Why Home Schooling, You Ask?

© Written by Robyn, South Africa

Almost every day people ask me – What are your reasons for home schooling? I sit there open mouthed having a million thoughts in my heart but not one in my head. I stumble over my two sentences and feel like I have lost an opportunity to express something really important in my life.

I believe that we all choose our quality of life. We play a big role in who our children grow up to become. I feel that I am making the very best possible and informed decisions for my family and for my children. And those decisions include home schooling. Home schooling is so much more than simply doing school at home ~ it is a lifestyle. A balanced all-round education is important but what I am also hoping to instil from a young age is a love of learning that will grow with them for the rest of their lives. I want my children to understand that it doesn’t really matter what they grow up to become but who they grow up to become.

One of the most important things for a child to grow up with is a good self-image. If they have this, and truly believe in themselves, then they can do anything! Who is going to give them their self-worth, this positive understanding that who they are is enough and always will be? Who is going to teach them that it’s possible to be perfectly at peace with yourself and happy with the way life is at the moment, in the good times and the bad? That it’s good to take risks and learn from your mistakes? It’s good to believe that you can do anything, and to deal with the disappointments along the way? Are the most expensive schools going to teach them this? The best paid teachers? Or maybe their peers, the children all born within 6 months of each other? Or what about the government who choose the curriculum and run the schools? NO, I am sorry but I have decided that I am going to be the one who is going to take full responsibility for my children.

Now comes your argument ~ But don’t you think it’s necessary for a child to learn to deal with bullies, competitiveness, failure, being laughed at, judged, ridiculed by authority, exposed to all sorts, and to go through 12 years of worldly experiences so that they can become tougher, face life and cope in the ‘real’ world? I shouldn’t even need to answer that, but I will if I must. Is it not better to equip a child with a childhood of positive and happy experiences to prepare them to ‘cope’ in the real world? A positive, happy, well-balanced child with a great self image who has spent their entire childhood in a secure and loving environment where they have been understood and encouraged, praised and accepted. Will that person not be able to cope far better with the ‘real’ world? Many studies done on home-schooled children prove this very point.

This poem stuck in my mind for years, it confirmed for me that throwing children ‘in the deep end’, or letting them learn to cope is not the way I want to do things.

The Swimming Lesson ~
Feeling the icy kick, the endless waves
Reaching around my life, I moved my arms
And coughed, and in the end saw land.

Somebody, I suppose,
Remembering the medieval maxim,
Had tossed me in,
Had wanted me to learn to swim,

Not knowing that none of us, who ever came back
From that long lonely fall and frenzied rising,
Ever learned anything at all
About swimming, but only
How to put off, one by one,
Dreams and pity, love and grace,-
How to survive in any place.

~ Mary Oliver
For further information on HOMESCHOOLING IN SOUTH AFRICA:
Visit Robyn's website

ADD can increase ability to learn!

By A Daddy

I have attended many lectures and workshops and listened to many teachings. Some were excellent and I was able to learn a lot. Others were the perfect breeding ground for Attention Deficit Disorder.

Now that I’m a parent, who believes that the answer for Education is at home, I have to make sure that my kids and those I talk to do not develop Attention Deficit Disorder while in my company.

How do I do that?

I have to make sure I do not develop CBS – (Continuous Boredom Syndrome).

Now, we all know that boredom is one of the biggest enemies we have to fight when we have to, or even want to, learn.

And what’s the main cause of boredom?

You guessed it.

Style! The style of the one who has to ensure that learning takes place.

So, if that’s true, how does one ensure that one’s style is not boring?

Good question. I’m glad you asked.

The answer is very easy.

Study the Master Teacher and imitate Him.

So what are the characteristics of His style?

I’ll tell you in a moment.

But first I would like to submit that He may have encouraged ADD.

Don’t look surprised. ADD is a good thing!

It stands for:

AUTHORIZATION to DISCOURAGE DULLNESS.

And if you focus on that it will increase your ability to learn.

Right, back to the style.

It is my belief that no one who listened to the Master Teacher was ever bored.

And He learned from His dad, who incidentally is also my Dad.

And all of us have the privilege to learn from both of them.

I’ll give you a couple of characteristics of their style – Bruce Wilkinson introduced me to it – and if you use it appropriately and in consultation with them, results are guaranteed.

