Adventures in Parenting

Now more than ever before, it is critical to be a good reader.

It has been said that the world wide web has leveled the playing field. Just about everything and anything you want to know can be accessed on the internet. So if you can read, you can explore your interests and excel in any area you want.

My daughter loves art. She found tutorials on painting with acrylics, drawing still-life, and just about anything method she wants to learn.

If school is boring, encourage your children to explore topics that interests them. If they like chemistry, but the school is not teaching that in third grade, nothing stops them from learning chemistry by reading about it on the internet.

Adults are not finished learning either! We too can make use of the internet to learn new skills, new hobbies, even research into starting a side business. When our children see us having a passion to continuing to learn, they will pick up on that.

While parents don’t like to have their children play on the computer and waste too much time on MySpace or Instant Messaging, children should be encouraged to use the computer to read about topics of interests - maybe it’s how to take care of their hamsters, or what it’s like in the North Pole. Interesting information out there is practically without limit!