Both of my children (boy 17, girl 21) play soccer at the college level. The boy is starting his BSME program off with a bang with a 99% on his first calculus test. The girl (woman?!!!) is in her 3rd year of her BSN program.
What I meant by my comment is:
Take for example Brock. He is taking his youngsters camping a lot. This is an education very few will get on the outdoors, packing skills, travelling and many other things. When mine were young on Saturday afternoons I would take the boy out to a logging operation and show him feller bunchers or skidders and loaders, or take him to a construction site and show him the tower cranes and Dozers. I not only would show him but also explain the equipment to him. I even took him on a few machiine start ups I needed to observe and he learned about instrumentation and drawbar pulls and the difference between it and tractive effort lol. As he got older he retained that knowledge and even though he spent most of his time training and playing sports we would still have lots of conversations about machines and we still do. My daughter caught the nursing bug from my wife and visits to her work when she was little. We did not plan it at all but as time went on you could see what was happening.
Here are a few words of advice:
Keep your kids in public schools but DO NOT let the schools raise them. The discipline, love, compassion and life skills should come from home. The reading and math should come from school and be augmented by you. The reason I said public schools is the incredible social interaction your child will have with other kids. I mean, where else could you take your kid and put him in an environment with all of the future doctors, lawyers, engineers, business owners, politicians, trash men, felons, drug addicts, ditch diggers and McDonald's employees in one room? Private schools will only cater to a few of those industries whereas public schools cater to them all lol. Teach your children to interact with all levels of intelligence and ignorance and they will be just fine.
Final thing: The number one rule we taught our kids is this: "Life is not fair. Either figure out how YOU can even the playing field or live with the results as they stand." Both kids now realize the importance of this rule and practice it daily as we do. Example: So you got a bad grade and Sally got a good grade? Study harder and you will get a good grade too. Example: So the guy got by you and scored the winning goal? Train more to get quicker and stronger. It does not take long to teach your children they are in control of their own destiny. What that is depends on how much effort they are willing to expend.
eace:
- how cool would that be.