Here they are:

Their style was and still is:

Memorable – Think of the rainbow – not just talking, but also showing a memorable picture
Unexpected – How many times have you heard a donkey speak?
Visual – Think of Daniel’s dream
Unique – Angels announcing the Birth of our Savior
Multi-sensory – How many senses do you think was utilized during those ten plagues?
Captivating – Very few people would not concentrate if a hand writes on a wall.
Incarnational – Don’t just talk – Do what you say.

Now how many cases of Attention Deficit Disorder would have been diagnosed if we incorporated all off the above in our style?

Probably none!

So let’s start promoting ADD – AUTHORIZATION to DISCOURAGE DULLNESS.

Now if you’d like to have some more exposure to this – attend one of my workshops.

Topics that will be discussed: What is Home Education, Legal aspects, Reasons to Home Educate, Developing the whole person, 21st Century education and how it should be different and much, much more.

We look forward to hearing from you.

What is this “thing” called Home Education?

By A Daddy

Based on some recent discussions I was involved in, I believe it might be useful to have a fresh look at “Home Education”.

So, in this article we’ll have a quick glance at its definition in terms of the Schools Act which reads as follows:

“The learner receiving education at the learner’s own home.”

Not a bad definition. Incomplete, but not bad!

So let’s analyse it a bit by asking some questions! (I’ll give very short, introductory answers to these questions.)

Question 1 - What is a learner?
(This is a fairly easy question. The answer is also not difficult.)
A learner is someone who learns!

Question 2 – If there is a learner, does that imply a teacher?
Probably, yes. However, the teacher does not necessarily have to be a physical person.

Question 3 – What is then the role of the teacher?
(This is another fairly easy question, but the answer could be complicated, because the role of a teacher is not to teach.)
The role of the teacher is to ensure that learning takes place, (i.e. not to deliver content).

Question 4 – What is education?
The Latin word being EDUCARE means “leading out” or “leading forth”
In short this means – Do not try to put in that which was left out, rather get out that which was put in!

Question 5 – Does a learner/teacher need a curriculum?
Absolutely, yes!

Question 6 – What is a curriculum?
A curriculum is a course of action, (i.e. not a set of books).

Needless to say a course of action is only important if you know where you’re going. If you do not know where you’re going any road will take you there.

Question 7 – Where does training fit in, or do we only educate our kids?
We should train up a child in the way he should go. That follows that training is crucial. (More on this in a later article.)

Question 8 - What is a home? (Do not confuse it with a house.)
A home is a place where you feel safe, where there is a wonderful AROMA, where one receives one’s heritage. A place where every individual has found and fulfils his/her role. (More on this in a later article as well.)

Enough for now.

If you are interested in attending a workshop where we will have a fresh look at this and many more aspects of home education, please call and you can attend one of my workshops.
In the workshops we discuss and think about many issues which parents face on a day to day basis. These issues include legal aspects, socialization, sport, academics, making sure you have a balance. How do we stay relevant in the world we live in? Overview of the educational environment in SA. Reasons to home school. The primary needs of kids and developing the whole person. What to teach and what to avoid. Introduction to learning styles and thinking preferences. Different purchased curriculum and how to approach it. And much, much more …

If you would like to contact Niell (aka A Daddy) please leave a comment and we will get back to you...

Breast has finally topped bottle-feeding – even for babies born to HIV positive mothers

Cross-posted from the HIVAN website (http://www.hivan.org.za/). Originally published by Health-E News Service (www.health-e.org.za).

Author: Kerry Cullinan

For years, there has been a battle over the best way to protect babies born to HIV positive mothers living in poor areas from getting the virus – which has essentially boiled down to a battle between those who advocate breast feeding and those who advocate bottle-feeding with milk formula.

As breastmilk can transmit HIV, global policy was weighted in favour of bottle feeding and HIV positive mothers were discouraged from breastfeeding.

But a big study from KwaZulu-Natal led by Professors Jerry Coovadia and Nigel Rollins and published on Friday (30 March) seems to have finally settled the debate in favour of the breast.

They found that babies who were exclusively breastfed by their HIV positive mothers were at substantially less risk of becoming infected than babies given both breastmilk and formula milk or solids.

This is excellent news for HIV positive mothers living in poor areas without easy access to clean water and effective ways of sterilising bottles.

The formula milk position was all very well in the developed world and middle-class suburbia, where mothers with HIV who opt for bottle-feeding can get clean water to mix the formula.

