In the past two weeks, I have written about grandparents helping to foster a love of learning in younger kids (elementary school) and older kids (high school). This going to cover middle school-aged kids. Middle school children often have unique educational needs that elementary or high school-aged children will not. They aren’t usually as deeply involved in certain topics that high school students would be learning. They are often dealing with introductions to more advanced subjects, like life sciences or algebra.
Encourage Solo Reading
We are in a literacy crisis, and it comes down to the fact that many children are simply not reading enough on their own. In my first post, I had a lot of recommendations about ways to encourage reading. You could do a book club, or a reading challenge. You could promise a reward of getting to watch a movie adaptation if the child finishes the corresponding book. I would also encourage you to lean into what the child in question is interested in, and not to dismiss certain types of reading as unserious (like graphic novels). Sure, you might not count a comic book as a full book, but comic books are serialized to the point where you could add multiple issues together to make the equivalent of a chapter book. And graphic novels can usually be the same length as regular novels, if not longer.
Get Involved in Research Projects
If your grandchild has a huge project, it may be one of their firsts in their scholastic career. You should not do their work for them, but you can help them manage deadlines, and be their accountability buddy. You can sit there while they do their work. Maybe you can create your own “project” to research with them. You can teach them how to look for books in the library.</p>
I may add on to this because I had more to say than I anticipated and I did not want this post to be 1,000words. So stay tuned for more posts and check out our last ones in this mini-series!
Written by Brigid Coffey
