<p>My son is 13. I am interested in reading the forum for the middle school. Do you know any good web info ? Thanks.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what kind of information you are looking for. Can you be a little more specific?</p>
<p>I am looking for some extra activities for him. Also I want to see whethere there are some internship or research activities for him. Let him have taste of working and get some exposure to different career choices. Thanks.</p>
<p>You will need to search out opportunities for him. Volunteering often requires that a person be 15 (like in most hospitals), but your local library might have a lower age requirement.</p>
<p>Ah, yes, middle school is the perfect time to start the all important research and internships. I would just love to have twelve and thirteen year olds volunteering in my library. don't think so. Minimum age for volunteers for our library is fourteen or going into high school.</p>
<p>Seriously, If your child has some time on his/her hands I would suggest scouts, sports or art classes. But are you serious??</p>
<p>You might ask your son's school ( is it a public school?) if they have " career dys" where they have kids visit local hospitals for health careers etc. Is your child academically advanced...if so, many universities have gifted and talented summer and Saturday programs where kids can explore interests; my son at 12 took a robotics class where the teacher was an engineering prof and told the kids a lot about the engineering field, lots of fun. there are many summer science camps for middle school age kids. As for research, schools can sometimes arrange a mentoring experience in connection with your local university. If a child is identified as gifted, there are many well known programs such as CTY, Duke Talent search, Johns Hopkins, etc where classes and information about careers can be helpful to the child. How does your child do in school and what are his interests?</p>
<p>I think that your questions are perfectly reasonable, as many kids by age 13 are exploring their interests and options. It's just a matter of finding the right program or resource for his/her age, maturity, intellectual needs, and circumstances. In the circles in which I have travelled, many of my kids'friends have been precocious and needed resources such as these, especially if they are ultra high IQ, and even if they weren't, 13 is not too young to explore interests and careers..</p>
<p>I would also like to ask that respect be given to posters such as yan. It is not easy to know where to ask such questions. I would like to commend that poster for advocating for her child/student. If parents and teachers did not start thinking about resources for kids as early as 13 or before, those kids might not have good opportunities.</p>
<p>I think if your child is academically talented, there are opportunities through CTY and the like
My daughter has a friend who skipped high school, and entered the university at 14 which was the maximum age for the early entrance program</p>
<p>For some kids- this sort of thing is a relief from "normal" high school
<a href="http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/</a> (I mean the CTY stuff- lots of my daughters friends at Reed- did CTY, and they thought Reed was like one big CTY camp- with beer)</p>
<p>BUt please don't think your 13 yr old HAS to be heavily involved in college prep type activities.
My older daughter just graduated from college ( Reed), and she never had any extra academics in the summer, although one year she did do a CTY snail mail course ( but while I thought the instruction was very good, it wasn't needed to supplement her school)</p>
<p>IF he has been involved in camps- summer camps- spring break camps- what sort of actitivies did he like?</p>
<p>I happen to think sports teams- well run, teach a great deal to young people and are a very valuable way to spend some time.</p>
<p>YOu might try local community organizations, but usually they do like people to be older.
BUt some of the local parks have camps that young teens can help with- I can think of several science camps, that have teens entering high school that assist as junior counselors.</p>
<p>My older daughter began volunteering at the zoo, when she was 12, but when it was her sisters turn, you had to be 14 ( and that program is gone now)</p>
<p>I think that would be the first place I look, are programs that he already has shown to enjoy, and see if they could take him on , in more of a helper position. It may not be exactly what you are thinking of, but it would be a way for him to build a small resume, and see different aspects of something he already knows about</p>
<p>I will give you a tip that all middle school parents should be aware of:</p>
<p>Unless your child has the skills to get into one of the top 50 schools or so, and I am referring to the ivy's, MIT, Top LACs such as Swarthmore etc., don't be fooled into taking hard, honors courses. For 99% of the college, unweighted GPA is KING. It is even used for scholarship offers. </p>
<p>If you have a kid that can get mostly A's in honors or AP courses then, by all means, have them take the honors or AP courses. If, however, they don't get A's in these tough courses but can get A's in regular courses, have them take the regular courses! You should be able to tell after the first semester or two of 9th grade.</p>
<p>One thing that a middle schooler could do that I personally benefited from in middle school is to learn a language. I took a spanish class after my 6th grade during the summer at a local community college, and I found it was a perfect time to get some fairly intense exposure to languages. It makes it easier to learn languages later, and a long term intensive study starting in middle school can lead to fluency before the end of high school. This in turn leads to great opportunities, and can also be lots of fun. If you want your son to continue having fun during his summer, try and find some other motivated students of his age and have them all take the class together- it would make it more social.</p>
<p>bookcases,
The op did not ask about classes, he/she said, "Also I want to see whether there are some internship or research activities for him. Let him have taste of working and get some exposure to different career choices." We (including me) channeled this into appropriate middle school ideas.</p>
<p>the internships could also backfire
a friends daughter was very interested in being a vet
her middle school required that they find somone to interview about their career and spend enough time with them, that they understood the job.
Well, this vet, went on and on about the hours, the pay, the difficulty to get into vet school ( more so than med school), yet the lack of respect he generally felt from others with advanced degrees.
He apparently would not do it again.
So there goes the interest in being a vet</p>
<p>Some high school courses, have mentors in the community, he also could think about subjects he is interested in, and look up what you can do with say a biology degree.
