It's the end of May and that means the end of the school year for most kids. Today was actually the last official day of school for my boys. While the kids are always ecstatic for the end of school from the perspective of not having to do schoolwork for a couple months, what are their plans? What does two months off look like for the average school kid? When I was of school age, summer was a very mixed bag. I was what was known as a "latch key kid". My parents both worked and worked very long hours. My little sister was eight years younger so she was always brought to a babysitter or day care. The part of summer I looked forward to was the two weeks spent "in the country". (my grandparents lived in very rural Avoyelles parish) The part I dreaded was the weeks spent at home while my parents worked and my sister was at day care. While every kid says they would love to have nothing to do, I can tell you it gets old real fast. Yes, I rode my bike and played some ball in the street with friends but most of the time was spent indoors trying to escape the heat. Also, this was before computers, Internet, and cable/satellite TV. What would kids do today if they only had three channels to pick from?
When Penny and I decided to give into the crazy idea of having a family this was one of the subjects we talked about in detail. Lord knows there were about twenty additional subjects we should have talked about but this one we did cover. We had decided that our kids would be made to try different things. For example, they had to give baseball a try. Although I personally wanted both my boys to be the next Chipper Jones and Greg Maddux, they were not forced to make baseball their hobby but they had to try it out. Over the years the boys have tried many sports, musical instruments, scouting, academic clubs, social clubs, church youth activities, and many more. The choice to pursue a particular hobby or sport was up to our boys, but saying, "I don't want to do anything" was not an option. If you don't like baseball then you should try soccer. If the piano isn't your thing then let's look into another musical instrument. This way they are made to find what they are good at. While number one in importance is always school academics their are some things a boy needs to learn outside the classroom. While we didn't decide exactly what our boys would be good at, we made sure they had a chance to find out where their God given talents would shine. So now their summers are not spent locked up in a room with a game controller in their hand. Summer is non-stop with football training, leadership camps, math tournaments, scout camp, and hopefully even a little family vacation.
Parents of young kids don't like to hear my advice to push their kids to be involved in things at early ages. There's this "purist" concept of leave kids to their own and they will find themselves. I say leave a kid sitting on your couch and he will still be there at age 30. The number of summers that they are kids is extremely finite. They'll be 18 before you know it and the season of your influence will pass. This is the last summer Penny and I will have with both of our boys still being kids. Next May we will have an 8th grade graduation and a 12th grade graduation. And while the thought of that saddens us, we realize what we've put into them can not be taken out. Our boys won't remember summers for what they didn't have to do, they will remember summers for what they got a chance to do. Mold them will you can because soon they will be out of your hands.
Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle...
--Napoleon Hill
When Penny and I decided to give into the crazy idea of having a family this was one of the subjects we talked about in detail. Lord knows there were about twenty additional subjects we should have talked about but this one we did cover. We had decided that our kids would be made to try different things. For example, they had to give baseball a try. Although I personally wanted both my boys to be the next Chipper Jones and Greg Maddux, they were not forced to make baseball their hobby but they had to try it out. Over the years the boys have tried many sports, musical instruments, scouting, academic clubs, social clubs, church youth activities, and many more. The choice to pursue a particular hobby or sport was up to our boys, but saying, "I don't want to do anything" was not an option. If you don't like baseball then you should try soccer. If the piano isn't your thing then let's look into another musical instrument. This way they are made to find what they are good at. While number one in importance is always school academics their are some things a boy needs to learn outside the classroom. While we didn't decide exactly what our boys would be good at, we made sure they had a chance to find out where their God given talents would shine. So now their summers are not spent locked up in a room with a game controller in their hand. Summer is non-stop with football training, leadership camps, math tournaments, scout camp, and hopefully even a little family vacation.
Parents of young kids don't like to hear my advice to push their kids to be involved in things at early ages. There's this "purist" concept of leave kids to their own and they will find themselves. I say leave a kid sitting on your couch and he will still be there at age 30. The number of summers that they are kids is extremely finite. They'll be 18 before you know it and the season of your influence will pass. This is the last summer Penny and I will have with both of our boys still being kids. Next May we will have an 8th grade graduation and a 12th grade graduation. And while the thought of that saddens us, we realize what we've put into them can not be taken out. Our boys won't remember summers for what they didn't have to do, they will remember summers for what they got a chance to do. Mold them will you can because soon they will be out of your hands.
Strength and growth come only through continuous effort and struggle...
--Napoleon Hill
