In this final episode of the Middle School Mind podcast, Father and Son are back on 8th Grade Graduation Day Eve to reflect on Son's middle school journey. He shares his experiences from 8th grade, including funny memories and challenges with teachers and classmates. He talks about his school's 8th grade dance and Six Flags trip, offering advice for kids entering middle school.

Son also discusses the pitfalls of social media and the importance of finding a trustworthy teacher. Tune in for a humorous and honest recap of middle school life!

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. After months of deliberation and soul-searching Father and Son publish their last and final episode of The Middle School Mind podcast.

After nearly 18 months and over 35+ episodes, on this episode:

• We say goodbye to our listeners
• We talk about what's next for Son
• We hear from some of our past guests
• Of course we get a little silly
• And we play one last game

So sit back, relax, grab the Kleenex and stick around for our very special goodbye episode.

We think kid's voices are under represented in the podcast space. Even though we are leaving, we encourage you to visit Kids Listen. This organization is a grassroots organization of advocates for high-quality audio content for children. The Middle School Mind is a proud member of Kids Listen and, with our show ending, we encourage kids and families to find other interesting and engaging podcasts for kids.

Through this adventure, we connected with the creator of Sound Carrot. This website was founded by a father/daughter team with the goal to help younger listeners find amazing children's podcasts. We hope this resource helps parents and kids find other kid's voices that you want to listen to and hear more from.

We also believe that kids can create their own podcasts! Last summer we launched a three-part series encouraging kids to make their own kids' podcasts. You can find the episodes here:

• 1.20 Make Your Own Kid Podcast 1
• 1.21 Make Your Own Kid Podcast 2
• 1.22 Make Your Own Kid Podcast 3

Thank you to The Middle School Mind listeners and even our future listeners. We enjoyed making these episodes together and sharing them with you. This time was special for us and we will look back at this show as an amazing point in time where we talked about what was on Son's mind or relevant pop culture during this time.

If you loved listening to the show and want to connect with us, e-mail us at: middleschoolmind.podcast@gmail.com. We are happy to connect if you want to talk about creating your own podcast for your child or, potentially, if you are interested in having your middle schooler take over The Middle School Mind, let's chat.

We always knew that The Middle School Mind was going to last at most, 3 years, with Son and I. But amazing shows like Star Trek had Star Trek: The Next Generation and Saved By The Bell had Saved By The Bell: The New Class introduced a new cast of characters while providing new stories and fresh perspectives. It would be amazing to have a Mother/Daughter voice leading the show or a parent/child from a different part of the country or even a completely different country! It's the unique perspectives that help us all learn and appreciate each other.

Enjoy The Goodbye Episode and thank you for being part of our show.

Sincerely,

Father & Son

The Middle School Mind podcast is taking a little break as we get into the holiday season and look out for new episodes from us in the new year.

In the meantime, we wanted to share some other great kids and family podcasts to our listeners. On this week’s Feed Drop, we wanted to share a very inspiring episode from A Step Ahead Tutoring Services' podcast, Hot Topics!. On this episode of Hot Topics!, we meet Sydney Fowler, a teen entrepreneur of a Single Soul online clothing boutique for teens.

Sydney talks about her life-changing injury she suffered at the age of 13 and how she started Single Soul with her love of fashion and the support of her family. We love listening to this young entrepreneur story and we hope you enjoy it as much as we have.

You can find A Step Ahead Tutoring Services Hot Topics! podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

The Middle School Mind podcast is taking a little break as we get into the holiday season and look out for new episodes from us in the new year.

In the meantime, we wanted to share some other great kids and family podcasts to our listeners. On this week’s Feed Drop, we wanted to share a recent episode of The Geeky Dad Podcast where the Geeky Dad and the Multiverse Kids visit New York and check out a Star Wars exhibition this fall. We hope you enjoy it as much as we have.

You can find The Geeky Dad Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.

On this episode of The Middle School Mind podcast, we talk about tween gift ideas this holiday season with our own spin with wrong answers only. This is our attempt at sarcasm to talk about gifts parents and loved ones should NOT buy the tweens on their gift list this holiday season.

We rate these tween gift ideas on a scale of 1 to 5 empty presents, with 5 empty presents being a really bad gift and 1 empty present being a great, super useful gift.

Father and Son talk about the following tween gift ideas (wrong answers only):

• Jojo Siwa’s D.R.E.A.M. Tour front row tickets and a meet and greet session
• Underwear
• Carpool and dinner for Son and his bully (or bullies)
• Knock-off, bootleg products
• Cameo video to your crush from your parents
• Insult gifts
• Invite least favorite teacher to celebrate the holidays with the family
• Family members go way off your holiday wish list

We want to hear from you!

Please leave us a positive review and like and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.

We also want to hear from you, our listeners! What kind of topics do you want to hear more about?

You can reach The Middle School Mind on our About Us page, Facebook page or Twitter (@TMSM_Podcast). Thanks for listening!

On this episode of The Middle School Mind, we talk about how Son learned the basics of football by playing Madden NFL 22 on XBox One.

