12 Surefire Ways to Prepare Your Middle School students for High School

I remember driving my middle school son and his friend to another friend’s house. They entertained themselves during the drive by each trying to lick their own elbows. Yet, this is the time we need to prepare our middle school students for high school!

Middle School children are unique, to say the least! They’re bouncing back and forth from childhood to pre-adolescence. Their hormones are raging, they can be emotional, impulsive, and moody.

Yet at the same time, we know a lot of positive developmental changes are also taking place.

These are big changes! So although it’s a little overwhelming, now is the time to be guiding and helping your children develop their growing abilities.

This is the third post in a short series about preparing your middle school child for high school. 

In case you missed it, the first post shows you how to teach your home-educated middle school child to work independently.

The second post talks about the best teaching methods to take advantage of your middle school child’s developing mental abilities. 

And this third post summarizes prior ideas and adds several others to create a nuts and bolts list of practical things you can do to prepare your middle school child for high school.

Sometimes as a busy homeschool mom, you don’t have the time to study the theory of things—you want a list of things you need to do, right?!

So keep reading for a list of 13 practical things you can do to prepare your middle school child for high school.

1. Help your growing and maturing middle school students to get enough sleep, drink enough water, and learn the importance of nutrition.

I know, this seems a little irrelevant to high school. But it really isn’t. This is the time you are planting seeds for your middle school children to take up the reins of their own lives. You’re training them to start making small decisions for themselves. Wise decisions.

Of course, these are things that you’ll have to demonstrate, talk about, and sometimes have to point out what the benefits/consequences of not doing these things. This is most effective when you’re seeing these benefits or consequences.

“Yes, I bet it IS hard to concentrate. When I eat a lot of carbs and not enough proteins, I lose steam, too.”

You’ll expect your middle school child to be more independent in high school, so helping him or her develop these basic habits during middle school will prepare your middle school child for high school and adult life.

2. To prepare your middle school students for high school, practice basic life skills.

Middle school children are at a pivotal point in their lives. If you haven’t already, it’s time to teach your middle school children to take responsibility for themselves. For example:

I’m sure you’ve had your children do chores and contribute to the household all along. But, it’s time to up the stakes! Middle school students can learn how to cook, do yard work, and clean the house and the car without needing badgering.

The goal is that your middle school students be able to do many of the things you do on a regular basis.

Your goal is not only to bring your kids’ home education to life, but we also want to show them what it takes to have a happy, thriving home. So teach them the life skills they need to make that happen.

3. Give your middle school students plenty of face time.

Talk to your kids about what they are doing. About their friends, what they’re reading about, and about their likes and dislikes. If you have a boy, particularly, who isn’t a talker, this is what you do:

Let him teach you about something he’s interested in! For example:

Building a bridge with your son doesn’t keep you from ever dealing with the inevitable pubescent angst– but it does give you common ground.

Once you’ve built the common ground, let it grow deeper. Share what you are learning about, what God is teaching you, what you’re interested in, what you are doing at work, what you are reading…etc.

Continue to solidify your relationship by having plenty of face time with your middle school child.

4. To prepare your middle school students for high school and beyond, start teaching them how to research and evaluate.

Continue teaching your middle school student how to (safely) research online and use a dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, atlas, and map. Send him to the reference librarian at your public library every now and then with questions to find the answers to.

And as your middle school children research, teach them the need for and how to evaluate the resources they find. Have them ask:

Keep in mind, this analytical ability is forming during middle school. Your middle schooler may not quite be ready in sixth grade for this kind of critical thinking quite yet.

5. Read like crazy.

Make sure YOU are reading frequently in front of your children.

Model and help your students learn to pursue their interests by seeking books on those subjects.

Provide time in your homeschool routine for pleasure reading every day. Even choosing books beneath their reading level is fine for free reading. It will still help all of your children build reading fluency.

Reading well is one of the most important skills your child can learn and will take your middle school child far!

6. Prepare your middle school students for high school by helping them make connections.

Experts say that learning takes place when we connect new information to what we already know. Here’s an example of how to do this.

You say, “The Roman Empire lasted about a thousand years. That is a long time! Let’s compare that to how long the United States has been in existence.”

Then, do the math: “If we take this year and subtract 1776 from it… how long has the United States been in existence?

And voila — the light bulb goes on. Your kids suddenly have an appreciation for how long the Roman Empire lasted now that they can compare that information with what they already know about the U.S.

Helping your middle school child make these kind of connections is priceless.

7. Learning = Writing

Have your kids write about the history, science, people, events, and books they are reading. If you have a writer that has a hard time getting started, talk with him a bit about the subject first. Let him tell you what he knows and what he found informative or interesting, just to “prime the pump.”

