I've had the best success teaching station 8 this way:
Start at 1; shoot a few L1's. Then, take a few steps towards 8, and repeat. Continue like this, breaking targets successfully before taking a few more steps. By the time you get to 8, you'll be "on"! I did this with my son, who had never shot skeet before, and he was succussfully breaking targets on 8 within a box of shells. Repeat from 7.
I agree with the philosophy of shooting it as much like a passing shot as possible, rather an an "overhead" shot. As a right-hander, when shooting H8, I point my toes directly north, the high-house on my left and the low house on my right, and wind up to my hold point. My hold point is "2 feet out, 3 feet up" from the lower right corner of the window. For L8, my toes are pointed to the low house. Hold point is just "2 feet out" for this one.
