It is that time of year for many of us….. time for students to pick electives. Some already have and now it is time to plan how to help those classes truly come alive for our children! For my family, we have homeschool students wanting to work on their own passions and we can easily accommodate those. For our teen however who is in a cyber high school, she has a list of electives to pick from and she is finding it very hard…
This is the list as it stands:
Fantasy Writing
Fine Arts-Basic Art
Fine Arts-Music Appreciation
Foreign Language-Spanish 1 and Spanish 2
Geography in 3D
Social Sciences- Health
Social Sciences-Child Development
Social Sciences-Financial Literacy
Technology and Design-Beginning Photoshop
Our job as a parent isn’t just to support their education but to help it come alive. To that end, like many parents I am trying to come up with a good incentive or “bonus” for what ever one she picks. For Fantasy Writing perhaps we could make sure her writing gets self published in beautiful hard covered books she could give to those she cares about and of course keep for herself. For basic art maybe we could help her submit her art to contests and create a sort of important gallery night for her at the end of the semester. The only thing I can think of for music appreciation is taking her to a concert she would love.
Spanish is an interesting one as none of the rest of us speak that language despite the fact that I took it for 2 years in middle school oh so long ago. If she picks Spanish I think that I should learn it with her and that we should make a big deal out of it. Maybe help it inspire a Spanish sunny break far away and special like Benidorm, Spain. People seem to love to go on holidays to Benidorm. Think about how rewarding it would be to put all that hard work to good use. The kids could play in the sand and blue water, go to the theme parks, and my daughter and I could practice our Spanish in local shops and cafes! We have never gone to that part of the world but what better excuse is there? I bet we would learn more there in a week than months learning Spanish from a curriculum too!
The Geography in 3D elective looks fun as well, we could use that one as a great reason to travel about any place I think. I like that it is so computer based as that is the path of the future I think. Maybe a goal could be a great grade for a new laptop? She has one, but it has issues!
Our teen was talking about taking the health class as she dreams of being a nurse someday and clearly those go hand in hand. I am not sure what a good bonus to that class could be though. The child development class I would have loved as a teen but ours already knows so much and I really want her to focus on herself. I think Financial Literacy is a wonderful elective but she is a freshman and there is time for that one later!
The last elective is Technology and Design – Beginning Photoshop. It teaches many things including how to use photoshop elements. Maybe an inspirational item could be a new camera? I personally love the idea of this class but maybe because I use photoshop elements all the time.
Help them follow what they love!
No matter what she picks for this first semester I will have to find way to make it come alive for her, to help inspire her. The same thing every parent has to consider. How do we bring what our children are learning in school into the world for them, to make it apply in real ways that inspire them?
