Not In Kansas Anymore
I belong to a homeschool group with a very active email loop where we share info and ideas. One of the moms sent out a message today asking for help thinking through "middle school" with her daughter. She wanted to know how it looked different than the elementary years. Well, I thought that was an interesting question, one that I cannot fully answer as we have not yet completed this phase... but as we are smack in the middle of it, I could make a few observations. After I got done writing it, I thought I'd post the message here too. That way hopefully more of you who are surviving (or have survived) homeschooling for middle school can join in the conversation.
How Middle School is Different from the Early Years
1) We are less hands-on and more book-focused. I require more reading and more writing of my 7th grader than I do of his younger siblings. And since we do a number of outside classes with assignments given to him, I've discovered that he is far, far more capable of a greater volume of work than I had realized.
2) He can go deeper into a subject than I would go with an elementary student. So we can talk about why things happened instead of just what happened. It's funny - you can almost "see" the capacity for abstract thinking as it develops, just like you used to be able to see it when they were toddlers and were almost ready to walk. There are lots of false starts, and then they start "getting it."
3) If you haven't used them before, this is a good time to introduce textbooks. Not for every subject, certainly - we still use a lot of living books. But one good thing I have discovered about textbooks is that you can use their organizational format to help your middle-schooler learn outlining. In one of my son's classes he has to make an outline of every history chapter he reads. He looks through the chapter at the major headings and then the subheadings to create the outline. It's a nice, easy introduction to outlining because it's done for you - the model is right there in the chapter. Later, I'll expect him to be able to outline material without subheadings, but since he's had lots of practice where it's been given to him, I'm hoping it will make more sense.
4) There is more independence - my son does the majority of his work in his room, away from the rest of us, where it is quiet. I can give him an assignment and then he can go away and do it. But he still needs regular help. I sit down with him at least once a day with one or more subjects. Sometimes it's a math concept that he can't comprehend from just the textbook... sometimes he needs help thinking through a writing assignment. It's easy for me to forget that he still needs my guidance, but he does.
Oh yeah, and one more thing - he sleeps a lot. This is the kid who used to wake me up every day at 6:30 until he got tall enough to reach the breakfast cereal on his own. Now, he does not get up before 10:00 a.m. unless I ignite explosives under his bed. I figure, though, that this too shall pass - probably when summer arrives and waking up means not having to do school!
How Middle School is Different from the Early Years
1) We are less hands-on and more book-focused. I require more reading and more writing of my 7th grader than I do of his younger siblings. And since we do a number of outside classes with assignments given to him, I've discovered that he is far, far more capable of a greater volume of work than I had realized.
2) He can go deeper into a subject than I would go with an elementary student. So we can talk about why things happened instead of just what happened. It's funny - you can almost "see" the capacity for abstract thinking as it develops, just like you used to be able to see it when they were toddlers and were almost ready to walk. There are lots of false starts, and then they start "getting it."
3) If you haven't used them before, this is a good time to introduce textbooks. Not for every subject, certainly - we still use a lot of living books. But one good thing I have discovered about textbooks is that you can use their organizational format to help your middle-schooler learn outlining. In one of my son's classes he has to make an outline of every history chapter he reads. He looks through the chapter at the major headings and then the subheadings to create the outline. It's a nice, easy introduction to outlining because it's done for you - the model is right there in the chapter. Later, I'll expect him to be able to outline material without subheadings, but since he's had lots of practice where it's been given to him, I'm hoping it will make more sense.
4) There is more independence - my son does the majority of his work in his room, away from the rest of us, where it is quiet. I can give him an assignment and then he can go away and do it. But he still needs regular help. I sit down with him at least once a day with one or more subjects. Sometimes it's a math concept that he can't comprehend from just the textbook... sometimes he needs help thinking through a writing assignment. It's easy for me to forget that he still needs my guidance, but he does.
Oh yeah, and one more thing - he sleeps a lot. This is the kid who used to wake me up every day at 6:30 until he got tall enough to reach the breakfast cereal on his own. Now, he does not get up before 10:00 a.m. unless I ignite explosives under his bed. I figure, though, that this too shall pass - probably when summer arrives and waking up means not having to do school!
posted by Mamabird @ 4:09 PM
1 Comments:
At 7:32 PM,
Anonymous said…
Karen, I'm learning lots and lots from you- keep sharing! Don't have immediate plans to make use of it, but lots to chew on. Hey, have you read the article on public/home/private school in ByFaith, the PCA mag? It's in the current one- I'd love to know your take. I have some thoughts, myself.
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