This is the road map you've been searching for. Ending the homework and school battles. For good.
Six teachers, a locker, a laptop and a grade portal all showed up in the same week — and nobody handed your tween a system for any of it. Mastering Middle School is that system: a 65-page workbook and video program you work through together.
Get it for $97
It isn't that they don't care
You have watched your tween understand the assignment, mean to do it, and still not do it. You have found the permission slip at the bottom of the backpack. You have asked about homework four times before dinner and heard "I already did it" about something that was never turned in.
None of that is a character flaw, and none of it is a verdict on your tween. Elementary school held everything together for them — one teacher, one room, one set of expectations. Middle School changes the rules and expects a twelve-year-old to run it themselves.
They can. They just have to be taught how, and almost nobody teaches it.
The whole system, in one place
Mastering Middle School is a comprehensive workshop that covers the fundamentals of middle school, providing time-tested, easy to implement strategies. The workshop is presented with video modules and a downloadable workbook that you and your middle schooler work through together. Some pages are for you. Some are for your tween. Some you do together, and every page tells you which is which.
You work through it in order the first time. After that it becomes the thing you pull out in October when the first big project lands, and again in January when everything comes loose.
What's inside — six sections
Getting Grounded
- Before hopping into middle school fully, take time to recognize the foundations of your tween's levels of independence.
- The Scaffolding Ladder, backwards planning for the year, the real research on phones, and a family phone plan you fill in together and both sign.
Systems That Stick
- A Teacher Tracker for every class, so each teacher's late-work policy and help hours live somewhere other than memory.
- How to email an adult, with practice.
- Color-coded binders and supplies.
- The planner habit that makes a planner get used.
- Digital order — bookmarks, folders, file names, turning work in.
- Lockers, down to the combination.
Bringing It Home
- The Genius Zone, which turns three miserable hours of homework into one focused hour that ends.
- The Sunday Shuffle, a 20-minute weekly reset.
- The Launch Pad, so mornings stop involving a search.
- The Giant Calendar.
Beyond the Backpack
- Middle school jitters.
- Five anxiety strategies your tween can use in the moment.
- Building trust, on both sides.
- Friendships that shift, peers who cross a line, and how to find your way back after a blowup.
Make Middle School Yours
- Your school's dates and details in one place, and ways for both of you to get involved.
Now What?
- A first-week checklist you both sign, plus the tools and books worth having.
The last two modules are in the complete program only.
Who it's for
Parents of 10 to 14 year olds. Sixth grade is the natural starting point and eighth graders are often the most ready for it, because high school is close enough that they can feel it.
You do not need a diagnosis.
Most of what exists for middle school is written for families who already have one. This isn't. Some of these kids have ADHD. Plenty don't. The systems are the same either way.
About Colleen
I'm Colleen Yanez, M.Ed., and I've spent nearly thirty years in middle schools — as a teacher, teacher coach and administrator, and the last fifteen coaching teens and families on life skills and personal breakthroughs. I'm National Board Certified as an Exceptional Needs Specialist.
I put this workshop together based on what I've observed, tested and thrown out with hundreds of middle schoolers. The information and strategies that made it into this workbook are here because they're relevant and because they work.
Bonus!
Anyone purchasing the full course also gets:
- ◆ 60 days free access to the app I'm launching this week.
- ◆ The app is designed to calm the homework arguments and give teens a place to go when they need actual help with their work — not an AI doing it for them.
- ◆ During those 60 days, you're also invited to 5 live coaching sessions with me; ask me anything!
- ◆ Colleen's "Get It Done" Toolkit and video walkthrough—more tools to support your tween's success.
From families who completed the workshop
These testimonials come from parents who worked through this material with me at a live workshop.
"We added the binders and the pencil cases and Tommy loved it. He's up in the genius zone working on math! And here's the launch pad already packed for tomorrow!"
"This will help us so much on preparing our daughter for middle school! I think we will have a better understanding of how to support her success and organization."
"I think this was a great way to start talking about new routines and new organization."
- ◆The full 65-page workbook
- ◆Every video module
- ◆The first-week checklist
- ◆60 days free with the app
- ◆5 live coaching sessions
- ◆Colleen's "Get It Done" Toolkit and video walkthrough—more tools to support your tween's success
If you work through it and it isn't what you needed, tell me within 14 days and I'll refund you. I would rather have your trust than your $97.
Each of the four areas is available on its own for $34 if you'd rather start with one.
Questions
Is this for me or for my tween?
Both! This workshop is designed for you to do it together.
How long does it take?
The full workshop runs for about 90 minutes. To do this on your own with the ability to stop and start, I'd give it 2 hours or two 1 hour sessions.
Can I just purchase 1 of the modules?
Yes. Each is $34 on its own and the quiz will tell you which one to start with.
We already tried a planner and it didn't stick.
This is a very common issue that I hear about planners. The systems I teach aren't about just handing a tween a planner; they teach the tween how to use them and how you can hold them accountable without the arguments!
Is it printed or digital?
The workbook is digital. You can print it all out or pick and choose the pages you want to fill out.
My tween won't do a workbook.
This 'workbook' isn't like a workbook in the traditional sense. It's more of a space of reflection and planning. I'd ask them to give it a try (and if they won't, that's okay too!).
Pick a strategy or two and start there
You don't have to fix everything at once. Go through the workshop and settle on one or two of the strategies that would be the most impactful for you and your middle schooler.
Get it for $97