Problem: your daughter has spent a good portion of her teenage years enjoying sports in general and archery specifically, but there is no possibility this could help support her in motherhood or pay the bills for college. She is known in her small archery club as “Bull’s Eye Jane.”

Solution: your daughter combines her beautiful-to-watch archery skills with market valued skills that others will gladly pay for.

• Daughter takes physics textbooks and creates free YouTube videos of herself shooting arrows from her pink power bow with close-ups, slow-motions, and sub-texts that demonstrate specific principles found in the textbooks. She sells accompanying science guides containing clever Mnemonics that use archery and sports moves to lock in the memory in preparation of science exams. Homeschool mothers everywhere love her and she becomes known as “The Flying Arrow Girl of Science.”

Problem: your child has developed a skill that allows him to play the piano very well in small local gatherings, events, and weddings, but he has little chance of making a living because technology has replaced him in most events by pre-recorded, low-cost musical alternatives. He is starting to be known as “The Piano Player in Placerville.”

Solution: your child combines his piano playing ability with other skills so he transforms the old talent into a new and very valued talent to the current generation.

• Child plays piano well and edits his recordings to turn them into unique ring tones that current generation purchases and downloads to help manage their mobile devices. Child also creates free YouTube videos and sells guides to other piano players so they can do the same. He is now known on the Internet as “The Ring Tone Piano Guy.”

Your child needs a talent, if you find yourself saying:

“My 14 year old son is deeply immersed in playing his guitar faithfully every day for hours on end. I admire his dedication, but I’m worried he will graduate from High-School with no job prospects and the harsh reality of making a living will disillusion him. I see potential, but I’m not sure what the future holds for him in this area.”

Signed, “Mother of an Artist.”

Your child needs a talent, if you find yourself saying:

“Both my wife and I have bachelor and master degrees and my children’s grandparents keep checking to see if we are making active college plans for our own children. My concern is that with so much emphasis on college, my children will wind up with nice sounding degrees, but still have no marketable skills. I want their degrees to have a plan attached to it.”

Signed, “Love-My-Alma-Mater-But-Not-That-Much-Dad”

Your child needs a talent, if you find yourself saying:

“My 16 year old son is a very dependable and hardworking young man. He accompanies his father on many jobs in our family run painting business and is becoming a very good painter in his own right. But lately, husband and I have concerned that he will be entering a market already over-saturated with excellent painters with no room for newcomers to make a full-time living. Is all this expertise he has built up lost time?”

Signed, “Not-Afraid-to-Get-My-Hands-Dirty-Mom”

Your child needs a talent if you find yourself saying:

“My 13 year old son is exhausting our family because he has so many interests. I’m glad he is enthusiastic, but we never seem to stick long enough with one activity to make a difference to his schooling or to his ability to become really good at something.”

Signed, “Frazzled-Mom”

You need your child to develop a talent if you find yourself saying:

“Help! My sweet 16 year old daughter is starting to attract the attention of older homeschooling boys who don’t have a plan beyond working part-time at the local YMCA. She needs a focused talent to expand her world and make her more attractive to eligible bachelors with high expectations.”

Signed, “I-got-my-eyes-on-you-Dad”

Your child needs a talent, if you find yourself saying:

“My wife is using a great Christian homeschooling curriculum and she is very happy about its emphasis on character development. I’m happy with it too, but my concern is, will good character alone pay the bills?”

Signed, “Practical Dad”