The Homeschooling Handbook_ From Preschool to High School - Mary Griffith [59]
Such arrangements can take some digging to set up, and not every situation will work out to everyone’s satisfaction. Although some adults will be pleased to work with anyone with a genuine interest in their field, others will be unwilling to even consider working with a child, no matter how levelheaded and focused. Sometimes the problem is incompatible personalities, in which case the best thing to do is to start again with another individual. Other times, the problem is simply that expectations and responsibilities were not clearly understood by all parties, and the situation may be salvageable.
Some suggestions for making informal mentorships and apprenticeships work:
Make sure your child is genuinely interested in pursuing a mentoring arrangement and that he has a clear idea of what he would like to do. Don’t push him into something because “it would be good for him”; neither he nor the mentor will be happy with the arrangement.
A younger child may need you to make the initial contact for her and will probably have no idea where to start looking for an appropriate mentor. Use all your friends, neighbors, and relatives to help: You may find the individual you are looking for among them, or one of them may know “just the right person.” It’s always easier to start with a referral; even the individual unfamiliar with the idea of working with a child, or even unwilling at first, will at least listen to a proposal from someone he knows. If the friends-and-neighbors route comes up empty, you can try your local librarian, an appropriate professional society, or perhaps a local college or university professor.
Be very clear about the terms of any arrangement, and make sure they are fair to both parties. Your mentor should not and will not want to be a baby-sitter, any more than your child will want to simply fetch and carry for her forever. You will need to decide what the responsibilities of each party will be and how much time will be expected. You may decide on a limited trial period, subject to renewal by both parties, or you may opt to let the arrangement run for as long as the parties are happy with it.
If the situation works out, you may want to ask the mentor to write a short description of the work your child has done or the skills and knowledge your child has gained. (With older children, you may want it to take the form of a letter of recommendation.) Some kind of formal record of the experience can be helpful later in finding future mentors or in completing job or college applications.
Not every homeschooled child, nor even most, will want to try a mentoring relationship. But they can be a valuable part of a homeschooled child’s education and well worth considering, no matter what the field.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The Teen Years: Finding a Direction
DURING THE TEEN years the differences in homeschooling approaches tend to become less pronounced, as homeschoolers begin their transition into the adult world. For most homeschoolers, that transition is more gradual than for conventional high school students, who find their days increasingly scheduled and defined by their schoolwork, jobs, and other obligations and pressured by the need to decide what comes next. Although homeschoolers must make the same decisions, they can usually take their time considering their options and dip into some of the possibilities firsthand. And they always have the option, of course, of attending high school.
Many homeschoolers start concentrating on special interests,