Middle School years

[Jkacz]

Im feeling a little overwhelmed and I'm hoping some of you veteran homeschooling moms can share some words of wisdom.

 

We school year round with a reduced load during summer so older DS just finished his 4th year of homeschooling (4th grade) and has started 5th grade. Some of the curriculum we have been using is winding to an end and I thought this summer would be a great opportunity to start looking at what I'm planning on using for the middle school years - specifically K12 world and American history, Pearson Concepts and Challenges in Science, and Foerster Algebra. Since I need them within the year, I purchased used copies so that I could look them over and see if they would fit.

 

Foerster seems incremental, similar to Math Mammoth, so I'm not worried about math. But history and science have me concerned. I don't doubt that I can lead the boys through them, but it's going to take a lot more preparation and effort. The books look great - very thorough and will fit the boys' schooling style. But they are SO much more advanced than when I was in middle school. I don't know if it's because my public education was poor or are expectations that much higher now than they were 30 years ago? I don't remember seeing some of this science material until high school, if at all. And history just seems so much more detailed than what I learned.

 

I know I have DH to help me, especially with science as he has a science background, but I'm just feeling a little inadequate. I didn't think I would start feeling like this until high school.

[Storygirl]

I haven't used the materials you mention, so my advice is general, not specific to those programs.

 

There are so many different history and science programs. Can you return what you have purchased and choose things that will be a better fit?

[Homebody2]

I'm also researching new science and history for mid 5th grade. Rereading the sections in The Well Trained Mind about science and history for the logic stage really helped me focus on the purpose of these subjects at this age. It also helped me refocus in order to find the right curriculum based on the skills I wanted my child to learn by studying these subjects.

 

The book lays out a very simple plan for science, with experiments one day, and analysis/report writing the second day.

 

The plan for history is very simple, too, and I like the way writing and history can be done together. I found History Odyssey will work for us.

 

http://www.pandiapress.com/publications

 

Again, I would stress deciding what you want your child to learn by studying these subjects and then plan accordingly. We are focusing on note taking, outlining, making a timeline, using the scientific method, and analyzing sources.

[deerforest]

Which K12 American and World history did you get? There is a 3-volume Human Odyssey set that's world history from ancients to modern aimed at the middle school ages, and are very approachable and appropriate for that age. They also have 2 other volumes aimed for the high school.

 

Middle school

• The Human Odyssey, Vol. 1: Prehistory Through the Middle Ages
• The Human Odyssey, Vol 2: Our Modern World, 1400-1914
• The Human Odyssey, Vol 3: From Modern Times to Our Contemporary Era

High school

• World History: The Human Odyssey (Spielvogel)
• The American Odyssey 

 

ETA: Our favorite for middle school was actually OUP, World in Ancient Times and the Middles Ages series. They don't cover most of modern or any contemporary history, though.

Edited June 25, 2017 by deerforest

[Farrar]

I'm not sure what you've been doing for schooling up to this point, but here are some thoughts that may or may not apply.

 

* Fifth grade isn't middle school yet in most places, and most fifth graders aren't doing algebra yet. Even though fifth grade is "logic stage" - it's not like an odometer suddenly turns over on September 1st of their fifth grade year and boom, they're in a new development stage. It's a gradual process. If you're using materials that are "middle school" then chances are that they're designed for kids a little older. Fifth and sixth grades are typically prep years to get into this stuff.

 

* The way we homeschool and the way textbooks are written is often pretty different. Schoolkids have been doing textbook learning for awhile. Your kids may be new to it. It's a skill in and of itself. Just diving in isn't something that has to happen. You can scaffold and prepare.

 

* Reading nonfiction is a skill that takes time to build and is different from reading fiction at a high level. Many kids need to back up in their nonfiction materials at this age in order to practice reading. It can be frustrating - both to the kids and to us as the parents - when you've been reading aloud really dense thinking stuff and seeing them get a lot out of it and suddenly they're reading things you think are relatively simple and you know they're good readers but they're just not getting it, to have to back up and read simpler materials. However, it happens to some kids. And that's normal and okay. And it's part of this age.

