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Career Choices/Future Plans??
- This topic has 12 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 13 years, 1 month ago by
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I have a 9th grader, who really doesn’t have any idea what she would like to do. We have talked about many different thing, but nothing seems to spark an interest. When she was younger, she spoke of being a teacher. That doesn’t seem to be of any interest to her now. At one time, she spoke of being a Marine Biologist, because she loves dolphins. She feels that is too far from her reach, because learning is not something(in the school system) that has come naturally to her.
She loves reading biographies about history and reading the bible. She really enjoys writing. She is very passionate about her faith.
We have always pushed the importance of college to all of our children. As I have been reading on the SCM forum, my heart has started to change about what is important and what is not. I have mentioned to my daughter that maybe college is not what God wants for her, but she was pretty stunned because we have always said the importance of it.
I never attended college when I was younger, because my dream was to sing. I felt it was unreachable, so I attended a technical school for medical assisting. After a year or two, I got married and started my family.
Two years ago, I started back to college fulltime and finally began pursuing a career in music. But, as God does sometimes….he showed me that I was needed elsewhere and he brought me back home to homeschool my children. I have no degree, but have been able to see how my 2 years back in college has greatly benefited my children and my homeschooling them. I homeschooled for a year previous to my college time, but it was too much like school. Without a support system, I was forced for them to return to public/private school.
I would like to lead each of them in the direction that God has planned for them. I am just not quite sure how to get my oldest there. My oldest son is going to be in 8th grade and would very much like to be an architect.
Does anyone know of any books or websites that might help with career opportunities or ideas? Or even books that might help me to move my daughter along to think more about this?
Even my younger two kids have ideas about career fields, because of their interests at this point. I would just like to help her other than praying for her. Any suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks.
Jenielle
We will not push college for our girls at all. That’s where I’m coming from. I have a Master’s degree and feel that the time and money (oh the money!) spent was really a waste. I worked full time for one year before we started a family. I then worked part time for years, forever feeling torn between work and my most precious blessings at home. But I felt guilty “wasting” my degree. I don’t want my girls to ever feel they have to let someone else care for their children because they want to get their money’s worth out of college.
In 9th grade, she still has PLENTY of time. Think outside the box. Even if she did go to college, she doesn’t have to go right at 18. What about learning a marketable skill, like cake decorating, photography, jewelry making, catering, child care? All of those are money making skills that your daughters can use full time, part time, or stop completely for a time. None of those type of jobs need interfere with mothering. I will encourage my daughters to take photography classes at least. All you need is a good camera and a website or business cards and you can make gobs of money. But you can also just do it on the weekends. Or they can just provide me with fantastic pics of my grandkids. 😀
College Without Compromise might help you explore more options, Janielle. The authors, homeschool parents, explain several options that are open for earning college credit in nontraditional ways. But they also emphasize the importance of knowing what God is leading you/your child to do and not assuming college is the only way to accomplish His plans.
Some of the chapters are full of details of the how-to, which is incredibly helpful to parents. But other chapters would probably be helpful for your daughter to read and discuss with you.
My daughters are now 18 and we are doing an extra year of high school because of various things that have happened over the high school years (hurricane being one of them) and my daughter’s health issues. We have given them the education that would allow them to go to college if they choose to, meaning we have covered all the bases for college entrance – however we have also told them we want them to decide, not go just because everyone else seems to. One daughter wants to go to Europe and learn classical horsemanship and train there, the other does not know yet, but she has said she will not go to college without a goal in mind. We are in know rush to send them out in the world, whether it be a job or college and our attitude is see what each day brings. As I said they will have the necessary courses to enter college if they choose to go, but they know they have a lot of options – and we are very relaxed about that. In 9th grade I would just let her be, but I would give her the education that would allow her the choices she may want to make later on – do not limit her. The world is in a very precarious place right now, and I think it pays us to prepare our children for all opportunities – marriage may or may not come – I want our daughters to be able to provide for themselves and not rely on others. God has a plan and we will hopefully be prepared for it. The book Sonya recommends is excellent by the way. Blessings – Linda
You mentioned that your daughter is strong in her faith and enjoys reading her Bible. Maybe she could do mission work or attend a Bible college or work with your family’s church. She would be serving, making an income, and doing something that she enjoys. I am sure that Gods plan for will be revealed in His time.
Tammy
I went to college for 4 years, even though I knew for sure by the end of my 2nd year that I’d be getting married and starting a family right after graduation (which is exactly what happened). For the 9 mths I worked full-time after college before Baby #1 arrived, I worked at a shoe store, even though my BA was in Psychology. I have never once regretted going to college and getting my degree, although my dh and I have sometimes regretted waiting so long to get married. I learned a lot about life at college, even with the loans I had to get and we are now trying to pay off. I have stayed home with my children from the day my 1st was born. Even with the debt and working Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps, I still do not regret going to college.
That said, we will never force college on our children, any of them. They are free to do what God calls them to do, no matter what that entails.
