Seasons of Change: 4 Conversations to Prepare Your Child for Middle School
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Subject Line: 4 Conversations to Prepare Your Child for Middle School
Parents,
As your child enters the last few years of elementary school, we want to help you prepare them for junior high. Today, we give you four conversations to use during car rides that provide your son or daughter guidance for their middle school years.
To view the short video, click the link below.
https://vimeo.com/parentministry/review/551790539/4ad4330f25
It is my privilege to join alongside you on this parenting journey. If you need anything or have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out.
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Subject Line: Seasons of Change
Dear Parents,
Some parents grow anxious when they think of sending their daughter or son into the halls of middle school. Other parents are afraid of what will when occur during the adolescent years. Today, we give you four conversations to have with your child during the elementary years to prepare them for what’s coming. It will ease your mind and theirs…just a little!
To watch the brief video, click the link below.
https://vimeo.com/parentministry/review/551790539/4ad4330f25
Thank you for the opportunity to partner with your family. Please contact me if you need anything.
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VIDEO
SOCIAL MEDIA SWAG
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Do you worry or fear about your child’s middle school years? In our new parent video, we give you four conversations that will help ease your child’s mind and heart as they (and you) think about the future. To view, check your inbox for more.
VIDEO SCRIPT
If I ask you to think back to your junior high years, what comes to mind? For many of us, we just cringed because those middle school years are not always the most fun. I use the term wonderfully awkward to describe this season. It’s actually a beautiful time where you transition from a child to a young man or woman, but in the transitions and shifts, we go from what is comfortable to what is awkward, uncertain, and clumsy. So today, here are a few conversations to prepare your child for this important transition.
First, discuss the term “developmentally appropriate.” You can use this term with your son or daughter throughout conversations over the years to help them understand the changes within their minds, hearts, and bodies. When you talk about this concept over and over, they eventually will believe the message, “I’m okay. This is uncertain what I’m going through, but I’m okay. I’m normal.”Â
Second, discuss the topic of friendships. During the middle school years, friendships make a natural shift. Until this point, they were based on classes in elementary schools, parent’s friendships, or neighborhood locations. But when they move onto middle school, the connections are based on interests, likes, and dislikes, such as gaming, sports teams, or music.Â
This transition contributes to the awkwardness of middle school because it can be tense and stressful at times. They may potentially go through sadness or grief. They also have to go through the nervousness of new friendships, or they may want to keep a friend from elementary years, and now they will need to work outside to maintain it. When tweens understand what is happening with friendships, it helps them feel okay.
Third, discuss the transition between child and adult. Let them know they will have one foot in childhood and develop one foot into adulthood. This time can be exciting because it means freedom and adventure are coming. But at times, they may be sad and miss their childhood years. Sometimes they might see a kids menu at a restaurant and realize, “I can’t order that anymore,” or they head to a playground and realize, “I’m too tall to play on the playground.” They may play with a childhood toy and feel embarrassed to play with it, wondering, “Should I want to do childlike things? I feel awkward.”Â
This tension makes them feel like they don’t know who they are anymore. This moment is a great time to speak words into their hearts, saying something like, “You might be feeling this, and if you are, it’s okay. It’s normal and developmentally appropriate. You’re going to be okay. You still are very much a child, so it’s okay to play, and when you’re ready to put it up, then you can.”
Fourth, discuss the search for likes and dislikes. During the next few years, your son or daughter will be searching for their likes and dislikes. They once may have liked the color green, and now they hate it. They once wanted to eat meat, and now they’re vegan. It changes as quickly as the weather. Do they like surfing? Skating? Do they like hip hop or country music, or both? They may try all of these things. And if we aren’t preparing them for this desire to change, which is developmentally appropriate, they might begin to feel like something’s wrong. It’s developmentally appropriate that they’re supposed to try things, and if they don’t like it, they can move on to something else.Â
These four conversations are just a few of the topics you can cover to help prepare your child for the middle school and junior high years. It may be awkward, but it can be wonderfully awkward. And thank you for your willingness to help prepare your child for these upcoming years.