As a new parent I have quickly realized that by involving my son in whatever I’m doing will take at least double the amount of time that it normally takes. BUT, I love how my son learns when I involve him in what I am doing.
I believe that one of the main roles of parenting (if not the main role) is instructing our children, and one of the best ways that I can instruct my son is simply by letting him observe and be involved with what I am already doing.
You can see in the pictures that one of the things that now takes me longer to do than ever before is mow my lawn. I now go through a routine where I tell Howard that I’m mowing the lawn and ask if he wants to ‘help.’ Of course he loves ‘helping’ me mow the lawn, because he gets to sit in our hiking backpack while I lug him around and push the lawnmower around our yard.
Of course there is a lot of extra effort involved in having Howard mow the lawn with me, but it’s worth it. I love spending time with him, and I love that he is learning by simply observing what I’m doing.
I thank my dad for teaching me this principle. Some of my favorite memories with my dad are helping him in the shop. I remember being barely 10 years old and helping him route the edges of these wooden, foldable chairs that he used to sell to the RV’s that would come to WSU Cougar football games. I also remember being about 10 years old and standing on a stool, leaning inside the hood of his white, Ford F-150 and learning about the new carburetor that he was installing.
What are some fun ways that you involve your children? Maybe you, too, have some memories of your parents involving you – would you share those with me? Maybe there are new ways that you can think of involving your children – share those thoughts, too!
I love this post Jason! One of my greatest memories is how my grandfather would always have me help him work on things on the farm. He would always explain to me what was going on and why we were doing specific things. These are some of my fondest memories!
It is probably why I have a seemingly natural ability with fixing things.
Thanks for the post, I’m excited to read future posts. I hope you guys are doing well too! Talk to you soon!
Thanks, Jack! That’s fun that you have memories like that with your grandfather. Hopefully we’ll create some of those with our kiddos (your future ones 🙂 ), too!