As a parent, surviving the teen years with a one-on-one activity is paramount. I have mentioned before in my custody tips, having an unique one-on-one activity is good practice. The advice is actually good parenting regardless of the situation.
With my daughter, the one-on-one activity was rollerblading. We took lessons and skated every Saturday for years. Now that my oldest son has become a teenager, I have been looking for activities we could do together.
Like myself, he is growing into this huge computer nerd. He loves Minecraft and tons of Papa Louie games. I do engage him a bit in both, but I wanted an activity that would also solve another problem I’m dealing with.
Surviving the Teen Years – Struggling to Complete Homework
You see, my son is extremely gifted and swings very close, but not quite, towards the autism spectrum. He hates loud noises, cannot formulate an opinion, cannot tolerate change, hates writing and doesn’t see the need for daily homework. He only needs to be taught something once and he consistently makes 110 on each and everyone of his tests. Last semester, he has stopped doing homework all together. I was hoping that failing a few classes would be a logical consequence. I figured one semester of summer school would break him of the “no homework” habit.
However, averaging his grades of zeros in homework and 110 on quizzes and tests did quite achieving the failing/summer school lesson I was hoping for. He passed everything with Bs and Cs.
[tweet “I am looking for an activity that emulates daily homework during the summer.”]
Being a creative father, I think I may have stumbled upon a solution to both my problems.
My son Zachary, loves the television show Survivor. Over the past couple of months we have both sat together and watched Seasons 23-26. We’ve engaged in deep discussion and shared of our ideas of who will win and what the outcome will be in each episode. My idea is to offering him a chance to watch Season 1 but with a twist. He’ll have a daily homework assignment of answering opinionated questions about each episode. Furthermore, his answers will be shared on this blog. I gave him a worksheet with these four basic homework questions…
The Survivor Teen Homework Challenge
- What is the most interesting element in this episode?
- Based on the information you have now, who do you think will win?
- What takeaway life lesson can we learn from this episode?
- Finally, what do want to see happen next? (Or write a paragraph about anything else you found interesting or wish to share regarding this episode.)
So this is my one-on-one summer activity with 13 year old Zachary. Follow the iWatch category of this blog and let’s see how it goes.
Will my son ‘Survive’ and learn to write regularly or will I be voted out of this assignment? Stay tuned to our first Episode of “Survivor”.
Image from CBS and Netflix.
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