Fresh Joy. . .Helping Kids Succeed

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Fresh Joy . . . Helping Our Kids Succeed

Do you know your child’s dreams?

What does your child like to do?

Or think about?

What would your child like to be, or become?

Bill Gates’ mom knew his dreams.

Here’s the story. . .

According to the Wikipedia article about Bill Gates, when he was in 8^th grade his mom helped his school get a computer terminal and a block of computer processing time from GE.

She used the proceeds from a Mothers’ Club rummage sale to get her son’s school, and him, access to technology.

The year might have been 1969 or 1970.  Back then no one had a PC or had even heard of one.   They hadn’t been invented yet.

It took the time, interest and dreams of many people, including Bill Gates, to create the hardware and software so that today you and I can write words like these on our PCs, and a second later people around the world can read them . . .on their phones . . . and on their cameras . . . which are their phones!

Thank you Bill Gates’ mom! and all other moms who have not minded when their kid played for hours-on-end with markers, or Sculpey, or an old camera.

Thank you for tuning in to your son’s interest in technology, helping him turn an interest into a dream, and thank you for helping us see how we can do that too.

Dreams build on and grow from interests.  Lives build on and grow from dreams.

Did your parents know your dreams, when you were 12 or 13 years old?

Maybe not.  We tend to protect our dreams.  We don’t want people to trample on them.

But we show our cards about our dreams in our interests.

By noticing our kids’ interests, we parents can see clues about their dreams.

Can’t we?  Sure we can.

We know if our kids love video games, drawing, dance, helping people, sports, faith, fun, volleyball, water slides, eating candy, reading, texting, making things with Sculpey, telling jokes, being center of attention, playing the piano, ice skating, electronics, animals, astronomy,  friends, puzzles, math  .  .  . or any of a million other things

Whatever that is, that’s where your child’s heart and mind are located,  right now.

If they love something or always notice something, even something seemingly simple like how cheese melts on pizza, then they may be cooking up a heart-dream about it, right now.

Knowing where our children’s hearts and minds are located, and fixated, is a step toward connecting them, positively, to their future.

Really and truly this is more important than knowing their test scores.

Whether you’re homeschooling your child or whether your child goes to school . .  .

~ whether your child is succeeding or struggling . . .

~ whether your child has strong interests or few . . .

~ when we learn with love about our children’s dreams we gain more ways to nurture them.

Nurturing our children’s hopes and dreams helps us help them ~ far more ~ than focusing on their current crises, struggles and even on their current triumphs.

Daydreams become real dreams.

Real dreams can come true, for good or for ill.

Your child will build life, positively or negatively, through his or her dreams.

We can help our kids’ pathway through life take positive shape, when we care about their dreams for themselves.

This summer, help your child see and experience good things connected to their dreams.

Help them meet someone in a field that’s related to one of their dreams, or see something, learn something, hear something, learn a skill, find tools, or go somewhere that could build on one of their dreams, in a positive way.

Affirm and care for your child in a way that connects to their dreams.

Bill Gates’ mom did.

We can too.

from your friend in parenting, Virginia Vagt, May 24, 2010