While browsing social media this past month or so, I’ve seen a major upswing in friends posting more activities with their kids than what was “normal” for them. Does that mean we’re spending more time together as a family? Uh, yeah. So, what are you doing during this time to make the most of it with your kids?
It’s been cool to see the creative side come out from teachers trying to do the best they can to keep the train moving forward with their students. I do the schooling for my 9-year-old in our home. His teacher has been assigning experiments to do for his science class. Honestly? I dig ‘em. I think I’ve had more fun doing them than he has. Pretty much every day after we’re done with school, he’s forced to go outside and do…something. He’s pretty creative and we live on some land so it’s not hard for him to find something to burn, break, build, dig, cut or blow up with firecrackers. He has 3 older siblings, much older, who don’t live at home with us. He really misses his buddies from school and knowing that, I guess I’ve kind of become his buddy. Well, my wife and I both have. She has spent time with him doing his piano lessons, working on puzzles and some outdoor work. Me? Wellllll…we do “other things”.
I figure, “What an excellent opportunity to hone his outdoor skills”. His man skills. That being said, we’ll go out in the woods to cut wood, ride the 4-wheeler, ride dirt bikes, hit gold balls, work out, etc. He’s a bit of a gun nut so we’ve done a lot of shooting. I’ve also seen this as an opportunity to pass on knowledge from things I’ve learned on to him. Yesterday we went out in the woods and built a fire and the day before that I taught him how to use a miter saw and he cut some wood with it. With my supervision of course. I’ve got some Tannerite so we may blow something up as well. He likes big booms. Heck!!! I like big booms!
So, I guess the question is, what are you doing during this blessing of time spent together to maximize the teaching opportunity to our own children? Dad’s, we know a lot of things. Are you spending time to teach your kids skills your dad, grandpa or other men in your life have taught you? If you’ve got a repair project, are you including your kids? Are you teaching your daughters how to use tools so that when she goes off to college, she can be self-sufficient? Are you teaching your kids how to work out from home or getting out and riding bikes together? Have you taught them how to “Pop-a-Wheelie”? As we age, we tend to talk about how life seems to go by faster and faster. Are we taking those pauses in all the chaos to look inward into our own home and instill skills and knowledge into our own legacies?
I say have your kid saddle up on your lap while you cut grass. Teach them how to navigate around the trees or cut up close to the fence. Teach them how to use tools and what they are used for. If you don’t know HOW to do something, go to YouTube and watch the videos together. After that, go out and learn together through practical application. This whole weirdness we’re going thru right now can be a gift if the vantage point is changed. Instead of the doom and gloom of it all, take advantage of the tactical pause in life it has ushered in and use it to bond, parent and grow our kids. Through that process, we can grow ourselves. Our kids are going to remember this time for the rest of their lives. What will they tell their kids about how the time was spent? Was it on a screen, stuck in their room or watching non-stop cartoons on the TV? Or was it the best time ever spent with mom and/or dad? You choose. You control what happens in your house. Make the best of it.
I would love to read what some of you are doing with your families during this time. Don’t have a family? Are you single? All this can pertain to you as well. What are you doing, as a single person, to make the best of this opportunity?
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