But it was not geared for rural South Africa or urban informal settlements where the supply of clean water is not guaranteed and where it is simply impractical to boil water every time to sterilise baby bottles.

However, up until now, government’s policy has favoured the bottle by offering mothers with HIV free formula milk.

The proviso was that she had to have access to clean water – but who was checking?

Besides, what poor mother would turn down free milk formula, even if she planned to breastfeed?

In fact, researchers found that most mothers opting for the formula were unemployed and that at least a quarter of them admitted to selling it as they were desperate for income, so there was little benefit to their babies.

For Professors Coovadia, Rollins and colleagues at the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies and the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Medical School, offering free formula was a dangerous policy.

HIV positive mothers who opted for the free formula usually ended up both breastfeeding and bottle feeding.But research published in 1999 by Dr Anna Coutsoudis, also from Durban, suggested that this “mixed feeding” was the most dangerous form of feeding for newborn babies with HIV positive mothers.

It damages the mucosal lining of the babies’ intestines, making them vulnerable to the virus.

There was also the added risk of bottlefed babies dying of gastro-intestinal infections caused by dirty water or unsterilised bottles.

In the past, long before the HIV epidemic, Coovadia had been actively involved in campaigns against Nestle and other big companies that were promoting formula milk in this country because babies in poor households were so vulnerable to gastric infections.In addition, the physical benefits of breastmilk on building babies’ immune systems as well as the psychological benefit of breastfeeding in encouraging mother-baby bonding has been well established.

So even in the face of HIV, he and his colleagues were deeply uneasy about breastfeeding being undermined in favour of formula milk precisely because the risk of diarrhoea was high and often fatal for little babies.

They thus painstakingly investigated the risks that the different feeding options being used by over 1 000 HIV positive mothers in KwaZulu-Natal posed for passing HIV on to their babies from birth to six months.

The study was big, initially involving 2 722 HIV positive and negative women at seven rural and two urban sites.

All the women were counselled about the value of exclusive breastfeeding, and the majority opted to do just that.

In addition, all HIV positive mothers were given Nevirapine during labour and their babies at birth.

Their study, which was published in the prestigious Lancet journal, found that the risk of HIV transmission to babies exclusively breastfed by their HIV positive mothers up to the age of six months was 4%.In contrast, babies who were given breastmilk and solids were almost 11 times more likely to get HIV, while babies who had both breast and formula milk had double the risk of HIV infection as those only on the breast.

In addition, deaths among babies who were formula fed were more than double that of exclusively breastfed babies by three months.

Many of these deaths were not related to HIV but were the result of diarrhoea.

Six percent of the babies that were exclusively breastfed were dead by three months of age, while 15% of babies who were given replacement foods were dead.

The Lancet has hailed the study as a “breakthrough”, describing it as “meticulous” and “providing crucial confirmatory evidence” that exclusive breastfeeding poses a low risk of HIV infection for babies.

While a significant number of the babies died during the study, this relates to the fact that 14% of the babies were HIV positive already – either infected while inside their mothers’ wombs or during birth, not through breastmilk.

Three-quarters of the deaths were as a result of AIDS-related illnesses.

Babies were most likely to get HIV if their mothers had advanced HIV infection, associated with low CD4 counts (measure of immunity in the blood) and large amounts of the virus in their blood.

Food for breastfeeding moms

Cross-posted from the HIVAN website (http://www.hivan.org.za/). Originally published by Health-E News Service (www.health-e.org.za).

Author: Kerry Cullinan

Food parcels are finally being offered to HIV positive mothers in KwaZulu-Natal who want to exclusively breastfeed their babies as part of a new government policy.

In the past, positive mothers were advised to either exclusively formula feed or, in cases where there was no supply of clean water, to exclusively breastfeed to protect their babies from getting HIV.

But while free formula milk was dished out, no practical support was offered to those who wanted to breastfeed.

The mothers, particularly those who were poor, tended to see the formula milk as an incentive. They then tended to opt to get the formula milk and feed their babies both breast and formula milk – the most risky feeding choice for passing on HIV.

An exuberant Professor Nigel Rollins, head of the Centre for Maternal and Child Health at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said he was “delighted” that government had chosen to help HIV positive breastfeeding women meet their increased nutritional needs (of breastfeeding) by offering six months’ worth of food parcels.

The food parcels help to level the playing field as counsellors can now offer HIV positive women either food packages if they choose to breastfeed or free formula for their baby if they have the resources at home to safely prepare and give formula.