Many middle school students are not into sports and Son is one of them. However, many kids have to attend sporting events to support their siblings, friends and family. Son’s older sister is in the color guard at her high school and she performs during halftime at the home football games.

Rather than complaining about going to the games or sitting in the stands bored and not knowing what’s going on the field, Father bought Madden NFL 22 on XBox One to teach Son the basics of football.

Football is an incredibly complex game. Many people complain that there’s more standing around than action in the games. Using Madden as a teaching tool, Father was able to talk Son through the high level basics of football from offense to defense and run plays and passing plays.

On this episode, we talk about the following:

• Son is not a sports kid
• Madden video game taught Son the basic rules to football
• We compare the video game with the actual game
• Did Madden help Son appreciate the game?
• Video games can be a good learning tool
• Wii Sports is a classic sports tutorial for novices

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On this episode, we featured our fellow podcaster, The Geeky Dad Podcast. This podcast highlights the trials and tribulations of a Geeky Dad trying to reclaim some semblance of sanity as he navigates parenthood and geek culture. Check out The Geeky Dad Podcast on Apple Podcasts.

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On this episode of The Middle School Mind, Son has a special guest, Raphael, who is here to talk about stage fright and how they prepare for theater performances.

They talk about the process to get into a show starting with the audition workshop, the audition itself, call-backs, practices, opening night and all the feels associated with the closing show.

Audition Workshops

The workshop is like the pre-audition audition. You are generally divided by age and taken through singing, dancing and running lines.

Auditions

It can get extremely competitive at auditions. Brother against brother, Friend against friend. And Raphael says it’s important to look “fly” to the auditions. It’s important to keep yourself busy like playing cards to keep yourself entertained during auditions.

Call-Backs

You have a short amount of time to prep for call-backs. If you bomb your call-back, you may have just missed out on making the show. It’s easy to psyche yourself out when you’re checking out your competition. The directors usually don’t provide feedback during call-backs which adds to the anxiety.

Practices

You made the show - good for you! Middle schoolers need to balance school, other activities, family time and other interests in addition to the show. Son and Raphael practice at home in front of their stuffed animals for their audience.

Tech Week

Tech Week is crunch time where you prepare for the actual shows. The number of practices ramp up and you need to do run-throughs with microphones and costumes. You need to lean on your friends and trust your directors to make sure the show comes together.

Opening Night

The guys play Super Smash Bros on the Switch to take the focus off the show. The cast and crew are in full costume and huddle together and talk trash to relieve stress.

Closing Night

It’s a mix of emotions. We’re excited that it’s over but we also got so close to our castmates that we get so emotional. We also want to go out on top and give our best performance. We celebrate our show with an awesome cast party.

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On this episode, we featured our fellow podcaster, If You Give a Dad a Podcast. This is a nerdy dad podcast where they interview everyone from wrestlers, musicians and even a chiropractor. Listen to their show for all things nerdy.

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We want to hear from you!

Please leave us a positive review and like and follow us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.

You can reach The Middle School Mind on our About Us page, Facebook page or Twitter (@TMSM_Podcast). Thanks for listening!

On this episode of The Middle School Mind, we continue our review of Halloween candies that are safe for kids with peanut and tree nut food allergies. Halloween is a fun time for kids, and since we have family members with severe food allergies, we hand out peanut and tree nut free candies on Halloween.

On this episode, we pull random allergy-safe candy from a hat and we taste test each candy and tell you if we would Keep this candy, Trade this candy or Chuck this candy.

Here are the allergy-friendly candies we review on this episode:

Jolly Rancher Gummies - 2 in 1

• Son wants to Keep since he doesn’t think others would want to Trade him for it.
• Father feels like it has the consistency of Swedish Fish and sticks to his teeth.
• We talk about how people who hand out fruit snacks on Halloween are our heroes!

Goetze’s Bullseye Caramel Creams

• This one was a unanimous Keep!
• Once you hit the cream center, it was great. It reminded us of the Oreo cream center.
• This was a new candy for Son, but Father has enjoyed this for quite some time.
• We feel these candies are too small and not enough people hand these candies out on Halloween!

Jolly Rancher Lollipops

• Son said this meets his expectations for a Jolly Rancher candy. This is a Keep for him.
• Father chose to bite through his lollipop and noted that it was pretty sour.
• We talked about how you never see adults walking around sucking on lollipops.

Whoppers

• Son liked it, but would Trade this for an upgrade in his Halloween bag.
• Father loves Whoppers but too many in one sitting can get too sweet.

Sweet Tarts

• Sweet Tarts only had two distinct flavors - the Purple and Green and it was so tart with a bad aftertaste.
• Son said this is an automatic Chuck and would never wish this on anyone.

Oreos

• It’s great to end Oreos!
• This was another unanimous Keep for Father and Son.
• Father talks about his Oreo consumption style to combine two Oreos for one Ultra Oreo.

was just our opinion and these candies are safe for Son’s allergies. Please make sure these candies are safe for you based on your specific food allergies.

This was a great episode since we got to eat candy and critique the Halloween candy that we will give out to our neighbors.

We finish the episode talking about middle schoolers and if they still go trick or treating in 7th grade.

Have a very safe and very Happy Halloween everyone!