Do I have what it takes?

Tonight I spent a lot of time thinking about all of the things in life that I’m going to have to teach my daughter. Things like the Alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes and sounds. It made me smile thinking about how once upon a time I was a little one learning how to count and how to say my ABC’s. I remember how much fun I had with every new thing I learned. Now, it’s my turn. I have the privilege of passing on these things to my kids, basic knowledge that has been passed down from parent to child for thousands of years. In 1752 Benjamin Franklin invented electricity, 1806 Humphrey Davy invented the light bulb which Thomas Edison improved the invention in 1875 the same year Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Throughout history hundreds of stories like these remind us that people have grown more intelligent throughout the years, every generation smarter then the one before. This is because of parents and families who push their children to learn and they teach them that they can be something great in this world. Now, after thinking all these things I asked myself this question, Do I have what it takes?

Recently I started my daughter on a program called “Your Baby can Read”, a program that was made to help mothers and children with early language development. A few weeks ago Kloie (my 6 month old daughter) started to recognize some of the words. So, I kept working with her every day and today I took the flash cards with the words on them and laid them in front of her. I started to say one word at a time and she started reaching out and grabbing the card that had the word on it! I was completely amazed considering the fact that the program says you won’t start seeing the child recognize the word until the child is about 9 months old. Kloie is 6 months. While looking at the cards I noticed that two of the cards had the words “cats and dogs” (plural) instead of just cat and dog. I then started thinking to myself that there is so much more to learning then just the Alphabet and numbers. There are so many people in this world that do not know how to speak or write using proper grammar. Not just because they didn’t pay attention in school but because they didn’t have a suitable example. So many times I see people speak, write or type incorrectly and it’s sad. I understand if we are in a hurry and we send a quick text, “ R u @ the mall yet? B there N a bit.” I guess every once in a while its ok to do so, but I have heard people say that they do it so much they actually forget how to spell correctly. Thinking about this worries me and again I ask myself the question, do I have what it takes?

Children have so many questions in there mind and are not afraid to ask them. Questions like, “Why is the sky blue” or “why do I have a belly button” and the most famous question of all “Where so babies come from”. Parents sometimes don’t know how to answer these questions and panic when children ask the more uncomfortable ones. I know that during grade school and even parts of middle school I am going to be able to help out with homework and my kids are going to think, “Wow, Mommy is so smart.” But what is going to happen when high school comes around and I don’t remember a thing or just simply don’t know for that matter?