“In the past, government policy was weighted in favour of formula feeding, yet research shows that babies of HIV positive mothers who are exclusively breastfed are at far lower risk of getting HIV than babies who are mix-fed both formula and breastmilk,” said Rollins.

Rollins can well feel pleased, as it is largely thanks to him, Professors Jerry Coovadia Anna Coutsoudis and Dr Ruth Bland that government has changed its policy to support and encourage breastfeeding.

As breastmilk can transmit HIV, government has been reluctant in the past to promote it. However, Rollins, Coovadia, Coutsoudis and others have tirelessly conducted a number of studies to show that exclusive breastfeeding posed a relatively small danger to babies of HIV positive mothers. Their latest and most comprehensive study (see adjoining article) quantifies this risk at 4% by the time babies are six months old.In contrast, the risk of HIV for babies who get formula and breastmilk is double this, while the risk for babies who get breastmilk and food is 11 times that of the exclusively breastfed babies.

“In the light of our research, we have been calling for government to review its policy and to offer more tangible support to breastfeeding HIV positive mothers,” said Rollins. The first indication that government had taken note of the research was found in the final draft of government’s new national HIV/AIDS strategic plan, which was adopted at a consultative meeting two weeks’ ago.

The plan announced that HIV positive moms choosing to breastfeed would be offered “nutritional support”. The KwaZulu-Natal health department has moved at lightning speed to implement this change in policy. The food parcels being offered are substantial, consisting of mielie meal, enriched porridge, rice, beans, soya mince, milk, peanut butter, tinned fish, sunflower oil, sugar and salt.

Rollins said that breastfeeding was demanding on all women, but that HIV positive mothers had greater nutritional needs and tended to lose more fat than HIV negative mothers. The health of babies being exclusively breastfed is inextricably tied to the health of their mothers, so the babies will benefit from the food parcels as their mothers will be healthier. In addition, babies are most likely to get HIV when their mothers’ levels of immunity (CD4 count) is low so the food parcels will help to keep mothers healthy and less prone to infections – particularly if boosted with antiretroviral treatment for their mothers.

“In the past, the formula milk was perceived by mothers from poor households as a way to gain financially,” said Rollins. “But over a quarter of the mothers diluted the formula too much, and we found E.coli bacteria (which causes diarrhoea) in almost two-thirds of the bottles that mothers were giving to their babies right there in the clinic.” Researchers also found that at least a quarter of the mothers sold the formula milk as they were desperate for money.

“The food parcels being offered are very substantial and a real asset for women choosing to exclusively breastfeed,” said Rollins. There is, of course, a strong likelihood that the food will be used to feed entire families not just the HIV positive mothers. But at least the benefit will be kept within the family, unlike the sold formula milk. And the breastfeeding mothers will certainly get some of the benefits.

Eve’s dropping

by Kyknoord

I took a week off work to spend some quality time with Kyknoord Junior, while my ex-wife used this temporary respite to try and round up the scattered remnants of her sanity. A rather pointless exercise, in my opinion. I don’t think sanity is particularly useful when it comes to child-rearing.

Overheard at the Muizenberg municipal swimming pool - uttered by a mother who was concerned that her young son was straying too close to the deep end (obviously she wasn’t sufficiently concerned to actually get up and drag him to safety, but still…): “There are sharks there. They’re going to eat your pipi off!” Judging by the speed at which he moved into the shallows, I would guess that the seed that will ultimately grow into a tangled hedge of hang-ups has been successfully planted and watered. A mother’s love is beautiful thing, is it not? Actually, I understand the woman’s lackadaisical attitude entirely. Protecting toddlers from their own relentless self-destructive tendencies can be exhausting.

Of course, when kiddies aren’t engaged in the serious business of engineering their own demise, their favourite game in the whole world is Insert Daddy’s Last Nerve Into The Nuclear-Powered Fraying Machine. Had you been in the vicinity of Casa Kyknoord during the past week, you would have been witness to this little scene, which played out between me and Junior (with minor variations) around lunch time every day:
“Are you hungry?’
“No”
“Do you want a sandwich?”
”No!!”
“Well, okay then. I’ll eat it myself, shall I?”
“WAAAHAAA!!! I wanna sangwidge!”

