Middle school isn’t a season to fear or hurry past, but it is a critical juncture in homeschooling. At this level, academic expectations increase while the coursework becomes more challenging.
Here are a few tips to help you develop a schedule that works for you and your family. Remember, you are not trying to recreate the traditional school environment within your home, but you are creating a personal and effective learning opportunity.
Develop a weekly plan with your student. Teach them goal setting as you (initially) plan the week together. What are the subjects? I recommend 4 key academic subjects – English (blend the history with the readings), Math, Science, and a Foreign Language. What are the essential learning goals for each subject that week? For instance, read 100 pages/5 – 6 chapters of a novel and create a comprehensive outline, set of notes, or writing rough draft; complete a Math Unit; 2 Sciences chapters and 1 experiment that supports the learning. If those tasks are completed, then it is a big win. Let your student choose what to do when.
Middle schoolers need to have input within the broader homeschool structure that you create. The more they contribute, the more likely they are to follow the plan.
Teach your student realistic scheduling: choose a consistent daily start time; build in focused study blocks and review blocks as well as a “catch-up” block; post test and project deadlines, and mark down “Look How Far You Come” moments because middle school is a marathon, not a sprint!
Have them color-code the chart and post it in their designated area.
They don’t need a minute-by-minute schedule, but rather a weekly map with a clear starting point and a desired destination. Create clear expectations, provide necessary supplies, and set up a dedicated space to study.
Let them choose the order of their school day – if it doesn’t work, restructure it the next week. After a little bit of trial and error, you and your student will find an order that flows.
Remember, structure provides security while choice encourages maturity.
Spend 10 minutes at the start of each school week to review the previous week – what worked and where were the glitches. Help your student try to fix the problem areas because we humans tend to repeat our errors. What were the favorite times? What slowed the progress? Those ten minutes spent together in an honest assessment of the week can empower your student with a proactive and thoughtful mindset as well as confidence for the coming week.
Encourage your students to “tackle the essentials first” —teach them the power of meeting the tougher assignments while fresh and rested. How valuable an asset is the modeled experience of focusing on the truly important. Procrastination is a crippling habit, and whether it is based on fear, time distortion, or “overwhelm”, students can be
taught to overcome this unproductive behavior. Procrastination is often misunderstood as idleness or defiance. But in reality, procrastination is a response to discomfort—emotional, mental, or cognitive triggers from assignments that the student perceives as
- Overwhelming
- Unclear
- Emotionally risky
- Too difficult to start
STEP 1:Recognize that procrastination is typically not laziness, disobedience, a lack of intelligence, a failure to focus, or a moral shortcoming. It is a coping behavior to avoid discomfort, an action that you do not want to become your student’s habit.
STEP 2:Have a quick chat and help your student to identify their hesitation (too big, too hard, too long, too scary, too confusing…), and then re-design the task. Break it into smaller tasks or chunks. (I’ll do a procrastination and writing blurb later)
STEP 3:Model for your student the ways to break up a big project into smaller parts. Figure out the first small step and have your student work on it for only 10 minutes. Set a timer and go! Give a short break and tackle another small task. Your student will soon have conquered the large project.
No Fear Middle School Scheduling: Simple Planning for Busy Moms is led by Doc H and will be available here!
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