Middle School Electives for Homeschool Students

From illustration to orchestra, middle school electives can enrich a student’s learning, expose them to future career paths, and even build their self-confidence. These classes are a chance for students to explore their interests and develop new skills.

For homeschooled students, electives can yield even more benefits. These classes can allow students to…

• Make lasting memories with their family
• Connect with their community
• Practice essential life skills, such as collaboration and communication

At Miacademy, we believe that electives are an essential part of fostering every student’s passion for learning. In this article, we’ll break down what makes these learning opportunities so important for middle school students. We’ll also explore the elective options we offer and how to fit them into your homeschool curriculum.

Why Are Middle School Electives Important?

The early teenage years are an important time of self-discovery and growth. This formative time in every child’s life is when their bodies, emotions, and view of themselves and the world start to change. This might even include discovering passions and interests that inspire their future college and career choices.

For many middle school students, learning truly comes alive when it is connected to their life outside of school. That’s part of what makes electives so important for young teens. These courses give students the opportunity to explore real-world skills and hobbies in a supportive environment and to connect their curriculum to the broader world.

This can be especially impactful for homeschooled students. Homeschool middle school electives may inspire students to be more active and involved in their community. For example, electives can enable students to…

• Participate in extracurricular activities that align with their interests
• Make like-minded friends through shared interests
• Develop a sense of connection to their community through volunteering

Electives can also support learning in core academic subjects. These courses help students develop key skills that can transfer to their other classes, like time management, communication, and problem-solving. Additionally, the interest-led learning that electives provide helps to engage students in the process of learning and increases their ownership over their entire curriculum. As a result, electives are an essential learning opportunity for middle school homeschooled students.

How to Choose Middle School Electives

Is your student interested in learning to draw, playing their favorite sport, putting on plays, or all of the above? With so many options, it can be daunting to select electives for middle school. To decide which elective courses your student will take, try to…

1. Let your student decide. Whenever possible, encourage your student to select their own electives, based on their interests and passions. Of course, you can help guide them in this process! Involving them in this decision can increase their engagement and motivation by ensuring they have buy-in from the first days of the course.

2. Plan ahead to accommodate your schedule. Make sure your student will meet the requirements for their grade level on time by planning their course schedule in advance.

3. Consider after-school activities and field trips. These can be great opportunities to incorporate your local community into your student’s elective schedule.

Think about your student’s post-graduation plans. We know middle school might seem early to start thinking about life after high school, but electives can be a great way to start immersing your student in their future interests! If your student is considering art school, encourage them to take an art class. If they’re interested in computers or coding, find a local STEM or robotics club. This could foster a lifelong passion!

Add These Electives to Your Child’s Middle School Curriculum

Electives can enrich your student’s education, encourage them to grow as a person, and help them discover lifelong passions and interests. Miacademy has many options for elective courses that can help you create a well-rounded curriculum for your homeschool student. These can also be an excellent way to deepen your student’s knowledge of topics they explored in their elementary elective courses. From fine arts to life skills, your student is sure to find topics they’re excited to discover in our self-paced elective homeschool classes.

Music & Arts

• Song Writing: In this course, students learn how to write lyrics, arrange them into a song, create the accompanying music, and put all these components together into original songs.

• Art Around the World: Our Art Around the World course takes students on a journey across the world and through different times to discover how art is as diverse as the Earth’s people! Students will be able to learn about Aboriginal-inspired dot paintings, Chinese watercolor techniques, Indonesian-inspired Batik, and West African printmaking. Students will also be able to explore some fun, hands-on projects, like creating a flipbook of crazy creatures!

• Music Reading: This foundational course introduces students to essential concepts in music like rhythm, note reading, and musical symbols. It also introduces them to famous composers who used these techniques to create some of history’s most memorable pieces of music.

• Drawing Essentials: Does your student have a passion for visual arts? In this course, students learn how to draw to increase their foundational art skills. They will also explore some famous works of art to discover how these techniques are applied.

World Languages

• American Sign Language: This course introduces students to the basics of American Sign Language, including how to sign letters and common words.

