~Our 19 DAY JOURNEY of inspiration, activities, and resources continues!~
Today, I have one more skill to add to yesterday’s post (Day 13: SKILL SCHOOL: teach your kids these 5 PRACTICAL LIFE-SKILLS! ) . . . And that skill is:
YOUR SKILL! Your specialty. Your expertise.
A few months ago, I realized that our son had absolutely no idea that my husband and I had done much of anything before he came into our lives. I had received an email from a former student and was telling my husband about it. He smiled and casually asked what year of college that student was currently in now, shaking his head in disbelief at how many years had gone by. My son turned and looked at me with a weird look. “Your…. student?” he asked. He had no idea that before I became his full-time stay at home mama-teacher I had been a teacher to other kids for three years until the day I went into labor with him. This led to a whole lot of follow-up questions. By the end of the interrogation, our son had learned a lot of new information: his parents had participated in choir, theater, athletics, and had had many hobbies and jobs before he had been born that he never knew about.
As it turned out, my husband and I had yet to impart any of our “past-life” skills or passions (or even their memories) onto our son! For some unexplained reason, it had never occurred to us. We’ve spent hours teaching our son all kinds of things —mostly things we wish we had been taught earlier in our own lives, or things we are just discovering ourselves— but along the way we completely overlooked teaching him the skills we already mastered, gave up on, or postponed. The activities and hobbies we outgrew or don’t have time for anymore. We also hardly ever shared much of anything relating to our current jobs. In other words, our past experiences, failures, and areas of expertise!
If you’ve missed the boat on this one too, join us in turning over a new leaf: sharing with our kids our past experiences, and imparting to them our areas of expertise!
Does your child know (or understand) what you do for a living? What skill(s) do you have (or once had) that you haven’t shared with your child? Bust out that old trumpet, magic box, calligraphy set, or sewing machine! Warm up that pitcher’s arm, soldering iron, dancing shoes, or your vocal chords! Let’s give our children access to a wide variety of human endeavor and experience: that which we didn’t have access to growing up, but also that which we did. We are made up of our past experiences. And those experiences, along with any lessons gathered along the way should be offered as a special inheritance to our children.
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Love, ~Our Holistic Homeschool~
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