How to make high school fun

[beachnut]

It seems that the older my boys (grades 6 & 9) get, the less "fun" homeschool becomes. We used to have time for crafts, music, recipes, art, activities, games, field trips, etc., but now (esp. in high school) I feel so much pressure to just make sure DS is learning what he needs to learn, that it is perfunctory, but not a lot of fun.

 

Both boys are learning a lot, but homeschool just doesn't seem as fun as when they were younger. Of course, I expected things to change, but there's got to be some ways to keep the fun in learning, even at the high school level. I feel like we're in a rut. Any ideas?

[regentrude]

I feel so much pressure to just make sure DS is learning what he needs to learn, that it is perfunctory, but not a lot of fun.

 

 

If I felt my child's learning was merely prefunctory, I would make sure to change the curriculum. There is so much interesting stuff to learn for high school that perfunctory tasks and busywork are a waste of time.

 

I can only tell you what gets my DD excited about school: a challenging math curriculum where every problem makes her think (instead of wading through reams of worksheets that are all the same); audio lectures from the Teaching Company by professors who are excited about their subjects and who make the student exited as well; real literature that is thrilling and stimulating such as the Iliad, Beowulf, The Divine Comedy (instead of pre-packaged language arts curricula with anthology snippets); really good science books.

She actually finds rigorous high school work tremendous fun. The less busy work and the more stimulating and fascinating the material, the more fun it is - without "projects" and "activities". IMO there is no time for "prefunctory" in high school, time is too valuable.

 

If your student is not excited about the stuff he is learning, maybe you need to look for better materials that make it more interesting. Is he adequately challenged? Can he pursue his interests? How much of his required output is of high quality, and how much is merely busywork (as in worksheets, fill-in-the blank, regurgitation without thought)? How much freedom does he have in his choice of assignments? What would he find "fun"?

Edited November 4, 2011 by regentrude

[Teachin'Mine]

When I first read your title, the thing that immediately popped into mind is a gap year. :tongue_smilie:

[Nan in Mass]

I thought of our dog and cat lol.

 

But seriously, the things we've done to make it fun are travel, reading great books aloud together, monthly trips to museums, picking own paper and experiment topics, lots of say in what is studied, not having to write about everything read, getting to use foreign languages studied, choosing great books carefully so they are of interest, making sure things are the right level, a program with interesting math problems, plenty of input on new science and technology (magazine articles and talking to people), beginning to outsource some, and especially making sure that everyone feels like they are really learning. Learning is often hard work and sometimes boring, but if it is really happening, it is rewarding. It is working hard or doing something boring which doesn't lead to gaining anything that is unfun.

Nan

[laughing lioness]

We do monthly field trips and take advantadge of art stuff in the community (went to hear the Rose Ensemble last month and ds loved it!) Also, camps and travel. Ds went to Back to DC and Challenge in Sept.

We've done lots of campaigning and theater as well (ds played MacBeth this summer). Ds also participates in regular ultimate frisbee games and ballroom dancing twice a month. In between that he works out, jogs, does calisthenics- he enjoys working out so it's "fun" broadly defined.

My oldest dd had the opporutnity to travel abroad several times which we took advantadge of- my 21 yo did several internships, including working for Above Rubies for 2 mths and campaigning for a state leader (paid travel). My 21 yo also lead a class on protocol for fellow high schoolers and hosted a "formal" a couple of times- food, dresses, pics. This was soemthing she initiated and did all on her own.

I'm teaching creative writing to a group this year- homework, grades, assignments, etc. that ds is involved in. This ensures that he gets hours a week to write- it's all homework! So, gearing our class and teaching time to thier interests.

And in total agreement with Nan. At this age, the satisfaction of learning is FUN.

[itsrks]

When I first read your title' date=' the thing that immediately popped into mind is a gap year. :tongue_smilie:[/quote']

 

:iagree:

 

My children all did a gap year. It was the best thing in the world. Each one decided on different avenues of service but all of them benefited from getting out of the book and into the service of others. We did not decide how long for their gap but each one decided the time on their own. We did not plan what they would do but opportunities arose and the children jumped on board.

 

After their time of service away from school and work, they were ready for studying and taking responsibility naturally. The motivation came from within.

