I have no idea. He is in his room most of the time. He gets good grades, plays soccer a few times a week. Occasionally he emerges to mow the lawn or disassemble some machinery. Seems to be generally happy. I don’t know much more than that. He reveals very little.

Sounds like he does a lot of positive things with his time? What's his favorite subject in school? Maybe he can do something related to it, like coding or reading presidential biographies or speed cubing or... I don't know. Maybe that will lead him down a path.

Do you have any home improvement projects pending? I think a 14 year old with the help of YouTube and Home Depot could handle a lot of projects.

Music. Listening and playing. We have lots of instruments hanging around. They seem to like to make noise A keyboard is critical, but also ukulele, drums, harmonicas, various flutes and horns.

Lots of reading and drawing also.

My kids don't really have a bunch of time to be on screens.

My youngest school, homework, sports, video games, keyboard, walk the dog, sleep
Oldest school, homework, sports, basketball, football, soccer, capture the flag, walk the dog, watch a movie, sleep.

Mine does model rocketry.

Mostly video games.

Rubik's Cubes, Chess, Ukulele, coding

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For one of my kids, the thing that fills this niche (by choice, indoors, alone, not involving screens) is almost always music or talking on the phone to his girl friend. He is also out of the house a lot though.

My other kid is more of a homebody. He likes cooking, robotics, woodworking, drawing, and doing puzzle/competition style math problems (although weirdly he does not like math competitions).

I have a kid interested in woodworking. Any tips on how to get him started?

My strategy for getting him started was Grandpa, which probably doesn't help you. I do think it's an area where an adult mentor helps.

My kid has done some metalsmithing here https://whiteflintcreations.com/ I didn't put it on the list because he doesn't do it at home, but we were impressed. They are opening a new woodshop. That might be a great place to start.

There is also woodworking camp at Sidwell Summer, but if he's a teen he might be too old.

I gave my kids a corner of the yard to landscape (within reason).

Anonymous wrote:For one of my kids, the thing that fills this niche (by choice, indoors, alone, not involving screens) is almost always music or talking on the phone to his girl friend. He is also out of the house a lot though.

My other kid is more of a homebody. He likes cooking, robotics, woodworking, drawing, and doing puzzle/competition style math problems (although weirdly he does not like math competitions).

I have a kid interested in woodworking. Any tips on how to get him started?

For one of my kids, the thing that fills this niche (by choice, indoors, alone, not involving screens) is almost always music or talking on the phone to his girl friend. He is also out of the house a lot though.

My other kid is more of a homebody. He likes cooking, robotics, woodworking, drawing, and doing puzzle/competition style math problems (although weirdly he does not like math competitions).

Scrabble?

Anonymous wrote:Play video games with friends.

Mostly this, but not screen related he does like to find recipes (online) and make new things to eat. Either dinner or baking. He will often send me a list of ingredients and ask me to buy them because he’s planning something.

Then he eats the leftovers late at night while playing video games.

Play video games with friends.

My 14 year old boy occasionally asks me for ideas on what he can do at home/hobbies he can try that’s not screen related. He just asked me again tonight. He keeps normally busy - plays a school sport, goofs around with the neighbor teens, reads books, listens to music, jumps on the trampoline, works out in the basement, cooks some things he likes to eat.

I think he’s looking for something that people sit and do. He doesn’t do art stuff. I love jigsaw puzzles but he doesn’t.

What do your teen boys do at home?