My mother is very concerned about the academic well-being of my youngest child. He has trouble with writing and spelling, and is slow in all his work. But I just thought about it, and my youngest has SO many other skills that he has nothing to worry about at all.
- Haze has played piano, violin and viola since age 5 and reads 3 clefs of music successfully. Even if he doesn’t read a lot of books, he is essentially reading 3 languages of music. He can use these skills to play violin and viola for $100 an hour or to teach.
- Haze has been digitally drawing since age 6 or 7. This translates into creator skills (drawing and story-telling) that enable him to make content that is either entertaining (like comics) or educational/technical (for pay).
- Haze has been using Adobe Creative Suite since he was 6 or 7. This translates into coveted graphic design skills, and he could also tutor other students on how to use it. Even though he is a little slow at typing, he has AMAZING Adobe skills.
- Haze has taken fundamental classes in Blender 3d modeling. He has the ability to design parts and things that can be 3d printed. That is a highly coveted skill. Haze can either design things people need printed (think knee replacements or replacement auto parts) or teach other students how to do the same thing.
- Haze plays D&D and ALL GAMES professionally, because his father has worked on these skills with him so much. He knows how to be an active participant to bring out the best in everyone at the table (whether as a player or a DM). He logically knows how to win, but understands he wins when others win too. He is allowed to play games in his Mythology class.
- As a family we are all learning to work together to harness and share my “psychic” abilities so that we can arrange win-win solutions at Bethany HS and inside all of Haze’s classrooms. This is ultimately going to teach Haze management skills and critical thinking and conflict resolution (et all).
Whether Haze chooses to be a musician, artist, 3d cad designer or trash man, it really doesn’t matter. He is well equipped for whatever life throws his way. I would love it if Haze SOLVED trash problems at the community level, like got families in our community to start using bamboo TP or designed a new recycle bin with compartments for different types of recyclables. But if he just wants to walk bins to the truck at dawn (enjoying the sun’s automatic reset) so be it. God is CERTAINLY in that as well.