5th grade parent freak out

[Veronica]

It happens every year. "My son/daughter isn't ready for middle school. What are you going to do?" It shouldn't be news to them that their child has been struggling. I want to say, "What have you been doing the last 6 years?"

Veronica

[Crankin]

A lot of the time, it's just that *they* are not ready for their kid to go to middle school. Even the parents of smart kids. Of course, if they really aren't academically ready, then that's a different story. They know, deep down it's not your fault, they just can't admit it.
I had a wonderful article written by a columnist in the Boston Globe many years ago, that described how parents feel at this stage. They worry about everything. I used to copy it and send it home around this time of year.

[Veronica]

Thanks, I'm just feeling overwhelmed by EVERYTHING right now.

Veronica

[malkin]

It's the same story, but in my world, we get the calls in April and May..."My kid is not ready for kindergarten."

So your kid just turned 5 and you only just now noticed that other 5 year olds talk and use the toilet pretty routinely?

[Skippyak]

What do parents think happens at middle school that their kids are not going to be ready for LOL? Our district shifted ages this year to put 6th graders in middles school rather than waiting until 7th. It didn't affect my kids for middle but will affect them for the high school shift and all I could say was thank the lord LOL. Babying of the kids still goes on here plenty on middle school and my 13 yr olds really remain frustrated by that.

[Aromig]

I have a new middle-school kid (our district is 7th and 8th grade). He's my oldest -- and it was a tough transition. He probably wasn't ready, but, I think that's part of growing up. There is more freedom in middle school -- in elementary school the teachers made the kids write their homework in a notebook and checked that they did and then we could follow up at home. In Middle School they're encouraged to use their assignment book, but we've found my son isn't the greatest at doing so. They have more long term projects that the kids have to plan for (and we're struggling with "but I have two weeks left, why should I work on it now?"). Yes, that's a problem with my son's maturity (and we know it and are doing things to follow up), but its still hard. I'm glad he's not being babied in middle school since I'm sure high school and college would be even harder if we weren't working on the maturity now. My younger son is more driven, responsible and mature. It wont' be an issue.

[azfiddle]

In my district the transition to middle school starts with parent orientation and kids visiting and walking through the middle school classes in spring, and then the 6th year they have 2 main teachers and 1 "special" each quarter. So it is kind of gradual. When my kids were elementary, they had already started rotations among a team of teachers.

Honestly, it's not that big of a leap and the 6th grade teachers have transitioned hundreds of students already.

Good luck- parents can be .... challenging!