<p>I like the idea of having them write a persuasive paper in order to get something they want. A quick anecdote – my kids aren’t perfect, and we’ve had the normal arguments about things they wanted to do and which I didn’t want them to do. As they got to the teenage years, they became better at formulating an argument, with supporting evidence. One time in particular, S1wanted to take a trip to visit a college (one to which he’d been accepted, but I didn’t like the location). He had 4 schools on his final list, and we hadn’t visited 2 of them. He really presented a logical, unemotional, mature case for why he needed to see all of the schools. At the end of it, I could only agree – to do anything else would have been foolish.</p>