I’ve been working with Matthew for a year and a half. He’s been homeschooling his whole life, and is a gifted writer and thinker. His mom asked me to work with him when he told her that he’d had enough of struggling with spelling, and wanted to catch up to his peers in math. We’ve been working at both for several months now. I recently suggested he try out a volunteer opportunity I’d heard about. He did, and when he came back to see me the next week, he said sheepishly “You’re going to regret getting me into this volunteering.” I laughed.

“I doubt it - how come?”

“Well, I spent so much time on getting the new email set up and finishing what they asked me to do that I didn’t get as much math done as I was planning on.”

“Was it interesting stuff they had you doing?”

“Oh, definitely. It’s so nice to be doing something that actually has a point.” We laughed together at that, given that I’ve been encouraging him for quite some time to make at least some time for the things that have meaning and seem productive to him rather than only those he thinks he’s supposed to be doing. I then reminded him that any time you add something new to your plate it’s likely to throw your routine off at first, and to require you to make some adjustments.

He’s now working on finding balance between the volunteer work, which gives him the experience of making a contribution immediately, and his academic work, which he’s undertaken in order to be prepared for college if he decides it will be useful for him to go. I couldn’t help but envy his finding this early opportunity to grapple with such a useful life skill!