Teaching your older boys
By Cindy Rollins
I have been asked if there are ever circumstances where a boy might flourish in a school environment rather than at home with his mother, acknowledging that not everyone has that option.
I did not have that option and I always consoled myself by remembering that most boys in schools are taught by somebody else’s mother.
What are some of the obstacles a mother faces while homeschooling older boys?
After talking to a friend it occurred to me that these problems might not be exclusive to boys, only most of my experience is exclusive to boys so I will address that.
Two Scenarios
When boys enter 9th grade they are often immature. They still don’t care about much but as they begin to mature in 10th grade, I have found, they either become increasingly concerned that they are going to look stupid when they get out into the world, a bit self-conscious about being judged as a homeschooler, and as a consequence willing to go through almost any hoop you put them through in order to succeed, or they begin to think that the other kids they know have it a lot easier than they do and that public school is a piece of cake and that their mother’s expectations are completely ridiculous. All of my older boys so far (6 of them) have fallen loosely into one of these two categories in 11th and 12th grades. Other families are probably not quite so extreme. We tend to run hot or cold around here.