I’ve been using Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers with dd17 for the past 18 months or so, and we’re almost finished. We’ve been having a lot of fun with the projects.
Funny how using Life Prep has been a different experience with each of my children.
Our eldest was very eager to get out on her own, so we emphasized the rent, food and utilities projects over the others. Our son was completely college-minded, so we stuck to more reading and less projects. Dd17 is not in a big hurry to be out on her own, but she’s not sure about college either (she’s already racked up a few credit hours and isn’t sure if she wants to keep going), but she really gets into all of the projects.
She has run a couple of small businesses, so she understands the need to watch your expenses and make prudent choices. She seems to really get into studying how loans work, and how you can save a lot of money by prepaying them.
While working on the projects from the book, she enjoyed playing with some online financial calculators at Bankrate.com. They’re wonderful! I plan on adding mention of them to the next edition of the book when we update it again in a few years.
I agree on how important this aspect is for preparing our kids for the real world. When our sons were in their early twenties, working, and living at home, we required them to pay a reasonable amount of room and board. Some people thought this was harsh, but both sons have commented on how it helped them budget and prepare for living on their own. (They both are now mid 20’s and own their own homes.) We didn’t require it while they were taking college courses, only when working full or nearly full time, and made sure it was fair so that they would still be able to save money and meet other expenses.
Karen, we thought like you did. Our eldest didn’t want to go to college, so she had to pay rent, a whopping $125/month. She wasn’t pleased, but she did it. She’s been on her own for several years now, and she’s a whiz with stretching a buck, so it sure didn’t hurt her!
We didn’t charge #2 rent as he was in college full-time; #3 finishes high school next week, and it looks like we won’t be charging her rent this fall either. And that’s fine 🙂