Keep Your Teen Motivated to Learn: Part II
by Mimi Rothschild
Whether your child has been home schooled for all or most of his or her school career, or if you’ve just introduced home schooling recently, you’ll need some pointers and suggestions from time to time on how to keep learning interesting and fun for your teen. The key to making sure your son or daughter is retaining all the information necessary to be successful in home school is being attuned to the needs and interests of your child, and incorporating these things into effective lesson plans. Here are some suggestions that you may want to try with your teen to keep both of you motivated.
Customize your teen’s lesson plan
While it is necessary to maintain structure and order when teaching at home, it’s perfectly okay to incorporate your child’s learning style and academic interests into the daily lesson plan. Observe the ways that your son or daughter learn best, and try to include these methods into every subject possible. For example, if your child is more of a visual learner, charts and diagrams are best for teaching everything from Language Arts to Math. If your child learns best audibly, recording examples of proper sentence structure and writing styles, as well as scientific definitions and instructions for solving math problems will help your child to absorb the information. Very few children have just one method for learning, so try to include every way that your child retains information during instruction. Using visual, auditory, and even tactile learning methods on tests will also help your child remember material and make the best possible advancement in every subject.
Make the most of home school
Since you and your teen have more time to spend on schooling and the environment is much more personal and comfortable, use this to your advantage. Take as much time as is necessary to explain a new concept or definition to your child, and use as many hands-on examples as you can. You have the freedom to be a little more creative than a regular classroom would allow, so make sure that your child feels completely comfortable asking questions and thinking out loud. Also, make sure that your schedule meets the needs of you and your teen. If you’re not much of a morning person (or your son or daughter isn’t), starting school later in the day is perfectly fine. Or, if you want to finish school early so that you have most of the afternoon free, this is fine, too. You have the ability to help your child make the most of his or her education, and any thing you can do, big or small, can make home school a great experience for the both of you.
Ask your children what they need
It’s a good idea to have conferences every so often with your son or daughter to make sure that they are learning at the proper pace for their age and grade. These progress reports will also help you to see what needs to be improved in the curriculum. Be sure to be open-minded during these conferences with your child. Ask what you can do to make home school more effective and exciting. If your teen comes up with a creative idea for presenting a lesson plan, try it out to see if it will work, even if you’re a little skeptical. Being both parent and teacher can be difficult, but if you keep the lines of communication open with your teen, he or she will feel the comfort and attention that are hard to come by in a traditional classroom. And, you’ll create a unique bond with your teen that very few parents can claim. If your son or daughter tells you that a particular teaching method is no longer working, don’t get offended; get creative. Ask for suggestions on how you can improve as a teacher, and if need be, give tips on how your teen can strengthen their abilities as a student. Making sure that your teen feels that he or she is a part of the learning process will definitely keep your star pupil focused and motivated about learning.
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