[Teachin'Mine]

Can a gap year be taken in the middle of high school instead of at the end?

 

Or, is it ever acceptable to take five years to do the four years of academics?

[tjarnold]

:bigear:

[jhschool]

We too are in a rut.

We just have assignments and work to complete...

We used to go to the park, to the museum, and read

for fun. Now everything is "to prepare for college."

We are getting a lot of valuable work done and feeling

good about our accomplishment, but the "homeschooly"

feeling of spending all day in your pajamas learning for

fun, then making a pizza from scratch and discovering

new things is not there any more...

[Greta Lea]

That keeps our homeschool lively.

 

Here are some things my son consider's "fun" (he's an older 11th grader...17yo)

 

-All the Uncle Eric books

-Reading Count of Monte Cristo (reading this 3x a week...he was fearful of this HUGE book at first...it's an AO year 9 book...but LOVES it now)

-Allowing HIM to *choose* one of the 2 literature books we having going at a time. He just asked me on Monday if for the rest of the year he could read the Lord of the Rings series. He's been talking all week about that. He's excited.

-Having at least 2 days a week for "free writing" instead of a specific assignment.

-Listening to Irish folk songs once a week. Who knew! He LOVES this and it's part of his "music appreiciation" credit.

-Homeschool PE class with a few of his buddies. This meets only about 4 months of the school year for 2 hours 2x a week, but it sure if FUN while it lasts!

-Reading living books for science instead of a text.

[Jenny in Florida]

Well, it's too early yet to tell how it's working, but I just went through this crisis and decided to toss formal lessons for everything except English, math and Spanish.

 

In our case, I realized that I was just tired of feeling so sad and frustrated about all of the things we weren't able to do and enjoy, all of the wonderful opportunities in our community that I felt guilty seeing and doing because of all of the schoolwork I knew was piling up at home.

 

So, my son won't end up with a "classical education," but I'm hoping that he'll learn more, enjoy it more and be happier this way.

 

We'll have to wait and see how it goes, though.

[beachnut]

Learning is often hard work and sometimes boring, but if it is really happening, it is rewarding. It is working hard or doing something boring which doesn't lead to gaining anything that is unfun.

Nan

 

Well, that's the thing. The boys ARE learning a lot and it IS rewarding, but it just doesn't feel like we have enough fun in our day-to-day homeschooling.

 

We do a lot of what several of you suggested:

* We see plays and go on field trips (tho not as many as we used to)

* We read & discuss great books (just started the ancients -- epic poems are not thrilling any of us so far),

* I vary the assignments for history & literature (some writing, some projects)

* We watch & discuss history-related movies

* We watch, take notes & discuss TTC lectures (for both history & literature)

* Both boys take some online courses (so I'm outsourcing some things)

* My high schooler takes art & symphonic band at our local public school

 

It just seems like we are chugging along, making slow-but-steady progress, trying to adjust to the demands of high school...but not having as much fun as we used to. School is getting done. The boys are learning. But...it just lacks the *zest* of previous years, KWIM?

[KarenC]

For the writing portion of English, my dd is writing a novel on the NaNoWriMo website. She still does grammar, vocab, and literature. She is so excited to have this count for her writing this month.

 

We are going to see the Nutcracker next month and a lunch out.

 

Karen

[Kim in SouthGa]

My 15ds participates in our homeschool group's Key Club. He has tons of fun while volunteering in the community. We have a great bunch of teenagers in our group, and they all do KC and get together for birthday parties, movie nights, mystery dinners, spring formal, etc. Teenagers seem to live for their friends:glare: I often joke about how people think hsers lack socialization-my kids have a much more active social life than I did!

I don't really know how to make the actual schoolwork fun. I've thought about a creative writing class. My 15 ds really likes Spanish and he takes a class with our hs group and has a lot of fun in there. The teacher is great. He also takes a chemistry lab and loves that. Notice that these classes all involve his friends ;)

[choirfarm]

It just seems like we are chugging along, making slow-but-steady progress, trying to adjust to the demands of high school...but not having as much fun as we used to. School is getting done. The boys are learning. But...it just lacks the *zest* of previous years, KWIM?

