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Giving teenagers more say….
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Does anyone have advice on how to give teenagers more say in their curriculum without sacrificing the wonderful choices we moms prefer? 🙂 Dd is nearly 14 and will be in 8th next year. She just brought up that she might want to go to high school. I’m trying to be open if God might want her there (it’s a highly academic Christian school), but deep down think its best at home….as long as she is motivated and doing her best. So, right now it seems that she wants to be homeschooled next year and we’re going to work harder at providing more social outlets for her. I’m just not sure how to offer her choices when I’m pretty much planned out for next year (and all the rest, lol:) Last year I gave her a lot of freedom in scheduling. She had a weekly list and could complete it on basically her own schedule as long as long as she finished by Friday. She’s pretty disciplined and obedient, but doesn’t particularly love reading or school. Part of the school attraction is I think she thinks sitting in a class and filling out bubble tests sounds easier than reading lots and written narrations.
Any suggestions? All I can think of so far is adding audio books, even though I probably have most/all books for next year. My general plan for 8th:
Apologia Physical
MUS Algebra
SCM Module 2 with her doing most history/geo indrpendently.
SCM Bible, Scripture Memory, Composer, Artist, Poetry, English Roots Up together
Misc. literature with a analysis of a couple books. Progeny Press?
Spanish exposure, not sure what program. We’ve done so little and she’ll take in hs with coop
Greek with dad, maybe 90 min per week
Jump In writing and a couple written narrations per week
Spelling Wisdom
Wordly Wise (she struggleswith voc)
Piano lessons
I want her to do all thee things so don’t know how to offer her choices! I could offer elective choices, but anything additional will just be viewed as more work:) Thanks for any input! Blessings, Gina
P.S. I have let her have input already such as switching to Jump In from WWTB. She prefers WW over picking words from readings. I dropped current events mag in favor of natural discussions. I sometimes switch out lit or history books if she really doesn’t like them.
My son has many interests, but I’ve been a bit concerned lately because she doesn’t have a whole lot she’s interested in. She LOVES animals. She has 2 dogs that she is primarily responsible for. I would say that’s her main passion. We volunteered once for a shelter last year, but both grandfathers were then ill and we never got back into it.
She likes to knit and crochet and is very detailed and makes pretty things, but has a huge stash of items so hasn’t had interest lately. She’s already given several items to people and had hoped to find an avenue to sell items but nothings panned out well. I’ve thought of seeing if the consignment store might sell them this Fall and she could maybe donate a % to a shelter, etc.
She used to love piano, but she hasn’t loved our last teacher and her younger brother plays more and has surpassed her. I’m hoping our new teacher next year will help. I’ve tried to interest her in another instrument to avoid competitive feelings, but she seems to like piano best (we want her to play something).
She’s naturally gifted at basketball, but doesn’t love the competitiveness in a group….though is considering for next year. She loves to be with friends, very social. I’m hoping her two closest homeschool friends will be able to form a study group next year to do independent work together a couple times per week. Sorry so long!
Michelle, I just realized you were probably trying to get me to ask these questions myself and maybe didn’t need a list:) I’m working on trying to get her to develop/pursue her passions more.
I’m just not sure how to involve here more with educational decision making without compromising what I feel she should do. I’d like to give her more choices, but feel we need to stick with Apologia for college prep, MUS is working, staying on the SCM history sequence is important to me to be thorough (though she would probably prefer something like a couple years of Notgrass and less history credits in hs if I asked her). Just wondering what choices others give to their older students so they have more ownership. I plan to sit down and have a talk with her this year about owning her education in general. Ok, I’m rambling….sorry!
Ok, well…. I’m going to jump into this by going to my own Public School experiences….
Going into Junior High (grade 7-9) I had 2-3 options I could choose from. All the core stuff was determined… There was various options (Home-Ec, Art, Band, etc) The number and the options varied from depending on the school (I went to 2 different ones…) – I took French and Band. For a couple of years I also got Home-Ec
Going into High School (grades 10-12), the main choice was as I went into Grade 9 and basically determined which “stream” I would be in. This was also partly determined by my Grade 9 marks. There was a combination of credits needed for a diploma but it basically came down to this – My choices at the time for the core subjects were….
The 15-25-35 courses – basically for struggling students… Credits would probalby be filled up with vocational options
The 13-23-33 courses – For the mediocre students. Might be able to go to College/University – depending on courses chosen and marks and options…. I suppose headed to technical schools or something?
The 10-20-30 courses – (or 11-21-31 for a few courses – like the 6 year French) – For the better students – likely university bound.
The International Baccaulauriate Program – Only at a few schools (3 in the city where I lived) – for advanced/gifted school – could in theory skip the 1st year of University.
So – the first main choice was which “stream” did I want to be in? That determined most of the core program (although there were a few choices here and there, I believe.) Then one could fill up the few spaces in the schedule with options.
For me…. Well I chose International Baccaulauriate. So that meant that I only had space for 1 full-year option, or 2 half-year options each year. And, as I wanted to be an Engineer, and Physics (all sciences were spread over the 3 years half year courses for 10 & 20 – and full year for 30) wasn’t in the IB program at my school – I filled it with Physics for Grade 10 (the 10 & 20 course), and grade 11 (the 30 course) and in Grade 12 I did Mechanical Drafting.
Now, people that weren’t in the IB program had a few more choices – like I remember there was a couple of different “flavours” of the Social Studies courses a student could chose from – but really if you were going to University, you really didn’t get a LOT of options….
So – all that is to say that although there should be choices allowed – it shouldn’t be detailed choices. Basically do they want University Bound, other occupation, or remedial level courses. Then they should be able to choose a few “options”
Of course – you could choose to let them chose more if you like…….
Thanks, suzukimom. I think I’m making this more difficult than it needs to be:) I’m reading Joanne Calderwood’s book from the urthemom site you recommended. Thanks! I just got to the part today about getting your high schooler more involved in setting their goals, and getting them their own planner to fill out themselves to help with ownership. I’m thinking this all through. I’m hoping I’ll be able to include her in more decisions this year. Thanks again! Blessings, Gina
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