S/O 3 is the new 5

[fdrinca]

While in grad school I would occasionally sub at a middle school. I thought it was insane. I really didn't understand at all what was happening there, until a teacher pointed out "puberty." Oh, yeah. 

 

Given all of today's distractions (social media at the forefront), and given the big classrooms of many middle schools, I can't imagine teaching more than the basics. And by "basics," I mean survival.

[sassenach]

I would be happy to invite you over. :).

 

My kids don't slow down during middle school. They typically have massive mental growth during middle school. They learn to do all the things you describe in the process of learning new material, not independently focused on those things.

I believe you, but that's a homeschool setting.  You can go with the ebb and flow of the kid, their moods, and capacity on any given day.  I was speaking to a brick and mortar setting.  Dd's school wasn't perfect, but I was happy with the balance they struck.

 

I've seen what happens to a kid who is pushed ahead in academics when they are developmentally not there yet.  My husband was an A math student till middle school, when they put him in Algebra in 7th grade.  I'm pretty convinced he was just not developmentally ready for it.  From that point forward, math was always a struggle for him.  Even as an adult, he's convinced he's not great at math.  He used to do all sorts of math in his previous career- he's good at it.  But pushing him forward instead of giving him the space to grow pretty much sank him.  My son is a replica of dh and I can see that if I wasn't in tune with where he's at, I could push him too fast. 

 

It's apples and airplanes, trying to match the best approach to middle school in a homeschool vs a public school.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

I was referring to those for the high school level. In the post I was referring to, you referred to middle school.

 

But.....no biggie. I was just curious about what great options were there for middle school bc I was genuinely wondering.

 

I see these as middle school options as well. It certainly depends on many factors.  :)

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Just wanted to add that for us the mantra of location, location, location has been true. I am certainly not saying there are great middle school opportunities everywhere that would be well-suited for every child. My point was simply that the reverse is not true--the idea that there are no great middle school opportunities for any children, in any location. :)

[JeanM]

I'm curious as to what sort of c0-op situations exist that offer superior opportunities?   I seriously have never seen one, so I am asking sincerely.

 

I'd say foreign language class. My 7th grader is doing some Spanish at home, but the supplement at his coop with a Spanish native speaker has been wonderful.

 

The other coop class that my dc have taken that I considered "superior" was essay writing. I'm a scientist and my dh is an engineer, so having someone else teach essay writing was really helpful. I think that was especially true because the person teaching the class was very well qualified and worked well with reluctant kids.

 

[Korrale]

I think drama and other performing classes, band, orchestra can not be replicated at home. Some cities have places where children can join a drama club. Some places, especially smaller towns, do not. Local school districts are the only places that children can get these opportunities.

 

What are people doing for science labs? Especially things like chemistry where access to equipment may seem essential?

[8filltheheart]

I'd say foreign language class. My 7th grader is doing some Spanish at home, but the supplement at his coop with a Spanish native speaker has been wonderful.

 

 

I  definitely can see that.   We have had great success using Skype for native speaker instruction.   Dd's Russian teacher is fabulous.   The advantage to doing it privately via Skype vs. a class is pace.   Dd was told yesterday that she has finished more than the equivalent of 1 1/2 yrs worth of instruction vs being kept back by the pace of a classroom.

 

I think drama and other performing classes, band, orchestra can not be replicated at home. Some cities have places where children can join a drama club. Some places, especially smaller towns, do not. Local school districts are the only places that children can get these opportunities.

 

What are people doing for science labs? Especially things like chemistry where access to equipment may seem essential?

 

I would categorize most of those as club vs. core.  My kids have participated in band.   Several homeschooling families contacted a small private school and asked if they would allow homeschoolers to join their band and they said yes.  

 

As far as chemistry labs, it is definitely not difficult to replicate at home.   I have had kids do both regular and AP chem at home.

[idnib]

When I was an adolescent my mother told me that teenage rebellion was an American marketing technique. (My parents are from SE Asia.) At the time I thought she was using that idea as a tool to manage my teenage years but I've come to realize it's pretty true. Having spent a fair amount of time myself in Asia, I have not seen the kinds of behaviors American parents often expect in their teenagers. When I was reaching adolescence, I heard so many times people saying something like, "Oh, she's 13, watch out!"

 

Which is not to say that kids in other countries don't have their moments.  :D  But I do think a lot of the urge to be more independent and adult is offset by actually giving kids lots of work and actual responsibility. Perhaps having an actual rite of passage helps as well. Taking kids who want to be independent and take on more adult roles, and treating them like babies, is a recipe for rebellion, I think. In my parents' country, teenagers do a lot of cooking, household chores, run the family shop, etc.

 

My kids are still young so I'm no expert, just saying what I've seen in other cultures.

