Stages of a Homeschool Child's Development - The Complete Mom's Guide
Disclaimer: the age groups in this study are aproximate guidelines. If your child never seems to grow out of a certain stage, don't panic. (Unless it's video games.)
Boys:
The Chess Stage (Ages 5-8)
They’ll bug everyone to please play chess with them - over and over and over. They’ll tell you that when they grow up they’re going to be the greatest chess player that ever lived. You know they’ll forget everything they once knew about chess as soon as they hit the next stage.
The Weapons Stage (Ages 9-11)
Whatever it is, kill it. Fight it. Sneak up and tackle it. They make weapons. They get their friends to make weapons. They buy weapons. They buy tools and use them as weapons. This stage continues through the next one, but it changes to just talking about weapons.
The Redwall Stage (Ages 12-15)
One of their friends lends them the first one, and you don’t get them anything else for Christmas for the next three years. At first you’re thrilled that they have their nose in a book, but then they go deaf. And they don’t always regain their hearing when they put the book down. They start speaking a different language, too. “You’re a jolly chap, wot wot?” and such like. Most frustrating of all, they call the food they eat by strange-sounding names, and make strange-sounding sounds while eating it.
The Sports Stage (Ages 16+)
This stage has been lurking in the background their whole life, but now they think everything and everyone else is silly. If someone can’t slapshot, what good are they?
Girls:
The Dressup Stage (Ages 3-8)
This stage is especially pronounced if you have two of them in the stage at once. You might as well pack all their regular clothes in a box until you can convince them they’ve finally grown out of their favourite tutu.
The Short Stories Stage (Ages 9-14)
They think they’re an author. All their friends think they’re authors. The stories that they pass around are dramatic and mostly in the style of Redwall/Nancy Drew. This stage can also be called the 1800s stage, because their stories all idolize the nineteenth century and they lament the fact they were not born 200 years before they were.
The Photography Stage (Ages 15-16)
They think they are a photographer. All their friends think they are photographers. They take pictures of everything. They make very good use of their little sisters who are in the dressup stage. This stage can only go on for so and so long before it becomes the next stage.
The Blogging Stage (Ages 17+)
“What are you doing?”
“Working on my blog.”
“You were just doing that yesterday.”
“That was my other blog.”
“How many blogs do you have?”
“I’m not sure. Let me count.”
I neglected to mention horses (for girls) and hunting (for boys) because these obsessions are more long-lasting and somewhat case by case.
