Our children will change the world

My family often joke with one another about how this child or that child is clever enough and devious enough that he or she will someday rule the world. We joke, but one thing is for certain, as I gaze upon my children with all of the love in my heart and the wisdom of my years, I know that they have the power to change the world.

Today, I happened to capture a moment when my younger kids were all sprawled across the sofa, playing a video game together. And then and there, it dawned on me that, if my children ever learn to work together, there will be nothing that can stop them. If they learn to work together, with the combined force of their creativity, intelligence and skill, the world won't stand a chance against them.

So here are my questions to you:

If you knew without a doubt that your children would someday rule the world, what would you want them to learn before that day? What would you hope to teach them, as you raised them, that would help them to be a better ruler when that day came?

And, if you knew that the key to your children's success was for them to learn to work together, what would you do to help them learn to work together? How would you teach them this very important lesson?


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Word clouds for the family

I found a site that creates word clouds for you using the words you type in. It's called Wordle and can be found at Wordle.net. Here are some examples I made using the program and the names of family members along with our family relationships. To an extent, it lets you choose colors and whether you want a black background or a white one. You can't save it as a file to your computer, but you can save it in their public gallery, print it or paste the code in elsewhere (as I have done here.) If you don't like the way the words are displayed, you can click the "random" to see a different layout.








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New Year's Resolutions for 2013 - Do your kids make them?

I tried asking my youngest four children what their new year's resolutions were going to be for 2013. They didn't understand what resolutions meant, so I explained that resolutions were just goals.  I had to explain that goals were things they wanted to achieve or learn during the year.

I found that they really weren't interested in learning anything new or setting goals for bettering themselves. As far as they were concerned, that kind of stuff was boring. I had to drag some goals out of them and then work with them on what it actually meant. Cameron still doesn't really understand them, but I didn't have to drag anything out of him because he had ready answers for what he wanted to do this year. 

Isabella got a new bike for Christmas and has only had her first two lessons on riding a bike without training wheels. She is doing well but has a lot further to go still, so I was a little surprised that she didn't mention it as one of the things she wanted to achieve.

If your children are ten years old and/or younger, do they understand the concept of making goals? And do they like the idea or have things already in mind for them?

 photo taken by Fyfe Photography (many years ago)

Here are the answers they gave me:

Gabriella (10 years old):

 "I want to earn more money from my shops."  (I asked her how she planned on doing that. She answered:)
   - "drawing and adding new designs to my stores"
   - "letting more people know about my stores"
 (Her stores, with her designs on gifts, can be found at:
Through Innocent Eyes (Printfection)
Through Innocent Eyes (Zazzle)
Gabby's Art and
Gabriella's Art

Isabella (7 years old)

"I want to be a hairdresser and a writer." (I asked her how she planned on doing that. She answered.)
    -"practicing cutting hair" (getting old wigs from second-hand shops, old Barbies, or, when allowed,  
     practicing on Cameron)
   - "writing more stories"
(Bella's series of fairy stories can be found on her Tangle Fairies blog.)

Connor (6 years old)

"I want to get better at my video games." (I told him I am not accepting that as a proper goal, so I talked him into agreeing to this variation on it:)
"I try not to throw tantrums when I can't reach levels in my games"

Cameron (4 years old)

"I want to learn how to jump over houses." (Not very practical, so I asked him for one more. He answered:)
"I want to learn how to read all by myself." (Now this one I can help him with!)

What are your children's goals for 2013?


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