My son, 16, is really discouraging me. He "appears" to have no ambition at all in the academic arena. Homeschool is boring to him, he insists he is not going to continue his education after graduation. But he has no plans or inklings about what he is interested in doing after graduating.

This is our very strong willed child. He is always telling us what he is NOT going to do, but he doesn't seem to have any ideas of what he WOULD like to do. His school work is sloppy, and his retention of material is very poor. He does his best work in Language (creative writing) and History (esp. wars). I've tried to be as loosely structured as I can, and I use an eclectic mix of materials. We read books, lots of historical fiction, etc. I never use summaries or traditional school texts. HELP!

I will take any and all suggestions, words of advice, or encouragement.

Just hugs. Maybe as a HS assignment he could explore a few careers and the requirements to do them. Does he know that he has to do SOMETHING because he has to leave the nest at some point?

Maybe if you make YOUR plans clear to him, and let him know under what circumstances he can expect financial support from you after age 18 (if he's in college or vocational training, for example) he might get some ideas. You might also want to do a unit on economics that looks at what kind of jobs are available with a living wage with no post-secondary training. There are jobs out there that pay better than minimum wage, but there is hard work involved.

Good luck!

Melissa

Your son sounds very much like mine. He's not a very motivated child and procrastinates constantly. I've told him from the day he was born he was going to college. When he first started indicating to me he didn't want to go to college, I told him he MUST go to college and THEN he could do whatever he wanted. I told him that it was important for him to get college under his belt so he could always have options in the future.

What does mine want to be? A comedian! I'll emotionally support his attempts at that career option after college. My parents always pushed us to pursue SOLID careers which my sisters and I have regretted. We're all very creative so I will support his taking a stab at the entertainment industry; however, only after he's completed college. I tell him that good comedians understand politics and have broad knowledge in many areas.

Oh, and I forgot. I always tell him without a college degree his future could be flipping burgers at McDonalds. I also appeal to his desire to own STUFF by pointing out that he needs an education to have a better chance at getting that STUFF.