Out of the blue, I was offered a job. I’m not even looking for a job! Someone just called to asked me to come to work as a nurse. I haven’t worked as a nurse for about 15 years, but I still have my RN license, and they tracked me down. I was offered $1100-$1400 per week – AFTER taxes, “free and clear money.” They told me I would receive a $1000 bonus for starting work with their company.
Nurses are in high demand. With the population growing older, there are fewer nurses and the need is great. There are a huge variety of careers within nursing, not just hospital care. The hours can be long, but they don’t have to be. The job can be physically taxing, but not always. It’s an extremely flexible career that easily adapts for parents with young children. It’s a great field for missionaries, and a great “foot in the door” as a great skill that can benefit any country.
Nursing requires math and science. I used algebra every day when I worked as a nurse, calculating medication and IV fluids. One small math mistake could cause a serious medication error, so the pressure was intense. In high school I completed pre-calculus, and calculus was required in college. As with any medical or science field, it’s helpful to keep to the standard science courses: biology, chemistry, and physics.
Teens who are interested in medical careers can search for volunteer opportunities to research careers. I worked as a volunteer at a hospital from the age of 14. Often called Candy Stripers, hospital volunteers provide a valuable function. You can read an example in one hospital in Florida here.
While providing a service to the community, young people are also learning skills critical for medical fields. They learn about the daily sights and smells, so they aren’t shocked their first day of nursing practicum. They learn basic skills, like bed-making. They learn about caring for ill people, critical for determining a career in care-giving. Finally, they can learn about the wide array of careers available in the medical field, so they can know which specific medical field is right for them.
I loved being a nurse. When my son was born I continued to work one weekend a month. That allowed my husband regular experience as a primary caregiver for our baby, which was great for our marriage. When my son started little league, I couldn’t bear to miss a single baseball game, so I quit working as a nurse. I loved my job as a homeschooler as much as I had loved being a nurse. When my children graduated, it was difficult to decide what to do!
Ultimately, I loved my job as a home educator more, and my skills homeschooling high school were “fresh.” Still, I loved being a nurse, and I think it’s a great career for young people who like taking care of others.
I loved reading a news story about a local golfer playing in national tournaments. It’s just always fun to read about homeschoolers!
Spencer, who is home schooled, admits he’s got plenty of growing up to do. He has to fight the urge to slam a club into the turf when a shot doesn’t follow the planned trajectory. “He’s a perfectionist,” his father observed.
Seattle Times “Local golfer, 10, is hitting it big”
But it wasn’t the lovely column that made me start laughing. It was this comment from the father:
Steve Tibbits enjoys watching golf but said he hasn’t played much and never played well. “I’m just so bad at it, it’s frustrating to me,” the elder Tibbits said.
That comment reminded me SO much of my experience with my son and his love of Chess! You know, I was consulting with a mother today who made a comment about how her children didn’t have a cool interest like my children in chess, but her son was merely interested in boring old computers. I wonder if Mr. Tibbets ever wishes his son would have a different interest other than golf?
I will say, it does seem like the Lord’s sense of humor sometimes. The things our children love can be the most frustrating an annoying to parents. Have you read my article called “Use Your Annoy-O-Meter Skillfully“? I almost called it “The Joy of Annoyance” but I was too frustrated to feel joyful about it.
Here are some take-aways:
If you are annoyed, welcome to the club.
Specialization doesn’t always appear heaven-sent
The specialization-grass always looks greener in some other parent’s yard
Are you ready to get serious about homeschooling high school? Send me anemailand let’s talk!
“My child isn’t interested in ANYTHING!!!” I hear that fairly often, especially with younger children. Hang on! It’s like children learning to ride a bicycle. They use training wheels for so long, until you think they’ll never learn to ride on their own. Then suddenly – they’re off! If you are in the “training wheels” stage, what can you do when your child doesn’t seem interested in anything?
Hi Lee, What if your 13 year old daughter isn’t interested in anything….or so she says. Loves to read but says she’s not interested in reading anything “educational”. Seems uninterested in most things the last year or two. Help?
Dear Kim,
It’s extremely common for kids that age to not be interested in anything. I have talked to quite a few people that have really complained about this problem – and then they call me the next year to explain that their child suddenly “caught fire!” I think there are some things you can do that will help.
First, expose them to a wide variety of different experiences and subjects. That’s why colleges like to see core subject covered – to make sure kids have caught an area of interest! So make sure you have all the usual subjects covered.