BUt really- he is only 13- I wouldn't rush him too much, encourage his interests, but realize they may change next month.
My rising junior doesn't even want to talk about colleges yet- and I am not going to push her.
It needs to come from them, we can encourage them, and make opportunities available, but like one girl was trying to do for her brother on another thread. We can't make them interested, in my expereince, that backfires!</p>
<p>Sorry, but I have to agree with kathiep on this one. Classes are one thing; internships and research are in a completely different category. Call me crazy, but I tend to think of internships and research as being done by someone with more knowledge than even bright 13-year-olds possess. </p>
<p>But perhaps we're just getting hung up on semantics. </p>
<p>For example, in our town we have a rather large wildlife center/museum that provides for the needs of local wildlife as well as wildlife educational programs for the public. Interested 13-year-olds are invited to apply to be junior docents for the center. They are given training to handle and introduce small animals to groups of young children. This is not an internship or a research opportunity. Those opportunities exist, but they are reserved primarily for adults and college students. But for young students interested in careers working with animals, volunteering as a junior docent is a great opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at a working wildlife center and small museum, get introduced to working with the public, and understanding and caring for small animals. I think these types of programs are perfect for 13-year-olds, but unless the child is highly gifted and already taking college (or at least high-level high school) courses, a 13-year-old doing, for example, real biological research would, to me, be a 13-year-old being told what to do every step of the way by an adult, and I don't see that as being valuable.</p>
<p>I think at 13, kids should be taking enrichment classes, studying music, playing a sport, visiting museums and attending cultural events. They should be spending time with their classmates and neighbors to develop social skills. They should be able to daydream a little. 13-year-olds are still in the "absorbant phase" and really are not ready to do research or internships. It is their time to soak up knowledge in an age-appropriate way. (Heck, many of them have not even experienced puberty yet!)</p>
<p>I think pushing internships and research on such a young person is one sure way to guarantee burn-out.</p>
<p>From the screen name, I suspect the OP is Asian and may not be familiar with the terminology used to described various kinds of academic ECs, or the rules regarding child employment. </p>
<p>The suggestion to look up the resources on hoagiesgifted.org is excellent. If the OP can give us more information about what the child's interests are, we can try to give more.</p>
<p>I wish there was a website on parenting middle schoolers in general. Not necessarily academic issues, but social ones, like peer pressure, etc. I don't talk to other parents about that sort of thing because it seems people are uncomfortable admitting that they, too, have issues with their kids. I call it the "Perfect Parent/Perfect Child Syndrome" What a bore!</p>
<p>12-13 yr old was one of the hardest times for both my kids
talk about angst
physical changes-their bodies are growing quickly, and it takes a while to get used to their new size, then they grow again, hormone levels fluctuate, causing skin problems, mood, they don't know what hit em!
A start of more mature social awareness, higher expectations for academics- the whole transition of wanting/not wanting to still be a kid
its a hard time</p>
<p>"I would just love to have twelve and thirteen year olds volunteering in my library. don't think so." </p>
<p>kathiep: In NJ there is a SAIL program where middle schoolers work in the public library for a nominal amout of hours. I can't remember what the acronym stands for. My d did it & found it boring. Shelving books & such. My niece, however, loved it and stayed on as a paid employee all through h.s. & full-time summers. I'm quite sure the scope of her duties broadened as she got older.</p>
<p>I can think of quite a few middle schoolers who would probably use their SAIL time to access internet porn or set fire to trash cans in the bathrooms. So I'd agree that it's not for everyone!</p>
<p>I work in a library (small, public) and we just changed our policy and raised the age of volunteers because we found that the MS kids needed more supervision then we could give them. They would wander to the young adult room and hang out on the computers or their friends would come by and they would have long, loud discussions instead of shelving. All PA libraries are filtered so accessing porn would not be the problem but our staff is stretched so thin that supervision is.</p>
<p>They were also the most unreliable due to their dependence on parents driving them. I have a 13 year old son, rising eighth grader, and I very much understand the difficulties of this age. Summertime is about the only time when my son has time on his hands and he goes to school three weeks of the summer, and then we have at least one week of family vacation. During the school year he has band and orchestra after school two days a week, boy scouts one day and piano another. Many kids have similar schedules with sports, don't they? Middle School is a very difficult time. The kids tend to pigeon hole themselves and each other.</p>
<p>Yes my daughter found out that school libraries had enthusastic fllters when she was trying to write a paper on horse breeding-
Or is this a city library?
I have no idea about the filters, although I think they have unfiltered for adults.
I like middle school kids- but in small doses.( I did spend a week on a small island supervising a group of 1bout 12 8th graders one spring- my daughter opted to be in another group)</p>
<p>They tend to think they are 13 going on 22.
One girl I sat next to at teh library computer was typing furiously at the same time she was loudly chatting on her cel, describing herself as 17. While she had enough makeup on for a 30 year old, she didn't look 14.
They really seem to not know the difference bwteen inside/outside voices ;)
Sports are good for middle schoolers.
When my D was in middle school, she was on TWO soccer teams in teh fall, went snowboarding and swimming in the winter and was on a volleyball team in the spring.
Since her winter activity wasn't every day like her fall and spring, we really noticed a difference</p>
<p>Thanks for all the posting and sharing your thought. I will check out the <a href="http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/%5B/url%5D">http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/</a> web.</p>