Teach Your Children Well: 50 Essential Experiences for Your Children

By Bob Litt

Its no secret that growing up in todays competitive world is incredibly challenging. As parents and caregivers, we hope we can teach our children everything they need to know as they get older. Teach Your Children Well can help you do just that.

In this original and innovative reference manual for parents, professional trainer Bob Litt presents a checklist of fifty essential experiences to assist you in guiding your children to learn the life skills that will bring them street smarts, cultural literacy, and success.

This guide focuses on preparing your children for their future and giving them the training and practice that can open doors and present opportunities. Life is about the choices we make, so give your daughters and sons as many choices as possible. They cant have a passion for something unless they know it exists. As parents and caregivers, it is our job to open the world to our children and make them aware of opportunities and possibilities.

Each essential experience is broken down into topics, quotes, and checklists with plenty of collateral experiences along the way. Your children can develop skills and knowledge about the arts, careers, finance, music, politics, science, and sports. Teach Your Children Well introduces them to a diverse array of essential life experiences that can ultimately help them make better decisions and allow them to discover their natural abilities and passions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Mar 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781469777399

Bob Litt

Bob Litt has been developing and delivering technical training to diverse audiences for over twenty-five years. A native of New York City, he and his wife now make their home in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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Copyright © 2012 by Bob Litt

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ISBN: 978-1-4697-7738-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4697-7739-9 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 3/22/2012

Contents

Dedication and Acknowledgments

Teach Your Children Well

How to Use This Book

Passion and Awareness

Opportunity and Possibilities

About Me, the Author

Technology

Meeting People

Doing Is Everything

The 10,000-Hour Rule

Sense Experience and Empiricism

How This Book Is Structured

Collateral Experiences

Parents as Mentors

What If I Don’t Know How to Teach?

It’s Never Too Late

Why You Need to Teach Your Children Well

The Arts

1.   Discover Architecture

2.   Learn to Draw

3.   Try Creative Writing

4.   Go to an Art Museum

American History

5.   Learn the Presidents

6.   Read the Declaration of Independence

7.   Read the Constitution

8.   Learn the Gettysburg Address

Around the House

9.   Take Care of a Pet

10.   Plant a Garden

11.   Learn to Cook a Stew

Careers

12.   Write a Resume

13.   Create a Portfolio

14.   Write an Elevator Speech

15.   Get a Part-time Job

16.   Write a Business Plan

Finance

17.   Apply for a Loan

18.   Buy a Car

19.   Go House Hunting

Life

20.   Go to Court

21.   Visit a Hospital Patient

22.   Rent a Car

23.   Try Ethnic Food

Literature

24.   Read the 100 Greatest Novels

25.   Read Poetry Out Loud

Music and Entertainment

26.   Play an Instrument

27.   Listen to Classical Music

28.   Listen to the 100 Greatest Rock Songs

29.   View the 100 Best TV Shows of All Time

30.   Go to the Theater

31.   Watch the 100 Best Movies Ever Made

Politics

32.   Write a Letter to the Editor

33.   Vote

34.   Volunteer for a Political Campaign

Religion

35.   Learn about the World’s Great Religions

36.   Read Greek and Roman Mythology

School

37.   Debate

38.   Learn the Greek Alphabet

39.   Tutor

Science

40.   Go to a Natural History Museum

41.   Visit a Zoo and Aquarium

Sports & Games

42.   Play a Team Sport

43.   Learn to Swim

44.   Play Chess

Travel and Transportation

45.   Read a Map

46.   Visit a Big City/Small Town

47.   Take a Cruise

The World

48.   Learn World History

49.   Study the Countries of the World

50.   Learn a Language

Afterword

Checklist

Dedication and Acknowledgments

This book is dedicated to all parents who wish to see their children succeed. And also to the two most beautiful children in the world: Alexandra and Lauren.

I also want to thank all those who gave me honest criticism and encouragement, especially Kamechia Myles-Coltrain and the Jennings clan (Craig, Ann, Chad, and Eva), who really gave much more than I could have ever hoped for.

Finally I must acknowledge Jerry Corley, a professional stand-up comic and comedy writing teacher. He helped remind me that a writer needs to write—every day!

Teach Your Children Well

At some point in your life I’m sure you’ve said to yourself, Boy, I wish I knew then what I know now—I bet things would have been different. And as parents (or other caregivers), I’m sure you have wished that you could teach your children everything that they will need to know as they get older, everything that you have learned over your lifetime.

Well, you can! You can teach them skills, impart knowledge, develop awareness and worldliness, and have them practice for situations they are sure to encounter as they get older. And I am going to help you do it.

But since I can’t be there physically for your children, you will have to be my surrogates. I need you to act as mentors, teachers, and guides, not just parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, or guardians.

This book is not about the usual parenting stuff like teaching your children manners or how to tie their shoes. It’s about preparing them for their future and giving them the training and practice that will open doors and present opportunities. It is your job, as a parent, to prepare them for that future. And my job, by way of this book, is to help you do just that.

My premise is that we have to open children’s eyes to all the opportunities and possibilities that are available to them. If they are introduced to an array of certain experiences—what I call the 50 Essential Experiences—they will become aware of more and more choices for their possible careers and future lives. And when they have choices they are more likely to have success.

I am not going to tell you how to be parents or raise your children. What I am going to do is suggest 50 Essential Experiences that will provide your children with those skills and knowledge.

In writing this book my goal is to help you (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, or guardians) guide your sons and daughters so that they will become successful. Success, for them, may be an astonishingly incredible career, or it may just be doing something they love to do.

Find something you love to do and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.

– Harvey MacKay

bestselling author of

inspirational business books

We all want our sons and daughters to be successful in their adult lives. So what can we do, as parents, to achieve that end?

The problem is that your own parents may not have taught you everything you needed to know. Their error may have been one of omission. And up until now you may have been repeating the same mistakes your parents may have made and, perhaps, dooming your children to replicate those errors when they, themselves, become parents.

However, because you are reading this book, you are taking the positive step of breaking that cycle. Use these 50 Essential Experiences as a checklist to make sure your children are prepared for their futures.

Your children can use these 50 Essential Experiences to anticipate and prepare for events they will come upon as they get older. With the practice these 50 Essential Experiences will give them, they will be able to find analogies between the new situations they will meet and the familiar scenarios they have already undertaken. They will be fully prepared for what life has to throw at them.

Unfortunately, children don’t come with an owner’s manual. So here it is. Teach Your Children Well is a kind of reference manual for parents. Like the manual that comes with your car or your alarm clock, it doesn’t have to be read all at once or in sequence. It’s okay to browse through it now, put it aside for a while, and then take it out later.

They say that life is about the choices we make—so let’s give