I have a doctorate degree, and I definitely regret all the time and money spent on it, as well as “unlearning” all the lies I was taught about evolution and humanism. We were so harnessed with debt for the first 10 years of our marriage because of it (dh also has a doctorate, so you can imagine) and it caused many problems for us.
I had no idea there was any other option than going to college. The environment there (all the drinking, immorality) was very difficult to deal with, but I went because my father wanted me to.
I got saved in my 2nd year of grad school right after my oldest was born. I finished up my degree a little at a time, working on my dissertation while my husband could be home. The funny thing is I never had any intention of leaving her to go to work and I always wanted to be a SAHM since I was a little girl. Once I learned about the beauty and importance of mothering, there was no looking back.
There is something called College Plus that you can earn your degree online from home in about 2 years for about $15,000 or less without compromising your faith or values.
I am not against higher learning…I think it’s a great thing; but from what I’ve learned it can be done without compromising what you believe in.
Nanci
I know that college plus is a wonderful thing. Oviously there are things that they can’t do but for the most part I think if my children decided they want to do college we’ll be going that route.
I should specify, I went to a private, Christian college. 🙂 I would never have gone to a public school. 🙂 And I will never go on for a master’s degree. That, to me, would be a waste of money. But when it comes down to it, it’s all a matter of personal choice and conviction from God. God will lead you down the path He wants you to go down, even if it’s not exactly “easy.” God uses those bad experiences, even the debt we carry from previous choices, for good for us, to help us learn and grow in our faith and love for Him.
Ladies, you have no idea how helpful this discussion is to me in helping to guide my own thinking about my future when my kiddos are done homeschooling. I have dreaded the thought of going to back college to earn a degree in my chosen area simply because I’m afraid that I wouldn’t be able to reap enough benefits from the financial effort expended to earn the degree. The other part is that what I want to do may not be overly marketable in my area, though that remains to be seen I suppose. However, you’ve all made me realize that I really need to stop fretting about this and just take it a day at a time. God will make a way if this it is His will, and I need not worry about starting on this path before my youngest has finished her schooling since I *know* that this is where I am supposed to be at the moment.
Thank you,
~jacqleene
Have you heard of careerclusters.org ? Here’s the link: http://www.careerclusters.org/ccinterestsurvey.php You can print off an interest survey that takes approx. 15 minutes to complete. There are directions to follow for scoring. On the last couple of pages, the careers have been “clustered” into 16 different categories. This gives you ideas of where your interests/strengths are. Our older daughters and I took the survey a couple of years ago and it was fun to talk/dream about what we wanted to be when we grew up.
Blessings, melissaI just want to second the option of a Bible college as at least a possibility. I went to an inexpensive two-year Bible college (but unaccredited – it only taught Bible, although some of my classmates transferred to Christian colleges afterwards and were able to transfer some credits). It has been the BEST investment of time/money and so profitable in parenting, homeschooling, and life in general. After Bible school I went to a technical college for early childhood education and it gave me confidence that my own children were doing great in early childhood, however, I had to wash my mind in the Word A LOT as the childrearing advice was not Biblical. Anyway, my point being, that of the two degrees, Bible has been the best one and will defintely be something we will bring up with our kids when they are older.
My children are little, so it will be a while, thankfully, before we have to cross this bridge. We have talked about it, though. I did go to college, although I did not graduate. I don’t regret stopping when I did at all. My husband and I met before college, so I am so thankful that I did not get sucked into the “looking for a husband” vacuum that so many of the girls I attended school with got sucked into. I did attend a public university (West Texas A&M) in a very conservative town, but I was still bombarded with so many worldly things that made me very uncomfortable. I would not wish that on my daughter, or son for that matter. Fortunately, I was a strong Christian by that time, so I was never tempted to accept invitations to parties or whatever, but I did see and hear a lot of things that I can’t un-see or un-hear.
You might find this article on Sonya’s other site helpful: http://intentionalparents.com/2006/02/01/what-about-college/
As for our children, we aren’t going to push college on them at all, but if they choose to attend we will definitely make sure they are prepared. Our hope is that our daughter will choose to remain at home with us until she is married. At five years old, she has already expressed a desire to stay at home when she’s a mommy and homeschool. That makes my heart so happy!
On the other hand, my husband attended a private Bible college after we had been married for several years. We all went together, lived on campus; but he was the only one who attended classes. The particular school we went to has advanced schools of ministry for specific areas of calling or interest. My husband attended the classes for worship and technical arts. This school also offers diplomas in global missions, youth ministry, children and family ministry, and pastoral ministry.
If ministry is something your daughter is interested in, I highly recommend this school. It’s called Christ For The Nations Institute. You can PM me if you’d like more info. There is still a bit of the “college atmosphere” there, as many of the students are single and 18-21 years old. However, there is a strict dress code and a strict set of rules for the single students that encourages godly behavior. There are also serious consequences if those rules are broken.
Anyway, that may have been more than you wanted to know, but that’s our story. I pray you and your daughter have the wisdom you need to make the best choice for you.
Blessings,
Lindsey
Blessings, melissa
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