Michael Phelps has ADD – did you know that? His mother was able to take what could have been a detriment, and turned it into a huge advantage. I love this article titled “Michael Phelps’ Mom on How to Raise an ADHD Superstar.” It states that “Behind almost every ADHD success story is a devoted parent (or two).” Read the article from ADDitudemag.com
Did you read about my newsletter article about the boy homeschool graduate with learning disabilities? He went on to earn ELEVEN graduate degrees! Here is the article in USA Today.
I encourage you to find the Superhero within your own child! My husband has written a series of articles about finding the superhero your own homeschooled children. Read more!
Did you know that you can consult with me for free? This month you can call me on my toll free number, on Wednesdays between 1:00 and 2:00 pm, Pacific Time, and consult for up to 10 minutes for free. You missed me today, but call me next week! It’s fun – and free!
Some kids decide on a career when they are vary young, and others don’t decide until much later. Keep in mind that college students will usually change their major at least once in their college career. Statistically speaking, working adults change their career three to seven times in their lifetime. Even if your student choose a career now, it may be unlikely that they will continue with that career later. Choosing a career now can encourage students to go to college, but it’s not really necessary. If working through the books helps them to choose a career, then you can make sure the colleges they apply to will offer a major for that career.
Because of that, I suggest another strategy for kids who are undecided about a career. Consider going to a liberal arts college. At a liberal arts college, students take a class or two in a wide variety of subjects. The first two years of the exploratory curriculum will include some science, social students (psychology for example) English, politics, etc. Having a broad exposure to a varied curriculum will allow them to experience many subjects until they find the one that they love. In the event that nothing makes them say “wow!” a great liberal arts school can give them a general liberal arts degree. Many businesses like general liberal arts degrees. Most businesses train all their new employees anyway, and they simply want an employee with ANY bachelors degree. It can be a good fit for many different kinds of jobs.
Here’s how it works: You pick and choose from online classes across the nation. All the work is done at home. All the results from those different online experiences are all sent to one distant location, to a real university. If you choose to do it all 4 years of college, some (but not all) of the upper level courses require you to fly to the distance location for testing once a quarter. That University will provide “accreditation” for all the credits that are earned. Those accredited transcripts will be sent the next University he wants to go to. It’s possible to homeschool college for 1 quarter or all 4 years of college.
Real socialization doesn’t have anything to do with “school.” Real socialization is having fun! When we were homeschooling, we didn’t meet other kids at co-op classes. We got together to have FUN! We went on field trips, went to park days, met at support groups, and had show and share evenings. There is so much fun to be had! If you are looking for an opportunity for your children to find new friends, don’t get stuck in the rut of looking for a classroom setting. Look for a youth group, a volunteer opportunity, math or science club, musical group, or a job instead. Remember the priceless friendships of sibling, family, and church. Form a group of your own that meets for games, teen activities, fun at the park. Friendships happen when kids are having fun together, not when they are sitting in a classroom together. So search for activities that might interest your child, perhaps something they specialize in – or maybe just WISH they specialize in! My sons loved soccer, baseball, swim team, chess club, and youth group. They helped at Vacation Bible School, and taught classes (chess and charcoal drawing) to other homeschoolers. Finding fun is finding friends!
What fun activities do you do with your teenagers? How have they found their friends? Share your ideas!
Are you panicky about next year? Don’t be afraid! Take control of the situation! If you are just beginning high school, or never really felt you understand what was expected, consider getting my video “Preparing to Homeschool High School.” Equivalent to reading a book on the subject, it will get you up to speed quickly, so that you can feel confident about homeschooling through high school!
I’ve been having a lot of conversations with mothers recently about 17 year old boys. I just want to encourage everyone that it gets SO much better eventually! I was delighted about 3 months ago when I realized my 20 year old had matured to the pleasant, sweet, kind person that I had raised. Funny story – I was telling him that we had a bit of conflict with his 18 year old brother, and he said “Really? Gee, Mom, I never had any conflict with you and Dad!” Seriously, it was all I could do to not laugh out loud! We had plenty of conflict! He just doesn’t remember it! At that point I decided that we must have done something right when he was a teen. So hang in there – teenage attitudes may be rotten now, but one day they’ll grow up and become adults, and all your hard work will pay off.
We just completed a major redesign of our website that goes live today. My techie husband, who has worked very hard making everything beautiful, would much appreciate it if you would poke around the new site and let us know what you think. There is even a new “Contact Us” button on the site that you could test to give us some feedback! Thanks!
