Middle School Homeschool Curriculum Favorites

homeschooling ADHD | Middle School Homeschool Curriculum | Homeschooling Junior High

This homeschool year, I have two of my kids in middle school—6th grade and 8th grade. To say I was nervous about these transitions would be an understatement. Though I definitely miss the lower elementary years of crafts and messy projects, adventurous learning and cozy read-alouds, these years of growth and independence and deep conversations have been a blast as well. I actually love homeschooling my middle schoolers. And while settling on homeschool curriculum for middle school has been a little bit of trial and error, I’m pretty happy with how our year has wrapped up.

Simple Steps to a Successful Routine

Successful Routine | Homeschooling ADHD

Change often means chaos, executive function failure, and total upheaval for those who live with ADHD, whether that change is summer break, winter break, or coronavirus quarantine, it really doesn’t matter. ADHD makes self-regulating extremely difficult, particularly when life changes suddenly and the systems we had in place to motivate and anchor us unravel into uncertainty. We lose our natural rhythm and face insurmountable odds trying to lasso the winds of change and ride out the storm. So how do you have a system in place that can withstand change, a system that can ride with the storms and yet help us all to stay anchored? For our family, I’ve learned that a successful routine can make all the difference.

ADHD & Dyslexia Summer Reading Recommendation

I was compensated for my time reviewing this product, 
writing this review, and hosting the giveaway. 
I was not compensated for my opinions, and all opinions are my own.

 

summer reading list | help for ADHD | help for dyslexiaHomeschooling a child with learning disabilities is no small task, but perhaps the hardest part of it is facing down all those fears that what I’m doing won’t be enough, or that I might even make our struggles worse. Part of my strategy for facing these fears is knowledge: I read a lot. Each summer, I spend a portion of my summer reading on “professional development,” just a couple of books that help me to understand my kids (and husband) better. Specifically, that means I’ve always got at least a couple of books on my ADHD-dyslexia summer reading list. This year, one of those books was Helping your Child with Language-Based Learning Disabilities by Daniel Franklin.

Honestly, this book easily made it into the list of my top five on the topic. It’s encouraging, positive, and filled with great info! Best of all, I love that his approach focuses so much on relationship.

Parenting ADHD: Appreciating your child when you can’t enjoy the moment

 

parenting ADHD | help with homeschooling ADHD

There are moments in parenting that are amazing, that fill you with admiration for your child and with wonder that you have the privilege to be in his or her little life. There are sweet, cuddly moments filled with all the warm fuzzies we mommies dream of. And then there are other moments, moments when parenting is hard, moments that make you question everything in your life. Parenting ADHD, much less multiple children with ADHD, is filled with both moments. In one moment, I am in awe at the imagination, energy, and innovation of my kids, absolutely stunned by the 50+ million thoughts a day that pour out of their brains. And then there are moments that rock my world, that shake the core of all by beliefs, and I’m left in the ruins of impulsivity and emotional dysregulation. Parenting ADHD is awesome! And parenting ADHD is stinking hard.

Then comes the sage advice to “enjoy the moment” because they grow up so fast. But honestly, there are some parenting moments that I just can’t enjoy. Some moments, honestly, we just survive.  So how do you appreciate your child, even when you can’t enjoy the moment?

5 Ways to Appreciate Your Child When You Can’t Enjoy the Moment

Tapestry of Grace DE or Stages: a review

Tapestry of Grace Stages comparison and review

I have used the Tapestry of Grace curriculum with my family for nearly seven years and own all four years of the DE or Digital Edition of the program. We love it! I love the richness and depth of the Tapestry of Grace curriculum, and the ability to customize a weekly plan that fits our family and our life. So when their new Stages product came out, I was curious. What was different from what I currently had? Which product should I recommend to others interested in starting Tapestry? Would having my plans and teacher notes divided into the separate Stages or learning levels solve some of the confusion I sometimes ran into when planning?

How to customize your homeschool curriculum to fit your child’s needs

customize your homeschool curriculum | special needs homeschool | strength based homeschooling

For all those well-laid plans and carefully selected homeschool purchases, it happens. You get into the homeschool year and realize that what you have and who you are teaching just aren’t a match. What do you do? Do you throw out all of that curriculum and start over? Is it possible to make adjustments to your homeschool year that will actually make a difference? Sometimes the problems warrant starting over from scratch; there’s just not enough going well to make a curriculum worth keeping. But many, many times it’s possible to modify your homeschool curriculum to fit your child’s needs. Here are five steps to help you customize your homeschool curriculum.

4 small adjustments to your homeschool year (that make a BIG difference)

 

adjustments to your homeschool | change my homeschool | homeschooling learning anxiety

My daughter’s dyslexia has created a lot of anxiety for her over the years, which means a lot of meltdowns during a homeschool day and week. Homeschooling a child with learning anxieties is no small feat. In fact, this summer we couldn’t even discuss the start of school without my daughter emotionally shutting down for the rest of the day. I knew we needed to make big changes this year, but I’ve been surprised at how small the adjustments were that created those big changes. Little by little, we’ve tackled our homeschooling in different ways to try to help her in this area, each year making more progress. And this year, it’s been the best yet.

The adjustments we’ve made this year were largely due to some of my summer reading, particularly a book called The Self-Driven Child. (Check out more reading suggestions on homeschooling ADHD here.) I loved this book because it helped me to understand her stress and the remedy—giving her more control. The 4 small adjustments that have made such big changes to our homeschool year largely include giving my child more control of her day, not necessarily more independence but more control. Here’s what that looked like for us.