As we homeschool our two teenage boys (along with the three younger kids), we have been struggling with finding ways to motivate them to do the things that they know they should do and I believe they really want to do, but have trouble disciplining themselves to do. They come by it naturally--their mother is a world class procrastinator.
We've found that "school" vacations, especially long ones, are not for us--it is so difficult to get back into a routine--so we have decided to ignore summer break (luckily, that's easier to do here where it's always summer) and just loosen things up a bit instead.
One of the things we've decided to do is to read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It's been years since I read the book, and I'll admit that I lost some interest in it when I realized that it was just basically paraphrasing truths that are found in the scriptures--not that there's anything wrong with that:)--I'd just rather read the scriptures themselves. However, in looking around the web to find some support materials (anything works better with Sam if it's wrapped in a computer), I found that the Franklin-Covey website has a wizard to help with developing a personal mission statement. I think there is a lot of value here for these young men to actually state core beliefs clearly in their heads and aloud and on paper (yet another connection to church). Anyway, this seems like a great little tool that gives several different avenues to that end and then sends the final result (actually the rough draft--you can go back and change, update, whatever), to your email box.
We are also having them read Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl and . . . hmmm . . . . Okay-- another argument for the two-parent home. Man! I hope Case remembers that other book. . . .
2 comments:
that's sounds good. hey, did that virtual body thing work the second time? man, v's and y's - it's amazing we don't get them confused more often! (hehehe) ya know, another good site is www.sparknotes.com. people use them to cheat sometimes, but really there's not enough info. in them to do it convincingly, so they just screw themselves over, but yeah, they're nice to have while you're reading a book to help you better understand it. maybe there're some in there for those books.
Levi always talks about that Victor Frankl book, and I'm really intrigued by what I hear about it. I'll have to pick it up sometime. And I'm honestly fascinated by home-schoolers. I've never had a lot of contact with people in homeschool since I was always in a large public school growing up, but there's a lot of them at the Science Center volunteering and they are all so mature, poised, and intelligent! Fascinating... Looks like a trend your family follows! hehe. =) Oh, and I'm going to do that mission statement thing too... and I'll forward it to Levi. (Although I'm pretty sure we all know what he'll write- Levi's Personal Mission: To be a huge rock star! hehe)
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