 

Ok, to me all learning cannot be the WOW this is SO cool and SO exciting kind. In a way, it reminds me of marriage. It was SO exciting and fun at first. Then children and demands come. We still have fun, but it just doesn't quite seem as exciting and new as when we were first married. I also think that to expect life to be all fun isn't realistic or healthy. I'm sorry, but cleaning the bathroom is never fun ( especially if it is my boys' bathroom).;) But it must be done. Some learning isn't fun especially when learning the basics of a subject, but it can get more fun later. One thing I'm glad about some of our experience with co-ops and possibly with the cc later is that they will have some bad teachers and that even at home they hate some subjects. I think this world lacks people who do things just because they need to be done, not because they are fun. I can't tell you how many people stopped going to a class in college because the prof was boring!!! At some point, they must learn the muscles to do things that are necessary and not fun. We had a co-op teacher that was NOT good, but I told my boys that you can learn something from EVERY teacher even if it is how NOT to do something. Always be on the lookout to learn something from every situation. And I must say that I have grown the most through experiences that were not fun in my life.

 

I'm not saying that you should not try to have fun in your school. I'm glad you are trying to make it enjoyable! I don't think it should be a drudge, but I did want to give you another opinion.

 

Christine

[Teachin'Mine]

For me, the reason I look at homeschooling high school not to be as fun as previous grades has nothing to do with the specific course content, it has to do with the increased time requirements for these course and time taken for cc classes resulting in the loss of time available to pursue other interests, field trips, etc.. We still do some, but it makes staying on schedule near impossible. My dd is actually enjoying most of her courses and tends to enjoy those which are more challenging way more than the easy ones. She's always been that way. Latin seems to be an exception. :tongue_smilie:

 

I would still love to know if there's a way to take five years to complete the four years of high school and still remain competitive for the highly selective schools. Has anyone done this, or know if it's possible? It would allow her so much more time to pursue some interests like writing and to delve more deeply into projects in which she's already involved.

 

Any thoughts?

[beachnut]

For me' date=' the reason I look at homeschooling high school not to be as fun as previous grades has nothing to do with the specific course content, it has to do with the increased time requirements for these course and time taken for cc classes resulting in the loss of time available to pursue other interests, field trips, etc.. We still do some, but it makes staying on schedule near impossible. My dd is actually enjoying most of her courses and tends to enjoy those which are more challenging way more than the easy ones. She's always been that way. Latin seems to be an exception. :tongue_smilie:[/quote']

 

YES! I guess that's really it. The time demands of high school (in courses as well as extracurricular activities like DS's marching band) basically leave little room for the fun stuff. We've got to just squeeze in the basics of history & English (the 2 main high school subjects I teach) and move on. Not tons of wiggle room in the schedule, so we usually can't spend an extra few days exploring bunny trails like we used to.

 

We're studying world history in 2 years (not 4), so we're moving at a fairly good pace this year trying to cover Ancients-Renaissance. I'd love to spend four months or so just studying Ancient Greece & another few months on Ancient Rome like we have in years past. (We're using the Spielvogel text as our high school spine & spending about 2 weeks per chapter.) While I am extending our studies a bit, for example on Ancient Greece, to delve deeper, we really need to just wrap it up quicker than I'd like to. I'm sure we'll squeeze in a Greek feast before we're done, and the boys just created a Greek newspaper to "show what they know" instead of taking a test (my ways of trying to make learning more fun), this has been more the exception than the rule in our history studies this year.

 

As for English, I think we're kind of slogging thru the epic poems, having somewhat enjoyed Gilgamesh (actually liked the younger version/adaptation written by Geraldine McCreaghan better than the translation of the original) and working thru the Iliad (but starting to skip some chapters here and there because DS and I are lukewarm on this book). So, for this one, it might be content. We both love to read, but haven't quite found a book we both love yet. We're supposed to read the Odyssey next, which I'm not sure if we're going to like based on our mediocre reaction to the Iliad. Any thoughts from those of you who've already read both epics?

