Homeschooling Middle School, Drama Free!

I have talked to countless moms who say their experiences in middle school are partly why they choose to homeschool. Middle school can be a confusing, overwhelming, and sometimes painful time. Fortunately, homeschooling middle school allows us to mitigate some of this. This is a transitional season between childhood and young adulthood. Today we’ll talk about whys to make it a delight!

How old are most Middle Schoolers?
7th graders are usually 12-13 years old & 8th graders are usually 13-14 years old.

Typical Academic Ability for Middle Schoolers

May want to plan and take ownership over a lot of their schooling and scheduling.
We highly encourage this!
Complete most work independently but may still need some help/ enjoy working with you- friend learners will especially enjoy working with someone else.
School day is about 4 hours with lots of time left to explore their interests.
Can comfortably read independently.

Math abilities-
Solid knowledge of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
May still need assistance with long division and may not yet know all their multiplication facts.
Becoming more comfortable with fractions, decimals, and percents.
Can solve word problems.
Accurately count out money/ give back change.
Basic understanding of geometry.
Working on how to follow a receipt and convert to different amounts.
Can begin to focus on the math skills they’ll need in their everyday life.

Language & Grammar skills
Can appropriately use slang & metaphor.
Know most of the basic parts of speech.
Can write a short composition.
Some kids will still do best dictating to you and having you write or drawing instead of doing much writing.
Most are competent spellers for high frequency words and can sound things out w/ relative accuracy for other words.
Can give a good retelling/narration either verbally or in writing of what they’ve read.
Handwriting still needs to be practiced and lots of kids this age are working on cursive.
Copywork is still important & helpful.

Can be a challenging age as they move towards more independence and yet still need their parents.

Remember– This blog series is based on the average level for the grade/age. The bell curve is extremely important to remember throughout this series. Some children will fall outside of this average. We’re homeschooling middle school for a reason- so we can customize our children’s education to their unique academic level and needs.

Middle School Developmental Milestones

At this age, lots of kids get serious about their majors and developing the skills & knowledge they need for their future & may even start a business. This is also the age where families start focusing more on Life Skills and the tools they’ll need in adulthood.

Kids this age often have deep friendships, are passionate about pursuing their interests, and not as interested in traditional “play” anymore. Socially they understand body language, nuance, jokes, sarcasm, and puns more. Though these skills will continue to develop through adolescence. They may want to spend lots of time on sports, crafts, hobbies, and other activities. It’s not unusual for middle schoolers to spend hours perfecting something they’re learning about or working on a new skill.

Hormones are shifting intensely during these years. Some kids are fully in puberty by now and should have a good understanding of the changes they are/will go through and what puberty is. They’re often much more physically mature than mentally/emotionally- which can throw parents for a loop! Emotions can be wild and intense!!! Coordination, balance, and the way their body moves may be awkward/clunky like toddlerhood. Some may want to start dating (!) or have boy/girl friends.

Students at this age w/ learning disabilities, special needs, and learning differences are aware of their unique abilities. It’s an important time to help them see their super powers and unique gifting while also finding ways to help them develop a love of learning. This can be especially true for kids coming out of public school who may need a season of deschooling before doing much school work.

Middle Schoolers are notorious for questioning things more. They are wired to no longer take things at face value. This is a stage of rapid brain growth and you’ll see that in the questions they ask. Many like to start in debate at this age.

Let your Middle School students deep dive into their interests

Common Challenges Homeschooling Middle School & Tips to Overcome Them

Have a student who is sometimes spacey, distractible, or seems obsessed with something?
It’s 100% normal at this age. We jokingly call it the “Brain Dead Stage.”

Students who want to rush through or skip their work-
Check out this post for tips!

Students who have no idea what they want to major in–
This post should help.

Students at this age may get overwhelmed or shut down with too many choices-
Try combining multiple subjects into one study. This is a good age for unit studies and in-depth journals.

Tips from Middle School Moms

E.A. says- “Give them more freedom, let them make more choices and give them more responsibility for their learning—they will rise to the occasion I have found that my middle school boys don’t love all the coloring….so we skip that, 1 loves the mazes, the other doesn’t so do what they like…that’s ok middle school is a hard time of child one day/teen the next and they sometimes want to do “little kid” things and then the next day “that’s for babies” sometimes it is hard to keep up lots of prayers, lots of conversations and lots of hugs (if that’s is ok today )”

R.P. says- “One thing I’ve noticed with my middle schoolers is giving them the freedom to choose their learning/projects based off interests. One of mine strongly dislikes math but is super passionate about horses so we incorporated math in with the horse thinking tree book (measurement, calculating fence posts vs length needed etc) it’s made a big difference. I may request a presentation but it doesn’t have to be a written paper, sure make it a PowerPoint& verbal presentation “

L.G.- “My middle schoolers (grades 7 & like to do a combination of Fun schooling Journals, online Unit Studies or online courses in their majors. We also regularly incorporate games and movies as part of their learning. They like to get out of the house a couple times a week for library events, as well. I find variety works well for them. For Math they like Life of Fred, but we are taking a break and doing Kitten Math, a super fun book that uses practical math skills. The kids pretend they are fostering kittens. They all beg to do this book so it’s definitely worth a break from their regular math curriculum. They are also having fun learning Latin and Greek roots as a card game. I love teaching vocabulary through roots, as it gives them so much decoding ability when it comes to new and unfamiliar words. Mostly, I follow Sarah’s excellent advice and allow them to focus on their passions.”

S.H.- At this age, I feel like it’s especially important to keep prioritizing relationships over academics. Let them sleep. Let them eat good food (ALL of the food ). Let them take the reins as they grow & mature, and give them the freedom, the gift of time, to grow into the young man or woman God intended them to be. It’s a time to expose them to all sorts of different things & unique experiences so that they may discover their passions & dive into them fully.

We hope this helps you feel more prepared as you’re homeschooling your middle schooler.
Check out our post with the most popular journals for this age to plan your Fun-School Middle School.