Curriculum by grade › 8th Grade › History & Social Studies

8th Grade homeschool history curriculum

All 36 weeks of 8th grade history, planned and ready, with the exact topic for every week below. Start with Week 1 free, no card needed.

Open the free Week 1 lesson See plans

How 8th grade history works

History is taught from primary sources: students read real documents, letters, and speeches, then analyze who wrote them and why.

Time: about 40–50 minutes a day
Scores go straight to the gradebook and report card
Print any lesson as a worksheet with an answer key
Parent tools: hours log, weekly report, portfolio
Family plan: up to 4 students, each with their own records

The full 36-week scope & sequence

Topics and standards come straight from the live course. Standards codes are listed for reference; Life Academy is built to help meet homeschool requirements in all 50 states.

Quarter 1 (weeks 1–9)

Week	Topic	Standards
1	How historians work: chronology, geography, and a cited source	C3 D2.His.1.8
2	Indigenous nations and European claims — the land was not empty	D2.Geo.2.6-8
3	Colonial America: regions, labor systems, and Atlantic slavery	D2.His.10.6-8
4	Road to Revolution: imperial reform, taxes, and ideas of rights	C3 D2.Geo.4.6-8
5	War for Independence (1775–1783): military and diplomatic facts	D2.Eco.1.6-8
6	Declaration of Independence (1776): philosophy and a bill of charges	D2.His.14.6-8
7	State constitutions and the Articles of Confederation — what failed	C3 D2.His.1.6-8
8	Philadelphia 1787: a new frame — separation of powers, federalism, republic	D2.His.4.6-8
9	Ratification: Federalist and Anti-Federalist arguments in their words	D2.Civ.3.6-8

Quarter 2 (weeks 10–18)

Week	Topic	Standards
10	Bill of Rights (1791): what the first ten amendments actually say	C3 D2.His.14.6-8
11	Federal vs state powers: Article I §8 and the Tenth Amendment	D2.His.1.6-8
12	Washington through Adams: precedents, parties, and 1800	C3 D2.Civ.3.6-8
13	Jefferson, Louisiana (1803), and the contradiction of slavery in a republic	C3 D2.His.10.6-8
14	Market revolution, democracy of white men, and those excluded	D2.Civ.10.6-8
15	Indian Removal as written U.S. policy — documents, not a sports story	CCSS RH.6-8.6
16	Reform: abolition, women's rights, religious revivals — campaigns with texts	C3 D2.Civ.8.6-8
17	Sectional crisis 1840s–1850s: territories, law, and violence	CCSS RH.6-8.4
18	Midyear: Constitution-to-1860 document battery	C3 D2.Civ.4.6-8

Quarter 3 (weeks 19–27)

Week	Topic	Standards
19	Secession and Civil War (1861–1865): Union, slavery, and turning points	D2.Civ.8.6-8
20	Lincoln documents: First Inaugural, Emancipation, Gettysburg, Second Inaugural	D2.Civ.2.6-8
21	Reconstruction amendments 13, 14, 15 — citizenship and its enemies	D2.His.12.6-8
22	The Gilded Age: industry, cities, inequality, and party machines	D4.1.6-8
23	Immigration, nativism, and Jim Crow as legal regimes	CCSS RH.6-8.9
24	Progressives and the expanding federal role — statutes you can name	D2.Civ.13.6-8
25	U.S. as a world power: 1898, WWI, and the failed League fight	C3 D2.Civ.1.6-8
26	Depression, New Deal programs, and arguments about them (multi-view)	D2.Civ.5.6-8
27	World War II: strategy, production, and incarceration at home	D4.7.6-8

Quarter 4 (weeks 28–36)

Week	Topic	Standards
28	Cold War: containment, Korea, nuclear fact, and domestic fear	D2.Civ.4.6-8
29	Civil Rights movement: legal strategy, nonviolence, and federal power	D2.Civ.6.6-8
30	1965–1980: Vietnam, rights revolutions, and backlash (survey)	D2.His.16.6-8
31	Citizenship beyond a test: how to read a law, a budget, and a ballot	CCSS SL.8.4
32	State and local government deep: who taxes, who polices, who schools
33	Primary anthology: 8 documents from Constitution to Civil Rights
34	Thematic essay: liberty and union, 1776–1877, with citations
35	Oral defense: Tenth Amendment vs a listed federal power
36	Constitution-to-Civil-Rights document defense (credit evidence)

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Same grade: 8th Grade math · 8th Grade English · 8th Grade science

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FAQ

Is this 8th grade history curriculum free?

Week 1 is free with no card needed: open the Week 1 history lesson. Weeks 2–36 unlock with a Student plan ($35/month) or a Family plan for up to 4 students ($69/month).

How long is a 8th grade history lesson?

Plan on about 40–50 minutes a day for history. There is one lesson per week of the school year, broken into short daily steps.

Is Life Academy accredited?

No. Life Academy is not accredited. It's built to help meet homeschool requirements in all 50 states, and parents are the school of record. Why that's usually fine.

Can I print it?

Yes. Every lesson prints as a worksheet with a separate parent answer key.

Life Academy is a parent-directed online K–12 curriculum, built to help meet homeschool requirements in all 50 states. It is not accredited, and parents issue the homeschool transcript. Nothing here is legal advice. Check your state's law at HSLDA. Questions? Email david.dukes77102@gmail.com.