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STAGE THREE : THE MILESTONES : OBSTACLES IN PATH
As you travel on your path, you will reach a stoplight that will remain red until you complete a specific milestone, then it will turn green and you can advance.
To predict upcoming milestones for your student, look for prerequisites and skills needed to reach the destination. Here are some questions to help predict these milestones:
- Does his destination require a certain college education?
- Not all colleges are created equal and not all college educations are either. Nows a time to discuss what you and your student are looking for in a college education. Is the experience important to you? If you could skip the whole thing and obtain the paper diploma from home would you rather do that? What courses does your college of choice require? What tests do they want you to take?
- Does he need to drive?
- Most students will want to drive, but insurance on a teenager's license and car is expensive. Even if he had a license, would he be using it with his own car or yours? Does your student truly need a license? Does he have a plan for paying for insurance, gas, car purchase, and maintenance? Is he ready for this amount of independence?
- Does he need to take the ACT, SAT, or CLT?
- Tests are often taken for the admission to a school, but sometimes they are simply a good way to gauge knowledge and practice test taking skills. My children all take the Stanford 10 after 8th grade to show a readiness for high school. It's what we do for ourselves. No one outside of our family sees the results. It's simply to show my children that they can take a test and to identify areas to work on.
- How many community service hours should I complete?
- Does the vision for your life include community service hours? What types of opportunities are our there for you to participate in?
- Is there an internship to help develop some skills?
- Hands on learning is powerful. I love books! But God has given us specific revelation in a book and general revelation in creation. Let's remember to build some skills and knowledge by applying ourselves to the general revelation that He has provided. Has God placed you in close relation to a skilled person who might be a good mentor or help by taking you on as an intern?
Milestones are important. We can only predict so many things. The art of looking ahead, chasing down our decisions that we make today to the decisions that we make tomorrow, is a habit that you can help your child develop now. You've got this!
A complete Student roadmap book that walks you and your student through all of these 5 stages is available in our Educator's Toolbox!