4Real Forums: convincing teen

Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.

Active Topics || Favorites || Member List || Search || About Us || Help || Register || Login

Living Learning ( Forum Locked)
4Real Forums : Living Learning

Topic: convincing teen

Author

Message

<< Prev Topic | Next Topic >>

LLMom
Forum All-Star

Joined: Feb 19 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 995

Posted: June 16 2006 at 11:46am \| IP Logged

How to you convince a teen that unschooling is legitimate? We have unschooled in the past (we have done just about everything) but my high school dd thinks she won't learn and will have gaps. Also, she thinks there is no proof. I think this attitude has come from seeing other homeschooled friends and public school cousins and their questioning and seeing what they do vs. what she does. She has taken some hs co-op classes where they had traditional grades, etc. and so she has begun valuing her work in that light. Any good articles or words of wisdom to help convince her the merits of unschooling? She loves to do stuff and has motivation when she is interested.

__________________
Lisa
For veteran & former homeschool moms
homeschooling ideas

marihalojen
Forum All-Star

Joined: Feb 12 2006
Location: Florida
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1883

Posted: June 16 2006 at 12:58pm \| IP Logged

Try the Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education. It is written for teens, I loved it when I was a teen homeschooler and I still read it now that I've got a preteen of my own!

__________________
~Jennifer
Mother to Mariannna, age 13
The Mari Hal-O-Jen
SSR = Sailing, Snorkling, Reading

Kelly
Forum All-Star

Joined: Feb 21 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1211

Posted: June 18 2006 at 12:37am \| IP Logged

Jenn, this book looks very interesting. Thanks for posting about it. I've ordered a copy for myself (and my sometimes reluctant hsing teens)!

Kelly, also in FL

Willa
Forum All-Star

Joined: Jan 28 2005
Location: California
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 3881

Posted: June 18 2006 at 10:59am \| IP Logged

If it's any help, from what I understand, often unschooled kids take a formal class or even several. Many of them go on to college.

There is a whole page about   homeschooling teens here and some of it is about unschooling:

Unschooled boy who made the dean's list in college

Teens deschooling

My older kids' lives didn't change all that much immediately when we started moving towards unschooling. The term "unschooling" had negative connotations for my daughter too, since she envisioned just doing what she felt like and never getting to math, which seemed like a recipe for self-indulgence and cutting off future life choices.

Rather than just throw out the books and course plans altogether, I just took the energy I had been using in lesson plans and following up with grading and so on, and switched it towards more discussions, more time spent helping them follow up on their own interests, and general information on what they might need for college or career plans.

To me, it seems that the line between unschooling and structured schooling gets a bit blurry in the high school years.   High schoolers usually have their own ideas about things and their own goals.   That's GOOD -- because they need that as they get into adulthood.

My oldest son followed a pretty structured courseload in his high school years, but this was something he requested and took seriously. He was the kind of teenager that learns well from a resource that is thorough and systematic.   This WAS unschooling in the sense that he was doing this because he was self-motivated.   It LOOKED structured because that was what suited him.

My second son does not learn well that way.   He dives into a couple of subjects and immerses himself.   Over time, he has a broad curriculum but day to day, it is one or two things at a time.   Unschooling has helped him realize the strengths in his way of learning instead of feeling he was always half-understanding a bunch of things.

My daughter does a bit of both -- but she works better when she has a broader goal in mind which is real enough to motivate her to do the day to day things.

The trick to unschooling seems to me to be to look at where the teenager is and where she wants to be and then help her to get there.

So maybe unschooling might end up looking for your daughter somewhat similar to what she is doing now, at least at first?

Hope this helps -- my thoughts are a bit scattered as we have 2 birthdays, an anniversary and a surgery going on this week!

__________________
AMDG
Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
Take Up and Read

Kelly
Forum All-Star

Joined: Feb 21 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1211

Posted: June 29 2006 at 5:51pm \| IP Logged

I loved "Teenage Liberation Handbook" that Jennifer mentioned. It's a little "groovy" in parts, but I very much enjoyed the thrust of the book. I'm making my "adults in training" read it, too.

Kelly in FL

Sorry, you cannot post a reply to this topic.
This forum has been locked by a forum administrator.

[Add this topic to My Favorites]

Printable version

Forum Jump

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot create polls in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

Hosting and Support provided by theNetSmith.com