[regentrude]

We're studying world history in 2 years (not 4), so we're moving at a fairly good pace this year trying to cover Ancients-Renaissance. I'd love to spend four months or so just studying Ancient Greece & another few months on Ancient Rome like we have in years past. (We're using the Spielvogel text as our high school spine & spending about 2 weeks per chapter.) While I am extending our studies a bit, for example on Ancient Greece, to delve deeper, we really need to just wrap it up quicker than I'd like to. I'm sure we'll squeeze in a Greek feast before we're done, and the boys just created a Greek newspaper to "show what they know" instead of taking a test (my ways of trying to make learning more fun), this has been more the exception than the rule in our history studies this year.

 

 

Maybe it is a stupid question, but: why can't you take the time to study what they are interested in?

All curriculum is about selection and choice. there is no such thing as comprehensive knowledge of anything. Every high school graduate will have holes in one area or another, and that's OK, because high school is about learning how to learn. They can always go back and fill the holes later.

So, if you want to take time to study Ancients, why not just DO it? And then shorten the later history? They can learn basic things about how history is interrelated, how to approach writing about a history topic, how to work with multiple sources and primary documents just fine looking at ANY given time period.

 

As for English, I think we're kind of slogging thru the epic poems, having somewhat enjoyed Gilgamesh (actually liked the younger version/adaptation written by Geraldine McCreaghan better than the translation of the original) and working thru the Iliad (but starting to skip some chapters here and there because DS and I are lukewarm on this book). So, for this one, it might be content. We both love to read, but haven't quite found a book we both love yet. We're supposed to read the Odyssey next, which I'm not sure if we're going to like based on our mediocre reaction to the Iliad. Any thoughts from those of you who've already read both epics?

 

You might need some background to really appreciate the epics. We read both last year, and we used Elizabeth Vandiver's lectures form the Teaching Company and loved every minute of them. Understanding the historical and cultural background of the epics goes a long way towards, for instance, making sense of the behavior of Achilles which, to teh modern reader, may sound immature and silly - until you realize what importance status and honor had, and what a fundamental violation it was to take the girl away from him. You get a whole different perspective, and for us, it greatly enhanced the enjoyment of the epics.

She has several lecture series: Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Greek Tragedy, Classical Mythology, Herodotus (we listened to all except Herodotus)

[Kim in SouthGa]

Hmm, as for field trips, yes I miss those too. But my 15 ds no longer wants to do things like go to the pumpkin patch or the local news station (he has requested to stay home when I took the younger ones). He's been there, done that, and would rather get his work done so he can play on the xbox. But what he has loved is a once a year big field trip. Our homeschool group has a few families that all like to do this and we have gone to a Jeckyll Island 4H center for 3 days, and are in the planning stages of a week long Washington, DC trip for April. Also, we try to plan our vacations to be somewhat educational. We've stopped in NYC to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Washington, DC on the way to Maine, and another year we stopped in Boston and toured the big ships. I am hoping to go to the replica Parthenon in Nashville on the way to KY to visit family for Christmas this year.

As for digging deeper and rabbit trails, I require my son to write an essay for history once a month, and he gets to choose the topic. It can be anything he has studied since the last paper that he wants to learn more about or was just really interesting. Also, in WTM SWB discusses the Jr and SR projects, which are year-long and interest led. Check out that section if you haven't yet.

Maybe you could google project based learning, if making projects are some of the fun that is missing. I am horrible at coming up with projects. Our Spanish teacher is great about this and usually gives them at least 2 projects a year to do, like a family tree, a 3-D place setting, a doll (body parts). the kids seem to like it, though some go all out and some do the bare minimum (my son).

If they really like science, how about a science fair? Or if they love to write or take pictures, enter an essay or photography contest. When we did Master's Academy a few years ago, the kids had to write an essay/research report on a topic and then do a project on the same topic in either art, music, or theater. It was a lot of fun. The kids made up skits, did puppet shows, paintings, sculptures-my son even made a stop-motion movie of the Boston Tea Party using Playmobils.

Edited November 6, 2011 by Kim in SouthGa

[Nan in Mass]

So is the problem you? Or your children?

 

I know for me, there is a vast difference between doing subjects at the high school level and at the elementary school level. One of them is more or less at the top of my own remembered knowledge, so I, too, have to work. The other was stuff I could do in my sleep so *I* didn't have to work. The amount of concentration differed also. By high school, my children were capable of spending longer working, so we did. In the lower grades, they were only capable of spending a short amount of time on the hard things and then we found things to fill in the time that were educational but more hands-on, less academic. For me personally, hands-on is usually more fun than reading-writing.

