Anonymous wrote:Definitely do all honors for all 4 core classes in middle school and see how it goes. My two Gen Ed kids did fine. (A grades)

Grades still don’t really “count”, except some foreign language and Algebra and above math.

PS, the HS honors classes aren’t as hard as they scare you that they are, for the most part. Maybe a little more work but worth the .5 gpa weighted bump. AP classes are where it starts to get hard, especially AP world history.

What is the deal with math? Did you feel you needed to supplement them for math 7 HN? The presentations all say that they will miss content if they go from math 6 GE to Math 7 HN and strongly discourage this.

Definitely do all honors for all 4 core classes in middle school and see how it goes. My two Gen Ed kids did fine. (A grades)

Grades still don’t really “count”, except some foreign language and Algebra and above math.

PS, the HS honors classes aren’t as hard as they scare you that they are, for the most part. Maybe a little more work but worth the .5 gpa weighted bump. AP classes are where it starts to get hard, especially AP world history.

My child was in general ed in elementary school and never really into school or studying. He really enjoyed science and history so he signed up for honors for both in 7th. It’s low stakes to try it. It was fine. He continued taking honors for both in 8th, which he is in now. This is a kid who doesn’t particularly like homework or studying. There are occasional projects but they are courses he likes so he doesn’t mind. If your child has an interest, try honors in 7th. It’s not a high school course so it’s a great time to try it out.

Looking at our school--fairly average FCPS MS--most kids take all or mostly honors classes in 7th grade. It seems the default really.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Very little reading and writing in my MS child's AAP classes....

Question is about Honors not AAP. There is a separate forum for that.

Curriculum is the same for Honors and AAP in MS.

Gen Ed kid took all Honors, A's in all, in MS. Staying organized was key and figuring out where to spend time and energy.

HS AP courses are mix of all.

Sorry, hit post too soon. The other adjustment for MS is the VERY early bus/start time. If they are not an early riser, maybe take that into account. Good luck! MS is both a fun age and a difficult developmental stage.

Did you talk to their 6th grade teachers? May have some good insight. The tough part of MS is staying organized - tracking assignments for all classes. So, if they are generally pretty organized (for a 6th grader ) then let them try an honors class or two.

Probably relevant b/c if they aren't reading anything in AAP, they aren't reading anything in honors.

Anonymous wrote:Very little reading and writing in my MS child's AAP classes....

Question is about Honors not AAP. There is a separate forum for that.

my dyslexic child is in honors science, math and history and is perfectly fine. there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of work and homework is less than 30 minutes a week.

Very little reading and writing in my MS child's AAP classes....

Anonymous wrote:It’s almost time to pick classes for Middle School and I am wondering whether or not my gen ed child should be placed in honors classes for history and science. They aren’t particularly good in English and math, so they will be placed in gen ed classes for those two subjects. How much harder are honors classes versus gen ed?

Kids in Honors are normally independent, mature and responsible. I personally like Honors better than AAP, students are less disruptive and have better social skills.

Lots of reading and writing in Honors compared to Gen Ed. So that's a lot of "English"

Anonymous wrote:It’s almost time to pick classes for Middle School and I am wondering whether or not my gen ed child should be placed in honors classes for history and science. They aren’t particularly good in English and math, so they will be placed in gen ed classes for those two subjects. How much harder are honors classes versus gen ed?

Mine did and did well (before and after the Pandemic). She's in HS now and still taking honors in both (A's in both so far). Being "Gen Ed" was no impediment to honors and AP (her teachers are now rec'g AP classes for her). That's the dirty little secret of ES. AAP parents think only their kids are smart or special, or can do hard work. But the reality is, most GenEd kids can do the honors classes w/o it.

I can say that I put my gen Ed kid who was considered for AAP but not ultimately placed, that we did honors history and science and it was completely fine. He did much better in middle school than elementary, overall.

Math and English: He did math 7 in 7th and algebra 1 honors in 8th, based on performance in 7th and teacher / counselor recommendation. I did have some hesitancy about that so he did an intro to algebra 1 two week course through Fairfax collegiate a few weeks before school started. We stuck with english gen Ed through 9th.

I have another kid who will go to MS now and we will do honors for all but math. They were not in the AAP pool for consideration. I get confused about math, because they advise against math 7 honors heavily stating that math 7 honors is basically math 8 and you are skipping a year. I don’t want my kid to feel overwhelmed, but also don’t want them underwhelmed. I’m still undecided. They are definitely frustrated with math in 6th as it’s a lot of 5th review. I just don’t want to push.

It’s almost time to pick classes for Middle School and I am wondering whether or not my gen ed child should be placed in honors classes for history and science. They aren’t particularly good in English and math, so they will be placed in gen ed classes for those two subjects. How much harder are honors classes versus gen ed?