Once we determined that they knew enough to pass a CLEP, then we started to study for the test so that they would get a good score. It seemed like the REA books were the best prep once we go to that stage.
We used CLEP exams only for the things they already “sorta knew.” So, typically, just reading through the REA book and taking the practice tests was enough, since they already were able to pass the test based on previous knowledge.
My son Alex did take one CLEP in a different way – psychology. He didn’t want to take Psych in college (he was only 15 at the time and knew he didn’t want to discuss Freud in mixed company!) He simply read through the REA book, and then he was able to take the test. I had bought him a psych textbook, but I don’t think he read it much. I think it was mostly the REA books.
Read more about how to homeschool college in my Dig Deeper page!
When we did CLEP, I preferred using the Official Study Guide by College board as a entry-level “can we pass this” assessment. Here is the link:
I chose that book because it had a sample test from EVERY CLEP, and we were just looking for an over view assessment at that time.
I usually preferred Princeton Review study materials for everything, but in this one instance it seemed like the Official Study Guide worked better for us. Princeton Review seems to speak more in the natural tone of teenagers.
With my impecable 20/20 hindsight, I wish I would have had long, long talks and intense reading assignments about the importance of SLEEP!! My sons have not given me a drop of concern about drugs, sex, violence, or even healthy eating. Now that they are in college, the place where they seem to be dropping the ball is SLEEP.
Teach your babies the value of SLEEP. It can help you think, it can make you nicer, it will give you the ability to cope with life. It can also help you keep off the “Freshman 15″ – that all-to-frequent initial college weight gain. Pulling an “all-nighter” has a “diminishing marginal return” effect on studying, too. If you stay up all night, eventually the thing you are studying will make less and less sense, and take longer and longer to learn. At a certain point, you may as well just go to bed and get a good night’s sleep for the next day’s exam.
The HomeScholar provides a free monthly e-newsletter, daily blog support, low cost DVDs and private consultations — everything you need to successfully homeschool through high school.
How do you know when you have succeeded in teaching your child English? When I was homeschooling, I was SO stressed out about literature analysis. It seemed like we always failed at reading comprehension and the review questions that were provided. I knew that I wanted my kids to LOVE reading, but I was still stressed about literature analysis. Every year, I spent so much time looking at Progeny Press, Learning Language Arts Through Literature, and other curriculum choices. Why was I failing? Why couldn’t I teach literature analysis??? Every time I asked my kids “how did you like the book?” all I ever got was “it was great mom – where’s the next one?” When I read aloud they would laugh at the funny parts, and ask me to read more (or faster!) at the exciting parts. Still, we never really had a good discussion about the deeper meanings of the literature we read.
Update: Just this past weekend, I had one more piece of evidence suggesting that I had, in fact, succeeded. My younger son founded a Jane Austen Fan Club at college. Last weekend he organized the “Pemberly Ball” at the college, complete with period costumes, decorations, and food of the era. It was a huge success! You can see the photos below. My sons both LOVE the Jane Austen books and movies, and they enjoyed the Jane Austen inspired Pemberly Ball.
Yeah! I WIN!
Hang in there – you can succeed too! You may be stressed about some topic, but give those seeds time to germinate, and you’ll see some fruit yourself!
The HomeScholar provides a free monthly e-newsletter, daily blog support, low cost DVDs and private consultations — everything you need to successfully homeschool through high school.
As I mentioned before, we’ve been reading the book “Love and Respect.” I keep wondering, though…. How do you show respect for a young adult who sometimes does, well, dumb things. I’ve decided that I need to have a boundary for my 18 year old men. My husband and I try to only intervene if we believe the boys are doing something that is “life-threateningly” dumb, that is, doing something that could negatively alter the course of their life. If they are just doing something that isn’t up to our “expected standards of responsibility” (i.e., dumb) then perhaps it’s just a demonstration of independence, or a personal preference that we wouldn’t make ourselves.
When our men turned 18, we want them to make choices for themselves based on the instructions they have received over their lifetime. We try to show respect for the men in our household and only intervene when we believe it is necessary for their future well-being.
I hope that helps someone! Need a monthly dose of homeschool encouragement? Subscribe to my free monthly newsletter, The HomeScholar Record!
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. This book and workbook are from a Christian perspective.
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. This is from a secular perspective, but has been around for decades. I haven’t read it recently, but I understand that the adult version of the current book does include job counseling for gays, so you may want to avoid the non-teen version.
Christianbook.com Curriculum Page
