 Hi you guys. My name is Brittany and welcome back to my YouTube channel. You guys, in today's video, I'm going to be sharing all the things that I'm going to be doing differently now that I have a middle schooler. So if any of you guys are new here to my channel, again, my name is Brittany. I'm a homeschooling mom to three girls and I am entering in my fourth year of homeschool. So this upcoming homeschool year, I will have a sixth grader, a pre a kindergarten and a pre-care. So I'm really, really excited and starting off another year of homeschool. However, I definitely know now that I'm entering in middle school with my oldest daughter, I do have to make some pivots and changes within our homeschool. You guys, I definitely want to take advantage of like middle school. I really feel like middle school is like your second buffer, anything you may not have covered in elementary school that you want to make sure you cover again in middle school. I really feel like we have that opportunity to do it in preparation for high school. So I definitely want to take advantage of these middle school years with my daughter. I definitely know some of these middle years may be challenging for us as well, but I definitely want to come in middle school with a plan and I definitely want to make sure that I am I guess changing and evolving as you know, my kiddos are growing as well. So the first thing I definitely want to continue to do in our homeschool is I want to continue to incorporate a student planner. You guys, incorporating a student planner in my homeschool last year was so beneficial to us. As you guys can see, I have a pretty big age gap with my kiddos. And a lot of times my daughter was getting very frustrated because she had to constantly ask me, well, what do I have to do next or what's happening next? In between all of like, you know, the snack breaks and the potty breaks with my younger kiddos. It definitely was a sense of frustration until we incorporated that student planner. My daughter knew what lessons that she was going to be doing next. She knew where she had to do what pages she had to turn to. It was really, really key to eliminate that frustration and it allowed her to become independent in our homeschool. So I'm really, really excited to continue to incorporate a student planner checklist of some sort because it definitely helped us out. It eliminated all the questions and frustrations in my homeschool. Another thing is I definitely want to continue to foster that independence with my daughter. And I definitely want to make sure I don't get frustrated when she wants to be independent. Last year with a lot of her subjects, because you know, I was still wrangling the little ones before sitting down with Brielle, she was becoming frustrated. And sometimes she began to like read over the teaching portions without me and start her lessons without me. And sometimes I was getting a little bit frustrated because I was like, Brie, wait for mommy, let me make sure you got it. But half the time you guys, she had it. And I definitely want to allow her to be independent in our homeschool. If she feels confident in reading the instructions before starting, I'm definitely going to allow her, I guess that independence to read the lessons. And then if she has questions, come back to me. I'm really, really excited about the curriculum we are going to be using this upcoming homeschool year because it's written towards the student. And she's going to have that opportunity to, I guess, start her school on her own without actually depending on me. And I know she's so excited about that, you guys. As far as other changes I'm going to be making in my homeschool, I'm definitely going to prioritize socialization and community this upcoming homeschool year. I know this is going to be a really hard one for both me and my daughter, because we're both introverts. However, we are going to really take advantage of all the things that we have in our community. While I'm not ready to officially join like any type of homeschool co-op, our local library has a lot of steam and homeschool events that they do every single month. And I'm going to make sure we at least go to three of those events every single month to allow my daughter the opportunity to create, I guess, friendships outside of her family. She has a lot of cousins and really, really close cousins that she has formed really great relationships with our family members. But I do want her to have those friendships outside of her family as well. So I definitely know I want to prioritize socialization. And because of the big age gap that I do have in my house, I do want her to really make friends. And I know that task is a little bit hard for her. And hopefully I don't push her too hard, but I definitely want to give her as many opportunities as I can. I know in homeschool, socialization is like this big thing and this big deal. However, I definitely feel like when you're in situations like mine, or you have situations where you're homeschooling the only child, we do have to put more effort in socialization than the other average family does. So that's definitely something I'm going to prioritize this upcoming homeschool year. Another thing, you guys, and this is a hard one for me, I am going to try my best not to do any like curriculum switches or changes unless I absolutely have to do it, especially with Brielle. Now with my younger kiddos, I know I'm kind of just getting started. So I really haven't figured out their learning style and their needs just yet. But for Brielle, we have worked together for three years. So I definitely know the areas that she has her strengths in. I definitely know her needs and her curriculum styles that she enjoys now. So I definitely hope that in, you know, having those years behind my belt that we won't be making any like huge curriculum changes with her. I have seen the benefit of sticking with one curriculum and seeing it through these past couple of years. And I definitely want to make sure that I don't create any unnecessary gaps in my daughter's education. And I definitely know that's one way for me to eliminate that. And I'm going to stay the course, you guys. I'm putting my blinders on. I'm trying my best not to be on like Instagram and social media and seeing like the new curriculum and things like that. I'm definitely want to I definitely want to stay the course and be consistent when it comes to that because I definitely know that's going to be beneficial in the long run. Something else that I want to incorporate in middle school is I want to teach Brielle how to do note taking. And I also want to teach our study skills. So we are going to be incorporating a study hall period in our homeschool this upcoming year where we're going to be taking that time out for me to be able to teach her note taking methods. I was speaking with one of my home school mom friends and she introduced me to Cornell notes. And I definitely want to teach Brielle some type of note taking skills, whether it be Cornell notes, bullet points. I definitely want to prepare her for high school and I definitely know studying and note taking is going to prepare her not only for high school but for college as well. Something else that I'm also going to be changing in my home school, you guys, is I'm not going to be afraid to outsource things in my home school. I definitely feel like in the beginning I was like feeling like, okay, well, if I don't do it all, like I'm a failure. No, like last year when I outsourced