Middle School is a right of passage that all kids must go through. Check out these tips for How to Prepare your Child for Middle School

How To Prepare Your Kid To Go To Middle School

Your child is through elementary school, and it is the summer before they are headed off to middle school. You are nervous, and so are they. As a parent, you want to make sure they are ready to go to middle school. You want to make sure they get in with the right group of friends, and they do well in their academics as well. Luckily, there are some tips that can help you to prepare your kid for middle school.

Talk to Them About Peer Pressure

The number one tip for preparing your kid to go to middle school is talking to them about peer pressure. When kids enter middle school, they are going to meet new kids. All the kids from the local elementary schools will be heading into middle school. In addition, there is a different environment in middle school. They are going to have more classrooms to attend with different kids in each class.

Kids in middle school are going through puberty, and they have mood swings. They may start exploring who they are and what they can do. Your kids might be pressured into doing things they don’t want to do. Some of the tips for talking to your kids about peer pressure include:

Making your home their safe environment
Make sure they know you won’t judge them
Be there to listen whenever they need to talk with you about something
Let them know you understand
Share stories of peer pressure you went through
Teach them the dangers of underage drinking and drugging

If your kids know you are there for them, they are much more likely to feel comfortable talking with you about peer pressure.

Visit the School with Your Kids

It can be nerve-wracking whenever a child enters a new school, even if that is still in the same school district. The elementary to middle school transition is often one of the most difficult. Your child may be used to going to a smaller school and now they are getting ready to enter a larger school, with more kids.

If you want to prepare your kids for middle school, it can help to visit the school with your kids. Some of the tips for making this visit successful include:

Let your child explore the school
Have them walk around the school with their schedule so that they can find all their classes
Have them find their locker and practice their combination
Let them ask the principal or office staff members questions
Let them find the list of school clubs and see what they might enjoy
Have them walk around outside the school to get a feel for the area

You can help your kids to get ready for middle school. By helping them get comfortable with the school hallways, classrooms, and environment, they can be more prepared for the transition.

Set Up a Schedule

More than likely, when your kids get into middle school, they are going to have more homework and larger school projects and assignments. This can be stressful and can take a while for them and your family to get used to.

If you want to set your kids up for success in their middle school academics, it can be helpful to create a schedule for them. In the schedule, you may want to include:

Homework and study time
Morning and evening routines
Time for afterschool programs or sports (if they are going to be in any of those)
Time for their friends
Alone time (they need to unwind and be by themselves to de-stress)
Family time

By creating a schedule for your kids in middle school, you are helping them to learn responsibility. They are also more accountable for their time and the things they need to get done. This will not only prepare them for a successful middle school experience; it will help them to prepare for high school as well.

Help Them Learn Better Organizational Skills

One of the things that gets a lot of middle schoolers off-track is the lack of organization. They may be tardy in the morning because their locker is a mess. Some middle schoolers lose their assignments and then get a zero on it.

If you want to prepare your kids for middle school, one of the best things you can do is to help them learn better organizational skills. There are some ways you can help them to do this including:

Get them extra shelving for their locker to organize their school materials
Have them clean out their locker once a week
Get them binders for all their classes, so they can organize their papers and books
Have them put labels on their books and binders
Ask them if they brought anything home
Teach them to create a system for homework or papers that need to be left at home, when they bring things home

If you help your kids to learn better organization skills, they can have more success in middle school. In addition, these organizational skills can help them throughout their entire life as well.

Do you have a child who is about to head into middle school? Maybe your kid is already in middle school, and you want to make sure they do well. By following the tips above, you can prepare your kid for a better middle school experience. There are many obstacles your kids may have to deal with during middle school including peer pressure, extra homework, more classes, and additional study time.