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Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Reflecting Back on Middle School Home School




Dear friends,

 This reflection is bittersweet for me since I officially retired from home schooling this year. I haven't posted on this blog in a few years, and I think this will be my last entry here. I do know that blog is still read, mainly via Google searches on literature studies, so I'm leaving it up as a resource.

 I was just reminiscing back on home schooling during the middle school years. My first child started 6th grade in 1998 and my tenth (and last) child just finished 6th grade in May.  That's a lot of years with middle school students in the house.

 My youngest started public school this month for 7th grade, and is making a good transition. I'm very relieved about that since this summer I went back to work part time (on a crisis and human services referral phone line). Next month I start seminary full time too, starting out with Church History, Christian Ethics, and Inductive Bible Study (much of which is literary analysis).  

(Edit to add in 2021: my "retirement" didn't last long. I brought my daughter home again before the end of that year of public school since it wasn't a good fit. We're about to start 10th grade at home, and I will also be teaching middle school and high school language arts in a homeschool hybrid program. In the meantime, I graduated from seminary and continued to work part-time.)
Anyway, I was just thinking about how so much of what I taught for middle school, I was actually teaching to myself as well. The lessons I learned then are vital to what I am doing now with work and school. Even some of the subjects I'm taking this first semester at seminary are ones I've touched on in my classrooms.

 I've always said teaching middle school was my favorite, and I think that was especially true in the many years I taught at a home school co-op. The co-op class I taught was supposedly language arts, but I strongly believe in integrating subjects for maximum effect, so I, um, stretched that considerably. I threw history, music, and fine arts into the mix. I guess you could say it was more of a humanities class. While I had to teach grammar, it certainly wasn't my emphasis. I'm much more of an ideas and creativity teacher. Many of the posts on this blog are fruits of those co-op years.

 Here are some of the methods and concepts I taught, along with related blog posts. Please note that these posts are just a sample of what we did. Also, most of them are several years old, so links and photos may not work or show up correctly. I don't have the time to fix all of them. Some of the links are also to some of my other blogs, like the one I used for class assignments.

 Here we go!

 Integrating Language Arts with Humanities


I integrated our literature, writing assignments, and art appreciation around whatever time period and geographic region they were studying in their history classes, which alternated each year between world history and American history

Ideas, Themes, and Character Qualities

We explored the deeper ideas and themes in literature - such as compassion, honesty, diligence, and courage - rather than just recalling facts - see above literature studies plus these posts: 

Writing Skills and Formats
  • Sentence Style Variety for Writing
  • How to Write a How To!
  • Christian Biography Report Questions
  • The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Study Guide I wanted the students to think about their own unique personalities and values. For example, while studying The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, I created two contrasting assignments based on the huge house of the professor and the tiny home of Tumnus: "Imagine that you could design a dream house that reflects your own interests. It can be as large or as small as you want. Where will it be? What will it look like on the outside? Describe each room in your house. What will they be used for? What will they contain?" And then, "Yesterday you wrote about a big house you would like to live in. Today, you are going to write about a small one. If you had an entire home to live in by yourself that was as small as Tumnus's cave room, what would it be like? Make a list of what would you need to live in your home and a few extra things that you would want. What are some practical ways you could “make do” in such a small space?"


Effective and Ineffective Communication

We learned how to spot logical fallacies, like false dichotomies (either-or), band wagon, generalizations, etc. I wish I had posted these lessons on the blog! I think I lost them forever!

We discussed how to discern communication styles as passive, aggressive, passive-aggressive, and/or assertive.

We often talked about the importance of credibility, clarity, and creativity in communication.

World Religions
I taught the vocabulary and concepts of major world religions and belief systems such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, animism, atheism/humanism, etc.


Greek and Latin Word Roots

We learned important Greek and Latin word roots and the English vocabulary derived from them. This was based on English from the Roots Up by Joegil Lundquist.

Great American Communicators 

During our American history years, we learned about men and women who made significant contributions to communications in various areas and time periods. Here are a few of the many. I think there were more women than just Phillis Wheatley.


Bible and Theology

Christmas Studies

In December, we focused on Christmas carols, poems, stories, and art appreciation. We also usually had a Christmas program with each class presenting different pieces.

Poetry Appreciation and Writing

Most of our lessons included poetry, and I often had them try writing different styles of poetry. Some of the literature studies I already linked have poetry in them, but here are two additional poems.

 Teaching Character and Wisdom

 These posts are not from the home school co-op teaching. Some are excerpts from one of my books, which are now out of print. I need to refresh myself on these concepts - they are just as needed when a child is in public school!


One last thought about learning at any age...

"The entire object of true education is to make people
not merely to do the right things, but to enjoy them;
not merely industrious, but to love industry;
not merely learned, but to love knowledge;
not merely pure, but to love purity;
not merely just, but to hunger and thirst after justice."

John Ruskin, 1819-1900
English writer, art critic, professor, reformer

All the best to you in home schooling for middle school!

Virginia Knowles

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