Even have your children write about how to do a math problem, especially if they are stuck somewhere. Being able to write the steps to solve an algebraic equation is the best way to find out where your child is getting mixed up!

Also, have your younger middle school child write about how to do something, like make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. (Then you make it following the directions. This is usually not only hysterical, but eye-opening for your student and a fantastic exercise in writing clear directions.)

Additionally, have your middle school students write reviews of books, movies, plays, and music. Encourage journaling, writing letters to grandparents, pen-pals, servicemen and women, and thank you notes.

Your middle schoolers will not only learn from writing themselves. They will also learn much from reading and hearing excellent children’s literature. The grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and exposure to thoughtful ideas will teach your middle school child so much!

Look for a literature-based homeschool curriculum both to teach writing and history, science, and language arts. Not only is this a more engaging way to learn, great books are more memorable and learning sticks. Extra points for using a literature-based curriculum that integrates subjects.

Why is that, you ask?

Because researchers have discovered that integrating subjects is a more natural way to learn. Our brains are wired that way! 

8. Prepare your middle school students for high school by teaching them how to take notes.

Writing while listening is an acquired skill that takes a great deal of practice (and is still difficult for some children who have fine-motor issues). Have your middle school students start practicing taking notes from sermons, oral instructions, books, and from non-fiction movies/videos.

Extra bonus: science research says that when we write something down, we remember it better than using a keyboard.

Taking notes is incredibly useful to learn before high school begins and will also be a leg up on college.  So now is the time to practice, practice, practice to prepare your middle school child for high school.   

9. Continue to have your Middle School students practice oral and written narration.

Teach your middle schoolers to tell you about what read and hear. Have them tell you about something they watched on TV, or about they experienced at a museum or on another outing. Do this regularly, especially if this is a new practice to you. Read more about how to teach narration if you could use some pointers.

With practice, they’ll become much better at organizing and clearly sharing their thoughts and remembering details.

Why?

Narration improves your middle school child’s ability to assimilate and remember information. Huge! Additionally, written and oral narration will help prepare your middle schoolers for the more academic writing required in high school.

10. Teach your middle schoolers to keyboard if they haven’t learned already.

Keyboarding is another acquired skill that pays great dividends, especially for reluctant writers. Learning how to use a computer now if your child hasn’t already, will save time and effort in high school and beyond. 

One of mine took a simple two week summer course in keyboarding at a local community college. He was introduced to a broad range of skills and got a snazzy workbook that helped him so much through high school and college.

11. Prepare your middle school students for life by teaching them to be World Citizens.

Give your students a headstart on more advanced geography studies by regularly incorporating them into your day. Look on a map/globe to see where your friends/relatives/missionaries live or are traveling. Make praying for missionaries all over the world a regular thing, always checking on a map where the people group you’re praying for live.

Even better, put a large world map on the wall and put a pushpin in it showing where you’ve prayed for people and where an event you read or heard about is taking place. Look up and map out where Christians are persecuted, where there are current military struggles, where wars or natural disasters occur, and pray for the people involved.

12. Move your middle school students to think beyond themselves.

In addition to thinking more globally, practice helping your middle school students look around him and see where they can be useful.

Ensure your children, especially your middle school and high school children, are involved in serving others. Begin with your own family, your church, and your community. You don’t want to wait until high school to instill this value!

There’s nothing more unappealing to a possible employer than an entitled attitude in a young person (or a person of any age, really) seeking a job. Serving in a soup kitchen, doing community clean up, helping watch a sick mom’s kids, mowing an elderly neighbor’s yard, etc., will give your children perspective on this that they won’t be able to get anywhere else.

13. Encourage, encourage, encourage

Along with tendency self-absorption (although we all tend to have this to some degree), this age group often experiences a lot of self-doubt.

Make sure your middle schooler knows that you’re his biggest fan!

Here are tips for there are active things you can say and do to help your children to believe in themselves.

You’ll be surprised to learn how much you say and do affects your children’s confidence! That article also shows you the benefits of teaching your middle schooler to work hard to learn or accomplish things.  This effort pays huge dividends on self-confidence and even can make his brain bigger!

If you work now to prepare your middle school child for high school, you’ll have a much easier time teaching high school, and your students will find it easier to move on to college and to life beyond.

*The first article of the series:  Preparing Your Middle Schoolers for High School – Part 1 – What Are His Goals….Really?

The second article of the series: Preparing Your Middle Schoolers for High School – Part 2 – Taking Advantage of the Intellectual Growth Curve