I'd like some advice. My daughter is in 8th grade. She's consistently on the honor roll and is taking Advanced Language Arts this year. Her teachers are recommending her for honors and AP classes in high school. She's a two sport athlete as well. We recently had our welcome meeting for parents of high school freshmen. Of course we are proud of her and excited about pursuing AP classes and possibly an Honors Diploma, which requires her to take and pass at least 3 AP classes, to excel in her sport and to do community volunteer work. At no time during the 4 years can her GPA fall below 3.75 in order to graduate with this honor. I think that she is capable and I want her to be challenged to be the best that she can be. She is already apprehensive about it though. But here's the rub: she loves children and is very passionate about becoming a kindergarten teacher. So it's not as if she's going to need to be highly competitive about getting into an Ivy League school! Should we be striving for these high honors or should we just have her take "normal" classes and do her sports and enjoy herself?
Planning for High School
- Thread starter JKRome
- Start date
Interesting question! I hope a more experienced parent comes here with their thoughts. My daughter is still very young, only 5 months, but I've found myself wondering "what will she be into when she's older?" As a gamer/nerd, I hope she's into games (either video games or board games) or into fantasy (Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, etc), I'm really not into make-up/fashion at all so I'm not really sure what I'll do if those are her interests. I guess read up on those subjects the best I can and listen to what she has to say about the topics.
Anyway, maybe that was a little off topic, but I think it aligns with your situation in a way; your child thrives in a way different from what you envisioned. This happened to me when I had my child. I didn't expect to have her in the world we know now; while fortunately COVID has not claimed any of my loved ones, it's still affected my family; for example, my father still has not been able to come visit his first grandchild since he lives out of state with my high risk grandparents (his parents).
Anyway, your daughter seems to have a noble, achievable, and livable goal (being a kindergarten teacher) with an active hobby (sports). That said, you should check what teaching jobs look like wherever she wants to eventually live. I know when I was her age I didn't think I would live out of my home state like I do now so that might be difficult to decide right now. If she's on the fence, she can consider similar but more general goals and what those jobs look like near home and desired areas (nanny, daycare, before/after school programs, kids' club at a gym, etc) since I'm sure the educational/career track is similar. If she prefers to stay in her hometown, she could look into careers that are close to home, and have child care as a hobby (if childcare has few opportunities) (volunteering for before/after school/church, babysitting on weekends, stay-home mom with a home office (MANY careers can be done at home now; CPA/bookkeeping, graphic design, marketing, etc)
Anyway, maybe that was a little off topic, but I think it aligns with your situation in a way; your child thrives in a way different from what you envisioned. This happened to me when I had my child. I didn't expect to have her in the world we know now; while fortunately COVID has not claimed any of my loved ones, it's still affected my family; for example, my father still has not been able to come visit his first grandchild since he lives out of state with my high risk grandparents (his parents).
Anyway, your daughter seems to have a noble, achievable, and livable goal (being a kindergarten teacher) with an active hobby (sports). That said, you should check what teaching jobs look like wherever she wants to eventually live. I know when I was her age I didn't think I would live out of my home state like I do now so that might be difficult to decide right now. If she's on the fence, she can consider similar but more general goals and what those jobs look like near home and desired areas (nanny, daycare, before/after school programs, kids' club at a gym, etc) since I'm sure the educational/career track is similar. If she prefers to stay in her hometown, she could look into careers that are close to home, and have child care as a hobby (if childcare has few opportunities) (volunteering for before/after school/church, babysitting on weekends, stay-home mom with a home office (MANY careers can be done at home now; CPA/bookkeeping, graphic design, marketing, etc)
I have a 21, 17 and 9 year old and I would say if your daughter is apprehensive about doing it, then listen to her. I believe our children have so much pressure to be perfect and it is truly stressing them out. My 17 is in Honors classes and would not want her to take AP, its just too much pressure.
Heres what i'm thinking, your daughter doesn't know what the heck she wants yet! My kid Luke is around that age, he's a monster! He changed his favourite colour every week, he even participated in the devious lick challenge. Your daughter is still figuring herself out, therefor you should give her the option and if she makes the wrong one in the end you should consider a long lecture. Maybe try introducing her to agriculture, many kids in my sons class have came out to our farm and developed a passion for it after listening to me talk a bit about the work out there.