Second, look for an area of passion where you least expect it. What I notice is that often kids will have an interest, but neither the student or the parent recognizes it as “passion.” Instead they may label it as “annoying” or “just fun.” We actually made a funny video of how annoying it was to have chess and piano as interests of my children. Here is an article about how you can find areas of interest using your own “annoy-0-meter”. Use Your Annoy-O-Meter Skillfully. Here is a video of when passions became too much for one annoyed mom!
Third, think about passion as something you encourage in your children over four years of high school, not as something they START high school with. My husband has written a series of articles called Raising Your Own Superheroes on developing interests in children.
Finally, when you are thinking about passion, remember to look outside of academics. Some kids don’t “love” books, but they love “doing” something. That can be a passion too! So if your daughter loves babysitting, or baseball or beach combing, those things may end up being a passion too. Look beyond school work and academics, but at the whole person.
My eldest (the passionate chess player) has just started his own blog! Kevin is writing about Engineering and Life (emphasis on the engineering!) It would be great if you could encourage him with a comment. Here is the link: http://kevinbinz.blogspot.com/ (Good luck understanding his post. It was way beyond me!)
There is a difference between being a nurse and being a doctor. But please, don’t base your decision on academic achievement, but on where your students heart lies. It’s the intangibles that are the deciding factor.
The person giving her assessment told my daughter to go ahead with her plan to get an RN, but not to stop there with her “educational potential” as he called it.
~Cam in Washington
As a nurse, I’m a little offended by the psychologist’s perspective that an RN is for those with less educational potential! (I’m not offended by your comments at all, just the psychologist’s comments!) Here is what I suggest. If your daughter LOVES science and math, and ENJOYS taking care of people, then she might be a great doctor. If your daughter LOVES taking care of people and ENJOYS math and science, then she might be a great nurse. Because, in general, doctors TREAT patients – nurses take care of patients. Doctors diagnose, write orders and then leave. It’s a completely different job – not related to educational potential at all.
One easy way to decide what you want to do is to work in a hospital. For younger students, I often recommend being a hospital volunteer. That’s what I did! You can volunteer usually from the age of 14. For older students (18 years) you may be able to look into phlebotomy, or the drawing of blood. That has the added benefit of being a paying job, and introducing you to actual physical intervention, all while getting you into the hospital setting.
I don’t recommend is choosing to be a doctor “because” of academics, anymore than I recommend being a nurse “because” of gender.
Learn how to translate all those great homeschool high school experiences into the words and numbers that colleges will understand with my ebook, ”The Easy Truth About Homeschool Transcripts.”
I’m amazed at how often my son Kevin studied chess when were were homeschooling! I remember giving him choices about things, but my GOODNESS he loved chess! I’m working on my e-book companion for the Sample Comprehensive Record, and was working on a downloable template for Power-Glide French. That course had the students write some essays during the year; some about France, and some in French. One of Kevin’s essays was about FIDE – Federation Internationale d’Echecs, or in English, the World Chess Federation. His French essay was “D’Echecs” or in English….. well… CHESS!
Try having your student write about something they like. Or give them the choice to write about *anything* that will match the writing assignment. It doesn’t always work, and it certainly doesn’t completely eliminate bad attitudes, but if you let them write about what they love, sometimes it will make it easier.
I have to confess, though, that at the end of each year I wasn’t so easy-going. I remember my son Alex was in love with American History. His “Learn to Write the Novel Way” project was about American History and economics. His history was about American History and economics. His English papers were all about American History and economics. Finally, in the spring, we had enough. I carefully explained that he still had the choice to write about anything he wanted, but his papers could no longer include the words “Thomas,” “Jefferson,” “Adam,” “Smith,” or “economics.” We managed to get a little bit more variety that way.
Thank you everyone for helping us make yesterday’s launch of the Gold Care Club a great success. Once again, we were working late into the evening making sure everything went smoothly. My biggest thanks to Gaurav and his team at Pragmites, who have been helping us learn all about e-commerce. These are my personal super-heroes!
Let me demonstrate how to think through the process using the interest of the child and incorporating that into delight-directed learning.
A homeschool boy loves the show “Warriors” on The History Channel and just can’t get enough. He read the hosts biography and has a desire to imitate his hero. His mother wrote to me, looking for ways to translate this interest into “school.” Here are the suggestions I gave her.
Dear [Gold Care Club Mom,]
I don’t think there has been a program written like that yet, so you’ll have to do it yourself!
But first, let’s think about it. My son studied economics during every year of high school. Beautiful Feet has their “History of Horses” program. Let’s just assume that it CAN be done, and then brainstorm together.
