What are 11-13 year olds interested in?

[mamaG7104]

Hi Moms!
Visiting from the Life With a Babe Forum, since mine is only 10 months! I was hoping you could help me with something. I am leaving my current job at a college and interviewing for middle school teaching positions soon. I know what college age students are into these days...because I've spent a lot of time with them...but I'm clueless about middle schoolers (I was there once long ago...but I wasn't cool...so I don't know what they were into then either!) What do they like? Books? Music? TV? Movies? Video Games?
Thanks for any help you can give me!

[PancakeGoddess]

my almost-11 is into collector card games (like YuGiOh), online role playing sites like Neopets, blogging, poetry, soccer.

[UnschoolnMa]

My Dd is 11.5 and she is into:
* Music! Country, pop, alternative, punk you name it.
* Books about historical things that feature girls her age. She's reading The Diary of Anne Frank currently.
*dancing
*cooking

My Ds is almost 14 and he likes:
*Role playing games online
* being online in general and messaging friends
* archery
* swords/knives
* reading mythology/sci-fi type books
* music (Rap, punk, etc)

[PancakeGoddess]

oh yea, definitely sci-fi and fantasy are "in" for this age group in general. Lots of that type of YA book coming out.

[UUMom]

OT, but can i ask why the Neopets site is so popular? My 12 yr old dd loves that site. My dh thinks is about training online consumers with the buying and the selling etc. It must be more, because our dd rocks. lol she is not a shopper IRL and she gets very excited to check on her critters. I'd like to give an adult presective on it's positive aspects to my dh.

[PancakeGoddess]

there is a lot of buying and selling, but not just consuming - it's an economy. Also, the message boards are full of a lot of very creative writing/role playing. The contests are interesting and fun for that age.

nak, sorry more later

[SabrinaJL]

My 11 year old loves anime, all things Japanese actually, video games, sci-fi books, Neopets, card collector games (Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, etc...), wolves, drawing and writing stories.

As for the Neopets, it's just a really fun site. There's the games (which is mostly what I do), the buying/selling/trading aspect, taking care of your pets and trying to get their levels up, etc... I actually started playing it myself 4 years ago. DD didn't get into it until about 2 years ago.

[Dar]

I think there's a lot of variation in what kids are into, both regionally and from kid to kid. I've subbed in middle school and my kids there were interested in very different things than my own 12 year old, for the most part. My daughter is into ballet, braodway musicals, alternative music, blogging (mostly livejournal), hanging out with friends, going for coffee, fashion, knitting, boys, AIM, reading, hair and make-up...

The kids where I subbed were into raising animals for 4-H, football games, music, basketball, hair and makeup (just the girls on the makeup), fashion, and cool vehicles (mostly the boys, and mostly kinds of trucks and truck accesories).

I think the common denominator is music... if I let them turn the radio on in the background, a lot more work got done.

My junior high kids were all fascinated by the whole musical theatre thing, too... I could get a lot of leverage out of singing a song from Bye, Bye, Birdie.

Mostly, I think middle school is the age of transition, where they're working towards being "grown up" like the high schoolers but are still mostly unsure of themselves... they go back and forth from "cool" to "kid" all the time. Not losing face is very important at this age, probably more than any other. They still can get really excited about things, and sometimes they're really funny, but laughing is a big, big mistake because they don't have much of a sense of humor about themselves at this age.

There's also a huge variation in maturity at this level... in one 7-8 grade class, I had one boy who was under 5 feet tall and who had a little plastic toy and kept "shooting" the other kids, making his own sound effects as he did ("Bam! Pshoo, Pshhoo - POW") and another who wouldn't have been out of place in a college classroom. It's tricky to treat them all repectfull but also acknowledge the different levels that they're at.

I really love middle school best, though. It's a fun age...

Dar

[kathywiehl]

My dd is almost 11 and she's into hair/makeup, talking to her friends on the phone and pop music.

[Alkenny]

I agree that there is a VERY broad range of interests at this age...my DD is into knitting/crocheting/stamping/artwork, hair and makeup, historical reading (she's REALLY into the Salem Witch Trials right now), running (she's not into organized "sports", but just recently has really gotten into running.

[UUMom]

Lish- Is The Witch of Blackbird Pond on your dd's reading 'list'? That is an amazing book. You prob have it, but just wanted to offer the title just in case.

[beatgirl]

i have an 11 yo ds and he loves skateboarding, video games, anything computer related, role playing, biking,reading. Starting to show interest in girls...but not quite ready to "date" yet. This is an interesting and frustrating age...I remember it well myself. we were watching something on TV the other night with little kids on it (6 or 7 yo) and my ds had this almost sad look on his face...I asked him " Do you miss being a little kid?" He looked at me as if 'How did you know what I was thinking' and said "Yes, I do".

I also have a 15 yo...when she was in middle school it was all about fashion.
Clothes, shoes, handbags, makeup and the dances....thank god she is past that now! Academically she was really interested in reading, writing and art.

Girls at that age are ready to be women where as boys are having a hard time letting go of their boyhood....I hated being that age : Luckily it doesnt last long

[Alkenny]

Originally Posted by UUMom

Lish- Is The Witch of Blackbird Pond on your dd's reading 'list'? That is an amazing book. You prob have it, but just wanted to offer the title just in case.

Thanks! I told her about it.