13 year old teenage boy schedule and development.
This is a summary for Brayden from 13 years old to 13 1/4 years old. Here is a summary of how things have been for him lately.
EATING
Eating is great. He ate a whole lot and said he always felt hungry. Even after eating a meal, he soon felt hungry. During this time period, he grew to be my height and then taller than I am by a couple of inches. You could almost see him growing!
SLEEPING
Sleeping has been great. Nate and I decided that he was old enough to have full control over when he goes to bed. Well, old enough and responsible enough. He is very responsible and values sleep. He recognizes the need for sleep. Because of that, we knew we could trust him to go to bed at a reasonable time.
We also told him, however, that he had to be in his room by a certain time. We explained that we needed time to be together without the children each day, so he would need to be in his room by a certain time. He can do quiet things in his room, but must be in his room by “bedtime.” We do not allow electronics in bedrooms, so the things he can do are limited so far as things teenagers enjoy spending time on.
PHYSICAL CHANGES
I already mentioned the physical change of getting much taller. Another big change is his voice. His voice has deepened noticeably during this three month period. He sounds lower, he can sing lower, and it is harder for him to sing high notes. With that voice change, there are some cracks that we all hear about. This is because of the larynx growing and stretching. From what I have read, the voice cracks tend to last only a few months of life? There haven’t been any majorly embarrassing moments with the voice cracking. I read the voice change can happen quickly or slowly, so perhaps his is more slowly and therefore not having as dramatic of cracking.
PIANO
Brayden’s previous piano teacher, who he had since he was five years old, moved away. Because of this, we needed to get a new teacher. I searched and searched the entire area. For the level Brayden was at, he needed a more advanced teacher, so we couldn’t stay in town. I found several great options. We set up a time to meet with one of the teachers as a sort of “interview” process for both him and the piano teacher. He was a great teacher and explained things in a way that just worked for Brayden. We felt really good about him as a teacher and went with him.
Brayden has absolutely loved it! He has learned so much and is progressing quite quickly.
JOB
In the last summary, I mentioned that Brayden had his first job as a ref for soccer. Over the summer, Brayden received his certification to be a ref for competetive soccer, also. He will be paid more for reffing competitive. With the additional certification he will also be paid more to ref rec games. He is excited about the increase.
EXTRA CURRICULARS
This is what Brayden had going on in the summer:
- Swim team (this is year round)
- Piano lessons
- Scouts. This included scout camp for one week. He left and went off to camp for 6 days. He had a great time!
- Golf Camp. He did a round of golf camp in the summer.
SCHEDULE
6 AM–Get up (YES! This is when he got up. He had swim team each weekday)
6:30 AM–Leave for swim team
9:00 AM–Get home. Get ready. Do chores.
NOON–Lunch
I really let him have a lot of control over when he did what this summer. He had a list of ideas and our summer schedule to consult, but I didn’t care when he did certain things for the most part.