Idea #1 How about the history of weapons? There are certain “history of war” books that will provide a timeline of every war. During each war, there could be some research, written reports, study the science of the times (tie it in to the history of science, for example, so that he studies that.) He could draw each weapon as well. Consider looking at the Teaching Company Lectures, because I believe they have some of the history of science topics.
Idea #2 Purchase a time period based curriculum (Sonlight, The Well Trained Mind, or Tapestry of Grace, for example.) Instead of using their curriculum as written, substitute their writing suggestions for a more personalized assignment. Spend additional research on your child’s interests, instead of the assigned research. That would provide a little more structure than idea #2.
Idea #3 Model your high school after your son’s hero. You and I both know that the hero’s resume’ is not what was required of him. It was who he IS. But to hold up your son to this ideal would really help in the long run. By following this hero, your child will be motivates to learn math, science, etc. Let’s look at his hero for a moment:
Terry Schappert: Terry began his military career 17 years ago with the 82nd Airborne Division. While assigned to a recon squad, he completed Ranger School. After serving in the Persian Gulf War, he moved on to his ultimate challenge, becoming a Green Beret.
This requires strong preparation in PE.
Since completing the Special Forces Qualification Course, Terry has been deployed on training and combat missions all over the world, most recently in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In addition to his military credentials; Terry is a licensed paramedic,
Biology and advanced biology are necessary for a paramedic. Some experience with blood and/or hospitals are a help. He might consider being a hospital volunteer. Paramedics also need math, so they don’t kill someone by giving the wrong dose of a drug or the wrong volume of IV fluids. Again, I’m a nurse, so trust me on this one.
has extensive martial arts training,
Excellent PE! Marial arts can provide not only PE, but also a passionate interest that could last for 4-years, with the ability to develop leadership as his skills improve.
speaks several languages,
Ask your son what language he wants to speak, then follow that.
and holds a degree in anthropology.
Anthropology is a branch of social science (social studies.) He would need to develop his history and comparative governments (US Government, etc.) as well as economics. Anthropology requires a strong background in statistics, a branch of math.
Terry is the eyes and ears of the viewer, as he travels the globe to discover exactly what it takes to be a warrior.
Great opportunity to discover geography. That might be a good “right now” course. We used Runkle’s “Wonderful World of Geography” and my boys memorized the location of every country in the world (no kidding.) It was great, because then as they learned more about history and current events, they could understand where they took place. And as your son watches his hero on TV, he will know exactly where these places are located.
And by the way, the history channel is a GREAT way to get history!
So go for it! Call me next Wednesday if you can, and we’ll talk about it more.
This is just an example of the great consulting that is available for free to my Gold Care Club members. Members get a special email address to send me their toughest questions. They even get 20 minutes of free phone consulting every week where we can talk over their concerns. It is a great deal for parents who are homeschooling high school. Interested? A free month of the Gold Care Club is available for families who purchase my “Easy Truth About Homeschool Transcripts” e-book. I will soon be offering the Gold Care Club to families who do not wish to purchase the ebook. Stand by for details coming soon!
When did you start the Delight directed Learning? Did you find it hard to get through a year-long school course when doing it 4 days a week? Did you just tell the kids they could do whatever they wanted on the non-school day, or did they have certain things they always did, like going to a class in a homeschool coop? Did you allow them to watch TV or play video games during the free day?
Dear Diane,
What a GREAT question! When I speak to groups, I usually try to mention that we homeschooled 4 days a week, and the 5th day was for specialization – also called delight directed learning. When my kids were young, that 5th day was the day we went skating, swimming, bowling, or to park day for fun. When my kids got older, that was when Kevin studied chess and taught classes, and Alex studied economics and charcoal drawing.
I think that having a 4 day homeschool can help provide a much-needed “margin” to our busy American lives. It gives kids a time to be a kid – especially if you have very academic children anyway, they need to be able to lighten-up sometimes! I don’t think it’s necessarily for everyone, but it was GREAT for us. I didn’t do a co-op with my children. Once in a while we would take a class at a local group, just for fun (like “World War 2 Naval Battles” so they could meet other boys their age) but we never used co-ops for their primary courses.
During our fifth day of the week, the boys were still required to get their math and foreign language done. Later in high school, when I would assign them a week of school at a time, they could choose to do school during that 5th day, so they could take part of Friday off instead. But the “free day” did come with some rules and regulations. It was meant for “margin” for “specialization” and independent study. So there was NO TV allowed – unless it was an educational video from the library. There was NO COMPUTER or VIDEO GAMES unless those were educational games (as determined by ME, not as determined by them!) On our “free day,” after dad got home they day was the same as every other day, and they got their usual amount of TV and video game privileges.
