CN> I am a mother of a 15 year old and am trying Homeschooling for the first
CN> year. It is very difficult.
You really have my sympathy.  I started early with mine for just that
reason.  But other parents who have started with older kids have
reported that they needed a "deprogramming" time of at least one month
for each year of public schooling.
I also wonder if your expectations are too high.  Did you mentally
picture your teenager instantly settling down into a docile, eager
learner, happily working on projects?  Did you picture yourself
magically transformed into a confident, expert teacher?  (Put like that,
of course it sounds silly, but I know a lot of HSers who did in fact
have that picture of What Would Happen.)  Fortunately, I followed
messages from HSers for years before I started, so I told everyone
(especially my husband) that we were going to take our time to find out
what works for us, and if it took us a whole year to work out a plan and
find the right curriculum, I wouldn't be disappointed.  It turned out to
not take that long -- we had a system we all liked within four months --
but the important element was to remove the pressure.
With your teenager, I'd suggest discussing the situation and make a
contract.  The goal might be, say, him (her?) working on six subjects
per day within six months.  (Or whatever, this is just a rough idea.)
The first step might be identifying the subjects he should be studying.
These do not all have to be academic!  If he plays an instrument,
include practicing that and/or lessons as "subject" time.  He'll have to
do some research for this: college requirements if he is college bound,
prerequisites for courses that he is interested in, etc.  Plan some
library time.  Set a reasonable deadline for this, maybe 1-2 weeks.  If
he's not the dependable kind of teenager , he should be able to show
you progress each day: a list of subjects gradually growing longer
and/or notes on each subject such as "need algebra textbook" or
"required subject to take state test."  Then you and he can work out a
schedule to gradually incorporate the different subjects.  Be flexible!
If he has a short attention span, he might need to schedule two
20-minute blocks of time each day for a certain subject; if he doesn't
like to quit something he's started, he might work all Tuesday morning
on American history but not touch it for the rest of the week.  Part of
the advantage of HSing is being able to structure the learning to make
best use of your child's learning style.
CN> Is there
CN> something I can say besides "I am the teacher and if you were in public
CN> school you could not do that so you can't here."
Not really.  I don't even use "if you were in public school," I just
stop after "because I say so."  The kids enjoy HSing so much that it
isn't really a problem.
 * SLMR 2.1a * "I used to to be Snow White, but I drifted." Mae West
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