This is my 9th year of homeschooling! Last year, when Jefferson was in 8th grade, he informed me that he wanted to go to public high school. All of my relaxed, meandering, unschooling-but-not-unparenting educational ideals screeched to a halt, replaced by a drive to get this boy fully educated before he went to the local high school and stopped learning altogether.

I’d only have him at home for one last year of homeschool, when I had expected to guide him for five more years. I didn’t pack his 8th grade year with a ton of schoolwork, but that was my first impulse! There are certain things I expect my kids to know to be fully functioning adults, things they will not learn at a public or private high school. Those things worth knowing are what we worked on.

Until Jefferson’s 8th grade year, I had never assigned my kids a book to read; they read tons of books on their own (both great and lame) and we read classic literature together. But for my “Old Fashioned 8th Grade Education” curriculum I did assign four books to Jefferson—and I even forced him to write a summary of each chapter. He balked at that, since he knows I don’t believe in gobbledygook like Close Reading and the ridiculous Accelerated Reading program—or even book reports, really. But, since he is about five years too young to have a vested interest in following the advice in the books, I wanted to make sure he wasn’t just skimming.

I think he was surprised that he really enjoyed all of the books! He’s already found ways to apply many concepts to his own life, and he’s even helping me a lot, reminding me to use the precepts from How To Win Friends and Influence People when I get passionate (read: fly off the handle) about something silly.

This post includes affiliate links to Amazon so you can save them to your Wishlist for reference, but you can get all of these books for FREE at your local library!

Here are the four books everybody should read by 8th grade to cover personal development—have you read them all?