I sh!t you not. Every. Single. Day. I think it’s the female ability to multitask that makes them better parents than men. The rational part of their brain is better equipped to override the instinctive strangulation commands issued to the hands by the emotional centres of the cortex.
Parenthood, it would seem, is somewhat reminiscent of looking for a gas-leak with a lit match. The consequences are often not fully understood until it is too late. This is probably a good thing, because if people had the vaguest clue about what they were letting themselves in for, the very survival of the species would be in jeopardy.

Minister implies Pioneers on track!?

By A Daddy

In this follow-up article I shall address some of the other areas which I found of interest during the Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor's presentation at the GIBS Forum Event of 17 August 2005.
The presentation was mainly to people in the large business sector. The topic was - "Transforming Education in South Africa".
The minister mentioned some action and focus areas which she said the Department is working on.

These focus areas are the following:

1. To provide a basic educational foundation for kids. This includes reading, writing, and maths. To address the resource problems. Although there is a severe lack of teachers, there are also some schools that do not even have basic facilities such as toilets. Resources include these as well as many other needs.
2. To expand grade R so that the department would have 10 years of compulsory school attendance.
3. To successfully implement the new curriculum with a specific focus on maths and science. She acknowledged that there were initially a few implementation problems, but according to her most of these are now sorted out.
4. To recapitalize and develop FET institutions.
5. The improve on the scarcity of research and development projects in South Africa.
   

The floor was then opened for comments, questions and remarks.
Remarks and responses thereto included the following:

1. There are 920 teacher education quality assurance programs. (This probably does not make standardization an easy task.)
2. Regarding ABET the Minister believes the country needs a mass illiteracy campaign.
3. Something was mentioned about e-learning. There's apparently an e-learning policy - (E-learning sounds like something that can be done at home. This should be positive for home-schooling!?)
4. Someone said that graduates should be jobless as they have to create jobs. That's when Sam, the toilet man, told his story.
5. At that stage someone alleged that matric results are being tampered with. Maybe even adjusted upwards "slightly" as skills do not support grades.
   Although the Minister denied all of these she did mention that South Africa should perhaps, like other countries, have an entrance exam for Universities. Why should South Africa be so "special" that we do not have one?
   I then thought she said that one should focus on things such as reading, writing, maths and SA History for such a year and not specialize immediately e.g. BCom, BA, etc. as is currently the case. She later denied that she said it when a lady from a placement agency confronted her with this.
6. There was also some mention of assistance for people with disabilities and that little was being done in this regard.
   

I perceived most of the comments from the public to have a little bit of a negative bend which indicated to me that SA business was generally not ecstatic about the state of the educational system.

However, what's very pleasing is the fact that the Minister really seems interested in education.

She's generally looking out for the best interest of the kids of South Africa?

Based on this I will assume that the Minister should not have a problem with home-education.

In conclusion, Professor Gill Marcus of Gordon Institute of Business Science (who previously held positions of inter alia deputy Governor of the South African Reserve Bank and Deputy Minister of Finance), was part of the audience and wished to make a few closing remarks.
During this she made a challenge which went something like this:
"People in South Africa have now identified problems in the educational system. Let's stop looking at the Department of Education to solve these problems and ask ourselves: What am I going to do about the situation?"

Together with me, all the other home-schoolers in the audience probably said to themselves:
"Wow, I have already risen to the challenge - I have taken responsibility - I educate my kids at home!"

So, what I really want to get to is this following:
Our generation is the first generation of legal home-schoolers in South Africa. We are therefore pioneers. Pioneers explore un-chartered territory.
Now, although we have to make sure that we do not fall into some of the pit-falls of home-education there is one thing that we do not have to worry about and that is:

We do not have to be concerned that we are not giving our kids a good education.

Even if education was just about academics, which it's not, we would still pass with flying colors.

New Writer Intro

From the Editor’s Desk

I am happy to introduce another new writer, Robyn.
She is a home-schooling mom to two girls.

Visit her informational website:
http://www.robynshomeschool.co.za/

Third grader can excel in graduate position!

