In a recent US News and World Report article, the author talked about how important it is for colleges that applicants show some kind of passion in their pursuits or interests; this passion is what distinguishes successful students. What universities call passion is often referred to by homeschoolers as delight-led learning or specialization. Parents can often find these activities frustrating, boring, or annoying (PLEASE stop playing that piano!), but clearly colleges value such activities. Because?!! Delight-directed learning involves fostering the love of learning that is important to children so that they become lifelong learners capable of adapting to any situation. The more the world changes, the more we need lifelong learners to make sense of it all.

If you are a parent who finds your child’s delight-led learning frustrating, take heart! Although at times it may seem like your student isn’t doing any ‘real’ school at all, often when you put together their transcript, you’ll realize that they covered not only their core classes, but three other music classes as well just because of their learning directed by delight. Delight can certainly be upsetting, but the good news is that the discomfort you feel can be a way of identifying delight-led learning in your children. If you’re having a hard time seeing where your passion and interest lie, ask yourself what your kids are doing that’s bothering you. What do they do every day when they should be at school? Usually, the very thing that bothers you is also your child’s delight-led learning. Seize it!

Delight-led learning can provide inspiration for your core classes and can help fill out your student’s high school transcript with a few electives. Give colleges exactly what they want, the passion they want to see in teens. Passion means your interest lasts for years, preferably all four years of high school or at least a couple of years.

Delight-directed learning has many side benefits: You can improve cooperation with your teens, so you’re not always trying to force them to study things that don’t interest them. You can reduce burnout if your student is more involved in what he is doing; if you’re more in tune with what you’re learning, you’ll burn out less and need fewer breaks. It can also make learning more meaningful to them, because learning seems to make more sense when you apply it to something you really care about. Work with him and you will end up with an interesting student who will be paid by universities to have attended your school.