My husband has written a series of articles about encouraging delight directed learning called “Raising your Own Superheroes” here:
Part 2: Observing Passion
Identifying passion in your children is hard – even when they are standing still. It’s even more difficult when you realize that their passionate interests and pursuits will ebb and flow over time. Like driftwood floating in the tide, sometimes it appears to be coming to shore, and other times it seems to be going out to sea! Our children don’t ever seem to stand still, and even their interests are a moving target.
Now that my children are 19 and 21, I can look at their chosen fields (economics and engineering) and remember all the clues they exhibited when they were younger. I can see that they were born and destined for this work their whole lives. On the other hand, there were also clues that have completely been lost over the years. Alex used to draw diagrams all the time. Architectural drawings and design work that he did for many years. The interest ebbed and flowed. One day it was gone. We still see the twinkle in his eye now and then, when we move around the furniture, or take a tour of a house or business, but mostly it’s just gone. When Alex was 11, though, I don’t know that I could have told you whether he would be an economist or an architect (or anything else.) I just knew that he had passionate interests in some very unique things.
I have written often about how important it is to feed your children’s passionate interests. I think it’s also worth mentioning that those interests may change over time. It doesn’t mean that you have failed them, or that they have failed somehow to maintain their own interests. It may just mean they are “done” with that topic, and are ready to move on. You can certainly drop it, and let them pursue the next thing.
I have a friend with a very musical daughter. She was very disappointed when her talented daughter quit taking piano. A year later her daughter was excelling at another instrument (guitar) and leading the worship band with a guitar. He passionate interest in piano ended – and she went on the do the “next thing” . It wasn’t a failure, it was more like a completion!
Matt wrote a series of articles on finding passion in your homeschoolers. You can read the first one here.
Our professor friend invited us to a lecture on economics at a downtown Seattle public policy Think Tank. He said that Alex would love the lecture given by one of the architects of Reagonomics. “I don’t know why I never thought of it before, but Alex would just love Discovery Institute. I guess I just didn’t think of it until I saw the lecture on economics.” My husband took Alex to the event, and we didn’t know what to expect. When he came home, the first thing he said was, “They offered Alex a job!”
Apparently, Alex was enraptured during the lecture, and when it was time for questions he spoke right up. He asked something about how Reagonomics was derived from the teachings of Jean Baptiste Say, or something like that. The President of the company was so impressed with just the question that Alex asked, that he invited him to come and work as an intern there. Shocked, my husband informed him, “He’s only fourteen!” The President responded, “We don’t discriminate based on age.”
I wondered what this organization was all about. Alex informed me that a lobbyist tries to influence public policy by convincing politicians. A think tank tries to influence public policy by convincing the public. They publish books and write articles for magazines and newspapers, to influence public opinion. I asked my husband what sort of crowd is attracted to a lecture at a “think tank” and he replied that he and his son were the youngest two people in the crowd. My husband is a professional engineer, and a manager at Boeing, but he told me he felt like the “least smart” person in the room!
For the last month of summer, we worked to prepare Alex for his new job. I was completely unprepared for putting my 14year old into the work force. We had to buy him a cell phone, and professional attire. He started working in September, his first week of 9th grade. At first they had him doing office work: filing, mailing, checking the website, and answering the phone. Later they gave him writing assignments. After working there for just 6 months, he had his article on Social Security published in the Seattle newspaper.
Alex worked for one day a week in an office building in downtown Seattle. He wore a suit, carried a brief case, and was treated like a peer by the other employees. It would have been completely impossible for him to have that experience if we had not homeschooled. Public schools simply don’t let students “skip school” every Wednesday, you know? Instead of sitting behind a desk, he was doing real work. And homeschooling gave us the freedom to do it!
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We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. (Romans 12: 6-8 NIV)
Finding your child’s area of specialization is an important part of our job as homeschooling parents. Everyone has their own unique gifts, and some are easier to spot than others. For whatever reason, I notice that sometimes parents can see their child’s faults easier than they see their strengths. A gift is something that children will do repeatedly, over and over….. to the point of annoyance! Check yourself, the next time you feel annoyed at your children. As yourself, are you looking at their gifts? Is it annoying and do they do it so much, because that is the way they are wired? Is this what they are meant to do?
I’m not saying that all mothers will get annoyed at their children, but I sure did! Look at the things they do that annoy you, and see if it might be because they have different gifts then you. Then ask yourself: how can I encourage this gift in my child?
Do this and you will be helping your child understand their gifts and calling.
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