• Beginning Spanish: Students in our Beginning Spanish class will explore some useful words and phrases in Spanish, like words for household items, words for places around town, and other common vocabulary words.

• Intro to Spanish: In Miacademy’s Intro to Spanish course, students will learn to improve their skill with the Spanish language by practicing its use in everyday conversations.

• Beginning French: This introductory class teaches students useful words and phrases in French, like words for household items, words for places around town, and other common vocabulary words.

• Beginning German: If your student is interested in studying German, Miacademy’s Beginning German course is a great place to start! This class introduces students to German words for household items, places around town, and other common words and phrases.

• Classical Languages: This course can fuel your student’s interest in topics like history and literature or simply provide them with an interesting look into classical languages. In Miacademy’s Classical Languages class, students learn about Latin and Attic Greek.

Life Skills

• Intro to Typing: Does your student want to improve their typing speed and accuracy? This course will teach them the proper way to type and provide lots of great typing practice.

• Computer Skills: In Computer Skills, students learn about the different parts of a computer, hardware types, and get familiar with popular software such as word processors, spreadsheets, email, and more.

• Intro to Programming: If your student is interested in learning how to code, our Intro to Programming course is a great way to get a head start! Learn basic functions, algorithms, and calculations in our interactive space-themed coding adventure.

• Middle School Physical Fitness: Students will learn proper range of motion for common exercises, explore outdoor activities, and learn several different sports in our Middle School fitness course.

• Career Exploration: In our Career Exploration course, students learn about different career paths they can pursue in the future, like becoming a teacher, a certified nursing assistant, a novelist, and a software engineer.

Biblical Studies

• Bible Basics: This course provides students with an introduction to the Bible, including how to use their Bible to find, read, and reflect on scripture.

• Jewish Holidays: In our Jewish Holidays course, students will be able to learn about the holidays, traditions, and history of celebrations like Hanukkah and Passover.

• Old and New Testament Study: Students enrolled in this Bible study course can learn more about the Old Testament and New Testament.

• Scripture Memory: This course encourages students to explore and learn more about a variety of Bible verses.

• Jewish Bible Study: In this course, students will learn more about a variety of Jewish Bible stories.

Miacademy’s Homeschool Elective Curriculum

Electives are an essential piece of every student’s curriculum. At Miacademy, we believe these courses are powerful opportunities for learning, self-expression, and personal growth alike. That’s why we strive to create high-quality, exciting elective courses for your middle school homeschool student. We’re always adding more courses to our site to provide even more enriching opportunities for learning, too.

Our electives (and middle school core courses like math, reading, science, and social studies) are flexible and self-paced. Once you set your student’s school term and choose their courses, Miacademy handles the rest by automatically distributing their assignments. You can even set planned vacations or take an impromptu day off — either way, our system will automatically readjust your student’s assignments without overwhelming them with a sprint to “catch up.”

This flexibility means Miacademy can be an amazing standalone curriculum or a supplement to another educational program. Since you can easily customize which courses, lessons, and even assignments within lessons that your student completes, our program makes it easy to switch to homeschooling at any point in the year. 

Once your student’s courses and assignments are set up, they’ll have a rich world of online learning available at their fingertips. Every lesson is full of different ways for students to interact with the content, plus a variety of engaging features that make them excited to learn more.

Each lesson has a variety of fun activities that motivate students to learn, like interactive practice games, engaging video lessons, and untimed tests. These activities aren’t just fun — they also help meet the diverse learning needs of every student! 

With permission from your parent account, students can also access our fully moderated community features. These can be an amazing supplement to elective classes in middle school! Students can practice their creative writing in our weekly newspaper, express themselves by creating videos, and even gain an understanding of economics by running a virtual business. These activities help motivate students to learn while also letting them become a part of a virtual community of their peers.

If you’re looking to add electives to your homeschool student’s middle school curriculum, Miacademy can help. Our friendly customer service team is always available to discuss how our expertly crafted courses can complete your homeschool curriculum. Feel free to send us a message and find out how Miacademy can work for you!

Updated 01/11/2024