 

* Don't get too caught up in comparing with public schools. Some schools are great - others not so much. Standards have risen in many ways for the better since we were that age, but so has cheating and stress. IME, there's a good bit of false rigor going on even at the "good" schools. Focus on where your kids are and not whether the public school style books are too much for them. If you like the K12 materials and the Pearson books and all that and think they'll do well with them if you can get them prepared, then that's great, but if they turn out not to work, that's okay too. There are lots of good options out there, some of which are less textbook style.

[Jkacz]

Thank-you all for your replies. It's been a little over a week since I originally posted this and after reading everyone's replies and looking through the books more, I've started to feel a little better. To clarify, older DS has already started 5th grade this summer, and I'm looking at material we will need for his 6th grade year which starts in under a year. I think the material I've picked will fit the kids learning style and they will do well with it, it's just that I will have to learn the material and prep will require more effort by me. I have an MBA and a JD, I "should" be able to learn and teach middle school, right?

 

For history - it's the K12 middle school Human Odyssey books (vol 1 and 2) so "on grade level".. I picked up the K12 teacher and student guides to go along with them and will use them as a guideline for timing and comprehension. If all goes well with the middle school books, we would do American Odyssey in 8th. All the books seem do-able and my rising 4th grader (history and science lover) loved the American Odyssey book and begged me to read him more when he had a WW2 question and I wanted to see if he liked the book. My only concern here is that my history knowledge is abysmal and his questions are becoming more advanced. I think I just need to admit that I don't have all the answers and teach him to research the answers. Maybe that's a good thing?

 

My lack of science knowledge was my bigger worry. DH has his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and worked for years in a lab. He thought it was funny that I didn't know middle school science - until he looked through the actual textbooks. That's when he realized that he didn't learn some of the material until college. We both still like the feel of the program, though, and think the boys will do well with it. Both test well in science on the Stanfords and need a more challenging program. So DH and I have come up with a game plan - I will read the textbook with the boys and he will do labs and answer any questions that I don't know the answer to. He spent hours coming up with a supplies list from HomeScienceTools.com and seems excited to do this with the boys. Fingers crossed that it works out.

 

I think my struggle will be having to transition from teaching things I already know well to things I don't know completely or well. It was bound to happen, I just didn't think it would happen so soon.

[Farrar]

I think science is genuinely one of the arenas that has changed the most since we were kids in how it's approached and taught. I see books ostensibly aimed at elementary age kids that have concepts that are clearly not really understandable in a deeper way until you're in college or graduate school. But then, on the flip side, many schools do very, very little for science before high school. It's not tested and despite the big talk about STEM this and STEM that, it ends up getting the shrift. Or it gets replaced with technology, coding, and engineering, which is a different thing. High school science still starts at the beginning. I really wouldn't worry too much - it's still about exposure at this age, even in schools. If it helps you, look at the Next Gen Science Standards, which are currently the center of the conversation and have been adopted by a lot of states and textbook publishers:

https://www.nextgenscience.org/

 

I think you'll find that the content through the end of middle school really is stuff that you basically know. The wording is a little wonky with things like "use empirical evidence to show..." and "construct a scientific explanation of..." and things like that, but, say, look at the biology standards. But if you paraphrase, it's still stuff like living things are made of cells, environment affects how living things grow, describe the parts and functions of a cell, understand that the body is made of systems that are made up of groups of cells... It's probably mostly things you know or at least remember when you read them. So it's possible that you have a textbook that goes above and beyond.

[Ellie]

Honestly, I can't get worked up about science before high school level. IMHO, before then science should be enjoyable, very much interest led, primarily exposure, so that when the children get to biology, they'll be excited because they love science.

[Alice]

Thank-you all for your replies. It's been a little over a week since I originally posted this and after reading everyone's replies and looking through the books more, I've started to feel a little better. To clarify, older DS has already started 5th grade this summer, and I'm looking at material we will need for his 6th grade year which starts in under a year. I think the material I've picked will fit the kids learning style and they will do well with it, it's just that I will have to learn the material and prep will require more effort by me. I have an MBA and a JD, I "should" be able to learn and teach middle school, right?