By A Daddy

I attended a GIBS Forum Event in August 2005 where the Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor, made a presentation on the topic - "Transforming Education in South Africa."
She discussed a few action and focus areas which she said the Department is working on. (Sounds a bit like Liberty - we're working on it.) Many of her comments, which I shall not address in this article, were very comforting to me as a home-schooler from a legal point of view as she clearly indicated that the "system" still lacks the means to lay an adequate basic foundation for children.
However, the topic which I'd like to touch on in this article applies to the real world.
A young black man, if I recall correctly his name is Sam, made an interesting contribution in response to the Minister's statement that some 15% of graduates in South Africa are unemployed.
Sam said that he started a business that employs some 290 people. Some of his employees are graduates. Most of them love their work, do it well and are paid a decent salary. So what is this business? Wait for it….
They clean toilets for companies.
Am I degrading cleaning toilets?
No, of course not. Toilet cleaning services are as essential as any other service one can think of. What this young man did was to identify a need, come up with a solution and he now provides a service to companies. That is called problem solving.
So what's the point I'm trying to make?
The point is - One does not need a degree to come up with a solution to a problem!
However, should one come up with a solution to a problem, it seems like there are many graduates around who would be more than willing to work for you!
Am I against having a degree?
No, I have one myself.
The point is - A qualification does not guarantee success!
If it did, would we have 15% unemployed graduates in a country which says it so desperately lack skills?

Every Child – A Masterpiece

By A Daddy

Some time ago I had the privilege to present workshops for a certain well know organization. One of the people involved in my training for the workshops was a guy called Brad Sadler.

He was one of the best speakers I had ever heard. I was a little intimidated by the thought that I had to do presentation on the same topic as he did in weeks to come.

So after his presentation I said to him: Brad, my background is not as bad as yours. I’ve not done as many bad things as you have. I’ve not committed any crime that I ended up in prison for. I’ll have to use some of your stories during my presentations.

Brad didn’t even hear me. He just went on about how wonderful life was and nobody really cared too much about the stories. What they liked about him is that he gave them hope.

I went on to do the workshops and before most of these Brad would phone or send a sms or do some or other thing to encourage me.

And when my workshops went very well Brad was delighted and if it went very bad Brad was ecstatic. Whatever happened, Brad was overjoyed.

Gee, I haven’t spoken to him for more than a year. Hold the thought; I’m quickly going to phone him.

…

I’m back. I feel great. Obviously I’ll feel great. I’ve just spoken to Brad.

Now, you might wonder why I’m telling you this.

I’m telling you because Brad is an exhorter. He is what one might call vintage exhorter. One of the best I’ve seen. Definitely the best I have personally met. I have a daughter that is a little like that. Always ready to encourage everyone.

And that’s great, but we are all different.

I’m not saying we should not all encourage each other. I’m just saying – We are all different!

Some are perceivers.
Some are servants.
Some are teachers.
Some are exhorters.
Some are givers.
Some are administrators, and
Some love to give mercy.

Then again the perceivers, teachers, exhorters and administrators generally love to express themselves with words and the servants, givers and mercy people love to express themselves with deeds.

So if you have a little teacher in your home, you might struggle to get his mouth shut. But if you have a little servant, you might struggle to get his mouth open.

Many people do not understand this and then they think there is something wrong if a child either doesn’t talk or talks too much.

But that’s not the only place where people are different.

We also have different ways to remember things – Some remember visually, some auditory, some kinesthetically and some tactile.

Then we all also interact with information differently – Some are analytical and some are global.

Wait, there’s more – Howard Gardner came up with the concept of Multiple Intelligences. That is really just different ways people are smart. Just seven of the ways you can be brilliant is as follows – Linguistic, Logical-Mathematical, Spatial, Musical, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal and intrapersonal.

And then we also have different thinking preferences. That has to do with your left and right brain.

And as if that’s not enough people also have different dominance profiles. That means they have dominant eyes, ears, hands, feet and so on. And depending on your dominance, you will have a different style.

And by the way, everyone then likes to do things at different times of the day, at different temparatures with different shades of light. It just goes on and on.

Right, I’ll stop now. Although there are probably thousands of other differences and unique little things about every individual which no one even knows about yet, I think I have made the point.
Every individual is a work of art and can be a spectacular success.

So please don’t be discouraged or overwhelmed. I didn’t say this to confuse you or frustrate you. I told you the above for one reason and one reason only.

Every child is a masterpiece. And your little masterpiece has a role to play and a place to fit.

And there is no way that anyone can give you a quick model answer on how to train up your child. And don’t ever dare to compare your child with any other child.

It takes wisdom, time, patience and perseverance and probably a few other attributes in that category to get the answer and complete the marathon.

So keep on. If you struggle, ask for help. Don’t give up. Don’t worry. Don’t try to be perfect – But definitely be real.

And always remember – “You were born an original, don’t die a copy.”