At the dinner table I will sometimes recap to my wife out loud what I am excited about in my child’s talent development. I will then ask my child to speak up and add some clarifying details as to how this milestone came about. I remember one particular week where my 11 year old got several personal notes from professional programmers who commended him on his progress as they could see through his blog and online forum participation. This feedback created a real buzz of excitement as the very next day there was a renewed sense of purpose among the rest of the older children to wake up early to research and blog for their next post on their respective talent development.
Great articles this week. Getting the kids to help each other out using their talents. Yes, discussing it in front of them with grandparents and with my husband, then asking them to fill in what I just can’t get right or just add some details. Been doing that their whole life to include family in how great their education really is. See it is useful!!! I look forward to reading all your articles. It really encourages me and helps me weed out the useless and keep the forward motion to our goals.
Marcee, yes, getting the kids to help each other out with their talents is a pretty good feeling. The weeding out the useless part seems to be a constant work in progress. Just as you finished getting good value out of an activity, you realize you have to also find ways to actively terminate the activity to make room for the next phase of focus. It takes effort to be constantly pruning because it disrupts old routines and forces one to create new routines.