 

For history - it's the K12 middle school Human Odyssey books (vol 1 and 2) so "on grade level".. I picked up the K12 teacher and student guides to go along with them and will use them as a guideline for timing and comprehension. If all goes well with the middle school books, we would do American Odyssey in 8th. All the books seem do-able and my rising 4th grader (history and science lover) loved the American Odyssey book and begged me to read him more when he had a WW2 question and I wanted to see if he liked the book. My only concern here is that my history knowledge is abysmal and his questions are becoming more advanced. I think I just need to admit that I don't have all the answers and teach him to research the answers. Maybe that's a good thing?

 

My lack of science knowledge was my bigger worry. DH has his undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and worked for years in a lab. He thought it was funny that I didn't know middle school science - until he looked through the actual textbooks. That's when he realized that he didn't learn some of the material until college. We both still like the feel of the program, though, and think the boys will do well with it. Both test well in science on the Stanfords and need a more challenging program. So DH and I have come up with a game plan - I will read the textbook with the boys and he will do labs and answer any questions that I don't know the answer to. He spent hours coming up with a supplies list from HomeScienceTools.com and seems excited to do this with the boys. Fingers crossed that it works out.

 

I think my struggle will be having to transition from teaching things I already know well to things I don't know completely or well. It was bound to happen, I just didn't think it would happen so soon.

 

:grouphug: Couple of thoughts...

 

As someone who also has had a lot of education and who has a dh with a good education, I have definitely felt the "Gosh, I have a MD, surely I can figure out middle school Subject X  or I'm a failure as a homeschooler." I do think it's absolutely fine and even a good thing to have subjects that you tell your kids you don't know as much about. I see part of the benefit of homeschooling as modeling life-long learning. A lot of subjects we learn together. This can be done badly, where a teacher is just unprepared and uses "go look it up yourself" as an excuse for their unpreparedness. Or it can be done well. "Hey, I don't know much about the causes of WWI. Let's find some books in the library and read about it." Then you show them how to research if they don't already know. I pre-read and prepare as much as possible but I find all the time that the kids have questions I don't know the answer to or that they learn more than me about something. As they have gotten older our homeschool has become a place where there is more discussion and less one-way teaching. They learn about a topic, I learn about a topic. I teach them. They teach me. They teach each other. Obviously, the 13 year old does more discussing and teaching than the 7year old but we all try to learn together. It's not unusual at our house for us to have a conversation at breakfast or dinner about something we've been learning and then someone get up and go look up more information in a book or online because none of know the answer. Done well, I think this makes a rich environment. I don't always do it well, but that's sort of the  ideal homeschool I work towards. 

 

I look at middle school as a transition period for the student and also for me. I thought about what skills I wanted my students to have when they went into high school rather than what content I wanted them to have.  My oldest is now a rising 9th grader and the difference between where he is as far as independent learning is leaps and bounds from where he was as a rising 6th grader. But it happened slowly. I am also much better at figuring out how to teach things that I know less about and how to be more of a facilitator than direct teacher. But it also happened slowly for me. 

[Jkacz]

Thank-you Farrar and Ellie for reminding me that science is cyclical. For some reason I was thinking that way about history but not science. And I'm sure that the terms the book is using weren't helping - I think I did see the phrase "empirical evidence", but there were silly, little things like calling a flowering plant an angiosperm. I never learned that. What I do like about the books is that each chapter is short (2 pages), begins by asking a question, then explains the answer and then seemed to give examples with hands on experiments / demonstrations. It doesn't integrate the sciences like the next generation science standards suggest but I know now to put in additional effort to tie it all together (thanks Farrar!)

 

Alice - I think you're right and I appreciate hearing about your experience. I did try modeling today. I was asked in the car while I was driving and had no access to (my friend) the Internet: "Mom, tell me more about D-day." My full extent of knowledge was "isn't that when the Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy?" To which he asked - "did they use bombs and what did it have to do with Paris?" After my moment of panic, I suggested we look it up when we got home - which we did. I will say the K12 history books do have great photos. It must have been "war" day, though, because that's when he started peppering me with questions about Syria. I'm glad they're asking questions, but, boy, is it getting tough.