like a lot of our curriculum and resources, it really was beneficial to me in our homeschool and I'm not going to be ashamed to outsource things, especially when they're my struggle areas. So this upcoming homeschool year, you guys, I have like wrangled in my family members to help me outsource one subject for Brielle. And that is writing, you guys. As far as like editing her papers, I have asked a lot of my family members, my sister, my mom, my brother, both of my sister and my brother, they're both are in like education. My brother's a professor, my sister's a teacher, and my mom, she enjoys writing. So that's one of her things she really enjoys. So I have three people that I'm going to be wrangling in this homeschool year to help me edit Brielle's papers. I definitely want her to see a different perspective and a different eye when it comes to her writing. And I definitely know I may be past my limit and edit in her papers at this point. So instead of me paying for like some type of grading service, I'm going to utilize my family for free. They don't mind helping me out in this aspect of my homeschool and I'm so excited to allow I guess my community to help me in this area that I really feel like I'm struggling in when it comes to my daughter. I'm something else that I'm changing in my middle school years is I am not going to focus on my daughter's weaknesses. We're going to focus on her strengths, you guys. I definitely know math is one of her weaker areas. And instead of me trying to give her all these supplemental workbooks and all this extra math problems, we are going to take our time when it comes to math and we're going to, you know, make steady stair steps and strides when it comes to it. But we're going to focus on her strengths, which is English and writing and all of those type of things or whatever. So those are going to be the areas I am going to focus on. I know it's like counterintuitive because sometimes you want to focus on those weaker areas, but I feel like I see where her passions lie. And I don't want to make our homeschool be like daunting when it comes to math. I want to keep it light for her. And I definitely want to focus again, like I said, on those strengths. Something else that I'm changing in middle school, you guys, is I'm going to take advantage of these three years in middle school and really fully prepping and preparing for high school. If you guys have seen like a lot of my videos, I definitely have been nervous to homeschool through high school. However, you know, I have made the conscious decision that I'm going to put my best foot forward before just throwing in the towel when it comes to homeschooling in middle school. So I guess to ease my, I guess stressors or to ease like my anxiety, I should really say, I definitely have been slowly prepping and preparing for high school. I have mapped out her ninth grade year so far. And when I at least have her ninth and 10th grade year mapped out, I will share with you guys my high school plans for my oldest daughter. But I definitely am going to be taking advantage of middle school and prepping for high school. I definitely want to go into high school with the plan and I don't want to be scrambling. I guess the semester before her, you know, high school year to prepare for high school. I want to feel confident going into this new adventure. And I definitely am going to be taking advantage of middle school for prepping years for me. Something else that I have to focus on for high school prep is that I definitely know I want to do dual enrollment with Brielle when it comes to high school. So for the state of Georgia, you guys, we have so many like scholarship programs. We have a free dual enrollment for the state of Georgia. It's so many different like opportunities that we have. But I definitely need to do some prep work in order to make sure that she's eligible to receive all of these scholarships and grant fundings. And one of those things is that Brielle definitely has to take the SAT or the ACT. So I definitely need to make sure these middle school years we are prepping for the SAT and ACT. And I at least want her to be able to take that test twice in eighth grade. Also in eighth grade, you guys, I definitely want to give her some high school credits. I'm looking at doing at least three high school credits right now in the eighth grade. So I definitely want to make sure I stayed a course. And hopefully we are able to do some high school credits within middle school as well. Another thing as far as like scholarships and grants when it comes to the state of Georgia is that when it comes to the Hope and the Zell Miller scholarship, I have to create a personal portfolio for Brielle to submit in order for her to receive that scholarship because in homeschool, our grades are arbitrary when it comes to the state of Georgia. So I definitely want to begin building her personal portfolio of these middle school years and helping her in preparation for I guess us to be able to receive this funding you guys, especially since it's out there. The next thing I definitely want to do and I know it may shift my channel a little bit is that I am going to be respecting my daughter's privacy a lot more when it comes to her middle school years. While I still will be open and honest and sharing my authentic journey and my authentic homeschool journey on this channel, I definitely am going to be taking her personal I guess privacy and I guess her personal work and things like that. I'm definitely going to scale back on the amount that I do share here on my channel when it comes to that because at the end of the day, I don't want to do anything that she may feel like I took advantage of her I guess personal space and things like that. And I definitely want to respect that when it comes to her. So that's something I'm definitely changing on my channel. And I hope you guys can definitely understand that. And the last thing you guys that I'm changing when it comes to middle school is that I'm going to prioritize really connecting one on one with my daughter, my younger two, you guys, they drain me and they take everything out of me. And I definitely want to make sure that Brielle doesn't feel like she's left behind because of that. So I am carving out one on one time with her every single day for us to just chat and talk and just really have that connection that one on one time just between me and her. And hopefully as she's going through, you know, big changes in middle school, big emotions, I hope that with that time that I'm spending one on one with her that she will be able to connect one on one with me and she will be able to feel, you know, comfortable in coming to me when she is having difficulties or, you know, hardships or problems and things like that. So you guys, these are all the things that I'm going to be doing differently in my homeschool now that I have a middle schooler. I am really, really excited. Like I said, to enter in middle school, I'm a little bit nervous, but hopefully in all these like pivots and changes that I'm going to be doing, hopefully it will be beneficial to our homeschool. If you guys have a middle schooler, please don't be afraid to homeschool middle school. Please don't get worked up about all the posts you see about homeschooling middle school. Take it one day at a time. You can do it. I can do it. We can definitely tackle these middle school years. So you guys, as always, thank you so much for watching and I look forward to seeing everybody in my next one. Bye.