 

I sometimes found the lower grade academic material more boring than the higher level material because I was doing the work but not getting anything out of it. LOL I obviously am not a born teacher. We learned some odd things then because in order to summon the self-discipline to keep doing school every day, I had to bribe myself to do it with somethings that were new to me, too.

 

I have to say I decided at the beginning of high school to play the get-into-college game but not to play the get-into-a-very-selective-collge game. I continued to try to challenge my children academically. I continued to push the academic skills needed to survive college. But I was extremely flexible about the content. Some of the content was chosen to inspire me, some to inspire them, and some to prepare them to be good adults. I looked at the mishmash and "translated" it into a more traditional sounding transcript. I give no grades and I do not try to fit material into the traditional, semester-long packets. I picked a few tests and community college classes to validate my ungraded, undated mummy transcript. There are colleges that will not accept my children because of this. Mine are going into technical fields which will make it possible for them to pay off loans and we saved carefully for college, so we have the luxury of not having to compete for scholarships in order to pay for college. (Mine do have some scholarships but they weren't freshman ones.) If that were so, I might reconsider my approach. This makes school more fun but it doesn't cut out the months when we just plug through and don't find anything particularly inspiring. We aren't a very academically oriented family so I have never tried to label school anything but hard work that all of us would rather not be doing. We all have our own projects that we would rather be working on. GRIN Some of those are even academic. That doesn't mean we can't skip writing that paper and doing that math excersize, though.

 

I guess what I am trying to say is that it is ok for stretches of high school to be rather uninspiring, the stretches when you are learning a hard academic skill or some basic content, but after the skill has been learned, there should be plenty of places to use that skill for something interesting. Sometimes the skill/basic content learning goes on for quite a long time until you get to the more interesting part where you get to use it. An example of a quick skill is writing a science abstract. The first few articles are going to be carefully selected, probably uninteresting, and it is going to take forever and be boring. After that, the skill can be practised with articles the student chooses, ones that are in his area of interest. Would the student rather be playing or working on his own project, or at least reading without writing the abstract? Yes, of course, but on the work at least is interesting and leading to something he wants. And some day, he will use that ability for something useful all on his own, for work or for his own entertainment. And the fact that he is able to do it and do it easily will give him an advantage over the student who chose an easier path in high school, one which did not involve learning to write an abstract. (You can't take this example too far, though, because there are many people for whom writing a science abstract is not something that is going to be remotely useful in their future lives. Then you have to fall back on "Oh well. It is worth training your mind to do things.") (This probably wasn't the best example but I am in rather a hurry this morning to get to the mountain of laundry and to my own Spanish homework, which, sigh, is going to consist of conjugating many verbs and memorizing a long list vocab, and will be very boring.)

 

Nan

[Julie in MN]

I'm reading with interest because I always am looking for ways to spice up high school.

 

However, I wouldn't say I'm looking for "fun." Interesting, yes. But I just don't think my high schoolers put "mom" or "school" in the same category as "fun" at that age. Sad but true.

 

Julie

[laughing lioness]

I just wanted to add that my kids have had some really fun jobs. Right now they are feeding calves on the week-ends. They love it! They've also done haying, worked in coffee shops, worked on political campaigns, etc. I always life-guarded, taught swimming and worked at camps. There's a ton of cool ways to make money out there that are fun and educational!

[J-rap]

We took/take lots of little trips during high school years, even just to grandma and grandpa's house for two days. It breaks up the routine.

 

I make sure we make one of their passionate interests part of our curriculum. This has been huge for us.

 

We make the time to do fun activities, and try and turn it into a semester project/goal (may or may not be school related). For example, for several years we decided to get into cross-country skiing. (Why not, when we sometimes have winter 5-6 months out of the year?) Once a week, we would take off an afternoon to go to a nearby state park and ski, always ending it in their park shelter with a fire and hot chocolate. We'd often do this with another homeschool family. This built up to an annual cross-country ski race in a nearby town -- a huge event which attracts people from across the country. (We didn't really enter it to "race," but to complete -- it was a blast!)