[Korrale]

As far as chemistry labs, it is definitely not difficult to replicate at home. I have had kids do both regular and AP chem at home.

Good to know. :) I am almost a decade from this.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

What are people doing for science labs? Especially things like chemistry where access to equipment may seem essential?

 

Depending on where you live, community colleges, local universities, or science facilities may offer programs for middle school and up. Once again, it can be done at home, but for us this was an instance where the equipment available far surpasses what most people have access to at home. (If you have thousands of dollars of lab equipment at home, this may not apply to your situation. ;) )

 

Is it necessary?  No.

Is it a fantastic experience and opportunity? For us, yes.

[Korrale]

Having grown up in Australia and then moving to the US at 18 I have to say that there was a huge cultural difference about what was expected of a teen. I believe Australia is more like the US now but when I was a teen in high school we didn't have job, cars or really date. I would say about 90% of us graduated virgins, never did drugs, or attended a house party. The focus of those years was school. It was our main social outlet.

Being grounded was an American term. I, and many of my friends were never really able to be grounded because we didn't go anywhere. Nor could we! We were in a rural location and our parents driving us was the only option.

[Arcadia]

What are people doing for science labs? Especially things like chemistry where access to equipment may seem essential?

 

We have homeschool science classes around here from kindergarten and up.  There is enough demand for those.

While I am comfortable doing the labs at home, my condominium complex's HOA would be after my neck.  The HOA bylaws are so thick I'm too lazy to read everything to make sure I wouldn't be charge a penalty with breaking rules that I forgot to read. Besides my kids likes to do things in a group.

 

 

I  definitely can see that.   We have had great success using Skype for native speaker instruction.   Dd's Russian teacher is fabulous.   The advantage to doing it privately via Skype vs. a class is pace.   Dd was told yesterday that she has finished more than the equivalent of 1 1/2 yrs worth of instruction vs being kept back by the pace of a classroom.

 

 

My kids attend German school and also has a German tutor.  They actually progress faster in a group because they are still at the stage where peer competition is higher than intrinsic motivation.  They don't have that adrenaline rush for one-to-one tutoring yet.

 

ETA:

My 9 year old thrives on discussion.  The more people for him to bounce of ideas the more his eyes light up.

[8filltheheart]

Depending on where you live, local universities or other science facilities may offer programs for middle school and up. Once again, it can be done at home, but for us this was an instance where the equipment available far surpasses what most people have access to at home. (If you have thousands of dollars of lab equipment at home, this may not apply to your situation.)

 

Is it necessary? No.

Is it a fantastic experience and opportunity? For us, yes.

Just to assure parents that it does not cost thousands of dollars to do high school chemistry, this kit from Spectrum (which includes textbooks,etc) is $281 and there are over twice as many labs and better quality labs than are required for AP chem (which I think only required something like 12-14)

http://www.beginningspublishing.com/version2/spectruml.htm

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Just to assure parents that it does not cost thousands of dollars to do high school chemistry, this kit from Spectrum (which includes textbooks,etc) is $281 and there are over twice as many labs and better quality labs than are required for AP chem (which I think only required something like 12-14)

http://www.beginningspublishing.com/version2/spectruml.htm

 

I hope I didn't give that impression-- it certainly wasn't my intent. I even stated it wasn't necessary. My intent was to encourage those that are interested to seek out opportunities that might be available above and beyond.

[shawthorne44]

Spectrum sounds pretty impressive.  12-14 labs sounds about like the number of labs I did in freshman chem at a major 4-year university.  

[Dmmetler]

In our area, there are very few secular/academic coops for elementary age kids. However, lots of coops and outside classes are available starting around age 10-12. So, some of what you are seeing is probably parents needing a break from their kids and kids needing a break from their parents to interact with kids their age. But, a lot of it could just be due to the increased opportunities that available starting at that age. You could argue which direction cause and effect goes here. I don't have the impression that sudden increased demand is the driving issue. The ease of structuring classes and greater maturity and independence seem to be more important.

 

In my area, it's not co-ops at this age. Co-ops seem to stop at about 5th grade.  At middle school, though, is where there are at least a half-dozen tutorials with paid teachers that will take your middle or high school student a couple of days a week, give them a full menu of classes, and then give them assignments all week, at a quite high price, especially given the number of the tutorials that use video-based instruction. It really seems quite atypical in my area to get to 6th grade and NOT either send your child to a group setting a couple of days a week (or send them to PS for middle school) and that seems to be where the middle school age group makes most of their social connections for outside activities.

 

I don't think they're higher quality than what a parent can do at home (and they'd be a poor fit for my DD in almost every case because she's so asynchronous in her development.)-just that the status quo locally seems to be to use them.