What's Covered in Age 8-10
The Age 8-10 curriculum is a comprehensive, literature-based homeschool program that thoroughly covers science, social studies, language arts, and math. It provides everything needed for an exceptional homeschooling year, including meticulously crafted daily lesson plans, an extensive collection of literature, and the most complete materials kits available. Typically used as a fourth-grade homeschool curriculum, this level ensures a well-rounded and engaging educational experience.
And that’s why our literature-based language arts curriculum is centered around rich, engaging stories. Each year, your child will explore twelve thoughtfully selected literature units, featuring eleven novels and a diverse collection of short stories. These books are carefully chosen to foster a love of reading while teaching language arts skills.
11 novels and a book of Native American short stories
Writing Takes Practice
Your child will experience significant growth in her writing abilities this year. Each of our twelve literature units is paired with a major writing assignment that builds on her current skills. While starting the year with the ability to independently write a structured paragraph, she will progress to crafting multiple paragraphs on a single topic. These assignments are carefully designed to develop key writing skills, such as generating compelling ideas, mastering grammar, finding her unique voice, and making thoughtful word choices. Examples of the writing assignments your child will encounter include:
- Personal letters
- Business letters
- Speeches
- Descriptive paragraphs
- Persuasive arguments
- Short stories
- Newspaper articles
- Poetry
- A book chapter
Our Age 8-10 curriculum takes your child on an exciting journey through earth science and physics, truly bringing learning Beyond the Page. We begin with carefully selected literature that sparks curiosity and lays the foundation for hands-on exploration.
5 books that investigate rocks and minerals, electricity, animal adaptations, and force and motion
From there, your child will dive into experiments and activities that make science tangible and unforgettable. She’ll explore a variety of topics through activities such as:
- Testing different types of soil and plant growing conditions
- Practicing outdoor composting techniques
- Creating ecosystems in jars
- Experimenting with magnets, magnetic fields, and shields
- Investigating electric conductors, insulators, batteries, and motors
- Exploring friction, forces, and launching a balloon rocket
- Examining the properties of rocks and the dynamics of airplane wings
- Using shortening and ice water to understand polar bear adaptations
- Building simple machines like wedges, planes, screws, and pulleys
Our unique materials kits, included with the curriculum, contain hundreds of items designed to make these hands-on activities both fun and easy. These kits are unlike anything you've ever purchased, ensuring that your child’s scientific exploration is as engaging as it is educational.
Semester 1 Science Kit
Semester 2 Science Kit
Social Studies Should be Eye-Opening
At this level, Social Studies introduces your child to a range of new and exciting topics, including early explorers, Native Americans, civics, and the diverse cultures of Africa, Asia, and Europe. The extensive reading your child will do as a part of this curriculum will lay a strong foundation for understanding these subjects.
5 books related to the early history of the Americas and the US Government
9 books that explore the geography, culture, and traditional stories from other lands
To make these topics come alive, your child will participate in a variety of hands-on projects and activities, such as:
- Square dancing with friends, creating lasting memories while learning about American traditions
- Hosting a pioneer dinner for your family, experiencing the challenges and joys of early American settlers
- Crafting a quilt with squares representing countries across Asia, connecting with the continent's rich cultural heritage
- Making a nutcracker inspired by European traditions
- Building a compass using a sewing needle and cork, exploring the tools of early explorers
- Playing a world explorers card game, reinforcing their knowledge of historical figures in a fun and interactive way
These activities not only deepen your child's understanding of social studies but also make learning an enjoyable and immersive experience.
Math is made real when it's understood conceptually, and there's no better way to achieve this than through manipulatives and games. These tools help your child visualize and interact with math in a tangible way, making complex concepts more accessible and engaging. This year, your child will master place value up to 1,000,000, tackle multi-digit multiplication and division, and explore fractions, decimals, geometry, and measurement.
To reinforce these concepts, she'll also dive into a variety of carefully selected books that complement her math learning, ensuring a well-rounded and enriching experience.
5 books that explore place value, fractions, and geometry
Language Arts Prerequisites
- Able to read and comprehend chapter books at a 4th or 5th grade reading level
- Able to write an organized paragraph
- Usually used by children in fourth grade
Math
- Can add and subtract four-digit numbers
- Able to multiply fluently within 100
- Can identify, create, and compare simple fractions
- Able to explain and find perimeter and area of simple polygons
- Usually used by children in the fourth grade
Interdisciplinary Curriculum
Beyond the Page integrates language arts with science and social studies from preschool through middle school.
Each day, your child will complete three lessons.
- One lesson in language arts,
- One in science or social studies (these alternate every three weeks), and
- One in math.
Language arts is presented in the form of literature units that center your child's language arts learning around interesting stories and characters. Rather than giving children a series of random, unrelated activities, all of the writing assignments, grammar lessons, and vocabulary are integrated into these unit studies. This creates a more cohesive experience, and we find that kids are more engaged when they’re writing about stories and characters that interest them.
Social studies and science are tied in thematically with the language arts units. For example, when children study Native Americans in social studies, they will be reading a book that relates a story of interactions between early American settlers and Native Americans. When they are learning about simple machines in science, they read a story that shows the use of these tools by a race of genetically modified rodents. As students learn about the cultures of Asia, Europe, and Africa, they will be reading stories from those cultures.
See a complete list of the units and how they line up.
Beyond Standards
Because all lessons are based on state and national standards, you can be confident your child will learn all of the necessary skills for his age. Your child will also be challenged to read and write at a higher level.
What Else Do I Need?
Many children at this level are ready to begin learning cursive handwriting. Beyond the Page does not teach cursive handwriting, so if this is something you want at this level, you will need to add a cursive handwriting program.
The Age 8-10 Full Year Curriculum Package covers science, social studies, language arts, and math.
