upon earlier studies. So if you have not used our physics book, now is the time, before you move on to earth science, chemistry and astronomy.

Please also note that these last 3 titles are all written for students through 9th grade.

Further information about the Christopherus Curriculum

Click on the image or title to view detailed information about each publication and to purchase.