Homeschooling Middle School: 7 Questions to Ask First

Felice has homeschooled five children, and she made most of these mistakes first. This episode is about sixth, seventh, and eighth grade — the years most of us spend bracing for high school instead of using.

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The mistake almost everyone makes. We look ahead to ninth grade and panic: they’ll need X, Y, and Z in case they go back to a traditional school. Felice did it too, and she calls it a disservice. Middle school is the last long stretch of unhurried time you get. High school fills up fast — and once it does, there’s no room left for a kid to find out what he loves.

What blocks of unstructured time uncovered. Give a child a block of time every day and watch what he reaches for. Annie photographed bugs, and later a real camera. Michael taught himself lighting and stop-motion on an iPad mini (their house doesn’t hand out phones early). Nicholas replaced a stripped gear in Felice’s stand mixer for an $8 part — “parts were $20, labor was $75” — and now keeps the family’s antique diesel truck running while working alongside his contractor dad. Christina started writing novels with her mom at 12 and was published at 16. None of that came out of a curriculum.

Then, seven questions to answer before you plan the year:

1. Where are you headed — vocational track or college track? Felice had one of each at the same time. Her oldest felt like a failure because algebra wouldn’t stick, when what he actually needed was money math: loans, debt, net worth, how to open a checking account. Years later, when his college-bound cousin came for the summer, it was the “vocational” son who walked him into the bank and set up his account. (If you have a child who’s struggling with a subject, this one’s for you.)
2. What is your child’s gifting? Not another activity — a block of time. That’s how you find out.
3. What method are you actually using now? Textbooks and workbooks, Charlotte Mason, classical, unit studies, eclectic, unschooling. A hands-on family can outgrow hands-on somewhere around seventh grade. That’s normal, not failure.
4. What curriculum? Christian or secular, workbook or textbook, unit studies, live online classes, video or DVD courses — and how much of it your student can carry on his own.
5. What might they actually do all day? Start shadowing now, not in eleventh grade. Begin at church: who’s a doctor, a lawyer, a contractor, a plumber, an electrician, a store manager? Half a day with an orthopedic surgeon ended one boy’s medical plans. One visit to a diesel shop ended her son’s plans to be a mechanic — he kept the skill and dropped the career. Ruling things out is progress.
6. SAT and ACT prep — yes, in middle school. Felice’s regret: her fourth child crammed for it in one summer between travel ball games, and it was miserable. Michael started at 13 and walked into the PSAT calm.
7. Co-ops — and whether you want one. Three times a week, once a week, once a month; they change constantly. Felice burned out on them by middle school, and teaching co-op biology turned out to be a very different job than teaching her own kid biology. The test is simple: what actually serves your children this year?

One thread worth pulling all year: money. A debt-free unit, net worth on paper, a savings account now and a checking account in high school. Felice’s take — we skip this and then wonder why everyone’s in debt.

Also mentioned: Felice’s own six-week video classes in creation science, creation anatomy, and creation astronomy, plus the government/elections and American history courses taught by her brother-in-law, an American history professor of the year — all at mediaangels.com · Jean Burke’s test-prep work at College Prep Genius.

Vintage Homeschool Moms is hosted by Felice Gerwitz and is part of the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network. This episode is brought to you by CTC Math — ctcmath.com. Find more from Felice at mediaangels.com.