High school is one of the most important steps along the path from childhood to adulthood. It builds on the foundation laid in middle school but demands quite a bit more of teenagers academically, socially, and intrapersonally. You have the benefit of having gone through adolescence before, so you can offer your child some insight on what to expect. Nevertheless, this can be a bewildering time for parents and kids alike. Here is some guidance to help you stay oriented so you can better guide your children through this wonderful but often confusing stage of life.
1. Revisit Life Skills
Your teen should revisit the skills that he or she needs to become self-sustaining and self-supporting. These include cooking, cleaning, and grooming. Your teen should revisit life skills that he or she already knows and build on those to start learning new ones. For example, your child probably already knows basic hygiene, but it may be time to get some extra shave cream and start teaching him or her how to remove unwanted hair with a razor. Perhaps your child has helped you with baking in the past; now it may be time for him or her to start learning other cooking techniques, including preparation using a knife. These skills will serve your child well when he or she eventually leaves home, whether to pursue higher education or enter the workforce.
2. Establish a New Routine
Young children are often comforted by a consistent routine. Starting high school means many confusing changes in a teenager’s life, but establishing a new routine as soon as possible can help to provide that same stability and reassurance. It probably isn’t possible to maintain the same routine from your child’s middle school days, but if you can get away with making minor changes, this may help to ease the transition. The important thing is to establish the new routine as soon as possible, no matter how similar or different it is to the one you had before.
3. Teach Your Child Autonomy
During high school, your child is expected to live up to higher standards when it comes to meeting deadlines and behaving with decorum. Teach your child to take responsibility for himself or herself. If your child is having trouble turning in assignments promptly, teach him or her time management skills.
Part of becoming autonomous is self-advocacy. Teach your child to ask for clarification or verification about assignments or deadlines when there is something he or she is unsure about rather than making assumptions that could be incorrect. Foster an environment at home in which your child can ask questions and teach him or her when it is appropriate to do so at school.
4. Encourage Involvement In Extracurricular Activities
Extracurricular activities can benefit your child in many ways. Teenagers often feel isolated and misunderstood. Involvement in extracurricular activities can help them socialize with students who share their interests and establish a support network of healthy friendships. Extracurricular activities help keep teens from becoming bored, which can cause them to act out in destructive ways. Activities teach skills that they may not learn otherwise and help them to become more well-rounded, which looks good on college applications.
However, there are both right ways and wrong ways to encourage involvement. Extracurricular activities should be based on your child’s interests. Instead of pushing your child toward activities that you think he or she should participate in, ask which activities sound interesting to him or her. Even if it is not what you would have chosen, be supportive. Don’t push your child to sign up for everything in a desperate attempt to pad a college resume. Eventually, he or she will burn out and school work will suffer. Instead, encourage your child to sign up only for those activities that he or she is most interested in.
Conclusion
If your child has eclectic interests, he or she may sign up for too many activities. In this case, you must talk to him or her about setting priorities and making sacrifices to maintain a realistic schedule.
