The Layers of Learning Podcast with Karen and Michelle is here to help you get your whole family learning together in your homeschool. We are the sisters behind Layers of Learning. We love getting together to chat about homeschooling and this podcast is just a series of our chats. We’re inviting you to listen in on our conversations.

We both have big families, but we teach almost all of our school subjects to everyone at once. We want to help you find the joy in that too, so we talk a lot about family homeschooling. To see all of our episodes, visit our Layers of Learning Podcast Page. Join us as we explore how to have a happy, hands-on, family-style homeschool.

In this podcast episode, Karen and Michelle talk about teaching in the middle grades. Middle school is that in-between period where kids aren’t quite learning at a high school level but are beyond the simple, elementary school years. Listen in as we discuss what it looks like to homeschool in the in-between years and also some tips for helping kids prepare for high school. Beyond your kids using the middle grades to prepare for higher learning, you’ll also be preparing yourself, as the mentor, for higher learning. The middle grades are actually are favorite age to teach because most kids still have the enthusiasm for learning and fu projects, but also the maturity to be able to handle deep conversations and some independent work.

• Benefits of teaching in the middle grades
  
  
• Building on the knowledge they have and making connections
  
  
• Continuing read-alouds
  
  
• Your main job is to scaffold middle grades kids in reading, writing, and thinking
  
  
• Fostering independence
  
  
• Teaching kids to use planners more independently.
  
  
• Middle school kids can begin to apply the six traits of writing and begin learning bigger spelling and vocabulary words
  
  
• Watching the news and discussing current events
  
  
• Learning to see the world through other peoples’ experiences
  
  
• Begin true experimentation and making predictions in science
  
  
• Discussing art and relating it to events and causes
  
  
• Layers of Learning and accreditation
  

The post Episode 71: Middle Grades in Homeschool appeared first on Layers of Learning.